Mirage #3 Check note on pg 149 for next thread! - Page 28

Khushi got down from the auto rickshaw, paying the fare to the driver and slowly walked towards the gate, not really aware of where she was heading to. Lavanya's words still rang in her head, devastating her whole existence as minutes ticked by. She didn't know what was happening to her. Was this all another terrible nightmare that would vanish away when she opened her eyes? But everything was so real around her, the harsh reality simply slapping her face.

She didn't realise when a pair of arms had wrapped around her shoulders. She didn't hear the voice that was talking to her. It was as if the whole world had stood still, waiting to shatter into a million shards any moment.

Were these two months that she spent with him simply a deception? Were all those dreams that she had dreamt for them together just a mirage that would simply disappear with a blink of an eye? Was every word he had ever spoken to her, a lie? And all those moments when she had surrendered herself physically and emotionally, did they mean nothing to him?

"Khushi..." she heard him whisper into her ears. "Are you alright? I didn't know you had to go out somewhere. Else I would have taken the house keys along with me. I've been waiting for you for the past fifteen minutes."

She saw him looking at her and the next minute, he grabbed her hand and took her towards the main door. "Key?" he asked and she reflexively took it out of her handbag and passed it to him. Entering the house, Arnav closed the door behind him and went and dropped on the couch as he started removing his shoes.

"You know, tomorrow night we will be going to Guwahati. I have some work there and I was thinking if you could also come along with me. That way, you can see the place too and we can have loads of fun there. We will be staying there for two weeks. I hope that's fine with you." He said and looked up at her, when she didn't reply anything. Instead he found her rooted to the spot near the main door, silent and expressionless.

"Hey, what happened?" he asked, a bit worried about her silence and went towards her. "Don't you want to come along? I don't have any choice other than to take you along with me coz I don't want you to be alone here for that long. And I know you will miss me a lot." He smirked and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against his chest as he lowered his head to kiss her lips.

But alas, it didn't happen coz the next second he felt himself being pushed away with such enormous force that he lost his balance and banged his back against the wall behind him, completely startling him.

"Why did you do this to me..." Khushi whispered in a deathly voice, "Rishab Malhotra?"

Arnav felt a jolt of current run down his spine as the words pierced right into him. Her cold voice was even more shocking than the push he had just received from her a second earlier. "What?" he stammered in a barely audible voice hearing him being referred to by that name.

"I really loved you. Every bit of it was real." Khushi continued, feeling the tears sting her eyes. "Was this all so that you could just sleep with me and use my body? Is that what you wanted? Then I guess your mission is accomplished." She let out a mocking laugh, feeling disgusted with herself as to how she had let him control and use her.

"What are you saying and who told you this?" Arnav shouted all of a sudden, unable to believe what he was hearing from her.

"Enough! Please don't do it anymore. Please don't deceive me. I'm done with it. You knew I was vulnerable and took advantage of me, didn't you? You thought I was an orphan with no family and no one to ask about my well being. Well Arnav or Rishab or whoever you are, I respected you a lot. I thought you were a very good person. I had even planned of marrying you one day, spending the rest of my life with you. But you just..." she stopped unable to continue as tears streamed down from her eyes uncontrollably.

"Why are you saying like that? That's not true Khushi and you know it." He screamed back at her, stepping towards her to hold her. But she simply refused to allow him to touch her.

"No, I don't know anything okay. I didn't know that you were my best friend's ex boyfriend. I didn't know you two were together. Today, my best friend thinks I backstabbed her. Technically, she is absolutely right. It's my fault, isn't it? I blindly trusted you. But today, I have lost the trust of my best friend only because of you. Because a man like you thought it would be fun playing with the lives of two girls." Khushi stopped, her throat choking with all the tears.

"I saw your picture with Lavanya on her phone. So don't you dare deny this." She screamed through her clenched teeth while pointing her finger at him. "Hey Devi Maiyya, now I remember it. That day, it was your bike at Lavanya's house I saw, the day we went to Mumbai. I was sure I had seen it somewhere before." She exclaimed as the truth dawned upon her.

And then the realisation dawned upon Arnav. So Lavanya had told her about him. But he wondered why all of a sudden? Everything had seemed fine between them in the morning. What had happened in these couple of hours when he away from her? Anyways, that was not his problem right now. He needed to focus on Khushi who was getting hysterical as every second passed.

"Just stop for a minute and calm down. I will explain everything. It isn't what you are thinking. That's not the whole story." Arnav knew that it was about time he came clean to her on everything about him. There was no point in hiding things anymore. She needed to know the truth or else he was going to lose her permanently.

"You know, when my parents died, I never felt lonely because I had Buaji with me. And when my Buaji died, I thought I had you. But today, you have truly made me feel orphaned. Today, I know what it means to be all alone in this world." She whispered, as she felt the whole world around her crash. "Wait! How could I have expected anything better from you? You have proved that you are just like your father. I wonder what your mother would have said if she were alive today. Or were all those stories a lie too?"

