Chapter 18 - After Everything
(Monday, July 24)
With trembling fingers, Khushi rang the doorbell to Arnav’s apartment. The watchman of the building had already intercommed him about her arrival yet Arnav was taking time to open the door. This would be the first time they would interact alone, face-to-face after the day he broke up with her.
She clutched the agreement copy tightly and took a deep breath. Over the drive from the office to his flat, Khushi was still trying to make up her mind whether she wanted to face him or not.
Sheetal had told her everything about their plan- Arnav becoming the company MD, him signing the agreement that he’d vote in Sheetal’s favor. It was a clever plan. Khushi knew Sheetal wouldn’t have divulged anything if she wasn’t certain of winning.
Khushi only had 6 days to work out a solution- to stop the vote or win it (which seemed even tougher with each passing moment). Sheetal and Arnav had checkmated her. They, especially Arnav, had played her all these months and now when she was backed in a corner, Sheetal let her in on the reality.
She was grateful that Sunil Sir had put the 1-week clause in the directive wherein either party will have to give a week's notice before the vote else the shock of betrayal would’ve been so much worse.
So, in the 20 minutes it took Khushi to commute from the office to Arnav’s residence, many a times, she thought of making a U-turn and not facing him. But a part of her reasoned that whatever the outcome, she had to talk to him. Though she didn’t know what she expected him to say or do.
The turning of the doorknob brought Khushi’s attention to the present. Arnav stood in the doorway, still in his office clothes, looking disheveled.
“Khushi-,” he began to speak when she walked past him, into his living room.
He closed the door behind them as she turned to face him. Khushi extended the paper in her hand to him. He eyed it wearily before taking it from her grasp. He didn’t even need to read more than the 1st couple of lines.
His face turned pale. “Sheetal gave you this?” he asked, gesturing to the agreement copy.
“She told me about the vote because of the 1 week notice rule,” Khushi replied trying to keep her tone calm. “The agreement… that she flung at my face to humiliate me.”
Arnav kept the paper on a nearby table before treading close to her. He stopped when he was a couple of feet away from her.
“Why are you here?”
“Really?” Khushi scoffed, “That’s your question? Why I am here?” Her voice had started to shake, “I just find out that you two have been plotting behind my back since months and that’s what you ask?”
Arnav didn’t answer which riled her up more, “At least Sheetal had the guts to tell me everything to my face.” She gave him a look of contempt; “She wears her heart on her sleeve. She hates me and shows it. But you…” Khushi paused as her voice began to break, “You tried to be my friend, you tried to bond with me, to build a relationship…”
A tear descended from her eye to her cheek, “You told me you liked me… That you’re falling for me… All the while hiding this huge secret from me! How could you!” She yelled in a hoarse voice.
“Please,” he spoke very softly, “Please calm down.”
“Calm down!” she shouted, “How the f*ck do I calm down? When in 6 days you’ll snatch the thing closest to me?”
Her question silenced him. He couldn’t hold her gaze and looked down at the floor.
“Look at me!” she prodded him, wiping fresh tears off her eyes, “I want to understand how… how you could betray me like this! You’re confessing your feelings and plotting against me at the same time. How…?”
“Khushi,” he muttered her name and then went silent. It seemed her name was the only thing he could conjure as a reply.
She shook her head. “Why were you dating me?” She held her head in her hands, “I can’t really make out. You plot against me, you flirt with me, you lie to me… What game are you playing? I can’t be this wrong about you, can I?”
His silence was starting to tick her off. “The entire drive, I really tried to comprehend it all… your intention, your behavior… but I am at a loss, I am confused. Which part was true, Arnav? Did you even like me?”
Her words were met with a deafening silence. She wanted to shake him, prod him into saying something… anything.
“This all worked out so well for you, didn’t it?” her mind had started to wonder.
“What?” he asked, after a long pause, perplexed.
“You had been trying to get in my good books but the moment you found out that we,” she gestured between them, “we’ve already begun to bond over texts as strangers, that must have made everything so much easier for you. You could manipulate me, lie to me, divert my attention- all because I thought we were in a genuine relationship when you were simply trying to take advantage of my ignorance!”
“That is not true,” this time he spoke firmly. “Not at all.”
