This content was originally posted by: Peppermint55Kaha hai update
Coming in the next hour! I am adding the final touches 😉
This content was originally posted by: Gurmeet4DrashtiHey!
So I caught up with all the chapters in one go. I absolutely loved it.
You know everything seemed so real and palpable. The anxiety of an arranged marriage, the patriarchy, which no matter how much you insist doesn’t exist, is extremely prevalent and the unbelievable power the men in our lives hold over us.
But then a breath of fresh air is when we read Arnav’s family. Normal. Understanding.
Now now, Mr Raizada has been finally slapped with reality and has realized that his gloom isn’t the only worst thing in the world.
Looking forward to acceptance, growth and a lot of rabba ve ;)
Firstly, welcome to the FF 🤗 Thank you so much for the wonderful comment!! There will be lots of rabba ve's coming up 😉❤️
This content was originally posted by: ansakInteresting chapter, I feel Khushi will make a deal with her father to help her brother, give up the internship and marry Arnav. Waiting for the next chapter. Thanks for sharing this amazing story.
Hehe... you will enjoy the next chapter 😉
This content was originally posted by: abivicky86It is indeed sad that such people like Alok Gupta exist today. He reminds me of the Mughal emperors who executed people who spoke against him.
This man has clipped the wings of kushi because she rebelled against and spoke the truth. He has no sense of regret in his behavior towards his children.
We can hope Arnav helps her to spread her wings and pursue her career .So also he along with kushi and Vihaan is able to knock some sense in his brain
Yes, he's a lot like the mughals... stubborn and completely unreasonable. But life is never too short for people like him, one day or another, he will see what misery is causing his kids
This content was originally posted by: TwilightStar_JPCan I just do something to Alok! Like Banish him or something? Urgh! Whate chauvinist pig! Patriarchy my foot. I hope he lives alone with no one's support and then realises life is more than what he thinks!
I feel so bad for Vihaan and Khushi. They've had the worst childhood. Especially Khushi. And no, one can argue saying even though she was not given rights, she had a decent life with roof above her head and food on the plate. There are far more worse people. But, just giving the basic needs doesn't necessarily mean it's a great life. Especially when you don't have the freedom to even express your thoughts. I'd kill him for sure.
Cheers
I hope the same for Alok! And the rest of his life is going to be pretty much lonely, and full of regret. He pushed away the last of his family members with his stupid ego😡
This content was originally posted by: imshvetaThis world is actually full of people like Alok.
Feel bad for Khushi, could feel how helpless she must have been...... To study to be a doctor and then not to be able to just finish it when it's within your grasp. Terrible feeling
Yes, of all the things Alok does, I think not letting her practice was the worst. With this chapter, she kind looses the will to fight him...
This content was originally posted by: jdukeInteresting update and more facts came into light about Khushi’s life at her home. Alok is definitely one patriarchy who cares for nothing more than his power and authority. Though Khushi failed to change Alok’s opinion about Garima but she stood up her ground. I like Kushi’s character irrespective of the stringent rules she has to abide all her life.
Thanks love! Khushi's character is unique, despite all her suffering, she doesn't stop fighting.
Does arnav know about khushi s past now? When will he..?!
Alok is unreasonable..
I m sure khushi as a doctor has a bright future her husband will be a great support..
I m curious about how arnav n khushi will be as parents... Also what was that deal between khushi s father and her something about a heir ... 🤔
Hello,
Hope everyone had a great weekend! Thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments to the last chapters (my comments on Pg. 45).
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The content of this story belongs strictly to the author, -Archi-. Any unwarranted use/copy of it is not encouraged and is strictly prohibited.
Chapter Fourteen
Conditions
- September 2019 -
“Madam, Alok Sir is calling you to the living room.”
Khushi looked up startled to hear the butler’s message. Three whole months had passed since she resigned from her internship –as the story went anyway– and was under house arrest. Her father had never spoke to her after their showdown in the dining room and neither had she bothered to mend their relationship. The worst of it had come to pass, there was nothing she could say or do to change that.
She could not be more wrong.
As Khushi arrived in the living room, telling herself determinedly to not pick another argument with her father, she noticed Vihaan standing to the side looking anxious.
Wondering why he was so worried, she stopped in front of her father. “You called me Papa?”
Alok looked up from the file he was reading. Seated on the sofa, he appeared very much like the owner of the house and not to mention, their lives.
“I found a match for you.”
Khushi didn’t follow. “Match…?”
