Bride of Sheesh Mahal - Season 3 - Part 28

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Chapter 28


Khushi’s POV


I wanted to cut short our stay at Shantivan because the urge to reach Sheesh Mahal and perform the Puja to drive away whatever negativity was there in the locked basement room, was at its peak. I didn’t know Arnav would so carelessly ask the electricians to break the locks of that door and let them inside. We are fortunate that no one is hurt. And I only hope that whatever assumptions I am making about that room are wrong. After spending some leisure time with Arnav again in our bedroom, I come down to make a call to Payal. She answers the phone call instantly and whilst she is all greedy to know if anything happened between me and Arnav here last night, I don’t have time or patience left to give her those details.


“I’ll tell you all that later, Payal. For now, I have to speak to your father.”

“My father? But why? Is everything alright there?”

“Yes. I hope so.”

“You are worrying me Khushi. What happened?”

“Later, Payal. I will explain later. For now, let me speak to Gopalji.”

“Okay wait.”

In a few seconds I hear Payal’s father’ voice at the other end. I tell him about the locked room in Sheesh Mahal and how Arnav asked the team to break the locks. I also inform him what we found inside that room and hence demand him to arrange everything to perform a Puja the moment we reach Sheesh Mahal again. He agrees and asks me not to worry.


Just when I disconnect and turn around, I see Daadi staring at me in horror. She probably eavesdropped my conversation.

“Daadi?”

“What… what did you say? Arnav asked to break those locks of that room?”

She is about to lose her balance feeling dizzy when I grab her arms and make her sit on the couch. I make her drink some water then sit next to her on the sofa.

“Yes. And we found some crazy stuff inside that room. That room doesn't even have lights. It’s scary and the electricians couldn’t fix anything yet. They were even scared to enter there.”


Daadi swallows in fear.

“What was in that room, Daadi? Why was it locked?”

She keeps ignoring my question.

“We have to call The Maha Pandit Shree Yogiji. Only he can turn things back to safety in the Sheesh Mahal,” she mutters.. “But I don’t even know if he is alive anymore to do this.”

“Do what?” I query. “And who is this Maha Pandit?”

Daadi rises on her feet.

“His address should be in my diary. I will find it.”

She is about to leave for her room again when I stop her.

“Daadi, please tell me what is going on? I promise I can help you if I know. But you have to trust me and tell me everything.”

“Nothing is going on. I am just… I am just being cautious.”

“Don’t lie..” I snap. “You look so scared right now Daadi. Please tell me.”

“There is nothing to tell” she scowls back and pushing me away, she hurries to her room.


Nope!! I am not going to stop chasing for the truth. So I follow her to her bedroom. She doesn't mind when I do and is so busy looking for something. Probably the address of some Maha Pandit. She finds it in her closet which she memorizes and then thinks hard for a minute.


“This place is not very far from here. If I leave for that Ashram now, I can come back before night..”

She grabs her purse along and scoots out. I follow her.

“Daadi, where are you going? Which Ashram?”

She doesn't speak a word and keeps hurrying to the main door. I follow her out. She gets inside the car, giving the address to the Driver. I immediately get in the car with her.

“I am coming with you.”

“No” she denies. “You don’t need to come anywhere. I..”

“Daadi, that’s not your choice to make. I am worried for you and I won’t let you go anywhere alone. I am coming along or you are not leaving. You take the decision now..”


She wants to argue but she knows this time I am not going to remain silent. So she asks the driver to drive us out. After almost 15 minutes, I finally ask her again.


“Daadi, please tell me whats going on? Where are we going and why?”

“Khushi don’t ask me anything. I had promised my husband that I wouldn’t let a word out to anyone in the family about it. I don’t want to break that promise.”

“But..”

“Don’t” she snaps harder this time and I clench my teeth to remain calm. Fine!! I wont ask her but that still wouldn’t stop me from finding out what the matter was. The rest of the drive I am silent while she keeps chanting some hymns of Devi Maiyaa which I know is chanted to drive away ghosts. Whose ghost? I wish Daadi could give me some hint.


After an hour drive we finally reach some remote building. It looks like an Ashram but I don’t see many people around. We get down and I follow Daadi inside. We meet an old woman who has covered her head with the Saree pallu the same way I had seen a few women doing in that video when they had come at Arnav’s naming ceremony in Sheesh Mahal. So they belonged to this Ashram?


“Jee?” The old lady queries seeing us both there.

“I want to meet Maha Pandit Yogiji” Daadi manages to say.

“Maha Pandit?” she inquires. “I am sorry but he passed away last year.”

“What?” Daadi stumbles and I help her balance again.

“Jee. He was 92 years old and couldn’t survive more.”


