Hum Bane Tum Bane EDKL UPDATED Story Complete 26-2-2020 - Page 54

Originally posted by: nuomi.riceball

Btw, is there any possibility that the other story is going to be updated, or is it just unfinished like that?

I am literally working overtime to finish these two stories. I will complete both the stories. Technically speaking Hate You Like I Love You is a complete story. Only one flashback is left.

Originally posted by: asifiqbalsh

Nice update dear

Loved it

Behir talk was nice

MIL & DIL together in mission.

She took all recording of anu confession

Finally Anu is out from their life.

Thanks for pm

Sorry for being late as I was very busy in last month.

Thanks, Asif. You sticking around means a lot to me really. And I am sorry for disappearing completely. Life is just so unpredictable at times. But I missed being away from my laptop though. I will post daily updates from now on.

Chapter 26 Yuvi’s Weird Behaviour

Next day, Bella along with Mahir and Sumitra told everything to Kuhu and others. Yuvi was behaving rather weirdly since the previous evening. Bella had tried to talk to him but he had avoided her questions. He was not present even when they spoke with Kuhu. Kuhu at first instance refused to believe that Anu had done something of the sort. But when the videos were shown to her, she was forced to believe BeHir. But rather than holding Anu responsible for the entire mess she held Bella responsible for everything. She believed that if Bella had never married Mahir in the first place, Anu would not have been forced to take such drastic measures. So the root cause was Bella according to her. When Mahir tried to defend Bella and make Kuhu see sense, RJ stopped him. It was no use talking to Kuhu when she was mad as RJ was very much aware. So he took Kuhu from there. Kuhu continued to sulk but rest everything came back to normal.

Mr Mittal called up Andy and apologised on behalf of his daughter. Andy and Bella graciously accepted his apologies. Bella’s only condition was that Anu should stay away from Sehgal House. That caused some more friction between Kuhu and Bella as now Kuhu couldn’t meet Anu at Sehgal House. Sumitra firmly supported Bella when Kuhu tried to create an issue out of it as did Maher and others. So Kuhu had to accept it. That also meant no more sleepovers for Anu and Kuhu when RJ was out of town. But nothing could be done about it. Yuvi’s behaviour continued to strike as odd to Bella but she ignored it. She tried to talk to him about it a couple of times but he was not ready to answer her questions.

After about a couple of weeks after the whole Anu fiasco got sorted, Andy called in Bella and Mahir to his room. “Bella, Mahir you both are doing a tremendous job of handling the business. I am so proud of you both. but especially of Bella. You have shone in this last year. It's satisfying to see the shy young girl of twenty one who stepped into my office nearly eight years ago blossom into this fierce tigress over the last few years. You have done Mahir proud. I was a bit dubious about your capabilities as a leader but Mahir had full confidence in his mentee and the result is right before us. So well done Bella!” Andy rarely heaped praises on anyone. So Bella knew just how precious his words were.

“Thank you, dad! This means a lot to me.” Bella was overwhelmed.

Mahir put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her proudly.

“Bella as you must know, Sehgal Industries complete twenty-five years in this coming few weeks. I want to throw a grand party to celebrate the occasion. Can you make that happen?” Andy went on.

“Of course she can dad,” Mahir responded enthusiastically. “She can do anything.”

“We can do anything, Mahir.”Bella corrected him.

Andy smiled at the two of them. This was something which he had never experienced. Or rather he had never given it a chance to develop.

“Okay, so, I want you both to organise a grand party and invite all our important investors and also our clients,” Andy told them.

BeHir nodded their heads in unison. Andy hesitated for a bit and Bella noticed.

“What is it dad?” she asked.

“Well dear, I know it will be awkward for you, but I also want to invite Vish Khanna. I...” Andy started saying something further but Bella interrupted him.

