Toronto, 2011
She entered the business
awards event with Mansi and Aman. After saying hello to a few people, Aarti and Mansi followed Aman until he found
their reserved table. They were the only three members coming from Aman's event
planning company in India.
The three of them
sat at their respective table, waiting for the presentation to start.
"Aman," Aarti said,
making conversation, "We'll get some awards right? Otherwise there's really no
point of us being here."
She honestly didn't want to come to Canada, but Aman and Mansi had both dragged her here. They were to spend two weeks here, and they made plans for sightseeing, participating in different activities and the like.
Aman smiled at
Aarti.
"That's what I'm hoping for
Aarti. We don't know what we'll get... I just really hope that our company gets
best company of the year."
"Yeah, and I hope
you get best businessman of the year Aman," Aarti said positively.
She and Mansi had
joined Aman's business two years ago, shortly after Aarti had left the
Scindhia's. Aarti had decided that she needed to do something with her life.
She knew her childhood friend Aman had a business and she called him up immediately, asking him if he
needed any help. Thankfully, Aman appointed Aarti and Mansi in his company as event planners, since they both had a degree in design.
"Aarti, you know I
wouldn't be here if it wasn't for yours and Mansi's support," Aman told her
warmly. "I would have given up long
ago."
Mansi beamed at him.
"Oh Aman, you're the sweetest!" she gushed.
"Aarti, isn't he so sweet?"
"Yeah," Aarti said, feeling touched. "But you know you got this far with your own hard work Aman. The entire credit goes to you!"
"Who else is
nominated?" Mansi asked Aarti.
"I don't know... I
didn't check the lists, it isn't like I know these people," Aarti said,
frowning at her. "If you were so interested, why didn't you check to see
yourself?"
"I did," Mansi
replied. "I just wanted to know if you knew..."
"Knew what?" Aarti
asked, suddenly feeling her palms get clammy. She didn't know why.
"Nevermind. Nothing.
Anyways, Aarti, this is a random question, but what would you do if Prashant
came and asked you to return to him?" Mansi asked her cautiously.
Aarti felt her lips
form a tight line, just hearing his name annoyed her. Thankfully Aman came to her rescue.
"She isn't going
back to that asshole Mansi," he said angrily. "Why are you even bringing this
up?"
"I just wanted to
see what she felt, that's all," Mansi said casually. "Anyways Aman, it's about time
for you to get a life partner."
As they spoke,
Aarti's mind drifted to the day she left the Scindhia's. She had rented an
apartment straight away, wanting to be alone, and a few days later, Aarti
messaged Mansi about her whereabouts, after realizing how worried she must be after she had ignored her calls and texts.
"Aarti!"
Mansi said angrily, when Aarti opened the door. She entered her apartment and
grabbed her arm. "Aarti I know you're hurt, but that doesn't mean that you just
disappear off the face of the planet!"
"No
Mansi, I just needed time to think...
I'm sorry."
"Aarti,
don't be silly, why did you leave Yash? The poor guy is so hurt!"
"Then
let him be hurt! You're the one who told me to not forgive him anyways Mansi,
why're you of all people sympathizing with him?" she asked annoyed, that anyone would sympathize with Yash after all of this.
"Aarti,
I know he's an ass and all, but he isn't that much of one. He made a mistake
unintentionally. I just wanted him to suffer because of how he treated you
before all of this, not because you miscarried."
"Who
cares Mansi, it's over now. I don't want to have anything to do with him."
"How
about Prashant?" Mansi asked curiously.
"What?"
Aarti asked, surprised. It was strange, Prashant hadn't even crossed her mind in the last few days.
"Would
you go back to him?" Mansi questioned.
"Well,
I haven't thought about it... but he deserves someone better than me now."
Mansi
snorted, "Yeah right Aarti."
Aarti
glared at her angrily. "Why don't you like Prashant Mansi? You've never liked
him!"
"Aarti
YOU deserve someone better. It's not only because he cheated on Nida during the
college days. He flirted with so many girls, including Sunita. Remember her?
Why don't you think she talks to you anymore, Aarti she feels guilty!"
Aarti
felt her heart start to beat faster. "What did he do?" she asked quickly, fearing what was coming.