“For your marriage,” Alok replied, unperturbed. “I found a suitor for you.”
Pin drop silence followed his announcement.
Khushi felt herself transported to another place, looking in on the spectacle unfolding in front of her eyes as an outsider. She vaguely registered her brother holding his breath, waiting for her to burst out in fury. She registered her father watching her, waiting for her to give him one more excuse to punish her. She even registered the servants eavesdropping, waiting to see who will win this new tug of war.
But she, herself, couldn’t register the numbing silence her brain was suddenly plunged into.
“The family will be coming to see you tomorrow,” Alok continued when she remained mum. “It’s customary, so I suggest you present yourself well. My reputation is at stake here. I already consulted with the priests; the wedding will take place in a month from now on.”
More silence.
Even if Khushi could will her mouth to move, she wasn’t sure what she could say.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Alok said, looking back at his file. “They are less tolerant about this medical nonsense than I am. They do not know anything about your internship or education, and you better keep it that way. They want a good, cultured girl as their daughter-in-law and that is exactly what they will get. You may leave.”
Khushi watched her father resume his work, ignoring her stunned form in front of him. It was finally Vihaan who spoke.
“Papa,” he said timidly. “Maybe this is a wrong time to discuss this. Khushi is not ready for marriage-”
“She had twenty-five years to prepare for this moment. It’s no one’s fault except hers if she is not ready.”
“But this is her life. How can she just spend it with a stranger? We should at least give her the chance to meet the guy first and then decide-”
“I wouldn’t put it past your sister to offend the boy just to get out of this alliance,” Alok interrupted, still not looking up from his file. “Her reputation of arrogance and disobedience precedes her. It took me three months to find this match. In any other instance, people would have been begging to marry a Gupta.”
“But-”
“Besides,” their father continued, nonchalant. “I met the boy, and he is a perfect match. Arnav Singh Raizada belongs to an affluent family, the only heir to a decent empire and most of all, well-mannered. Your sister can learn a thing or two about that from him.”
Vihaan paused, confused. “The Raizada’s? Didn’t Shankar Singh Raizada just have a stroke? It’s all over the news, their shares are at an all-time low and have no scope of recovering-”
“And what does that have to do with anything?”
Vihaan appeared flabbergasted. “You can’t just marry her off to a family that is going to declare bankruptcy any day now!”
“I assure you, they will not. It’s a temporary dip, their shares will pick up again in no time. Besides, their business is of no concern to us-”
“Yes,” Vihaan agreed warily. “Because this is about Khushi’s choice-”
Alok’s patience had reached its limit. “I don’t remember asking for your opinion Vihaan,” he snapped. “When you have two children of your own and are ready to get them married, maybe then you will have earned the right to talk to me about decision making.”
Vihaan fell quiet, not knowing what to do. But his questions were enough for Khushi’s numbness to clear.
Taking a deep breath, she said in a ringing voice: “No.”
Alok ignored her.
“No, I am not going to meet the family tomorrow Papa, because I am not marrying him.”
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion either Khushi,” her father replied coolly, still immersed in the file.
“And I don’t remember asking you to find a suitor for me, but you went ahead and did it anyway. So, I am going let you know right now that I am not getting married.”
Alok’s eyes flashed, but he still maintained his composure. “That is exactly the kind of back talk they do not want from their future daughter-in-law…. I suggest you fix that sharp tongue of yours in the one month you have left in this house.”
“Or what?”
He finally met her gaze. “Excuse me?”
“Or what?” she repeated, glaring at him. “Are you going to force me to resign again? Or lock me up in my room? Well, guess what? There is nothing left that you can take from me Papa! Nothing!”
Alok closed his file with a snap and stood up, towering over her petite frame. “Just because I have been lenient with you all these years doesn’t mean I don’t know how to discipline you. Don’t take my kindness as my weakness!”
Khushi laughed, sarcastic. “What kindness?! All you have shown me is neglect and punishment, and all for what?! Because I am a girl?”
“You have earned that for being out of line not once or twice, but at every single chance you got! How many times have Garima and I tried to explain to you, to discipline you, but all you could do was scoff at us in the name of feminism–”
“Oh, save it Papa! This isn’t discipline, this is you trying to control every single part of my life just like how you do Vihaan’s!”
Alok simply glared at her.
“And what do you mean feminism?” she asked furiously. “I am not fighting for the welfare of women here, I am fighting for my own goddamn freedom from this suffocation of a family!”