Daadi’s face falls. She is even dizzy again in stress so I ask the woman to bring us some water while I help Daadi get seated again.


“Daadi, what is going on?”

Tears roll down her cheeks.

“Who will save my family now?” she questions me. “Only the Maha Pandit could do that for all these years..”

“Daadi, enough” I scold her this time. “There is no point in crying. I can sense something major happened in the past which you are trying to hide from all of us. But believe me this is not going to help anyone. You have to disclose that matter to me. I can help you. I promise you, I will never let any harm come upon the family but to fight for it I have to know whom I am fighting against.”


The other woman brings the water which Daadi drinks and as soon as we are alone again, she finally nods in agreement.

“Fine.. I’ll tell you..”


I take a sigh of relief only to panic again as my phone rings.

“It’s Arnav’s call.” I tell Daadi.

“Don’t tell him we are here.” She urges.

I nod and answer the call.

“Khushi? Where are you and Daadi? The servant saw you both going out in the car. Where are you?”

“Arnav, we are on our way to Shantivan. Don’t worry. Daadi just needed some fresh air so we came to a garden which is not very far. We are returning now.”

“Is Daadi okay?” He sounds worried.

“Yes. She is absolutely fine.” I lie and I hate it already. “We will reach soon.”


He agrees and disconnects the call. I help Daadi get up from the chair.

“Lets start for home. You can tell me everything in the car.”


She agrees. As soon as the car engine comes to life, Daadi clutches my hand.

“You have to promise not to share this with anyone, Khushi. It will only create panic in the family.”

“I can’t promise that, Daadi. If the matter is so serious that the family should know, then I will tell them in order to protect them.”


She swallows unhappily but that doesn't stop her from sharing the past.


“My son, means Arnav’s father Ayush was a very kind man. He always showed sympathy on everyone. Helping the poor people around was like his passion and one night, he brought her home while returning to Sheesh Mahal.”

“Brought whom?” I ask, a bit confused.

“Chandrika” Daadi says the name with so much dislike that I can sense how much she loathes that woman whoever she is.

“Chandrika?” I inquire, recalling this is the same name I read on that portrait in Shantivan.

“Yes.. She was young and beautiful. There was something in her face which could lure anybody to do as she wanted. The night he brought her home, I could sense it. She was impressed by Ayush and was eyeing at my son.”


I keep listening as Daadi recalls the past and shares it with me.

“But why did he bring her to Sheesh Mahal?” I query.

“Seems she was going to commit suicide that night because her family was getting her married to someone. And she didn’t want to. So, Ayush saved her and brought her home. We gave her a room to stay and also allowed her to do the home chores as she demanded that was the only way she could earn some money and stand on her own feet. She never shared us any details of her family. Just told us a village name and that’s it we didn’t dig for more information either. Days passed and she had started to live in the house normally. Ayush was always concerned about her. He even motivated her to utilize her free time in doing what she liked he most. Painting!! She liked painting and hence Ayush got her the canvas and colors and brushes. She kept painting beautiful portraits. We were all awed of her works.”


Daadi sighs.

“Who knew we had given shelter to the woman who was going to be our destruction.”


I don’t get what she means but I don’t intervene.

“Ayush got a marriage proposal and since he liked that woman too, we fixed his marriage. The day Chandrika got to know about it, she became furious. I still remember how she fought with Ayush to cancel his wedding and when he questioned her why he would do that, she replied because she wanted to become his wife..”


It came as a shock to all of us. We didn’t know Chandrika had started growing feelings for Ayush. But my son never saw her in that angle. Had he, we would have even let him marry Chandrika but by that time he had already fallen for the woman his marriage was fixed to. So we did what we thought was right at that time. We asked Chandrika to either continue without having hopes or leave the house and find job elsewhere. But that woman… she was so adamant that she didn’t leave nor she gave up chasing Ayush. One day she even threatened us of suicide if we don’t accept her wishes. It was all too much to bear. We finally dragged her out of Sheesh Mahal and informed the guards to never let her in the house again.”


Oh! I am sure that is not the end to Chandrika’s story. There is more.


“And then one day…” Daadi’s hand shivers so I grip her tightly. “One day we found her dead in the room she was allotted in Sheesh Mahal before.”

“What?” I snap. “You mean she committed suicide?”

“Yes..” Daadi’s eyes fill with tears. “We don’t know how she got entry in the house again but she cut her wrists. And it wasn’t just one cut. She had cut every nerve of her arms and her body was pooled in blood when we found her.”


Even I shiver imagining that terrible scene.


“And it was that same basement room Khushi. The one which we had locked all these years..”


Oh! Now I understand why they never let anyone from the family to access it.

