#2 Arshi FF - The Other Half - 28 Dec - Note - pg 68 - Page 15

Oh yeah, uh huh

So I've been away for quite some time, here's a quick recap :D

She looked at Di, Nani and Mami. They were nice people. Her insistence on getting this job done may end up causing them hurt. But.. Ah, no backing out now. She tilted her head to look at the second level, watching for any sign of her partner in crime. But he was nowhere to be seen. Where are you! It's almost time..

She slipped away unnoticed and went to the corner to make a call. "Where are you? Oh ho, come soon, we have to start right now! Okay, see you." She ended the call and turned.

"Oh- Arnavji.. what are you doing here?" Khushi squeaked.

"Who were you talking to, Khushi?" Arnav looked at the phone that she hid behind her back.

"No.. no one. I- it was a wrong number. Shall we go?" Khushi indicated to join the rest in the hall. Arnav conceded. "Yes, lets. I have a very important announcement to make. Shall we?"

We shall, Khushi thought as she walked side by side Arnavji.

Finally, Arnav thought, the time for the evening to end the way he thought it would was now here. And again he found himself wondering if she would still be smiling at the end of it.

And since then, two weeks had passed the same way with Khushi dutifully carrying out her responsibilities at work but otherwise staying away from him completely.

"Khushi, listen to me, please" He called out to her, catching her just as she was leaving for home.

She stopped abruptly, her fists bunching her top. Khushi looked back at him tearfully, the sight of her watery eyes causing his chest to tighten.

"I've heard enough, don't you think?"

AND NOW, CHAPTER 19.. :D

Khushi shuffled some papers around on her desk and sighed. She refrained from looking up because then Rakshas Singh Raizada would catch her eye from across the glass cabin and would make her feel uncomfortable. And for the moment, she was very comfortable doing her work and avoiding him. She did not want to face him. Her thoughts went back to that night that changed their equation forever.

Shall we?"

We shall, Khushi thought as she walked side by side Arnavji.

Finally, Arnav thought, the time for the evening to end the way he thought it would was now here. And again he found himself wondering if she would still be smiling at the end of it.

"Khushi, why don't you tell everyone who you were talking to earlier on the phone?" Arnav stood beside her and crossed his arms. Khushi stiffened. Did he know? Had he heard? She looked around frantically, searching for her partner. Were they busted?

Upon seeing that her partner still hadn't arrived, Khushi looked at Arnav sweetly. "Arnavji" She called out and smiled widely. "I wasn't talking to anyone important. And besides, I am some news for you." She decided it was time to put her plan into action. So what if her partner was late? She was too excited to wait. He would just have to catch up once he got back.

"Well Khushi, seems like you and I have something in common tonight. I too, have some news for you." Arnav smirked at her and then stepped closer to her and cocked his head to the side. "Though I'm not sure it's the kind you're going to like." He muttered, standing close enough for her to hear his words.

She looked at him in confusion, not understanding. Arnav stepped back and looked at her. What a fool he had been to think she was a sweet innocent girl when she was far from it. And tonight, her mask would be unveiled, he decided. Enough of the two face drama she was putting on. No one fooled ASR and got away with it. His face darkened as he glared at her.

Khushi though was unaware of the volcano that was beneath the surface, just waiting to erupt. Her mind raced in two directions. Firstly, she was concerned about putting her plan in action, and secondly she was wondering why Arnavji was currently looking at her like that.. in anger.

"I know, Khushi." Arnav said in a low tone. Khushi gasped.

During their exchange of words, the rest of the family members had gathered around talking, but soon quietened down when they sensed the sudden tension between Arnav and Khushi. They looked back and forth between them, wondering what was going on. Nani was the first to try and diffuse the palpable thick air. "Chotte, what's the matter? What do you know?" She asked gently, her worry increasing as she saw her Chotte's face darken further. She just hoped his legendary ASR anger wouldn't come forth, after all Khushi bitiya's family was present here too.

"I know everything." Arnav repeated, vaguely answering Nani while still staring at Khushi who shivered at the death glare Arnav was sending her way. She trembled slightly. Devi Maiyya, how did he find out? She had been so careful. She looked around her before raising her gaze to Arnav's narrowed ones. "Arnavji.. I can explain." She said meekly.

"Oh, please do" Arnav invited. "I would love to hear you.. explain" Arnav drawled, standing straighter to his full height, knowing full well how intimidating he could be when he stood tall with his arms across his chest. And that was exactly his intent. To come across as someone not to be messed with. By the way Khushi averted her gaze, he could tell it was working. Well, Khushi thought, it was time to come clean. He knew. Game over. She sighed.