“Of course she will be invited dad. She is an important investor after all. I will personally call her and invite her so that she doesn’t feel awkward or anything. I will personally ensure that she feels comfortable. And also, I will get Suresh to send out custom made invites ASAP.” Bella assured him and Andy heaved a sigh of relief. He smiled at Bella fondly. It was hard to believe that just a few years ago this very girl was standing in front of him as an intern, all wide-eyed and awed by his very presence. And now nearly nine years later the same girl was assuring him.

He dismissed them and BeHir went out. As soon as they were out of the room, Bella turned to Mahir and began listing all the ideas that she had for the party. Finally, Mahir stopped her.

“Whoa there! Calm down, girl! This is no longer your job. You are the owner now. All you have to do is look pretty and give instructions. The organiser will do the rest. I had told you this when you became the CEO as well, but you didn’t listen to me even then.”

“But Mahir” Bella pouted. “But I love organising parties so much!”

Mahir shook his head and went away smiling to himself. If he knew her well, she would personally stress about every detail of the party. He sighed. There was nothing he could do about it. It was one of the qualities that he loved in her; her attention to the most minute of details. That is what had made the Sehgal bashes in the last few years legendary.

Bella waited for about two weeks before she dug up Vish’s number and called her. After a couple of rings, her phone was picked up (surprisingly) by a man whose voice was vaguely familiar to Bella. Bella’s introduction, ‘Hi! I am Bella Sehgal. May I speak with Vish Khanna please?’ was followed by a pregnant pause. It was so long that Bella thought that maybe she had lost connection with the other person. But after a long pause, the man spoke. His voice sounded a bit different now, kind of muffled. Bella was told thatVish was a bit busy just then and that she should call at a later hour. Bella promised to call in the evening and the man hastily disconnected the call. Although the call, the man sounded extremely nervous, quite unlike a secretary of an efficient woman like Vish Khanna would sound.

Bella pondered for a long time over the strange feeling of familiarity at the sound of that voice but then gave up eventually. That evening when she again called up Vish, she received the call and spoke quite normally with her. Apparently, her secretary had picked up the phone that morning. WhenBella informed her about the party that was happening about three weeks later, Vish politely declined the invitation stating that she was going to be out of town during that time. Bella assured her that it was fine and then disconnected the call wondering who the guy was? That’s when it struck her that probably that guy was Vish’s boyfriend and that’s why he was so nervous and that's why she had lied. Bella accepted her excuse at face value and that was that.

Next few days went in Bella stressing over every little detail of the party and Mahir trying his best to keep her sane throughout the whole process. She insisted on calling up every person on the guestlist personally to invite them to the party. Special invitations were sent out to the media as well.

Both Bella and Mahir were kept extremely busy and hence they barely had any time for each other. Both of them had mutually agreed that there was no time for anniversary celebrations and they would have to wait till after the party to broach the topic of a honeymoon cum anniversary vacation.

Two days before their anniversary, they both came home really tired out but happy. It had been a long day in the office with three back to back meetings. Bella wanted to talk to Yuvi about the security of the event and hence she went to his room to talk to him. There she found him chatting with someone on the video call. He shut off the laptop as soon as he saw her at the door. She dismissed his behaviour as normal. Maybe he didn’t want her to see the face of his latest fling, she thought.

She tried to talk to him about the security of the event and how she wanted the CCTV cameras to be positioned. When she looked at him, she found him distracted. She caught hold of his wrist and dragged him to their room, where Mahir had just freshened up and was stepping out of the bathroom. Mahir looked puzzled that Bella had dragged Yuvi to their room. Before Mahir could say anything, she pushed Yuvi onto their bed and shut the door and looked at him sternly.

“Yuvi, I don’t know what’s the matter with you, but you have been behaving very strangely since the day we confronted Anu. What’s the matter?”Bella got straight to the point as was her habit.

Yuvi looked a bit startled at the direct assault and was just fumbling for an answer when Bella added, “And it’s no use denying it. I know you are behaving weirdly, and I want to know why.”

