Part 3
"Chote, come on. It's time for dinner!" His Di's voice brought him back as he realized he was here thinking about the encounter with Khushi once again. He put away the spray bottle and the watering can and went inside. Khushi was long gone home, but his decision was still firm as ever. Each time he thought about what happened, his resolve strengthened. And his final decision was made. He was going to stop this wedding. And the first step was to find out who this jerk was that was hell bent on marrying Khushi! With that he strode to the table and joined his family unaware of the storm that was going to come in his life. In their life. Due to his decision!!
Payal stood outside her house looking at her sister who was sitting by herself like every night. Except tonight she seemed different. From the past few days her jovial and always loud Khushi, now looked like a broken doll. As if all the happiness was drained out from her, and all that was left was silence and sorrow. No not even sorrow, because to be sad you needed to feel, and looking at her sister, she saw that there was nothing there except emptiness.
The wedding. Khushi's impending wedding, was the reason why she was like this. It was an understatement to say Payal was unhappy with this wedding. Yes she wanted her sister to get married, she wanted her to feel the happiness of being a wife. Heck, she had spent her whole life listening to Khushi's nonstop chatter about her fairy tale wedding and her prince charming. But this was not how Payal had wanted things to go. Not for her little Khushi. Shyam Ji was a great guy, yes. But somehow the past few weeks she had started getting the creeps whenever she saw him. Something just wasn't right about that man. And then finally when the talk of marriage started, her feeling got stronger. But she had kept quiet, knowing anything she said would not be taken into consideration. Buaji was on a rampage to get Khushi married.
However today, there seemed to be something different about her. The emptiness in her eyes was replaced with hope. Ever since she had come back from the Raizada House, Khushi had started to act differently. She was alive again. As if someone had given her a reason to live again. Whatever the reason was, Payal finally made a decision. She was not going to let her little Khushi go back into that darkness. Even if that meant she had to fight her own family for it. Out of all this, Payal had clearly understood that Khushi was not happy with this wedding. And now no matter what happened, she would not let this wedding take place. All her life she had protected her Khushi, and she was not going to back down this time too. With that resolve and determination, she stepped down and walked towards Khushi to talk to her.
"Khushi what are you doing sitting here alone, why didn't you call me?" Payal walked over and sat down next to Khushi bringing her out of her thoughts. "Oh jiji, you were helping amma, so I thought I would just come out. And plus I knew you would come out sooner or later." Khushi smiled at Payal. A sense of relief passed through Payal as she saw her sister's smile. "So how was your day?" Payal started with some small talk before she went on to ask khushi about the dreading issue on hand.
"It was good Jiji, I taught Lavanya ji how to make jalebis today" Khushi replied but then smirked "well I was making jalebis, I don't know what she was making" And with that the two sisters burst out laughing. After a little bit more of small talk Payal finally got to the point. "Khushi say no to this wedding." Payal felt Khushi freeze next to her. She looked at Khushi and found her shocked. Before Khushi could say something Payal cut her off and went on. "Dekh, mujhe koi jhooth mat bolna. Main achi tarah se jaanti hoon ki tu is shaadi se khush nahi hai! And don't you dare try to tell me otherwise. Maine dekha hai tumhe pichle kuch dino mein. Aisa lag raha tha jaise kisi laash ke saath jee rahi thi main. Jaise tere liye sab kuch khatam ho gaya hai. Aur yeh sab buaji aur us Shyamji ki vajah se hai. Lekin aaj itne dino baad tere chehre pe maine muskaan dekhi. Ek umeed dekhi. Aur dekh, jaise shaadi ki baat ki maine, yeh khushi tere chehre se phir se chali gayi. Aur main aisa hone nahi doing chahe jo bhi ho jaaye" Payal ended with a tone of disgust and finality. Not caring that she was talking about her own buaji, Payal finally said all that was in her heart to Khushi. She was angry that these people were trying to tie Khushi into a relationship that just didn't seem right! She didn't know where this courage came from, but now that it was there, it would stay. "Main dekh ti hoon kaun cheenta hai teri yeh muskaan" she decided in her head.
Khushi was shocked to see her sister talking like that. Yeah she knew, that when her sister got mad, which was rarely, it meant hell for everyone. Payal was more of the calm one out of the two. She would never say something bad about anyone, and here she was talking about their own buaji. So seeing her like this, it was definitely something Khushi did not expect. The surety, the determination and the finality in her sisters voice made her think. As odd as it was, she thought of the one person who her sister reminded her of currently. The man that always yelled at her and made sure it was either his way or the high way. The man that she tried to run away from, but fate kept on bringing her back to him again and again. The man who had comforted her today and oddly enough, had given her a hope. The man who everyone thinks has an ice box where his heart should be. But she knew, that there definitely was a heart there. As unbelievable as it was, it was true. Arnav Singh Raizada had a heart. Heck she had heard it today!