"Woh.. Arnavji, the thing is, it wasn't intentional. I mean, it was just a spur of the moment thing. I didn't want to hurt your feelings or anything, I just thought it would be fun to do it.." Khushi babbled, nervousness clouding her brain. She risked sneaking a peek at him and her breath stuck in her throat at the sheer anger that emitted from his rapidly furious turning gaze.

"Unintentional?? Spur of the moment? FUN?!" Arnav nearly roared as he stepped forward, causing Khushi to retreat. Khushi shrunk back at the intangible power that radiated off Arnav as he uncrossed his arms and clenched his fists by his sides, his nose flaring. Khushi swallowed. Her plan was falling apart before it even started and Khushi felt like kicking herself for playing with fire. Why had she agreed to do it in the first place, she wondered.

Arnav took a deep breath to calm himself before he strangled her. Nani gasped at his outburst and tried to stop the situation from escalating by telling him to stop but Arnav merely ignored her and focused on Khushi. "Well I can't say that I'm all that surprised, Khushi Kumari Gupta. After all, you are from a middle class family. All you would know about is having some fun', am I right?" Arnav sneered.

Khushi looked at him with wide eyes reflecting fear and Arnav felt some satisfaction at the fact that she was afraid. Khushi's lips were dry and so she ran her tongue across them to moisten them. Arnav's gaze fell onto her lips and he found himself wondering how many people she had enticed by doing that and pretending to be an innocent child- woman.

"Ar- Arnavji, trust me. I didn't think it was a big deal. It was just a onetime thing, I promise. I realize that.. that because of me you would get angry.. and possibly get angry at them too.." She faced his family, feeling sad at having Arnavji's anger being targeted at them. Arnav squinted at her.

"Of course I'm angry at them Khushi. But I am also angry at myself. See, I didn't think I was stupid enough to fall for some innocent-pretending-to-be-cute-woman like you, but you managed to do that well. I'm angry at them for having welcomed you into this house like you were a long lost friend and I'm angry at myself for hiring someone as low class as you!" He spat out, his anger rising to dangerous levels.

Khushi gulped. So he found her plan low class? She should have put aside a bigger budget for the plan, she thought to herself, regretting that she didn't meet Arnavji's standards. She faced him and spoke with regret. "Arnavji.. I'm sorry that it was low class. I just- I didn't think it through." She looked down to the floor. "I'm sorry.."

Arnav shook his head in disbelief. Sorry? She was sorry? He would make her feel so sorry for herself that she would disappear from their lives and never return.

"Who else is in your team. Tell me right now. And you better tell me the truth, Khushi. Now!" He yelled. Khushi jumped. Devi Maiyya, now because of her even her partner wouldn't be spared. "Arnavji, it's no big deal- ah!" She gasped as he grabbed her tightly by her upper arms and pulled her into his hard chest. Ignoring the calls from his family and hers, he looked deep into her eyes intensely. "Why Khushi? Why did you do this? How much were you paid? How could you do this? How could you play me like that? You.. you were this fresh, sweet woman when I met you the first time, how did I not figure out the real you?" He asked in a hushed tone, mainly asking himself these questions. How could he have thought for even a second that was a genuinely nice woman? Of course she was not. They never were. There was no such person like Khushi, that kind of character simply didn't exist in his world. And yet he had gone ahead and allowed himself to think otherwise.

Khushi was beginning to feel sore as his grip on her arms tightened further. Tears sprang into her eyes when he shook her slightly and then pushed her away as if disgusted at the mere thought of touching her. Devi Maiyya, if I had known that Arnavji would react so violently, I never would have done this.

"Arnavji" She said in a teary voice, "Please, I-" She flinched when he shouted at her to shut up. "Shut up, Khushi Kumari Gupta! Do not say another word. I can't believe that you're still standing here, talking to me and pretending like everything is okay. Do you have no shame at all? How are you able to still stand here in front of me and my Di?" Arnav fired questions at her.