Yuvi quit trying to come up with an excuse as he knew Bella well enough to know that nothing but the truth would satisfy her that day. And she knew him well enough to know when he was lying.

“Bella, I... I don’t know where to begin.” Yuvi said.

“Okay tell me, does it have anything to do with what Anu said?” Mahirasked him. Mahir had a faint inkling about why Yuvi was avoiding Bella and so he had done his best to dissuade Bella from questioning Yuvi regarding it because he knew that the topic would bring nothing but awkwardness between the three of them. But he was not sure that whatever he was thinking was right and so he had refrained from sharing it with Bella. And the result was that Bella was forcing Yuvi to talk about it. Well, it’s better to have it out in the open, Mahir thought as he watched Yuvi struggling to find words to describe what he was going through. Finally, Yuvi took a deep breath and started speaking.

“Bella, you want to know why I won’t look at you right?”

Bella nodded her head, her eyes fixed upon him intently.

“Here’s why. Because I am guilty. Because I can’t bear to look at you, knowing that my decision to run away landed you and bhai in this marriage. My actions led to you getting humiliated and being forced to marry a stranger because your bridegroom did not have the guts to fulfil his promise. It is a miracle that you both are happy together. But that does not erase the fact that this could have gone horribly wrong. You must be wondering what brought this on after nearly one year, am I right? That day your relationship with bhai was questioned by Anu. She called it a marriage of convenience and taunted you both for being happy together. I gave her the chance and the opportunity to taunt you guys. I feel rotten to the core for being responsible for you guys getting taunted by the likes of Anu for no fault of yours. You Bella, she taunted you for something which I am solely responsible for. I ran away. I failed to honour the promise which I gave you. Why should you suffer? Yet, you are the one whois taunted by Anu, the aunties of the family, the society in general. Don’tthink I didn’t get to hear what all things bua had to say about you and bhai. After you guys disappeared from the wedding venue, she had come to ma complaining about the way you behaved with her. Obviously, everyone defended you. Dad had already heard your conversation with her. He was already very angry about the way bua had casually spoken about your and bhai’s relationship. So he told her off. And when she called you a gold digger, ma cut her off rudely. I have never seen Ma take a stand for herself but she did that for you. But me? I couldn’t even defend you, Bella. As soon as I opened my mouth, bua asked me a very vital question.” Yuvi paused for a breath.

“Which was?” Mahir prompted him to continue.

“She asked me if Bella was such a good girl, then why did I leave her in the first place? Why did I run away instead of marrying her? Since I did not go through with the marriage, there must be something wrong with her. Otherwise, why would anyone refuse to marry a girl who was as perfect as Bella? And bhai, I did not have an answer to her question. I just stood there while everyone defended the girl whom I had loved at one point, who was the reason my brother was happy in life, who had accepted my family like her own and whose character was being questioned because I was a coward. I had managed to convince myself that bua is a one-off case. She has herself led a frustrated life and so she gets vicious pleasure by commenting on other people’s life. But when Anu also said the same thing... I...”

“So that was why you were running away from us?” Mahir asked. He was not sure if bringing this up was a good idea. One look at Bella was enough to convince him that it had been a bad idea. She was looking beyond disturbed. She looked like she was in agony. Yuvi looked at Bella and was stunned by the look of raw pain in her eyes. He got up slowly and approached her. When Mahir tried to stop him, he waved away his hand.

“Bella, I know I have apologised to you before but that was just so dry. When I found out that you and bahi were married, I had simply said sorry for all that had happened and went away thinking that I had done my bit. I thought since bhai had married you, no one would bring up my cowardice ever again. It shocked me that bua and then Anu would use that to taunt you and to put you down. I didn’t know that would be brought up nearly a year later. And suddenly the word sorry seems so insignificant.” Yuvi was looking straight in Bella’seyes and saying these things. Bella could see guilt and self-loathing reflected in his eyes. Although he masked it well, she could see that the intensity of his pain was far more than what he let on.

