3. Khushi, Promise Me You Will Call Me



Shyam made his way back to the terrace as soon as he saw Khushi leave RM. She hadn't let the cat out of the bag. She hadn't informed Anjali, Nani, and the others about his double game. She had been in shock, and he had been lucky.
But now it was too risky to lean on fate any longer. Action had to be taken before she reached Laxmi Nagar and spilled the beans to Buaji and her Amma.
He had to play on her weaknesses...her twin weaknesses, Payal's wedding and Anjali's happiness. Of these two, Payal's wedding would help him control her tongue more. It was time for the next step, he smiled. For a warning. He was a master player, and Khushi a novice. It would be like taking candy from a child. He rang up Khushi on her cell.

Khushi jumped when her phone rang, and became pale as she saw the caller ID. She said, "Yes?"

"Khushiji, I need to talk to you urgently. Just for 1 minute. Please wait behind the temple near your house for me. I will be there in 15 minutes."

"No, Shyamji."

"Khushiji", he wheedled, "I am ashamed of the way in which I have been behaving for the last few months. You are right. I have been very unfair to my beloved Rani Sahiba and to you. I should never have...Buaji's love for me...the apnapan I got from your house...it turned my head. Khushiji, please give me a chance to set things right. Payalji's future is at stake. Her marriage should not be cancelled a second time. Rani Sahiba...if she knows, she will be devastated."
Khushi hesitated.

"Please meet me for 1 minute. Let me repent. I will sort everything out. Khushiji, please forgive me as you would your own brother."

"Behind the temple. But only for 1 minute."

Arnav listened to Khushi as she spoke, her tense figure and strained features telling their own tale. So it was the rat of her fiance...ex-fiance, he thought. She looked furious and a little upset. So he wanted her to meet him behind the temple for one minute now. Did he want to resume their engagement, Arnav worried.
Soon he stopped the car in front of her small house in Laxmi Nagar, and Khushi began to remove her seat belt slowly, like an old woman, with fingers lacking coordination. Arnav quickly brushed her fingers aside, and gently dealt with the seatbelt. He leaned across her to open her door for her, and breathed in the warm jasmine fragrance of her skin and hair. Her nose ring glittered in the dim light. Her pale skin gleamed and her tender lips trembled in her distress and his closeness.

As she was about to slide off her seat, he caught hold of her right hand. "Khushi", he murmured. "Call me when you need me."
Khushi looked down at his large, dark fingers clasped around her slender, pale arm. As she watched, he gently ran his fingers down her arm till he reached her fingers. "Khushi, promise me..."

She nodded.

But how could she tell him...how could she destroy this man's peace...the man who had suffered so much pain...whose love for his sister was true...who would lift mountains and carry the weight of the world on his shoulders without a complaint if it meant that his sister could be happy...who believed in his Jijaji...

Arnav watched her leave the car, and walk towards the temple. Each step that she took away from him made him feel as though he had left her without protection, as though she was going into danger, that without him by her side, she was open to attack...She stopped and turned her head to look at him. Why did she feel so cold, as though she had left her safe harbour behind and ventured out into dangerous waters? She looked at him sitting in the car. How she wished she could run to him and throw her arms around him. She wanted to crawl inside his shirt and warm herself, hide from the world and stay safely cocooned, listening to his strong heart beat. But...her life was a mess. Shyamji, Anjaliji, Jiji, Arnavji...No, she had to keep him safe. She had to deal with Shyamji. She took one last look at her forbidden love, and started moving towards the temple.

He clenched his hands on the steering. Meeting Payal had to be postponed. He had to let Khushi meet her fiance behind the temple. He had no right to stop her from meeting him, no right to carry her away and keep her in his room all her life, under his care, right in front of his eyes, always safe...
Arnav drove away from Laxmi Nagar.

Halfway home, Arnav stopped the vehicle. He couldn't do it any longer. He couldn't lie to himself that she didn't matter. Couldn't lie to her anymore. It was killing him. Everything that touched her mattered to him. Her smile, her tears, her frown...they were all his. He sat for a while thinking of all the ways in which he had hurt her. But she still loved him. He swallowed. She was truly a miracle. His own, personal miracle. Maybe his mother had seen his pain... "Arnavji..", he heard her call. He looked around. She was nowhere to be seen. But he had heard her call him, her sweet voice sweetened further by her love.
He raced back to Laxmi Nagar, and stopped behind the temple. There in the darkness, he found her lying crumpled by the road, hurt. He gathered her into his arms, and asked in a voice that shook, "Khushi...Khushi...who did this to you?

"Shyamji came in a car. He knocked me down...wanted to kill me...", came the feeble reply.
"Your fiance?"
"And your Jiju."
He waited outside her hospital room, suffering the tortures of the damned thinking of the close call that she had had. His Jiju...Shyamji...they were one and the same...the long absences, the excuse of work...staying out at night...Di...Khushi...my Khushi...my Di...their tears...The thoughts whirled in his head, making him dizzy.
As soon as the doctors left, he rushed to her bedside.
"Khushi..."
"Arnavji, I am so sorry...so sorry...I didn't know he was married to Anjaliji...please believe me...I am so sorry..."
"Ssshh...Khushi..."
She gave him the whole story of Shyam crawling his way into the good graces of the Gupta family, the long tale interspersed with many apologies.
"It is not your fault, Khushi...don't cry anymore...Trust me."
"Anjaliji...poor Anjaliji...keeping vrat for him...praying...believing him...loving him...I am so sorry..."
"Sssh...You will make yourself ill...It is not your fault."

Arnav rested his head on her shoulder, and her arms gathered him close in her safe embrace. They both grieved silently. They knew that this was another battle they would have to fight side by side AND win.