**
His calm demeanor always made him stand apart in a room full of people.
For years and years, his headstrong ideologies and calm approach towards things served as the fundamental citadels of his life. His family was invaluable to him and the world wasn't alienated to the fact, given each journalistic piece ever written on him and his accomplishments always quoted him saying how much he credited his family for his success.
Khushi let out a deep breath as she spotted him exchanging a few words with his colleagues, a glass of champagne quietly residing in his one hand. Her eyes darted towards the other ends of the huge hall, congeniality reflecting in its entirety, or so what it seemed to be.
Celebrations, grand parties, had always been a regular affair since her childhood. In fact, if she were to take a deep dive back in time, the flashes of her existence that she could envision from the tiniest childhood memories of her life were of her roaming in a frilled frock in one such party thrown by her father to commemorate his achievements in business.
Life used to be much different then.
Wandering anywhere and everywhere, paying no heed to how and what people thought of you, and of course, not being confined within the superficial walls of sophistication and pretense.She sighed as her sight once again settled on the man standing a few feet away, his hand still holding the same champagne glass, half empty.
She decided to move to another spot when he signaled her to come forward, practically so that he could introduce her to his colleague. Khushi slightly nodded in approval as she took her strides, reaching him and he soon snaked one of his arms around her petite waist.
She feigned a small smile, humbly responding to the stranger verbally and also reciprocated the handshake that he offered...
It was a long day and if there was something good about it, it was that now it was over and she could finally retire to her room.
Changing into her night clothes, she quickly made her way to the queen size bed in her room, when a strong pair of hands held her shoulders, deeming her immobile for that very moment. She didn't need to inquire who it was, for that touch was now something she got habituated of, ever since her life took a drastic turn.
Holding her breath, she turned slowly and faced him, while he stood there looking directly into her eyes, his countenance displaying a subtle state of emotions, but his eyes speaking otherwise.
"Did you enjoy the party?"
He asked her calmly, and she only nodded slowly in affirmative.His lips curved into a small smile as he took her right hand in his, almost whispering into her ear, "Good."
Khushi probably didn't comprehend that she had held her breath for so long until she felt a peculiar constriction in her chest, both her mind and body somewhat anticipating what was to come.
He brought her right hand closer to his chest while the fingers of his other hand slowly traced the heavy stone of the ring on her left hand.
'It would come. It can only defer, but not disappear.'
Her mind slowly whispered to her.
And right she was, as she could feel her features twitch in pain as she felt the sting develop at a rapid pace, her small, fragile hand getting massacred in the embrace of the man standing with a face so callous; his hands contorting the life out of her.
"Ahhh..."She winced as she could feel her knuckles almost breaking while he stood there all calm, being indifferent to her in her chastisement.
She thought she could hold no longer and her vision already started to blur when she felt immense pain take over her entire body rather than just her hand as she realized she was mercilessly pushed to the floor, her victim hand feeling suddenly numb, as if it wasn't a part of her frame any more.
"No one else touches you. Not even a handshake."
He averred in a tone barely audible as he slowly stomped out of the room, leaving a petrified, trembling Khushi on the floor.
**Her eyes jolted open as she relived the agonizing bits of her everyday life, now even in her dreams.
Nightmare to be precise.
She lightly rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands as she rose from the dresser where she had unknowingly fallen asleep, feeling the dried tears on her lashes, like always.It had been just another day, a long one, like every time, just that now she was enveloped in a new ambiance, amidst some exquisite and ancient wooden architecture, on a cruise that was on its way to Philadelphia.
Taking a deep breath, she removed the shimmery wristlet from her hand, her body language clearly stating her lack of interest in any of these routine tasks, her brows furrowing as her eyes once again glared at the engagement ring sitting shamelessly on her ring finger.
She instantaneously felt a pungent tinge forming at the back of her throat, firmly warning her of the endless tears that were now on their way in her eyes. And right when she finally exhaled, a moan of disdain escaping her lips, her tear gates knew no bounds...
None of the hotels are doing good. The share values are shedding mercilessly. Do you even know what this means?
The business is going downhill.
All the chain of hotels. All of them.
It has been your father's baby Khushi, way before even you were born.
His soul wouldn't find peace if we are in ruins.
Don't you want him to be finally at peace?
This is the only way, Khushi. For your father? Please?
..
Her mind had played her helplessness at destiny's call in frenzy for the umpteenth time now, and still the intensity was the same. There was no damage control.