Mahir felt like was intruding on something extremely private. The moment that the former couple shared was very private, and even though Mahir was Bella’s husband and Yuvi’s elder brother, he felt that moment was between the two individuals involved and not for a third person to see. He murmured some excuse and was about to leave the room when both Yuvi and Bella caught hold of his wrists and stopped him.

Mahir trying to leave had broken the moment and both looked away, embarrassed. Yuvi went back to the bed while Bella went and stood near the window. An eerily discomforting silence filled the room. Mahir tried to think up something, anything that would break the silence but he couldn’t come up with anything. Near the window, Bella was trying to hold off her tears as painful images flashed through her mind. All the taunts that she had heard after she chose to marry Mahir came back to her. All the judgements that they had passed on her character for hopping from one brother’s bedroom to another brother's bedroom came back to her. The headline of next day’s newspaper seemed to taunt her. The fact every Tom Dick and Harry had something to say about her most private moments was not something she could ever forget. She had never let it affect her. Whenever someone said something of the sort, she would pass it off as a joke, never showing anyone, not even Mahir or Suhani the extent to which it affected her. She wanted to break down, cry her heart out just this once. But she had one last question to ask before she shut down this topic forever. Bella took a deep breath and with great difficulty controlled her voice and asked, “Why did you leave Yuvi?”

Mahir and Yuvi looked at her, surprised that she was actively pursuing that topic. She turned away from the window and faced them, her expressions well under control. Mahir moved towards her but she stopped him. Yuvi was looking terrified at the thought of answering her question. Bella repeated the question.

“Tell me Yuvi, why did you run away that day? Don’t get me wrong, I am glad that we are not married but I need to know what prompted you to ditch me?”

“Bella I... I will answer your question. Do you remember you had seen me come out of Vish Khanna’s room? You had come to my room and told bhai that you couldn’t marry me after what you had seen. I had tried to convince that you that nothing untoward had between me and Vish. But no one believed me and rightly so. My record was such that believing me would have been foolishness. You know how bhai convinced you to marry me. What you don’t know is what followed after that. After you had banged the door after you bhai ”

FLASHBACK

Yuvi winced at the loud bang. His head was beginning to throb now with so much alcohol and then his thoughts churning in his head. He was feeling immensely confused. ‘On one hand, I love Bella,’ he thought ‘and want her and on the other hand, I am not ready to let go of my free and single life. The desire to have one last fling before I settle down is still there. I had thought that as my wedding day approached that I would miraculously lose this desire but it was still very much there. So, if I still want to be with other girls, then whatever I felt for Bella, was that love? Wasn’t love supposed to miraculously cure all the other desires? Didn’t love mean that you spend the rest of your life in one person’s arms?

If that was so, then why hadn’t Bella brought out that side in me? What was wrong with Bella? Why couldn’t she bring out the loyal side in me?’ As soon as he asked himself this question, it answered itself. There was NOTHING wrong with Bella. She was perfect. She was the girl who worked tirelessly to ensure that his brother led an easy life. She was the same one who loved and adored his mother. She was the same girl who had accepted his abnormal family situation without judging. She was the one had helped him out of countless sticky situations, even when she didn’t approve of any of them only so that her boss and his brother and ultimately his family did not get embarrassed. She had supported him unconditionally during their engagement period. She had kept many of his minor to moderate transgressions from reaching any of his family members so that he would not get embarrassed.

She had been a true partner to him even as he hurt her by his behaviour. He had never realised that his behaviour was hurting her. He had always assumed that he would miraculously turn a loyal and dutiful husband overnight and then he would make up for any hurt that he had caused her but before he got tied down, he wanted to have as much fun as he could. But while having the time of his life, he had conveniently forgotten that loyalty was a virtue that was to be practised daily, every hour, every minute. It was not something that would materialize out of thin air. And even if he did vow to remain loyal to Bella now, it would not matter in the slightest. It would matter when two years later he would wake up one morning, bored with his daily routine and would have a strong urge to flirt with one of the sexy models that he was shooting. Would he be able to control the urge to have one small date with her? He didn’t have an answer to that question.