“Yes, because having everything you need and more is suffocation, isn’t it?” he replied sarcastically.
“It is, because you never ever bothered to find out what it is that I want!”
“And what is that?! Working like any other commoner? Am I that poor and powerless that I have to let to my own daughter go out and earn some bread for this family?!”
“This isn’t about your ego for heaven’s sake! It’s the point of my self-respect, the point of standing on my own two feet!”
“No, it’s the point of humiliation!” Alok fumed, equally as angry as her. “No woman from the Gupta family has ever worked before, and as long as you are under my roof, you will not either! You will get married like what is expected of you and hope and pray that you can raise your family as well as your mother did!”
Khushi couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Leaving her internship was one thing, but marriage? That was many steps too far.
“And what if I am not happy with him?” she asked, changing her stance. “What guarantee do you have that I will be happy with this man? Do I not even get the choice to pick my own life partner?!”
“What do you know of life partners?!” Alok retorted. “You have barely begun your life, you have no idea what the world is like outside, how will you judge what is good for you and what is not?! Tell me one good reason why you cannot marry Arnav other than to simply disobey me?”
“How about respect? If he cannot digest the fact that I am educated, that I have a job and a life, how on earth do you expect me to be happy with him?!”
Alok snorted. “And here we are once again with that godforsaken degree! What do you think Khushi? You got that job because of your intelligence? Think again. You got that job because you are my daughter, because they all know the consequences of saying no to Alok Raj Gupta! Don’t even kid yourself into thinking it was on your merit!”
Khushi felt too insulted to reply to that.
“Everything and I mean everything you have today is because of me! The clothes you wear, the food you eat, that degree you got, the job you had, everything is given by me! So think a hundred times before you raise your voice and talk back to me!”
Alok paused, glowering at her, before saying with finality, “You will get married, to the man I chose in a month’s time… Don’t force my hand once more Khushi, you know only too well what happened the last time you crossed me.”
It was an impossible situation.
Khushi could see that there was no way out of it. Her father had already shown her the extent he could go to make sure she followed his wishes. He had everything at his disposal. All it would probably take was one phone call. A part of her wanted to know what it would be this time, what sore spot he would press to make sure she surrendered? He had threatened her hospital to fire her from her internship, but who was left to threaten for her to sit quietly as the priests chanted the marriage hymns?
A rational, more dominant part of her, begged her not to find out, to simply give in. If she had any doubts before, the last three months in utter solitude had cleared them. There was no escaping her father, no matter where she went. She was in every way, his puppet.
“That’s not fair Papa.” It was Vihaan, who unexpectedly seemed to have found his courage.
Alok scowled at his son, his nostrils flaring.
“You can’t force her to marry just because she didn’t follow your orders! She was just trying to help Maa-”
“Never in all my years,” Alok cut in with utter disappointment. “Did I ever dare to question my father and here are my own children disrespecting me with every passing second. This is exactly why I didn’t make you the Managing Director Vihaan – you neither have the vision for this family nor the discipline to carry forward it’s legacy!”
Vihaan lowered his eyes, while Khushi watched, growing more and more deserted.
“And if you want to continue being an utter embarrassment, then fine, go ahead and stay here at home for the rest of your life. I have carried this company on my shoulders for this long, covering up for your mistakes, failing miserably to teach you, so it won’t be a problem carrying on for another twenty years!”
Khushi had enough. “You can’t punish him for my decisions! He deserves to be the Managing Director-”
“No, he has to earn it. Both of you seem to be under the impression that you are entitled to get whatever you want – you are wrong. Being a part of this family comes with responsibility; you both don’t deserve anything until you have proven your loyalties!”
“And what would that be?” she asked, exhausted. The argument was coming to a close and it didn’t take a genius to figure out who won.
“For starters, it would be showing me some respect and preparing yourself for the Raizada’s tomorrow. And as for you Vihaan, quit sulking and start paying attention to what the board of directors want so that next time, they don’t feel the need to find a new Managing Director behind my back!”
Khushi closed her eyes. “And if we do that,” she asked in a small voice. “Will you make Vihaan your successor?”
Alok raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t expecting her to bargain. “What?”
“If I marry whoever you say… then, will you name Vihaan the CEO within the next two years?”
“Khushi!” Vihaan protested.
She ignored him, and instead focused on her father. Alok was pondering her condition, perhaps trying to find a way to bypass it. In the end, he simply nodded.