“Ayush wasn’t home when this happened. Only me and Arnav’s grandfather were. We didn’t want Ayush to be stressed that because a woman so loved him madly she committed suicide as he couldn’t marry her. In fact his marriage was just one week ahead of that day so we didn’t want to take any chance. So we… we buried her body.”

“What?” I snap. “Where did you bury her?”


Daadi swallows again

“At the backyard of Sheesh Mahal because that was the only place where people wouldn’t come to know about the incident.. We didn’t want bad name in the society Khushi. My husband was very strict about the family’s respect and reputation and since Ayush’s marriage was hardly one week ahead, we took no chance. We buried her in the Sheesh Mahal vicinity only.”


I can’t believe they did this. It’s so foolish and this is not the kind of departure Chandrika should have got.

“She had these weird paintings done in that room which we buried along with her. All of her stuff was disposed. Ayush and Akash’s father Manohar came home in two days after doing their work. We didn’t tell them anything. The marriage took place and everything felt normal until.. one night when Ayush’s wife told us that she saw some woman in the basement at around 03:00 am. The description she gave was that of Chandrika. Ayush was skeptical why Chandrika would suddenly return in the palace and he dismissed his wife’s concerns but me and my husband knew this wasn’t Chandrika but her ghost whom Ayush’s wife saw.”


I stiffen.

“That’s when my husband contacted the Maha Pandit Yogiji of the Ashram we visited today. He told him everything and Panditji agreed to help us. We decided to perform a ritual in Sheesh Mahal which could drive away the ghost and we had to do this in the absence of the family. And we also had to burn the remains of Chandrika from the place where we had buried her. But…”


Daadi shivers again and I hold her arms.

“But what Daadi?”

“But.. her body was missing..”


Missing? I am confused.

“We don’t know who and how took her but.. it wasn’t there anymore at the place we’d buried her. It was a matter of concern for but Yogiji managed to do the ritual still and he somehow used all his knowledge and prayers to lock the spirit away in that same basement room where she took her last breath. The keys to those were taken away by Yogiji with him so that no one can open that door again. No one in the family ever came to know anything about that ritual as we had sent them all away for a few days. When our sons returned, we lived normally and thankfully after that we didn’t had any more issues related to Chandrika’s ghost.. Then Manohar got married in the same house to Manorama and Anjali, Arnav, Akash and Nandakishore were born in the coming years. Our family started growing. We never faced any issues until my husband suddenly fell ill one day and died. Then living in this house with his memories felt painful. So we all shifted to London as my sons were expanding the business there. And we came to Sheesh Mahal only once in few years. Everything was perfect so far, Khushi. But now..”


She grips my hand.

“Now that the basement door is unlocked I wonder if Chandirka’s spirit is out again..What if.. what if she tries to hurt us?”

“Daadi..” I give her some strength by my words. “She wont be able to do anything to our family.”

She doesn't take it lightly though.

“Just tell me one thing though..” I continue. “When you last saw Chandrika’s room.. the basement one.. did you ever see any mannequins there?”

“Mannequins? No.. The last time we saw that room was when the Maha Pandit did the ritual but it had no Mannequins and then we locked the room.”


I am confused even more now. Something doesn't match. If there were no mannequins before who placed them there now? And how when the room was locked all these years? Or did anyone have access to it secretly?


To be Continued.

NEXT PART

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The Forbidden Series - Book 2 (Enemies to Lovers Romance Novel)

Khushi Thakur
Have compassion for your family and be heartless towards your enemies. This has been my only slogan since I became the backbone of the RS Group of Companies where I am in charge of dealing with their tricky competitors. This time our focus is on the AR Group, which has rattled to its core ever since its CEO, Aarav Raichand allegedly stepped down from his position. Whatever they say, I'm still certain he's a tornado disguised as my business rival. There’s something about this man that I loathe and something that draws me insanely towards him. This unseen magnetism between us coaxes me to believe Aarav is that missing piece of my life’s puzzle, which I had given up solving.

Aarav Raichand
Two years ago, my world crashed down forever when I lost my wife, Jhanvi Raichand. But then I saw her again, this time in my rival’s arms. Everyone said she only had a similar face. I believed that too. She wasn’t my Jaan. She was not the one who transformed me from a vengeful man to a loving husband. But I was drawn to her like a moth to fire. Could she be my Jaan and didn’t want to recognize me anymore? If I could avenge my family to bring justice to my life earlier, I would burn down the world this time to get this woman in my arms again. The only difference is that this time there will be no rules. It’s about time I remind them what it meant to meddle with the love of a big bad wolf!!

The world had seen my Revenge; now they would witness my Rivalry.

Reading Order of The Forbidden Series:
Book 1 – Forbidden
Book 2 – Fallen


EBOOK LINK (ON AMAZON) HERE

Read the PROLOGUE HERE