Khushi looked at Anjali, who looked just as perplexed at the situation. "Di? Arnavji, I'm sorry. I know that I was causing them inconvenience, but-" She stopped midway when she saw Arnav taking a step towards her with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Inconvenience?" Arnav laughed, a short, harsh snort that told Khushi his was blazing with anger. "You call spying on me and-" Arnav paused to look at his Di who was standing there, pleading with her Chotte to not unleash his temper on poor sweet Khushiji who she had come to be great friends with. But Arnav forced himself to go on- it needed to come out. He turned to Khushi. " and flirting with my brother in law an inconvenience??" Arnav's jaw was clenched tight, his teeth gritting so hard that he was sure to have some cracked teeth. Somewhere from the background, he heard a distinctive loud gasp coming from his Di. As tempted as he was to go straight to his Di and comfort her in this time of need, he knew his family was there for her and at the moment, dealing with a certain cheat was more important.

He waited for some sort of clich defense on Khushi's part; that she had been forced to spy on him, that she was being framed by his brother in law Shyam, that she was an innocent and a victim. He waited for the usual arguments when low class gold digging girls like her defended themselves after they got caught.

But instead all he got was a silent Khushi who was at the moment trying to understand just what Arnavji had said.

Time stopped for her. Khushi had difficulty breathing when she heard those words. She understood the words, but wasn't able to comprehend them. Her shocked mind was racing, her thoughts jumbled up as she tried to react, but her mouth refused to open and she stood frozen. She could vaguely hear stunned chatters coming from the people around them, but right now, after those two accusations, she could focus on nothing but herself and Arnavji. Everything and everyone else had faded away.

What had he said? Something about spying.. flirting.. flirting? She, Khushi Kumari Gupta, a nobody from a small town was spying on the ASR.. and flirting with his brother in law? Hey Devi Maiyya, was this some sort of bipolar joke? What was happening?

"What? Cat got your tongue? Nothing to say, now that you know I know everything?" Arnav taunted her, mocked her and enjoyed seeing Khushi still frozen in place. She was clearly not expecting him to have found out the truth, but unfortunately for her, he was ASR for no reason.

"Spy.. spying.. flirting?" She finally whispered, her mouth functioning again. Arnav snorted at her reaction. So she was playing dumb. Well then. "Are you just going to repeat what I said?" Arnav looked at her with such blazing anger that she was surprised she hadn't melted into a puddle yet. Khushi looked at him desperately, pleading with him silently to end this torture. What was he doing? Why was he saying these things? Was he taking revenge on all the times she had played a joke on him and pranked him about his so called ill health?

"But also what could you really say, Khushi. I found the cameras in my room. I confirmed the fact that no outsiders came into my house, no one but you, the night I brought you here for the first time to make the sweets for us. After that you came back here once, insisting on coming here when you knew I wouldn't be home. You didn't want me home so you could do your job. You wanted to leave as soon as I came back. Remember?" He recalled the events and saw a flash of recognition in her eyes.

"Don't try to deny it, Khushi. I also caught you at Nath's event that night. You lied to me when you said that you were free that night; you were not. You were at that party. The same party where Nath decided to step down from our deal. He probably got all the information he needed from the cameras you planted in my room. Right?" Arnav didn't wait for an answer.

"I even asked you what you were doing at that party. What did you say? You said you were catering for that party. But I checked, Khushi, and Nath himself told me that he'd hired some Cookz Limited and not your Satwik Mishtan Bhandar." Arnav was standing close to Khushi, yet to her it felt like he was standing far away, his voice was blurred as her mind fought to keep up with him.

Arnav recalled the tape that someone had sent him of Khushi and Shyam meeting in a caf area and remembered the contents of the video. Arnav had only been sent part of the video.

Shyam handed her an envelope. She looked at it with hesitance. "This is the advanced payment for the order. You'll get the rest once the delivery is done. Deal?" Shyam smiled at her encouragingly.

"And as if that wasn't bad enough, you- you also targeted my Di? How dare you even think of looking at a married man? You are so shameless Khushi? I could never have imagined that the spunky, cheerful, talkative and child-like woman who came into my office to offer her sweet samples could turn out to be a low class seducer who wreck's people's lives! You have no values, Khushi Kumari Gupta. You must be a burden on your family; that's why you go out and do such things and stoop to such levels." Arnav's eyes burned into her soul. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Nani supporting a stunned Anjali, a shell-shocked buaji putting her hands on her cheeks and furious murmurs had filled the air. He blocked it all out and growled at Khushi.

"Tell me, Khushi Kumari Gupta, how much did my brother in law pay you? He must have paid you to take care of his needs. How much was it? Come on, tell me. Name your price" He whispered only for her to hear.