She had felt that the little encounter with him earlier was a dream. The way he had held her and heard everything she had said. She was surprised at herself as well. She had actually poured her heart out to the one man she couldn't even talk to properly. But more then that she was shocked that he had listened to her and had even went on to comfort her. He had told her everything would be ok and that he was there with her. She never thought she would actually see a day when the great Arnav Singh Raizada would support her. But somehow, she wanted to trust him. In fact she did trust him. She didn't know why, but she believed everything he said to her. She knew he would find a way. And that had given her a new hope. He had given her a new life. But as soon as that hope came, she felt it being pulled away as words of her buaji and amma came in her head. No she wouldn't let anything happen to her bauji. If this wedding would make her bauji happy, then she would go through it. She brushed aside her encounter with Arnav as a moment of weakness and tuned towards her sister. "Jiji, it doesn't matter anymore. What's done is done. The engagement is tomorrow and I have to do this." Payal just looked at her as if she had gone crazy. "Khushi you can't do this! What about your dreams? What about your wishes? You really think that Shyamji can give you that happiness?!" Payal rebuked her as she got angry at Khushi's stupidity. "Nothing matters more to me than bauji. My decision is final" And with that Khushi got up and walked back inside. Payal just sat there by herself for a few minutes before following Khushi inside. She went in to see that Khushi was already asleep. If she would have been awake, she would have seen that sly smile that had crept up on Payal's face as she had decided that she was going to make sure this wedding never happens. With a quick kiss on Khushi's head, Payal fell asleep next to her sister.
Only Arnav knew how he has been sitting through that agonizing dinner and now this family time! He had so many things to deal with but his Di just would not let him go until everyone was finished with dinner! She was in an awfully good mood today and insisted that everyone stay and chat after dinner. As annoyed as he was to be sitting there with everyone, he couldn't help but feel content that his Di was happy. Her smile just made everything a lot better. He hadn't been paying attention to what they were all saying but all of a sudden he snapped back to the conversation when he heard the one name that made something in his chest yearn. "Khushi tried to teach me," Lavanya said excitedly as she put forth a plate in front of Nani. Before Arnav could ask what about Khushi, he saw what she meant. Apparently Lavanya was learning to make those jalebis and from the looks of it he could see she failed miserably. The plate in her hand had the weirdest looking shapes that didn't come close to the shape of a jalebi. "Well no duh, only my khushi can make that the right way." He froze as he realized what he just thought. My Khushi? What the...?! He pretended he didn't say anything and turned to his left because he felt an eerie feeling that someone was staring. And to his shock he saw Akash staring at him with his eyes popped out and mouth open. "What?" He asked as Akash kept staring and then realization dawned on him. "Oh shit! Did I say that out loud?!" He whispered to himself while he saw Akash nod his head up and down. "Yeah you did." Akash whispered. "My khushi?! Really Bhai?! Really?!?! What are you thinking!!" Akash went on to reprimand his brother but stopped as soon as he saw Arnav give him a glare. "I don't know what you are talking about...but if you say a word to anyone just know that I am Arnav Singh Raizada. I know where you go, every few days on the pretext of getting the car serviced. Because believe it or not little brother, only an idiot would not know that a car doesn't need servicing every few days." Arnav smirked, and gave Akash a knowing look as Akash found the newspaper in his hand very interesting. "Yeah that's what I thought, by the way, the paper is upside down. I am sure Khushi's sister would be amused that you can read upside down" And with that he got up, told everyone he was calling it a night and then went upstairs leaving an astounded Akash behind. "Did bhai really just threaten me and then tease me?!" He thought to himself as he saw his brother walk away. "Oh my god everyone is right, the world is coming to an end!" He mumbled to himself and put the paper away and told everyone he was going to bed too.
Arnav paced back and forth in his room as he thought about what he had just said downstairs. How could he possibly do that?! Always in control ASR was totally losing it! Not only did he think about Khushi but he said it out loud! And to top it off Akash heard it!! Akash though he could handle, but what if someone else had heard it!? And really...what was the need to say that in the first place! He scolded himself quietly and then stopped once again. He had just teased his brother. Since when did he start teasing Akash? Yeah he had known that Akash fancied Khushi's sister Payal. Especially the way he had the love sick puppy look on his face whenever she would be near him or when he thought about her. Only a total blind fool wouldn't see it. And he had found out that Akash would go see her every few days while making the excuse of getting the car fixed. But he didn't mind. Yeah the girl had told him off that day when he had took Khushi home after that horrific night when she had fainted in his arms, but he knew she was a good person. He kept telling himself he didn't want to get involved with Akash's life, but somewhere inside him he knew that the only reason he didn't get involved was because he approved of this girl who had made his brothers heart beat. Just like how her crazy sister had stirred something inside him.
"Damn it Arnav, Stop it!" He scolded himself once again as he realized that he was thinking about Khushi again. But thinking about her reminded him of what he had to do. He walked over and sat down on his bed and picked up his phone, turned on his laptop and got to work. He made a few phone calls and sent a few emails. After about an hour, he finally sighed in relief. He had his people in place ready to give him every single information about Khushi Kumari Gupta and her family. He wanted to know every little detail about her. He was going to fix things like he had promised her. And to do that he had to know what was going on. He turned off his laptop and put it to the side. Got up, turned off the lights and got into bed. Now all he had to do was wait. Wait and see who that jerk was who had the nerve to break down Khushi. Just the thought of her brought back the encounter from earlier. It brought back the feeling of being whole, that he had experienced as he had wrapped his arms around her holding her. He fell into deep slumber as thoughts of Khushi enveloped his mind.
Alright guys that was the part! Hope i didn't disappoint you!!! Please press the like button if you liked it and comments and criticisms are welcome!!
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hershi
Pati Patni Aur Panga
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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