Those words stabbed him right through his heart and he felt guilt course through his entire body, awakening his inner demons, as a sudden rush of fury unleashed itself.

"Enough!" he bellowed. "Just shut your mouth once and listen to me, Khushi Gupta." This time he overpowered her and grabbed her body, pinning her against the wall behind them. Khushi struggled to let herself free, but he was too strong for her. She felt pain in her hands as he twisted them behind her back, only worsening by each second as his grip tightened over her wrists. A whimper escaped her mouth as she fought against him, but she was only met with enraged eyes that threatened to engulf her with the intensity of the flames in it.

"Let go of me. It's hurting." She managed to whimper, completely frightened at the man who was towering her right now. And for the first time, she felt absolutely terrified of him, a terror that knew no boundaries. Suddenly, he no longer looked like the man she had known all this time, the man she had loved, the man whom she had envisioned her future with.

"Do you really think I took advantage of you? Then what will you call this?" he said and slammed his lips against hers in a painful punishing kiss, forcing himself on her, unleashing the beast within him. Khushi groaned with pain, tears gushing down her eyes, only to be silenced with his mouth. At that minute, she felt helpless, destroyed and defeated. There was nothing she could do to stop him.

Stop! His conscience shrieked at him. He couldn't do this to her. Raising his eyes, he met her frightened ones and that sight was enough to stop him.

Suddenly, she felt his grip loosen over her wrists as they travelled upwards and cupped her face. He broke apart from her lips, continuing to rest his forehead against hers, gasping for breath, while he wiped away her tears with his thumbs. "Have I ever made you feel like this before?" he asked in a low hoarse voice, his own eyes brimming with tears. He released his hold on her face and lifted her wrists in his hands, kissing the reddened fingerprints on it, trying to soothe away the pain. "Every bit of it was for real. Just trust me once." He continued, as he enveloped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him, as he kissed away the fresh tears in her eyes.

Khushi didn't know what was happening to her. The beast that she had witnessed a minute ago was replaced by sincere pleading eyes. How could a person hurt her and take away that pain at the same time? For once, staring into those chocolate brown eyes, her heart desperately wanted to believe that he was innocent, that all that love was true. But how could she ignore her mind, the evidences that proved otherwise?

"Give me one chance to explain. You owe this to me." He begged, letting go of her trembling body that was overcoming the shock dealt just a few minutes ago. Beads of sweat were collected over her temples and neck, bearing a witness to what just happened. "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have frightened you like this." He continued, seeing the fear in her eyes. This was the very thing he hadn't wanted to do. But his uncontrollable fury had led to this outburst and now, he regretted causing her so much of pain.

Khushi was indeed innocent here. It was he who was at fault. She had every right to shout and be furious at him. But somewhere her words had triggered off his anger and he couldn't accept her accusing him of something that was not true.

"Come." He said holding her hand and led her to the couch and sat beside her.

"I admit I have hidden many things from you." He began, inhaling a deep breath. "But I didn't tell you because I was scared I will lose you."

"You cheated on my best friend and me and you expected that you will lose me?" She shot back, unable to digest his audacity to justify his actions. Her hands were still shivering with the aftermath of his force.

"Khushi, I want you to listen carefully to all that I'm about to tell you now. This is going to be hard for you to accept it but this is what it is." He sighed, as he struggled cohering his thoughts. Taking in a deep breath, he continued, simply hoping that she would understand him.

"I work for one of the most dangerous mafia of Delhi." He said it out aloud, keeping the truth plain and raw in front of her.

"What?!" Khushi exclaimed out, not sure if she had heard the right thing. It felt as if someone had just splashed a bucket of ice cold water on her.

Arnav took in a deep breath before he continued. "Yes, I lied about my job. That was the only thing I lied to you about. Everything else was the truth." He said holding her hand, but noticed that she immediately flinched away from his touch.

"I wanted to tell you about this long ago, but I couldn't gather the courage." He lowered his eyes, feeling guilty. "I was never supposed to fall in love with you Khushi. You are that middle class respectable loving girl who deserves much more than a criminal like me. That was the reason why I used to initially try to get away from you. But I don't know, somehow I always ended up being attracted to you. I couldn't keep myself away from you. I fell in love with you." He said looking up, staring right into her eyes that were reddened with tears, but she immediately looked away.

"I was with Lavanya because I was given a task by my Boss and in order to accomplish that, I had to get closer to her. That's why I lied to her that I was Rishab Malhotra. I'm not Rishab. I'll always be your Arnav." He said, as a tear rolled down his eye. "There were no emotions involved in that relationship. It was just my job and I broke up with her as soon as my work was done."