And those words sent whatever fleeting emotions related to crush/love that she'd felt for him just moments ago into dust, her heart physically hurting, sickened at the thought of Arnavji, a man she respected, admired, liked.. a man who thought such dreadful things about her.. who, in the span of just minutes, had managed to reduce her self-worth into nothing, who had driven her spirit into the ground.

Khushi looked at him silently, searching for a glimpse of her old Arnavji, the one who had been speechless when she'd first entered his office, the one who had been irritated and told her he didn't have much time, the one who was close to pulling his hair out whenever she joked about his illness, the one who had been mortified when she had made fun of him and turned his sorry into susu, the one she'd hugged when she'd mistakenly taken a can to be a rat, the one who had whole heartedly laughed in front of her, the one who was her Arnavji.

As the silence stretched on, she kept wondering where all those warm moments disappeared. How had this all turned out like that? Where were all the light hearted, harmless fun moments between them?

"Answer me!" Arnav bellowed. Khushi barely heard him, her heart was thundering so hard that all she could hear was the strong rush of blood forcing through her veins. All Khushi could think of, was, who is this man in front of her?

"Khushiji! I am here! Sorry I took so long but-" NK waltzed into the room but soon came to an abrupt stop when he took in the tensed scene in front of him. The family members were all huddled together, while Nannav and Khushi stood at the other side of the hall, face to face, very close to each other. He took one look at a barely contained Nannav and NK realized that he knew. So much for such careful planning with Khushiji. Busted!

He slowly walked towards them and came to a stop again when he noticed the defeated posture of Khushiji. "Khushiji, I'm sorry. I got held back at the store. But I got it!" He smiled sheepishly and indicated to the box in his hands. He looked at Nannav who was still drilling holes into Khushi with his eyes. NK watched as Khushi slowly turned to face him. In an instant NK's sheepish smile was wiped away when a frazzled Khushi looked at him, looking so lost, so vulnerable, so lonely.

"Throw the box away, Nanheji" She whispered, making NK frown at her. "But why? It took me so long to get it after ordering it.. it was custom made Khushiji, just like you wanted.. hey, what's wrong?" He set down the box when Khushi's eyes sprang with tears. Khushi blinked once and a tear rolled down.

Khushi ignored the tear and turned to face Arnav, despite the overwhelming urge to run away, far away from him and never see him again. But she mustered courage and decided to stand up for herself. "You asked earlier who else is on my team." Khushi said quietly. Arnav kept quiet, his stance still as deadly as before. He hadnt looked at NK even once since NK came home, Arnav couldn't be bothered to waste time with NK. He had more important things to do, like strike where it hurt Khushi the most.

"Nanheji in on my team. But before you flare up again, we are on a completely different page. I did not do the things you are saying I have done. I have not spied on you. I do not know of any cameras that have been placed in your room. And I have not fli- flirted with anyone, least of all your brother in law" Khushi made her statement quietly.

She saw that Arnav was about to talk so she quickly continued. "Before you say that I am lying, here" She passed him her phone. "Check my phone. If I am having an af- affair" She swallowed, "As you claim that I am, surely your brother in law's number would be in my call log or messages. Why don't you check and see." Khushi suggested, but the veiled threat was there. Arnav, never backing down from a challenge, decided to take a look, ignoring the sudden sharp prick of uncertainty as he gazed at the calm and composed Khushi.

He saw her call log and then her message inbox and scrolled all the way to the bottom. He could not find Shyam's number on it anywhere. "So what? You could have deleted his number. This proves nothing. I'm sure you're experienced enough, a seasonal player, so you know when and how to delete the evidence of your low acts." Arnav casually remarked, unknowingly making Khushi's fragile heart break just a little more.

He was taken aback when Khushi suddenly smiled at him, the lone tear that had rolled down her cheek now drying up. "You are clearly not as sharp as you seem. Take a closer look at my phone. There is no communication between me and Shyamji at all, but there are lots of calls between me and Nanheji, lots of messages between us." Not letting him get a word in between, she surprised him further when she took a step towards him and closed the remaining gap between them, her neck craning slightly to look up at him.

"Now, before you change moods and spin a new story about how I am having an affa- affair with Nanheji as well, why don't you listen to my side of the story, Arnav Singh Raizada."

Arnav Singh Raizada was a force to be reckoned with. And he was hardly ever wrong about anything. But there was a first time for everything. And he was soon going to learn just how wrong he was about Khushi Kumari Gupta.

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Have not edited. DON'T WORRY, EARLIER LIGHT HEARTED CONVERSATIONS AND HUMOR SHALL BE BACK.. IN TIME 😳

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