ArHi FF: Check Mate! (completed) - Page 17

uh oh.. shud we feel sorry for anjali or happy for khushi now...

Superb!!! & thnx for pm!

awsme mate...pliz keep writing mre romantic things between ARHI.👍🏼👍🏼..

OOO... CNT WAIT SEE WAT HPPNZ NXT !!

Awesome update please continue soon.

As usual gr8.. Waiting for the next update👍🏼

Arnav was looking at Anjali until her figure turned towards her room.
"Kushi" he called out but there was no response. He turned back to find that she was not there.
"Kushi" He called a little louder, but soon found her carrying a trash tray and a broom to clean the glass shreds.

"why do you do this, leave it, I will call OP" he said turning to call OP
"its 10 in the night, today is sunday and he has already retired to the servant quarters" she replied calmly "And someone should do it right? the glass peices can hurt one of us... and why shouldnt I do this? This is my house too, atleast for now"
"I didnt mean that way" he said hastly before joining to help her, removing the wooden skeleton away in a corner and carefully removing the large glass peices still struck to it, into the bin.

They worked silently, no words were exchanged, Arnav peeking quiet often than necessary at Kushi. when they were done, dumping the glass shreds in the bin, they started climbing silently up the stairs.
"Kushi" Arnav who was walking behind her called out softly. He knew he owed her an apology, he had wronged her but only didnt know how to right the wrong and make everything ok between them.
she turned back to look at him
"Are you Alright?"
"yeah"she nodded
"Back at kitchen..."
"I am alright Arnavji" she assured him again
Arnav realised that she didnt want to discuss about that right now.
"Did you have anything at all"
"she threw a quizzical look at him"
"You said you were hungry... you wanted to eat something?"
"No, I dont really feel hungry right now..." she told him.
"alright!"
They decided to quickly check if everything was alright with Anjali and knocked her room. There was no response and Arnav tentatively opened to find the room empty. Obviously Aakash and shyam had not returned yet, but where did Anjali go? Arnav was puzzled as was Kushi.
"Where did she go?"
Arnav shook his head in negative "No Idea"
they came out of her room.
"probably she is in Mamiji's room or Nani's room. I will go and have a look" Arnav told Kushi and turned to go
"Wait" Kushi called out "What was that?"
"what was what?"
"That noise... someone is crying.."
"Di!"
"its coming from the terrace!"
they ran up the terrace but stopped when they listened to Anjali talking to someone on her mobile, Sobbing all the while...
"I.. I never thought that shyam would stoop so low...and my suspicion was right.. chotey knows it...I dont really know what to do...All because of my fault, that girl has suffered so much... today he crossed his limits...Ithink Chotey hit him...he was bleeding..."
Arnav was staring at Kushi who was staring back at him in shock. Anjali knows about Shyam! But before Kushi could stop him, Arnav opened the terrace door and stared at Anjali who was looking at both of them terrified,

"di" Arnav called out in a tone, which suggested fear, fear of betrayal from a person whose happiness, he considered very important in his life, a person for whom, he was ready to sacrifice his own happiness. Anjali kept on crying.
"You know about shyam?" he asked her still unable to believe what was unfolding in front of him. she nodded.
"I know.. I know everything, How he tricked Kushi and her family to believe him, how he got her engaged to him... how he was playing a double faced game with me and her, How he tortures her still... yes I know"
Arnav was stunned standing there, for sometime now, the truth had been hitting him in the face, and he had been neglecting it or not letting it sink into him for the sake of his di, who seems to know the entire truth all the while.

"How long have you been knowing about him?" Kushi who was standing behind come forward, her voice broken with this truth which was nothing but far-fetched madness.

"For sometime now...I am his wife Kushi...I suspected when his absences were not justified properly, then a lot of incidents confirmed my suspicions."
"But why" Kushi knelt down to sit beside Anjali "why is he still in your life"
"because I love him still!"
"love? You love him still?" Arnav couldnt control the rage building upon him "You knew he tortured kushi and yet kept quiet? do you have any idea what she went through because of this?" he choked
"I know!" Anjali told them,her eyes downcast "And I have always tried to protect her. The moment I came to know about his double faced play, I started keeping her near me, all the time, you remember chotey, even after your engagement with Lavanya, I found a way to make her keep coming to RM, I always made sure that I would call him asking him to come home...forcing him to leave your house immediately after she left Rm those days"
"So that means, that day when your mangal sutra broke...I mean" Kushi struggled to finish
"when you came to tell me that my husband cheated on me? Yes I know..."Anjali completed it for her.
"You knew it all the while..."Kushi gasped "that means...on that day..."Kushi looked at her questioningly
"yes, I staged the breaking of my mangalsutra..."Anjali finished sadly.