He remembered Andy and Polo. Was it his mother’s fault that his father married a second time around? NO. It was solely his father’s fault. He was very much like his father in that aspect. So, no. The answer to his previous question would be, no, he would not be able to resist the urge to have a little fun. And god knows what that fun might lead to...

Just then there was a knock on his door. He managed to stumble to the door and after some efforts opened it to find Vish standing there holding his shirt. She had covered her eyes and was holding out his shirt to him. As soon as he saw her, a strange sense of calm stole over him. He smiled at her childish antics and pulled off her hand that covered her eyes.

“You have already seen me shirtless. Now why have you covered your eyes?” he asked her.

She cautiously opened her eyes and gave a sigh of relief when she saw him. She was finding it very difficult to even stand. Yuvi steadied her and made her sit on the edge of his bed. He offered her a glass of water which she clumsily drank. He had grabbed his shirt from her hand and now proceeded to put it on as he repeated his question.

“You didn’t tell me why had you covered your eyes?”

Vish giggled and replied, “Because I thought you would be naked. You had told me that you generally sleep naked so...” She giggled again.

“Hmmm”

He continued his chain of thoughts. He was barely paying attention to Vish now.

“So, why aren’t you naked?” Vishasked him suddenly.

“What?” Vish’s question startledYuvi.

“I mean, why aren’t you sleeping?”Vish corrected herself.

“Because I am confused.” He replied.

“Confused? Why?” she asked him.

“I am confused because I am not sure if I want to marry Bella or no.” Yuvi blurted out the truth.

Vish looked at him with big roundeyes and answered, “You said yes to marriage with her. You guys will be going round round around the fire in a few hours. This is no time for confusion.”

“I know yet I am confused,” Yuvi told her. “I know I should be loyal to her. I should not even think of some other girl other than her but still, I do.”

“You do what?” Vish asked him with a somewhat tender expression.

“I think of another girl. Someone who is not Bella. I am thinking about her...” Yuvi replied looking straight into her eyes.

“Who?” Vish whispered.

“You!” Yuvi whispered back.

“What is it that you think about me?”Vish asked him while stroking his jaw lightly.

“I am thinking about how beautiful you are! You have such nice and soft lips.” His hands automatically gravitated towards her lips. He lightly touched them and she parted her lips under his tender touch. “I wonder what it would be like to kiss you... To hold you close...”

Both of them were leaning towards each other and their breathing had sped up. Suddenly Vish leaned in and kissed Yuvi. He was startled at first but then responded to her kiss. The kiss was all too brief yet so tender. Yuvi considered himself an expert at kissing. Yet this particular kiss was different. None of his previous kisses, not even the one she shared with Bella had invoked in him such a plethora of emotions. None of them had filled his heart with so much warmth and happiness.

“Now you know,” Vish told him when they parted.

“But I shouldn’t! I shouldn’t be doing this. I am getting married to Bella in a few hours.” Yuvi said guiltily. First of all, Vish was drunk and was not entirely in her senses. Her consent didn’t mean anything. And second thing was that at the time when his thoughts should have been full of the girl he was about to marry, he was making out with a stranger whom he had met just a few days ago.

“Hmmm” Vish looked thoughtful as she made the next statement, “You know what I think? I think you are confused because technically speaking, you should be thinking about Bella right now. But you are thinking about me. You should be dreaming about Bella but you are kissing me. That is what is causing your confusion. Am I right? Hmmmmm... Do you know what that means? It means that you don’t love her. You like her...” Vishwas on the verge of passing out now. She continued to mumble as Yuvi lowered her onto his bed. Within moments she was asleep.

He looked at her and then thought about the statement that she had made in her drunken state. She was perhaps right. He liked Bella and but didn’t love her. Or maybe he did love her in his way but it was not enough to make a lifelong relationship out of it. Either way, he was not sure that he wanted to marry Bella. The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable it made him. He didn’t want to marry Bella. He didn’t know why, but he knew this for sure. He was not ready to commit himself to Bella.