Khushi felt her head reeling, unable to process the reality in her head. This was way worse than what she had imagined. How could she digest the fact that the man with whom she had been in love with for the past two months was infact some criminal?

"Are you making up stories?" she asked fearfully, as the alternative was too horrifying for her.

"No, Khushi. This time I'm telling the whole truth." He gulped down, before he continued. "That day, the black file that you found in my bag was infact the file I had stolen from Lavanya's father. I had to get closer to her to get the file."

"But why?" Khushi asked, completely shocked at the revelation.

"Because that's how I earn my living. Khushi, I haven't told you my entire childhood story. Remember that day when you saw the marks on my body." He said and proceeded to remove his shirt and vest so that she could see it once again. "Remember this?" he asked and felt Khushi's hand reflexively glide upwards on his back, tracing the huge scar.

"I worked at a small restaurant. That restaurant's owner used to torture me daily for no fault of mine and you know the story. It reached a stage where I couldn't take it anymore and I tried to defend myself. In that process, I ended up killing that man." He paused to close his eyes, before he resumed. "I didn't do it intentionally, but that day I was a criminal in front of the whole world. That's why those other men were after me and wanted to kill me. Maybe I should have died that day. This world would have had one less criminal to deal with." He snorted, lowering down his gaze.

"Call it my fortune or misfortune, but that day the man who saved my life turned out to be the Head of Delhi's biggest mafia. He had saved my life and for a kid who had a close encounter with death, that man was no less than his saviour. So I agreed to work for him to repay for his help and generosity. He gave me a new life. Today whatever I have, this house, this money, this life is all due to him. I didn't have any choice." He said, trying to hold her hand. But touching it, he realised that it was icy cold and she withdrew her hand immediately once again.

"That day, when we first met, when you found me injured on the road, I lied that it was from crossfire. Actually, someone from our rivals had sent men after me and I was shot down. But then you came to my rescue, my angel. How could I have not fallen in love with you?" he asked, as another tear rolled down his eye. A long stretch of silence enveloped both of them, one gathering together the thoughts while the other, too scared to react to anything.

"Khushi, I'm not at all like my father. I have experienced what it means to be fatherless. I have seen my mother struggling all by herself. And I would never do that you. The day that your Buaji died, I took up all your responsibilities, not because I was forced by anyone but because I genuinely wanted to do so and I will continue to fulfil them till my last breath. I tried to protect you from the truth because I knew that I would never be the same to you after you were aware about me. I had even planned about our marriage soon. I wanted to make you my wife. For that, I had planned to move out of the country where I could ensure our safety. But that isn't easy as Khalid Bhai wouldn't agree for it. But now, I've got a new mission to hunt down three men and if I accomplish it, I'm sure Khalid Bhai would allow me to leave this criminal world as my reward. That's why we are going to Guwahati tomorrow night. See, everything was planned. This was not a lie Khushi. You have to trust me." He ended, turning around to face her. But he noticed that her breathing had become heavy and haggard.

Khushi couldn't believe that she had been living with a man who murdered people as his profession. How had she been deceived into this?

"Khushi?" he called out anxiously. But she immediately closed her eyes, moving towards the end of the couch to distance herself away from him. "Don't touch me." She whispered, trembling with fright.

"Khushi, don't be scared of me. I won't hurt you." He begged, feeling his heart wrench seeing her like this. "Please..."

"How can you expect me to trust you? How can you expect me to not be scared of a criminal like you?" she cried, mortified of the person in front of her.

"I know I was wrong hiding things from you. But you yourself have told me so many times that I'm a good person right? Then why is one truth changing everything between us. Would you have behaved in the same manner if I was a policeman or a soldier? Aren't they doing the same thing for a livelihood?" he shouted, feeling helpless at where this was heading to.

"I don't know. This is all too much for me to handle." She shrieked, getting up from the couch. "All I know is that I'm going insane and I need some time alone. I cannot trust you anymore coz I cannot differentiate between your truths and your lies." She said, holding her head with both her hands. Without wasting any more time, she ran to the bedroom and took out her luggage bag from the cupboard and started filling it with her clothes.

"Khushi, what are you doing?" Arnav asked, running behind her, as his body engulfed with panic.

"I have to go. I cannot stay with you anymore." She said wiping away her tears. "No, I cannot." She whispered as if she was talking to herself than to him.

"Please Khushi. Don't" he said trying to stop her hands, but she once again flinched away from him.

"Don't!" This time he warned her in a sterner voice, trying to stop her at any cost.

"Or else what will you do? Manhandle me like you did a few minutes earlier? Force yourself on me? Try me!" she shouted back with bloodshot eyes, challenging him to do so.

She simply continued to pack her stuff while he gazed helplessly at her.

"I know you won't Arnav because if you are indeed telling the truth, your guilt conscience won't allow you to do so. If you really love me, you won't stop me." She spoke looking at him.

