Posted:
12 years ago
Chapter 58
Tanirika saw a glimpse of her and went to get out of the elevator for here was her chance to get to the person she could use as a leverage to get Arnav to pay up the money he had refused flatly to give.
She had stormed out threatening to go the person who she knew would make him give in and she had for a fraction of a second seen fear in his eyes. Fear for the girl who was her own flesh and blood and then he had sneered at her, saying, "she was incapable of hurting him or her daughter."
Tanirika had then told him that he would kill her daughter to get the money and he had then told her in a low dangerous tone, "you touch her and I will kill you."
That is when she had stormed out, frustrated as she knew she should have stuck to her original plan of contacting Khushi and making her a pawn in extracting money from Arnav. She should have gone ahead and used Khushi, after that first phone call, she had for some reason changed her tactic to go to Arnav instead. She should have followed her "mother's" instinct. She almost laughed out at the irony.
"Well, she would use her now." she muttered as she went out of the office. She would have to rethink on her strategy. She would have to rework on the plan. She suddenly had a flash of an idea and knew how to bring the big Arnav Singh Raizada to his knees.
Tanirika toyed with her phone, wondering if she should call her now. Then realized she would be with him now, so no she will call later when the time is right. She gave a smile to herself and she knew what will work for Arnav to give in. She had finally seen his weakness, her daughter.
Arnav put his hands on her waist and pulled her on his lap, seeing her so close was something he could not resist and more so he wanted to make sure she was here with him without having come to any harm.
"Did the' the woman see you?" he asked in whispers. Then squeezed his eyes shut for the faux pas he had done. Khushi suddenly alerted, raised her head from his shoulder and sat back to ask, "Who was she? Do I know her? She almost came back from the elevator if it had not closed on her."
She frowned when Arnav visibly looked relieved. "What happened Arnav?
"Khushi, we need to talk but this is not the place. I have been wanting to talk to you for some time. It is important. Lets go home and then I shall tell you everything. About the past few days. I have to tell you everything." Arnav declared softly. He then called his secretary to hold all calls and meeting for the day and to call him at home should there anything urgent. For the rest, he asked her to put hold on everything.
Once home, they went to the library, and sat with coffee between them. Arnav sat with Khushi next to him, holding her hands and said, "Khushi, this is related to your childhood. What do you remember of it? Do you remember your parents?"
Khushi looked at him blankly. What was he talking about? Her childhood? Her parents? Why had he been worried about it? Her parents were dead, that was why she was adopted isn't it? Did Garima amma not take her from the orphanage?
"Yes. I mean I know my parents are dead. Why are you asking about them now? I have told you everything, before we got married. Before, we'" she halted wondering if the woman had anything to do with it.
Just then his cellphone rang. Frustrated, he picked up barking, "This had better be urgent."
He listened and then asked Khushi, "Please bring the file on merger from the safe." before he gave some instructions to the person on the other end of the line.
Just as she was about to pick up the file, she heard Arnav say, "Wait, Khushi'!" and the suddenness and loudness of the command made her jerk towards him and in the process a few files fell from the safe.
She automatically bent to pick up the files and saw a photograph peak out of the file at the bottom. She went to pick that up as Arnav reached her and stood in front of the photo. She picked it out and looked at it and realized it was the same lady.
She looked quizzically at Arnav and asked, "Ye kaun hai? Aur aapke paas iski photo kyon hai?" She looked down again at the files lying in disarray and bent once again to pick up the file from which the photo had come out. She picked the file and was shocked to see her name on the file. She looked at Arnav who had also crouched down and was now holding her wrist and the file looking at her apologetically.
She asked again, "Ye file, hamara naam," then flipped it removing her hand from his hold and saw the covering letter, the date and the file dropped from her hand.
"aapne hamare peeche, detective lagwaye the. To know if Khushi Kumari Gupta was good enough for the great Arnav Singh Raizada?" She could not stop disgust entering her voice nor could she stop the sob that she felt rise in her throat.
"Khushi, that was not the case. There was'" Arnav started.
"Rehne dijiye. Hamein koi explanations nahi chahiye. I should have known. I should have known, you would only'" Khushi felt faint suddenly and swayed when Arnav held her.
Pushing him away, she said, "Nahin, door rahiye humse. Aap har cheez ko ek business deal samjhte hain, hai na. Toh hum ye deal torr te hain. Aapka waise bhi isme fayda nahi hai. Hum aapke layak toh kabhi the hi nahi. Woh toh Naniji ne'" Khushi now started sobbing.
"Khushi, Khushi' that is not how it is. You know how much I care for you. You know this file was made for some other reason. The reason is that lady. That lady whom you saw, is ' is'" Arnav somehow still could not say it.
"Woh kaun hai Arnav? Uski tasveer hamari file mein kyon hai. Agar woh aapko hamare baare mein koi information de rahi hai, toh hum aapko bataa dete hain ki hum usse jaante nahi hai." Khushi tried to clutch at straws.
"Aisa kuch nahi hai Khushi, woh, Tanirika hai'!" Arnav finally said, but the name did not seem to have any effect on Khushi.
"Tanirika? Kaun Tanirika?" Khushi asked as if asking Arnav if that name was supposed to mean something to her.
"Woh tumhari Maa hai!" Arnav said it finally.
"Kya?" Khushi screamed before everything became one big black spot and she collapsed in Arnav's arms.