"Aarti
I hate to be the one telling you this, I really didn't want to... and I didn't
tell you because Sunita made me promise that I wouldn't tell you, she didn't
want to be the one to destroy yours and Prashant's lives. She told me that she
didn't want to be that woman who interfered, so I was sworn to secrecy... Aarti
I hated keeping it from you, but when Nida's truth was out, I figured that I wouldn't need to tell you about this, because you already knew his nature. But this happened around Nida's time, a bit
before you found out about her, Prashant and Sunita used to hang out. Sunita
had a crush on him, but she didn't tell us because she didn't want to hurt you.
One day, Prashant dropped Sunita home and he made out with her, Aarti I swear
to God I wanted to tell you, but Sunita begged me, and it really wasn't my
place to tell anyone. This is why she was so pushy with you and Prashant, she
thought you two were meant to be, and she always felt guilty about it."
Aarti
felt her heart break again and tears fill her eyes simultaneously. Her hands balled into fists, scaring Mansi.
"Aarti,
you deserve better than that scumbag. Yash is a hundred times better, whether
you agree with me or not, and I could see that love in his eyes for you that
day Aarti. That day he felt guilty, he kept apologizing, I could feel how much
he loved you..."
"Prashant
cheated on me..." she seethed angrily. "He cheated on me more than once and
never told me about it."
"There's
more that you need to know Aarti," Mansi said, taking advantage of the
situation to come clean about everything.
"Who
else did he cheat on me with?" Aarti said, furiously.
"Nobody
else -- well not that I know of, and I'm confident he was faithful to you after
you two got together the second time, but... there was something he hid from
you. He and Yash both."
At
the mention of Yash's name she turned around and faced Mansi.
"Yash?"
she whispered. "Did he... did he do something?"
"Just
lied to you that he hated you and said you were a horrible kisser, that he cheated on you
and all that," Mansi said quickly. "Nothing much in front of Prashant
actually. He did it so you could go back to Prashant and he could return to
Arpita."
Aarti's
mouth dropped open from the shock as Mansi narrated the whole story. She pursed her lips angrily.
"Great!
Just great! Everyone lies to me. Everyone. You, Sunita, Prashant, Yash,
everyone's been lying to me this entire time!"
"Aarti,
calm down, I know what Yash did might not have been completely selfless, but I
know that you probably did want to go back to Prashant, Aarti don't deny it!"
"I
did."
"Exactly,
so he got you there! He took your best interests into account too when making
the decision."
"Mansi,
let me think about that later... first I need to meet someone! I'll be back soon."
Then
she left Mansi in her apartment and took a taxi all the way to Prashant's.
As
soon as he opened the door Aarti slapped him angrily.
"Whoa,
is this a new style to greet someone?" Prashant asked, rubbing his cheek, surprised.
"Shut
up Prashant," Aarti said angrily. "I hate you. I really do. How could you keep
all of that from me? You cheated on me with Sunita too?"
"Aarti,
I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but that was of the past and I didn't do anything
after we got back together, I promise!"
"Your
promises mean nothing to me Prashant! I can't believe I found out today, after
so many years what you really were doing behind my back. God Prashant, I loved
you so much but I wasn't enough for you?" she asked, her eyes watering. "You
don't know - you don't know how much I loved you, how much I love you."
"But
you got married to Yash..." Prashant interfered.
Aarti glared at him.
"Yes.
I did. And that wasn't for a selfish reason Prashant, but you won't get it!" she
said, her knuckles turning white. She dug her nails deep into the palms of her hands.
"Aarti,
please calm down. I know you wouldn't marry Yash out of
the blue, I know you were forced to... there had
to be a reason, tell me the reason and we'll sort it out, Aarti I know we can
still be together," he said positively.
"No
Prashant," Aarti said, angrily. "No! I'm never coming back now. I can't believe
you hid the whole thing with Sunita from me, you hid your whole past Prashant! She was my best friend! I would have forgiven
you, but you hid everything from me. I can't believe you hid that you knew about me and Yash
too! I can't believe you Prashant!"
"Aarti...
you hid it from me too," Prashant said, equally angry now. "Don't try and frame
me for that. You had so many opportunities to tell me about you and Yash, but
you hid it from me! Why?"
"I
didn't think it would do any good... I didn't think it mattered," Aarti said,
starting to feel guilty.
"Exactly,
I didn't think the whole thing with Sunita mattered either!" Prashant said
defensively.
"You asshole! How could you not tell me that you knew about me and Yash? How could
you not? Prashant!" Aarti cried. "I hate you. Stay away from me. I'm never
coming back this time."
"But
Aarti," he said grabbing her arm.