"I will keep you safe from all this. You don't have to worry about anything. Please give me one chance." He begged desperately.

"Arnav, this is not about keeping me safe." She stopped her packing and stepped towards him, gazing at this tear filled eyes. "If you just told me once about this, just once, we would have had a chance together. Ok, for a minute, I'll believe whatever you have said, every word of it. But I cannot forget the fact that you lied and hid such a big truth about yourself. I'm extremely disappointed and hurt by your actions."

Saying so, she resumed her packing, making sure that she took everything that belonged to her. Picking up the bag, she walked out of the bedroom towards the living room, storming towards the main door, while Arnav followed her helplessly.

"I cannot live without you." He said as a last attempt to stop her. Khushi froze for a minute hearing his words. But she fought back her tears and turned around. "I cannot possibly love you anymore." She whispered right onto his face, the words slashing his soul and she stepped out of the house, not pausing to look back and walked away from the place she had considered her home for the past few weeks, ending everything that was between them.

o0o

Khushi pushed open the doors of her house, stepping onto the floors that were covered with a thick layer of dust after remaining uninhabited for the past couple of weeks. A strange deathly silence prevailed all around her. She dragged herself inside and closed the doors shutting the daylight behind her. As she looked around, she realised that she was surrounded by darkness all around her. Everything was obscure and hidden, just like her present and her life.

Unable to bear it any longer, her knees gave in and she collapsed on the floor along with the bag that she was carrying in her hand.

For the first time after so many days, she truly wished that her Buaji was alive beside her to comfort her and tell her that everything would be alright. But no, she was all alone and there was no one to lend her a supportive shoulder. She covered her face with her hands and began to wail, mourning her fate.

Why did Devi Maiyya always take away the people whom she loved from her life? Did she not deserve to be loved? Why was fate so cruel to her?

Her Buaji's words had finally turned out to be correct. Arnav was never a man to be trusted. Ultimately, it was her fault. If she had heeded to Buaji's advice, she wouldn't have had to face this day.

Bending her head downwards, she realised that the emerald pendant that Arnav had gifted her was still nestled on the valley of her breasts. Seeing it, she felt immense fury ignite within her and frustrated with herself, she tried to pull it out from her neck. "I hate you." She cried, as she struggled with it. But fate had entirely different plans for her. The platinum chain simply refused to snap open. Rather, it only hurt her fingers, as she tried to pull it away.

Finally, she realised that it was futile and quit her attempts, accepting her defeat and leaned her head backwards on the door, closing her eyes as she lulled herself to sleep with the pain and anguish consuming her from the inside, feeling a strange sense of emptiness within her.

o0o

Arnav stared at the empty house in front of his eyes as he sat down near the door, leaning his head backwards on the wooden frame, completely exhausted and defeated.

I cannot possibly love you anymore.

Her last words repeated itself in his mind, as endless tears strolled down his eyes. He had never felt like this before, except when his mother had died years ago. It was as if a part of him had ceased to exist.

Why was fate always cruel to him? Why did he end up loving someone, only to have them being snatched away so brutally?

It was just a matter of a couple of hours. Those hours changed everything in his life. Khushi had simply walked away from his life without even thinking twice about her decision. He had done everything to keep her happy and yet, she wasn't ready to understand him. Was it really his fault that he had ended up being a criminal? Did a person like him never have a chance with love? Was he destined to be all alone in his life?

Just the previous night, when she was lying in his arms, everything in his life had seemed perfect.

But now, it was as if that perfect didn't even exist. As if, his dreams were only a mirage.

No, it was only his fault. He should have revealed the truth about himself to her earlier. But now, it was too late. She was gone, never to return back to him.

Arnav stood up wiping away the tears in his eyes. Taking out his cellphone from his pant pocket, he dialled the number and after two rings, he heard a voice on the other side.

"Khalid Bhai, can I go to Guwahati tonight itself?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

"Ok, the sooner, the better. I thought maybe you would need some extra time to prepare yourself for this. But if you insist, I will pre-pone the arrangements." He heard the man speaking on the other end.

"Thanks." Arnav replied and disconnected the call, shoving the cellphone back into the pocket. He needed to get out of this city as fast as possible. Now that Khushi knew the entire truth about him, especially the fact that he had stolen the file from Kashyap, he was sure that Khushi would go and reveal this to Kashyap and soon, men would be sent after him.

Maybe, this was it. This was the end of the chapter of Khushi in his life. He had to let go of her memories and accept it as yet another punishment of life for being a criminal. Yes, however hard it was going to be, he had to convince his heart that she would never come back to him.

But deep inside, he knew that it would never stop him from loving her till his last breath.

CHAPTER 44

@Lilly205, I've answered your queries in the next page. Plz read it.😃