As soon as this thought struck him, he was stunned. Now that the confusion was over, he had to take a call. Technically speaking he should go and talk to Bella and let her know that he didn’t want to marry her. But then he couldn’t. He was afraid to face her and her questions. He was afraid to face his family members who would surely blame him for ruining a girl’s life. He was very afraid to face the drama that would follow.

So the best thing would be to run away. ‘Yes,’ he thought. ‘I will go away from here for a few days. If the bridegroom is not around how will the marriage happen? Yes, I will go away for some time. I will come back once everything has calmed down a bit.’

As soon as he had decided this, he began to pack his bag. He grabbed some t-shirts, some jeans, his wallet and whatever else his frenzied mind could think of. He had to move fast before the household woke up. He was feeling guilty for leaving Vish on his bed. Next day when Mahir would eventually find her in his room, he was going to assume the worst. But he trusted Mahir to not insultVish. He wrote a quick note to Mahir explain what he was about to do. In that note, he also asked Mahir to not say anything to Vish as she was not at fault. He hoped that Mahir would manage the situation just like he had managed everything so far and exited the room.

FLASHBACK ENDS

Bella kept staring at him for a long time after he had stopped talking. She was feeling kind of relieved now that everything was out in the open. She looked at Mahir and saw that he was looking at her anxiously. She gave him a reassuring smile and went to where Yuvi was sitting.

“Yuvi, I have just one more question. After that, we will never speak of this again. You need not feel guilty of anything. Although you were wrong, you did me a great favour by running away that day. I am just glad that you realise that it was the wrong thing to do.” Bella’s words consoled Yuvi to some extent. She continued, “Tell me, how did Ravi end up in your car that day if you didn't away with her?”

“Bella, did you think that I had run away with Ravi?” Yuvi asked her.

“It was obvious! You went missing. And then even she was missing. We just put two and two together.” Mahir told him.

“Bhai we didn’t run away with each other. Just as I was leaving the house she caught me. She threatened to scream if I didn’t tell where I was going. So I had to tell her the truth. She then convinced me that my running away would be more convincing if she accompanied me. I knew that I didn’t have much time. So I agreed to her plan.” Yuvi explained.

“And the accident?” Bella asked Yuvi.

“Oh, that! I was heavily drunk and on top of that sleepy. I lost control of the car and it crashed.” Yuvi was avoiding looking at Mahir when he said this.

Before Mahir could whack Yuvi for his carelessness, Bella intervened.“Now that I know everything, we will never bring this up. Do you understand?” she said looking sternly at the two of them.

Both the boys nodded their heads meekly and Yuvi went out of the room. As soon as Yuvi was out of their sight Bella went as hugged Mahir tightly. Mahir hugged her back. They remained like that for a long time.

Miss you dear🤔. Will reply later.

Originally posted by: mafaaza12

Miss you dear🤔. Will reply later.

Mafaaza 🤗 missed you too. I look forward to your reply. 😃

Originally posted by: mafaaza12

Miss you dear🤔. Will reply later.

You have been missing for too long 😖

Originally posted by: nuomi.riceball

You have been missing for too long 😖

Ya Mafaaza na? Woh toh jab ki gayab hai. 😔😆

Originally posted by: nuomi.riceball

You have been missing for too long 😖

Hmmmm😒. I lost my mobile month back. Got new one few days back.

Nice update dear

Convo between bela yuvi & mahir was good

They closed that topic completely

yuvi & Vish are together & they are hiding it

Update soon please

Thanks

Originally posted by: asifiqbalsh

Nice update dear

Convo between bela yuvi & mahir was good

They closed that topic completely

yuvi & Vish are together & they are hiding it

Update soon please

Thanks

Thanks Asif. Yes in the next few chapters Yuvi's secret will come out