Arnav stood there stupified, all the blame game that he had literally loaded unceremoniously on kushi were turning virtual and meaningless in front of his eyes.
"and when you both married out of the blue, I suspected chotey knew the truth...but after your wedding, I was literally stalking him when he was in the proximity of you, Kushi"
"That makes sense... I mean when I wanted to get him to confess, I found it really hard to corner him alone...soyou deleted it, the video?"
"yes"
"But I dont understand...why did you delete it?"
"I didnt know that you were trying to prove your trust to Chotey.. I didnt know that he knew only half the truth, I thought Chotey was trying to get a confession from him as an evidence for my divorce"
"divorce?"
"yes the other day I overheard him when he was speaking over phone about divorce...I .."Anjali told Kushi, then she stopped to look at Arnav, his face had gone pale.

"Chotey..."
"I cant believe this... Do you even have any idea of what I am making her go through? " he asked anjali "she is going through hell Di, She lost her self respect, her parents, her name, her beliefs, her dreams... all because of me, us...and she was innocent al the while..." he choked unable to continue, he could sense a lump in his throat, nor was he able to look at Kushi.
"I didnt know Chotey" Anjali started with fresh tears, i didnt have any idea that you didnt trust her, I came to know only today, when i overheard you and shyam talking outside my bedroom, that was when I realised that you probably doubted that Shyam and Kushi had an affair... I decided to talk to you in the morning, Make everything alright between you two...When this incident in the kitchen happened"
"You knew that too" Kushi asked incredulously
"I knew he was upto something dirty, I could hear your voices fromt he kitchen, But I didnt know that Chotey had come to your rescue already, I pushed the glass table down and screamed so that you could be saved"
"Di! I dont understand... this marraige of yours with that scum is a total mess.. why do you still want to be in it.. if it hurts your so much, when it hurts the ones you care for so much... I dont understand at all"
Anjali looked into his eyes
"I am scared chotey, I am scared to let go of love"
"for a man who will never love you back?"
"The man is not worthy of it but my love is genuine..." she sobbed uncontrollably, her body shaking while she cried.
"Arnavji, please,this is painful for her... and she is exhausted.. and she needs her rest... She is expecting.. it is not good for the baby, We will speak about this in the morning"
Anjali stopped crying suddenly and let out a laugh, which did not have any humor in it, a empty, ironical laugh
"there is no baby!" she told them as a matter of fact.
They both were shocked
"no baby.. what do you mean?"
"Arent you pregnant?"
but they both somehow knew the answer.
"I staged the pregnancy too... My last attempt to revive my marraige"
They both went speechless, They started to realise the extent to which Anjali feared getting out of her loveless marraige, for, she had loved him truly, madly and deeply, even if the love had been directed to a wrong person, it was very much there, with that the pain of feeling that the person she loved would never be hers, A pain caused by a passionate love which will always go in vain

"tell me only one thing" Arnav told after a few minutes of silence between the three "Is there anyone else who knows this truth? apart from us?"
Anjali looked at him sharply. she knew this would come, wasnt she speaking over the phone when they came in?
"tell me di... Who else knows this? You were speaking to someone when we came here..."
Anjali took some time to compose herself then answered him
"Dr.Ashok Mehta"
"Dr. Ashok mehta? Mehta clinic where you go for checkup? how does he know?" Kushi was confused. she turned to look at Arnav. But his face had gone pale again
"No" he whispered "impossible..."
"yet it is true" Anjali told him

"How is he related in all this?" kushi asked them, she was bewildered, but all they did was looking at eachother, conversing through their eyes, their thoughts had gone back in time, where they both shared a painful past full of turmoil. Kushi couldnt get anything out of this silent conversations between the two siblings beside her,they were not yet ready to share the secrets of the past that only they both shared and understood yet they would let her into it when they were ready and she would know, only with time.

to be continued...

kya update hai yaar.it is fantastic