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Part 2
"What the..." Arnav woke up with
an irritated expression on his face. It was a frigging 3 A.M. and at this odd
time, he heard her crying and screaming loud. She lay there at quite a distance
from the bed. He walked up to where she lay and looked at her, crying
helplessly. His heart melted at such a sweet sight. His frown changed into a
smile as he reached out to her and carried her in his arms. The moment he
picked her up, she stopped crying. This had almost become a routine for Arnav;
Waking up in the middle of the night due to her screams, and putting her to
sleep. After he tucked her in bed, he turned around to find Khushi smiling at
him through her tears of joy. She tiptoed to him, and hugged him. Both of them
turned towards the cradle and smiled at the baby, who was now fast asleep.
"She looks so adorable" Khushi
said as she admired the little one in the cradle. Arnav increased his grip on
her shoulders and sighed saying "I only wish Di too would have felt the same" .
Khushi's smile vanished looking at Arnav's sad eyes. She hugged him. "Everything
is going to be fine Arnav. Di will realize. It is definitely going to take some
more time but..." "How much more time
Khushi?" Arnav interrupted. "Di doesn't even realize what she is losing in
life. She is still so stubborn that she doesn't even want to understand that Ananya
needs her"
Khushi looked at Ananya. She felt
sorry for her. First, her father abandoned her, because of his evil doings, and
now her mother refused to acknowledge her. Khushi's mind wandered one year back
to the very same room where she was standing right now- her bedroom.
After
Arnav had asked Anjali and the rest of the family to stop bothering him and
Khushi, things had definitely changed; some for better, some for worse. Akash
and Payal had sorted out differences after quite some time; Mamiji had
reconciled with Khushi after Arnav had told her in detail about the whole
kidnapping issue. Khushi had now become the dearest to Manorama. Nani and Laxmi
were now more close than ever to Khushi.
Arnav was now so dependent on
Khushi, that he even forgot how to knot his tie. Every morning he would wake up
a few minutes before her, just to make sure that he sees her waking up, since
that was one of his favourite sights early morning. He made sure that she was
treated like a princess. He handed over most of his responsibilities to his
manager, Aman and made sure to come back early every evening, so that both of
them could go out to eat Golguppas. He never skipped any chance to romance her,
and made love to her every night. During the time of her month when she had her
painful cramps, he made sure all her meals were taken to their room, and often
rubbed her feet at night before she dosed off to sleep. All in all, Arnav had
suddenly become the best husband from the oh-so-irritating 'Laad Governor'
Life was a fairy tale for Khushi.
But among all this happy moments, there was one person who was still not on
talking terms with her. It was her Di, Anjali Jha. She had bitterly agreed to
what Arnav had said. She did not bother Khushi nor Arnav. There were so many
times when she had decided to just pack her bags and leave RM. But the child
within her, the insecurities of her future would stop her from doing so. She died
a bit every time she saw Akash and Payal, Arnav and Khushi or even Mama and
Mami. She did not understand why such injustice was done to her by God. She was
the one who believed in the Almighty the most, then why did God play such a
cruel game with her. She became an introvert to such an extent that she refused
to have her meals with anyone. She completely stopped smiling and was never
seen anywhere outside her room. Arnav did get worried about her at times, but
decided it would be best to leave her alone at the moment. The doctor had to
come home for her checkups. Nani would take her to the Clinic only for her
scanning. Anjali had lost herself, but had decided to keep her lips sealed
about it because he little brother had asked her not to bother him and his wife;
atleast this was what Anjali has assumed.
Months passed. Anjali was now in
her ninth month of pregnancy. Her belly was pretty much swollen and was treated
more delicate than a flower in the house. All of them were pretty excited about
the baby. After all, it was not every day that such joyous moments visited
Shantivan. Anjali was now slowly coming to terms with the ugly truth ' Shyam was
a creep. Just because she was unhappy, that did not mean she could not be happy
for her brothers. She accepted the fact that the past was meant to be in the
past and not overcome her future. She had mentally forgiven Khushi, but was
still unable to talk to her face to face.
One fine day, the entire family,
except Khushi, Arnav and Anjali had gone for a Satsang to a temple. Anjali, who was supposed to go, cancelled her
plan at the last moment. Looking at her delicate condition, everyone obliged. Arnav
was busy with his office work at home and Khushi was pretty much bored. Anjali
was resting in her bedroom. Suddenly Arnav gets a call from someone telling him
that Nani had been admitted to a nearby hospital since she was unable to breath
properly. He tried calling Akash, but his number remained unavailable. So was
the case with the rest of the mobile numbers. Khushi suggested that Arnav
should go to the hospital to check out about Nani. She offered to come with
him, but Arnav made her stay back since Di was alone at home. It had not been
long before Arnav had gone, and the doorbell rang. Anjali who was resting in
her room, woke up and came out from her room. She saw Khushi going to the
veranda to open the door.
Khushi unlocked the door, only to
have a shock of her life. It was Shyam. He was hardly recognisable. He had long
hair and a rough beard that made him appear like a savage. She tried to close
the door, but all in vain. He pushed the door open and barged into the house.
Anjali who witnessed this sensed some serious danger and called up Arnav, to
inform him about Shyam.