“Did you know all along that I was your stranger? Did you purposely set it up?” she asked, enraged.
“Khushi, you were the one who texted me 1st. I swear I didn’t have any inkling till you told me about your identity.”
“I am supposed to believe you?” she spat at him. “After everything?”
He looked here and there, trying to say something but no words came out of his mouth.
“So you liked me and at the same time you’re plotting to take me down?” she scrunched her eyebrows, “Both can’t be true. Which one was it? Tell me!”
He stopped speaking again. She pointed at the agreement; “You stopped talking to me after signing this agreement with Sheetal. And the day you broke up with me, you asked me to choose between my company and you, the exact way she is making you choose. You had an option of not signing the agreement with Sheetal. But you chose to. You consciously chose to support her at the vote. Against me.”
He stood at the centre of the room, still like a statute. This was not going anywhere. She had come looking for answers, for an explanation, even an argument… anything but this silence.
“Your plan worked, Arnav. Don’t you want to gloat over it? Sheetal sure didn’t hold back.” She chided him, “Does Akash Jiju know about all this?”
This caught his attention. She went on, anger rising with each passing minute, “Did you tell him how you deceived me?”
“Keep him and Payal out of this,” he requested, softly. “Please.”
“Why?” She scoffed, “My cousin has a right to know what kind of family she is marrying into. How her fiancé could possibly betray her-.”
“Stop it!” He told her firmly, for the first time. “You know very well Akash isn’t involved in this.”
Khushi shrugged, “At this point, I am not sure what or whom to believe.” She knew she was being irrational but at that moment, she was furious at him. She said it, maybe just to spite him.
Arnav blinked at her. “You’ll really jeopardize your cousin’s relationship?”
“Oh and your actions won’t?” she shot back at him. “When Jiji finds out that you backstabbed me, what do you think is going to happen? That she wouldn’t give two hoots?”
“Keep the personal and professional relations separate,” he replied. “You don’t want to do something you’ll regret later.”
“Are you lecturing me about being professional?” she yelled at him, “Or about relationships? Do you even know how far you’ve fallen? You think you are this badass, ruthless businessman. But the truth is you are a f*cking coward!”
Arnav pressed his fingers on his forehead, “This is not appropriate. You should go home.”
“Not before I get answers.” Khushi shook her head vehemently, “Tell me!”
“Khushi-,” he began to speak when she interrupted him. “Khushi! Khushi! Khushi!” she shouted at him, “Is that all you can say? I am sick of it. Speak up, Arnav. Answer me!”
“What do you want to hear?!” he exclaimed loudly and startled her. Suddenly he grabbed her arms in his palms, “That I lied to you? That I never liked you? That I was manipulating you? Is that what you want to hear?”
“Yes!” she shouted back, twisting her arms in his tight grasp, “For once in your life be honest!”
He let go off her arms, “All right. Yes! I went behind your back and signed a deal with Sheetal. Yes, I’ll vote for her when the time comes and yes, Magnolia will be sold off-.”
Before he could finish his sentence, Khushi’s slapped him across the face. He stumbled back out of shock.
“You are pathetic,” she spoke in anger with tears clouding her eyes, “I hate you but I hate myself more. I hate that I was so weak I couldn’t see through your games. I hate that I even thought I could choose you… that for once in my life I had someone who cared for me…”
She sniffled before speaking, “I hate myself for thinking that we could have a future… that I was falling for you.” She wiped her eyes but tears kept forming.
Arnav closed his eyes for a moment. His stance and voice both softened, “Khushi,” he took her name for an umpteenth time and extended his hand to gently place them on her shoulder.
She jerked away his hands. “Don’t touch me!” she yelled again, “You disgust me!” She backed away to the main door and turned the doorknob.
She stopped at the threshold for a moment, with her back to him. When she came here, despite of everything, a tiny sliver of hope had been alive in her. Maybe there was a reason, maybe there was an explanation for his behavior but she was wrong.
She chided herself for being a fool, again. For even harboring any hope that Arnav wouldn’t betray her, not like this.
Khushi wiped her face with the back of her hand and exhaled deeply. She wanted to turn around, one last time, to see him but she restrained herself. She had wasted enough time on him.
She wouldn’t. Not anymore.
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Edited by ErisedWitch45 - 4 years ago
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