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just read the 2 parts in one go , it is wonderful.👍🏼.infact i am waiting for this part where Kushi's innocence is proved..do continue..
A HUGE thanks to everyone who read and appreciated the last two chapters!! Umm, small request...if you guys want to be informed about updates, please add me as a Buddy so I can PM you...thanks much!
Chapter Three
Arnav hadn't looked at Khushi for a long time.
It wasn't that he had completely ignored her. He knew that she tried to keep out of his way as much as possible. She woke up a good hour before he did, busied herself in the kitchen when he was having breakfast and made sure she came to bed after she was sure he was asleep. Arnav had reaped grim, almost brutal, satisfaction by working late on purpose, forcing her to stay up into the night.
But that did not mean he disregarded her presence. He caught glimpses of her out of the corner of his eye, sternly ignoring the adrenaline rush that pounded in his veins whenever she was within his vicinity. He could not deny the consciousness that rose in him, robbing all his other faculties when she was in the same room, the rising temperature, his rising heartbeats. He had convinced himself, or at least tried to, that he did not look at her because he did not want to. Because he did not want to be overcome by hate to the point that he would do something reckless.
He knew now the extent of the lie he was trying to live. Now, as his tired, sleep-ridden eyes were riveted unblinkingly at the stairs, from where he expected Khushi and Payal to descend. He swallowed; the pain of anticipation made his heart ache as he strained his ears to hear her, the tinkling of her anklets, the music of her voice. He waited for her with a burning intensity, his whole being focused on the stairs, as though his entire being somehow depended on one sight of her. This intensity was not wholly unfamiliar. Arnav remembered, as his heart throbbed with a myriad of intertwined emotions, the sangeet night and all those moments that followed, when his eyes sought her out at every corner, when his heart fluttered as every thought of his meandered back to Khushi. He needed to see her, drink in the sight of her, as he used to so unabashedly before.
Before everything had gone so horribly wrong.
A sudden unexpected breeze washed over his face, completely at odds with his almost nervous anticipation, his insides tightening in uncomfortable knits. His heartbeat accelerated to an almost impossible speed, his breathing quickened and turned shallow.
She's here. She's coming.
He knew even before she appeared at the head of the stairs. Khushi. Slender, clad in a pale pink saree held securely in place with a multitude of safety pins, her long, silky black hair tamed into a single ponytail, slug carefully over her shoulder. Big, brown, expressive eyes which were at the moment locked with her sister's while the corners of her lips lifted upwards ever so slightly in the hint of a smile. It looked as though she was teasing Payal; she nudged her while Payal flushed pink, and emitted a small laugh. The sound of it floated down the stairs down to him like a breath of fresh air. Like a ray of light breaking through dark grey clouds.
Arnav held his breath as he drank in the sight of her. The void inside his heart seemed to brim over suddenly. His throat constricted as he realised how much he had missed the sight of her, how much he had craved her angelic simplicity.
Arnav prided himself for not being a fanciful person, but right now, Khushi looked like a vision from heaven.
As she drew closer though, Arnav felt himself draw a sharp intake of breath. She looked worn out- skinnier than she used to be. Some of the glow that had made her skin appear radiant before had dimmed. Her eyes, those eyes that spoke volumes, that appealed to him so pleadingly so many times over the past month, were surrounded by dark shadows. Tiredness weighed down on her like a burden, to the point that her shoulders hunched ever so slightly as she walked, the spring in her step a long distant memory.
Arnav's fist clenched automatically. She probably hadn't had a good night's sleep since they got married, all because of him. He never allowed any lights on at night, knowing her perpetual fear of the dark. Sometimes, when he lay awake in the early hours of the morning, he could hear her shuffling around in her makeshift bed, devoid of sleep.
A flood of groundbreaking feeling rose through him, from the soles of his feet, engulfing his heart and pricking painfully at his eyes.
He hated himself. He detested himself.
***
Khushi summoned every ounce of self-control, every cell of her body, to focus everything she had on Payal and what she was saying. She ignored her rapid breathing, the butterflies that erupted in the pit of her stomach, her erratic heartbeat, long before she had even reached the head of the stairs. She did not need to look around to know that his eyes were boring into her. Burning her.
The dhak dhak made a comeback performance with a vengeance.
***
'Look! Look!' Anjali squealed delightedly, barely able to conceal her mirth, 'He can hardly take his eyes off of her!' She clapped her hands like a little child who had just been presented with a truckload of candy. 'I knew everything was fine between them!' she sighed, assuring herself more than the person she was speaking to.
So great was her joy at the sight of her Chote staring at his wife, thoroughly smitten, that she did not notice that person fuming beside her, his face changing colour like a chameleon to that of a thundercloud.
***
What's going on? Shyam Jha thought frantically. I thought they hated each other! Why is he gawking at her like that?
As far as he was concerned, the past month had been nothing but a preamble, a pre-emptive period after which Khushiji would become his. He had done whatever was in his power to stoke the fire of hate in Arnav's heart, fuelled whatever stories of his and Khushi's mutual love he could come up with, until Arnav Singh Raizada had been nothing short of a beast at the end of a very thin leash. He had made Khushiji's life hell. And that was exactly what Shyam wanted. After all, once Khushiji got a taste of what being in love with Arnav was like, she would come running to him, begging him for the attention he had so lovingly placed at her feet. Nothing could go wrong; after all, now she too was a married woman, so she couldn't grudge him his relationship with Anjali.
It never occurred to him, for even a fleeting second, that Khushi hated him with so much vigour that it could have burned him.
Now, as Shyam watched a somewhat flustered Khushi take her place at the dinner table, immediately striking up a cheeky conversation with Akash, he decided he had to up the ante. Add more oil to the fire, until it singed every last shred of affection Khushi might feel for Arnav. His gaze shifted to focus on Arnav. Arnav, whose eyes had not shifted off of Khushi even once.
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