"What did you think Khushi? I would
let you live in peace? Today is the day when i will seek revenge from you. it
was because of you i was thrown out. it was because of you that I lost the
privilege of staying in Shantivan. It was because of you that Anjali stopped
talking to me. Most of all, it was because of you that i could not be closer to
you. but today, i will seek revenge. I know all have gone out for some regular
satsang. I just couldn't figure out how to chase Arnav out. finally it struck
me that these Raizada's would go to the temple via the ghats. They would
definitely lose mobile signal coverage atleast for an hour. So i called up Arnav
and told him about Nani's so-called ill-health. Now that we are alone, we could
definitely spend some quality time Khushi." He said as he advanced towards her.
Khushi tried to escape but it was in vain.
"wait Shyam." A third voice
echoed. Shyam saw Anjali stand at a distance. She came ahead and stood in front
of Khushi, as though she was protecting her from her evil husband. "Not so easy
Shyam. You have absolutely no shame, do you? first you cheat me, then you trap
Khushiji. Then you deceive the whole family and now, after being thrown out,
you come back to take revenge? Revenge for what? For letting you stay here? For
being so nice and trusting you? For allowing you to cheat us? For being good to
you? i trusted you and loved you with all my heart. I dint even believe my
brother when he first told me about you. i forgot a brother-sister relationship
of 25 years and stood by you, just because i trusted you. When you were
cheating on me, din't your conscience prick you atleast once?" Anjali cried her
heart out. Khushi empathised with her. she knew that Anjali needed immense love
and care, but did not express this need ever since Arnav gave her a piece of 'advice'.
But nothing seemed to have
affected Shyam. He pushed Anjali out of the way and pulled Khushi by her arm.
Anjali tried pulling Shyam back, but how much could a nine-month pregnant woman
struggle? Shyam pushed Anjali on to a nearby sofa and dragged Khushi by her
arm. When he opened the door to leave, he found his nightmare come true. Arnav
was standing in front of him, looking like a wild beast ready to attack. Shyam's
grip on Khushi's arm loosened. Arnav kept his calm. Khushi hugged Arnav and was
surprised to see the cops behind him.
"Arrest this man. We do not know
him" Arnav said to the cops, who immediately handcuffed shyam. Anjali looked at
Shyam being dragged away. "Kyun Shyam? Aapne aisa kyun kiya? Kyun hamare pyar
ke badle itna bada dhoka diya? why did you cheat me Shyam?"
Shyam, while being dragged away
screamed all kinds of abusive words at them and said "Anjali i never loved you.
why would i love a handicap? I just married you for your property. But this
bast*rd and this b*tch ruined everything" he said as he pointed out to Arnav
and Khushi. "I hated you from the day of our marriage Anjali. I just tolerated
you and your drama. While you were doing the perfect-wife drama, i too had to
play along Anjali. There was NO love. Nor will there be any..." he was finally
shoved into the police jeep and was being driven away.
Arnav turned to see a lightning
struck Anjali. She knew that Shyam was a cheat, but had never expected that
listening to the truth from his mouth would make things horribly worse. She fainted
and fell to the ground.
In the hospital, the entire
Raizada family had now assembled in the corridor. They were waiting for the
doctors to come out from the operation theatre. Anjali had been rushed into
labour and had been in for around half an hour. Finally, after what seemed like
ages, the nurse came out holding a baby girl in her arms. She handed over the
child to the much-excited uncle - Arnav, who nervously passed on the fragile
newborn to Nani. The baby was adorable and looked almost like a copy of Anjali.
The doctor walked out from the operation theatre. "She is fine now. Just see
that she is not into stress. Right now, she is really weak. So i would advise
her complete rest for almost up to 2 months." And after giving a few tips of Do's
and Don'ts, the doctor walked to his cabin.
The family went in to
congratulate Anjali and to hand over the baby to the mother. "I don't want to
see the child." She stated firmly. No amount of convincing worked on her. they
decided to wait for Anjali to come home from the hospital. But even then, she
refused to look at the child. She said that she did not want to be reminded of
Shyam, and so she wouldn't want to see her child. Khushi and Arnav willingly accepted
to look after the baby, till Anjali would not recover from the shock. "Ananya"
Arnav spoke up. "We'll name her Ananya" Khushi too agreed with him.
Days become months. But Anjali
did not budge. She was determined to move on in life, but refused to look at
Ananya. She had begun to know Aman on a personal level and mde her decision to
spend the rest of her life with him. Everyone was in favour of her decision,
but no one could make Anjali change her mind about Ananya. Soon she married
Aman and left Shantivan to stay with him inhis house. She no longer acknowledged
Ananya. Even Aman could not make Anjali change her mind. The two of them moved
on and settled in Sweden, as per her wish.
"Khushi..." Arnav's voice brought
her back. "What happened?" Arnav asked her when he saw her moist eyes. "Nothing.
Just remembered Di. I wonder if she misses Ananya." Arnav had no response to that.
Instead he moved his hand over Khushi's swollen belly and said "I don't know
about your mama, but you definitely need some rest Junior Arnav Singh Raizada"
to which Khushi grinned widely. He tucked her into bed and kissed her
goodnight. He touched her tummy and said to the 9-month child within "I
promise, i'm gonna be the best dad to you and your Ananya di" to which Khushi, unconsciously
murmured a "hmmm" in her sleep. And Arnav slipped into bed with excitement of
seeing his offspring in his arms in the next month. Life was definitely going
to get more and more beautiful for this little family.
THE END
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