"No
buts Prashant! I can't deal with this anymore. I'm sorry!" she said, jerking her
arm away. "I can't do this."
"Aarti,"
Prashant said, his eyes starting to glisten with tears.
"No
Prashant, I'm leaving," she said angrily. "I can't do this. I won't be back
anymore, don't text or call... move on with your life, and I'll move on with
mine."
Then
she turned around and left, strangely feeling good about herself.
A
few days later, Aarti returned to Scindhia mansion to talk to Yash and to meet
Palak. She realized that Palak was sitting there motherless, so she
decided to tell Yash she knew the truth and wanted to sort things out. She was
ready to start their relationship over again for Palak's sake, but she wasn't going
to tolerate anymore of his rudeness. But as soon as she got there, Gayatri ma
had blocked her from entering, saying that Palak deserved better than her. As
she was leaving, Prateek caught up to her and said that Yash left for Canada,
to escape this place, he said Yash wanted to start afresh, and he couldn't tolerate
being in Mumbai with all the memories anymore. She found out that he left Palak with them, and
just left them all.
Aarti
asked where he went, she asked for his telephone number, his address, anything, but
Prateek said he didn't know. Yash left without saying anything about where he
was going to live.
She snapped back to
the present when Aman asked her if she was okay. Aarti nodded and smiled at
him. Aman didn't know anything about her past -- he just knew that she and
Prashant were divorced.
"Anyways, my biggest
competitor --" Aman started saying to Mansi, but Aarti got up and went to the
bathroom.
When she got back to
her seat, the ceremony had started. Aman's company won best company of the
year. When the best businessman of the year award was being announced, Aarti
noticed Aman closing his eyes. She knew how desperately Aman wanted this award,
and how hard he worked for it, so she silently prayed he got it too.
"This award goes to Mr. Yash Scindhia!"
"Yes!" she
whispered victoriously, thinking Aman got the award, before her eyes widened, "Wait what?"
Mansi smiled at
Aarti and Aman slouched back into his seat looking disappointed.
"Yash?" Aarti
whispered to Mansi. "What's going on?"
"I knew he was here
Aarti," Mansi said excitedly, "Now you can finally talk to him!"
Aarti shook her
head. No way. Her palms started to
sweat and she got very nervous all of a sudden.
Yash came to Canada to be a big businessman? She did feel proud of him, but she was more shocked than anything.
He walked onto the stage,
looking as good as ever, and made his speech. Aarti couldn't keep her eyes off
him. He looked so good in that suit...
"I would like
to dedicate this best businessman of the year award to someone who supported me
in every decision I made, who stood by me through everything. I would like to
dedicate this to my late wife, Arpita Yash Scindhia. Without her, I wouldn't have
ever had the courage to get this far in my career. It's because of her
encouragement that I was able to do this. Thank you!"
Aarti sourly looked
down at her glass of water. Of course, he still couldn't get Arpita out of his
mind. Why did she think for even a second that he'd want her back in his life?
It was true that she thought about him more often than not in the last two
years. It was true that she realized that she started to like him more than
ever, it was true that she really wanted to see him again more than anything. It was true that she
missed him very much. But why had she for a moment assumed that he would want
her back? He was probably happy that she wasn't in his life anymore.
Soon the award show
finished, and people got up from their seats and started to mingle.
"Aarti," Mansi said
happily, nudging her. "Go and say hi!"
"Never," Aarti said
under her breath. "I don't want to."
"But Aarti, I think
he likes you!" Mansi whispered.
"Didn't you hear him
Mansi? He wanted to dedicate his award to Arpita! He wouldn't even want to talk to me!" she said jealously.
"What's wrong in that? He's just dedicating his award to someone who supported him! Aarti stop overanalyzing things and being stubborn! Just go and talk to him!" Mansi said frowning.
She shook her head
and looked away from Mansi, feeling butterflies enter her stomach at the
thought of talking to him.
"God Aarti, you're
so, urghhh!" Mansi said, turning around and disappearing into the crowd.
About half an hour
later, Yash on the other end, made his way through the crowd.
"Yes sir! Yeah, we have a new project in mind, we'll release it soon," Yash told a reporter.
Then he turned around and continued to walk through the crowd until he spotted
her. He grabbed her, turned her around, and kissed her full on the lips.
--
Who is that girl? 😲 Next update may take a week, but if I'm nice and if I feel up to it I'll finish it tomorrow!
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