The contentious remarks of her stepmother had caught her off guard, but her emotional attachment to her late father and her responsibility towards his work and assets had led to her acquiescence for the proposal.
Her acceptance to be known as Mrs. Khushi Ryan Roy for the rest of her life. In the coming one month, that the wedding was scheduled to take place.
Her dreams had never been focused on a fairytale story, for she was intelligent enough to always know the demarcation between real life and fiction. But when Ryan Roy had entered her life six months back, she had thought at least a tad bit of those fairytale stories could actually be true.
A handsome prince charming, who swept the princess off the ground and ushered her merrily to their happily ever after.
If only she knew back then that her affirmative nod on that one fateful day would be the sour base of her life's biggest predicament.
Her soul was now sold to the hands of a personage who treated the world as a masquerade party and donned a perfect mask to conceal his facade deep beneath. Whose revelations at sporadic intervals had left Khushi shell-shocked, confining her to dead ends of mayhem.
While she had tried to hold on to the hope of positivity coming at least at some point of her life, those fragile rays of hope had only diminished with time, more so, on that very day when Ryan had mercilessly pushed her on the floor on the eve of their engagement party.
Her dreams of a free-spirited life were thrashed inside a mortar called destiny and pushed further with a pestle called helplessness.
Her best friend Sehaj had only been her true solace in all this time.Her support had been as constant as the northern star. While she had asked for just one nod of approval from Khushi to help her run away and escape the cobwebs that she was forcefully ensnared in, the docile yet stubborn Khushi had shushed her saying she didn't want to betray her father.
She switched off the big lamps in her suite, rolling down the sleeves of her night wear, veiling one of the many hard-hearted bruises that dwelled on her milky hands.
Did his obsession scare her?
Yes, it of course did.
Did his charade shock her?
Yes, beyond doubt.
But more than anything, if something bothered her the most, it was her blank state of mind whenever her own conscience would raise a small question for her:
For how long could she take it?
She finally settled on the bed, pulling the duvet over her body, dimming the bedside lamp as she closed her eyes..
.
The chiseled frame.
The dark brown orbs.
The pleasant breeze.
The perennial ocean.
The quizzing eyes.
The unusual tension in the air.
..And his lips kissing someone else.
How could her life ever have a happy ending when she was not even allowed an iota of a happy moment?
She thought to herself as the oblivion caught her at the other end and she finally fell asleep.
**
"What the hell do you want?"
He barked as he ruthlessly threw her hands off him.
"..W-What ASR? I'm only kissing you, and you were kissing me back!"
Lavanya tried to reason.
"You threw yourself at me, I was only caught in a moment. DON'T YOU DARE DO THAT AGAIN!"He practically shouted, as Lavanya stared at him, both irked and hurt at the rejection, for the third time in last 12 hours.
"Just because you are a part of AR and my ex-GF who supposedly contributed immensely to the success of this project DOESN'T give you the right to throw yourself at me! You are an ex, BEHAVE like an ex, got it?!" He muttered in a dangerous tone.
Lavanya could feel the tears streaming down her cheeks; unable to take any further humiliation, she ran away from there as fast as she could, towards the other end of the deck.
He exhaled deeply, his hands fisted into balls as he tried to control the angst that had abruptly taken over him the moment Lavanya had stormed towards him, hugging him tight in her drunken state. He had tried to pry her off, but failed, as she had slammed her lips on his.
Yes, he had admonished her well for her clingy stint only five seconds ago, but ASR was always synonymous with extremes. And hence, his outburst to Lavanya was only way too minute in his dictionary; she deserved a truckload of more such outbursts.
But he knew it was only a waste of time.
His senses finally calming with the tick of the clock, he had slowly regained his composure and turned to the other side, where she had been standing, near the very trestle that now remained completely empty.
Letting out a deep breath, he stood there, regardless. His eyes, fixated on the empty trestle.
He didn't know who she was, or why he even felt the need to turn and look back to see if she was still there.
He hadn't even distinctly studied her features, but all he could now recall in retrospect was that she was as fair as a snow beach, and the ripples of the ocean water had magnificently reflected her hazel orbs that had unblinkingly stared towards him.
Without any concrete logic, he felt a strange part of him berating himself for the situation where Lavanya had wrapped herself to his body like a second skin, fundamentally because it agitated him, but on a second reading, which was a bygone, because she saw that.
**
Cricket
Bigg Boss 19
98