ArHi OS: Unanswered Questions (part 21 page 88) - Page 11

omg!!! when is the next update???? awesome!!!!

I had to comment as the LIKE tab does'nt do it justice. Simply love the story-line. Pl. continue.

Woah...that was one twist...

Wow, this is getting more and more interesting just like their original story man.
Continue soon.
Thank you for the PM! 😊

oh my god!! this is so awesome!!!

next next ?? kya hua??

Nw that's an interesting twist!!!!

Originally posted by: amitasaily

I had to comment as the LIKE tab does'nt do it justice. Simply love the story-line. Pl. continue.

honored 😃

amazin part...hate aasha...wat more is thr !!

The letter was getting too long, I was worried about keeping true to Arnav's character and a verrry long letter seemed unArnav-like. So I decided to tell his past through the letter and his flashbacks. My interpretation of his past may seem to some as drastic but I think something big had to happen to make ASR the way we met him in the beginning of the serial.
Also by making Aasha an apparently desi girl and making her negative is due to the fact that I hate stereotyping people based on how they look and dress up. Lavanya who started as a catty person later on became quite nice when she made friends with Khushi and her decision to leave Arnav's life for she knew he loved khushi also shows how genuinely nice she was.
So here goes...
Letter: in italics and color
Flashbacks: black and not italics

Part 7

I refused point blank to such blackmail. I loved my parents but I held my integrity intact, I hated lies and liars and I would never succumb to such a pathetic lie. I know khushi you may be having doubts in your mind about me, keeping in view my liberal lifestyle. Yes, I am and was a liberal, I won't shy away from accepting that I had a girlfriend back then too and I was no rookie in these matters. Had I slept with Aasha, the people around me would have known, I don't hide myself from the world, I am what I am, take me as I am or leave me!

I had a hard time accepting the fact that my parents had actually bought her story without questioning her! A hard resounding slap was what I received from my father at my refusal followed by a shouting session of blaming me for giving a bad name to the family, of besmirching the reputation he had built up for himself.

In London with Arnav

Arnav sighed and got up, so many bitter memories had come rushing back that day, memories that he wanted to erase from his mind forever but they kept coming back. The memory of all the photographs still made him cringe in disgust, photographs that Aasha had so brazenly shown as a proof of her relationship with me. In themselves they were harmless, innocent photographs of friends hanging out, but when those containing Arnav and Aasha were singled out and shown with a concocted context, they looked sinister.

Arnav remembered the pictures that had been taken when they hung out with each other, but all the snaps only had him and Aasha together in various poses. On the football field when he had fallen on her and was looking into her eyes laughing at her, in a pub staring into her eyes during a staring contest that had started out of drunkenness, hugging each other in a somewhat lonely corridor to arouse jealousy in some guy Aasha had a crush on in those days, him carrying her in his arms because she had bruised her ankle while coming down the stairs, then the one taken towards the last few days before all hell had broken lose, in which he was kissing her not because they had something going on. He had lost a bet and she had demanded a kiss saying that since he had a reputation of being a really good kisser she wanted to verify. Arnav regretfully remembered how he had laughingly given in. It hadn't been awkward for she was a friend; however he remembered how Rohan looked a bit uncomfortable and upset. Aasha had insisted that Rohan take a photograph also, as she wanted to preserve the moment. Arnav laughed bitterly at his own naivety.

My dad had thrown an envelope at me containing photographs. These were pictures that had been taken when we all used to hangout, but all the snaps only had me and Aasha together in various poses. They were mere snaps of friends but she told a twisted tale to establish our relationship, to prove her truthfulness. Rage took over me and I launched into another hot argument with my father demanding to know if he had believed in all the shit. Maa intervened and begged both of us to be quiet, to settle down but we were not ready. Paa was adamant that I should marry and I was immovable from my stance that I will not marry a pathetic liar no matter how pregnant she was. I tried to reason with him, explaining how the photographs showed nothing, but to no avail. Then he threw my credit card bill on my face, the card had been charged an exorbitant amount for a honeymoon suite in an expensive countryside resort. It was then that a lot of things fell into place and I knew why Rohan had also refused to meet me. It had all along been their ploy; they had been in it together.

Kicking a pebble on the pavement, Arnav thought how cunning his friends had been. The credit card scheme was an amazingly underhanded move that had left him stunned. Aasha had cunningly taken his card one weekend joking that he was tightfisted despite being an heir to millions. He had unknowingly played along saying she could spend as much as she wanted to and he wouldn't even check. "What a complete dimwit I was!" he bemoaned. He remembered how stunned and bewildered he was at that time, but he had been able to connect the dots to realize it had been a scam completely planned and designed by his own friends, his friends whom he would trust his life with. He had stormed out of the house without trying to explain and forced his way into Rohan's. Taking hold of him by his collar he had shook him violently, fury running through each and every vein in his body.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" he had growled and Rohan had asked so coolly, "What?"

"Oh don't act like a smart ass with me Rohan, Aasha and yours two timing is out now! Credit card move was really smart but you don't know me!" Arnav had spat out.

"Prove it then," Rohan had remained unperturbed, "Prove that it was me who spent a rocking weekend with Aasha and not you!"