“Fine,” he answered, quite calmly. “Your brother will be my successor in the next two years as you say, but make sure you get this straight and clear Khushi – You will marry Arnav Singh Raizada without any arguments and you will make sure you’ll stay married to him. I don’t want any nonsense about divorce and separation, do you understand? And if you don’t… then I guess, I won’t have any reason to hold up my end of the bargain.”
Khushi took a deep breath. “I will marry him.”
“Good. The Raizada family will be here at ten tomorrow morning, be ready. And remember, they know nothing about this medical rubbish. I suggest you keep it that way if you want this alliance to work.”
And with that Alok departed the room.
A painful silence followed her father’s exit. Khushi didn’t have to look at her brother to know how helpless or guilty he must be feeling.
“You should have walked away,” Vihaan mumbled.
“And go where?”
“Anywhere. I am sure anywhere is better than here.”
“Be real Vihaan… you really think he would have let me walk out? For a man who cares so much about prestige, you think he would let his own children humiliate him? He would have made sure I had nowhere to go.”
“So then why did you put that stupid condition? Now he has one more thing he can blackmail you about for the rest of your life.”
Khushi held his hand, understanding his anguish. “It’s not your fault,” she said gently. “I had this coming since the day I argued with him about Maa. If I listened to you and just shut my mouth that day, then maybe none of this would have happened.”
Vihaan cupped her face. “Why don’t you ever let me be the elder one Khushi? I am tougher than you think, I can handle Papa. Please, just… just don’t be a sacrificial goat for my sake, you can always–”
“Here is the thing Vihaan,” she said in a small voice. “Anything I say or do will not change any of this. Papa had made up his mind, so screaming at him or reasoning with him or running away from him would not have made a difference. So instead of living with that realization, that I am utterly and hopelessly trapped, I made a choice I could live with. I am ten times more happier getting married to…”
“Arnav Singh Raizada,” Vihaan said, understanding perfectly well why she paused.
A sad smile spread across her face; she didn’t even know the name of the man she was being tied down to.
“I am ten times more happier getting married to Arnav Singh Raizada knowing that at least you were getting everything you dreamed of, than getting married to him because Papa had left me with no choice… I am sorry for using you as an excuse to make myself feel better.”
Vihaan sighed, not being able to argue with that logic.
- Present Time -
Khushi stared dejectedly out into the night sky from the penthouse balcony, trying to bury her freshly opened wounds. The adrenaline she felt as she treated her mother-in-law earlier that day, the clarity her mind experienced as she threw instructions at the paramedics when they arrived, and the relief her body bore for doing something useful… it brought back everything she had missed about her profession.
And also every memory that led to her situation now.
As she told Vihaan over and over again in the month that led up to her wedding, her fate had been sealed since the day she drew her first breath as a Gupta. She was always bound to get married against her will to some insane family that her father saw fit. There was no other alternative there. All her attempts to study and secure a job were just delaying the inevitable.
But perhaps the final nail in the coffin had been seeing Arnav himself.
Khushi had hoped, maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t as unrelenting as she had been told, that he would see the restrains binding her and feel they were unnecessary, that he would look past whatever his family believed and listened to what she wanted, but could not voice openly.
She could not have been more wrong.
Far from understanding her, Arnav didn’t even spare a glance at her. As she reminded herself relentlessly since the day of her marriage, and what she told herself again that evening, staring out into the night sky – none of this was her fault. It had always been destined that she would be caged, first as her father’s daughter and then as her husband’s namesake wife. Fighting it would only cause her pain.
So, she swallowed it whole. The hope, the bitterness, the anger and last of all, the faith… faith in a bigger plan at work. But what Khushi didn’t realize was that one often met their destiny on the road they took to avoid it.
____________________________________________
So that was the last chapter about Khushi's past, phew!
Alok is a monster, not denying it one bit. He is the one who tells Khushi that the Raizada's don't want her to work as a doctor, which is why she keeps it hidden from Arnav since the beginning.
What do you think will happen next?
Cheers,
Archi
P.S. - now that we are back in the present, next chapter is from Arnav's POV 😉
P.P.S. - all of the flashback chapters (ie. ch. 12, 13 & 14) were just Khushi's recollections. Arnav doesn't know about it.
hope she feels differently about the Raizada's and Arnav now...
Alok grrrrr
but at least she secured Vihaan's future.... bnut what was the contidion abt a hier??
all we saw was a deal... she will stay married and Vihaan will be Alok's successor...
eagerly waiting for the next!!
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