Arnav thought of how he had stepped back, shocked at how Rohan had changed, like a snake had shed its skin, like a chameleon had changed its color! "Why?" a mere whisper had come out of Arnav's mouth, "Why are you doing this to me? Was our entire friendship a hoax? Did it ever mean anything to you?"

How Arnav wished Rohan had kept quiet so that he would never have concluded that all friendship was mirage, a delusion. Rohan wanted to marry Aasha but his father was at the verge of bankruptcy. This was not in his "plan", he had always envied Arnav for getting things easily and at that time more than ever he was consumed by jealousy. They came up with a plan to trick Arnav into marrying Aasha with watertight pre-nuptial terms. Divorce two months later would have entitled Aasha to a hefty amount and quite a few assets.

"But it's your word against mine, I have proof for what I said and you have none to prove me guilty!" Rohan had laughed at Arnav.

Helplessness it was that Arnav had felt at that time as the truth of Rohan's words rang through his mind. Even then he had tried, tried his best to make his parents realize the folly of their assumption but it was futile.

I don't know what you may have done in a similar situation, but accepting to marry her was tantamount to accepting the lie that had been associated with me. Aasha and Rohan both refused to meet me, to talk to me even. I had saved enough to survive and started to live in one of those students' hostels but missed my family, Anjali di and Maa.

When I went home to meet them, they refused saying that I had to first agree to marry before I could even think of meeting them. Obstinate as I am, I couldn't stay away from my family, I agreed but gave my condition for marrying her. I demanded that she take a prenatal paternity test to establish that I was the father of her child. Aasha hadn't gone through the trouble of planning such an elaborate scam to agree to a DNA test. She refused on grounds of risks, although there were no major risks involved. I seethed with fury at her cunning and scheming ways.

Not willing to give up so easily, I told that we'll wait till the baby is born and then I'll gladly go ahead with the marriage with all pomp and show if paternity is established. Like a drama queen she cooked up a ruckus, lamenting and wailing like a backward woman that her chastity was under question, what will people say? It was a test of nerves for me to stay firm on my decision, everyone around me looked at me with scorn, considering me shameless and immoral. Rohan and Aasha's parents continuously gave guilt trips to my parents, blackmailing them emotionally but I remained inflexible. She even tried to exhort money out of me offering to disappear.

The bitter memories came back like an avalanche, sending Arnav back into an old rage that he had tried to control over the years. Aasha had come to him one day, apparently tired of waiting, helpless before my tenacity. She had the audacity to offer me a deal, transfer money to her account and she'll disappear. She had even threatened that if he didn't comply she'll have the newspapers print all the juicy details. Arnav remembered how he had reacted to it, violent seemed a small word. Livid with anger he had demanded, "What about the fact that you have singlehandedly been able to ruin my life? Who will tell the world that I haven't done anything?" She had merely shrugged her shoulders and left saying, "take it or leave it!"

We all waited, I knew I was being stubborn but as I said my integrity was at stake here, knowing that along with me my family faced a lot of humiliation day in and day out was a continuous torture that I could do nothing about. Plus every passing day brought Aasha close to the revelation of truth and she was beginning to get desperate. I took comfort in the fact that it was a matter of time that my integrity will be reinstated in front of my parents and that's all I cared for.

Arnav straightened, standing tall and remembered the sheer guts he had to summon back then, in order to walk by people with straight shoulders and head held high. He used to keep reminding himself that people don't matter, only Maa and Paa matter. It was his mantra that he used to keep his sanity intact. However, nothing had prepared him for the pain that came in his life, that left him eternally thirsty for redemption for sins he hadn't committed. He hadn't been able to eat, sleep for days, all he could do was lie and stare at the ceiling or sit with his head held in his head.

In a road accident my parents passed away. They couldn't live to see my innocence proven. Hell! I couldn't prove it later on either because Aasha disappeared and so did Rohan leaving behind a letter saying that she knew that I won't marry her now that my parents were dead. Anjali di was my savior, my angel who stood by me in this grief, despite her own. To this day I feel indebted to her. Things changed dramatically after that, I took over my father's business and his partners left me doubting my integrity, they even hinted at having investigations done to figure out if it was an accident that had taken my parents' life or a homicide case.

I hadn't known at first what I was supposed to do. But I changed; I changed my ideals, my standards of judging people. I became what you found me as, arrogant, ruthless, and uncaring for what people thought, going ahead for what I thought was right! People like Aasha and Rohan got my select treatment of utter disgust and hostility, for they appeared fake and I was proved right so many times. Money unveiled many! I meted out the same behavior to you for you were a spitting image of Aasha, in your overly desi clothes, habits and ideals. However, I realized with time that you were not putting on a show; that is you. And I love you not for your beauty, not for your Indian-ness but for your genuineness.

We came back to India where I built up the AR Empire from scratch, got respect for my name and reopened our business in London. I made sure that my father's name regained the same respect again. In spite of all this the truth is still shrouded in uncertainty for I have only my word to prove my innocence. So if you find it in your heart a willingness to believe me, love me and accept me, then I'll be honored. For someone can always come up and leave you with doubts, please whatever your answer is make sure you think hard before taking your decision.

Shall I hope to see you at the airport?

Arnav.