Rabba Ishq Naa Hove - Season 3 - Part 5

 

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Chapter 5


Khushi’s POV


I’m still fuming as I watch Arnav leave with Lavanya. This is not the first time I’m jealous of another woman in my life but this kind of jealousy is new. I used to envy other women for the freedom they have to choose their career, to pick the man they would like to date but this time, I loathe the fact that the man who claim me as his wife before the world is showing extra affection to someone else. That’s beyond my patience level. I stop the server who is serving the Champagne to pick a glass and gulp it down my throat. The liquid burns my throat yet it doesn't extinguish the fire burning inside me. I am about to pick another one when someone stops me. It’s my father.


Dad asks the server to leave and the moment he is gone, my father leaves my hand.


“What are you doing?” he scoffs.

“Drinking and before you give me lectures, I should behave, let me tell you Dad I am no more in your cage to obey your orders.”

“Mind your tongue, Khushi. You have no rights to speak to me like that.”

“I have..” I snap. “You are doing nothing to bring me back home. You know what Arnav did? The day we met you, he made me suffer alone, helpless, without money and food and shelter, until midnight.”

“What?” I finally see the rage on my father’s face which I yearned to see from long. “How could he do that?”

I am about to explain it to him when I see Arnav returning to us.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

I stand annoyed beside my father as Arnav joins us.

“Arnav? What am I hearing? You are torturing my daughter? You promised to look after her. How could you leave her alone without money and food for one whole day?”


Arnav’s sharp gaze meets mine.

“I didn’t leave her. She left me.”

“Because you forced me to beg and that was against my self-respect,” I argue.

He exhales.

“It’s better if you don’t talk about self-respect, Khushi. A woman who was ready to use marriage as a trap to get visa for a country definitely has lower her standards enough.”

“Oh yeah? Then what about the man who tricked that same woman and married her for revenge?”


That silences him for sure.

“If I am in ditch, Arnav, you too aren’t away from dirt,” I mock and that’s when he grabs my wrist.

“That’s why we make a fine couple. Now let’s cut the wedding cake. C’mon.”


Before I can retort, he drags me to the center of the room where a three-tier cake is kept on a table. He forces me to hold the knife and then we cut the wedding cake together. The next instant loud music and cheers fill the room. People keep coming to us to greet and all I offer to them is my fake smiles. In all this, Arnav hasn’t left his touch from my body. Either he keeps entwining our fingers or his palm is safely on my lower back, guiding me throughout the party.


I am too exhausted by the time the reception comes to an end. My father reaches us before leaving to give a very strong warning to Arnav.


“Keep my daughter safe, Arnav. One scratch on her body or mistreatment and it won’t take me long to disclose to the media how you are torturing her.”


Arnav grins instead.

“Beggars can’t be choosers, Mr. Gupta. You are the one who taught me that once. How could you forget that you don’t have the liberty to speak between me and Khushi? One word from you against me, and all your black businesses will be out.”

“Do it” I challenge.

I had no plans to interrupt their conversation but I am done with Arnav’s bogus threats. He turns to look at me, an amused smile playing on his lips.

“Khushi, I am talking to him.” Dad says.

“No, Dad. It’s high time we really find out if he is even capable to pull us down. Only having money and some powerful contacts cannot make him rule us.”


Dad realizes my point which boosts me to challenge Arnav even more.

“What max can you do?” I mock. “You will defame my father in the media and you think we will not open up what you did with us? We are born rich people Arnav, and these manipulations which you have learnt to do now, my father has been doing it from ages. You can’t beat us. However hard you try, you can’t.”


It was his turn to raise an eyebrow at me.

“I’m not interested in manipulations like you and your father. I believe in facts and the evidence against your fake goodness before the world which I have in abundance. You’ll find out soon what I can do.”


Before I can debate, he calls someone. A man in his late 60’s who works for Arnav reaches us.

“Take my wife home.”

Giving me a final glare, Arnav walks back to some other group. Dad is about to stop him but I don’t let him do it.

“Don’t bother, Dad. He can’t do anything.”

“He already fooled you to marry him,” Dad snaps. “He can do anything, Khushi. Challenging him openly is not a good option.”

“That’s the only way to see if he is really capable of hurting us more than we already are. Trust me, he can’t. He might act all broody and distant but no man can change this much in six years. He respected you like he would to his father. He can’t destroy you dad. Arnav was an emotional man. A man who loved people. He can’t hate them only because they shooed him away from their lives.”


Dad looks away and then checks his watch.

“I have to go. You call me if you are in trouble.”

“I will.”


He pats my cheek and then marches out. The driver whom Arnav asked to drive me home leads me to the parking. What I don’t understand is why is he not joining me back home?


*******************


I get back to AR mansion, change into one of those classy nightwear and get on the bed. I’m exhausted but the flashes of Arnav with Lavanya keeps poking my mind. What kind of relationship do they share? She told him she’ll meet him at office tomorrow. Does she work with him there? I have to find out. But where is he now? I quickly get down the bed and see Suman, the assistant who Arnav has hired to look after my needs, winding up her chores.


“Suman?”

“Yes Ma’am.” She hurries to me.

“Is Arnav in some other room?”

“Oh no. He hasn’t come back home yet, Ma’am.”


He didn’t? It’s 01:00 am. The party must have ended long back. Where is he?

“And Sir has already informed that he will sleep in a different room than yours.”


There is a bit of hesitation on her face as she mentions that. He has already declared that he won’t stay with me in one room? Another royal insult. As if I was going to eat him up. But wait. Why wouldn’t he sleep with me in one room. I am not interested in that either but my question is why is he doing this? He can easily torture me by sleeping in the same room, on the same bed as I do. He is rightfully my husband but never once he has shown interest in touching me. That’s unbelievable. If he wants revenge, he could do anything. Or is it that he is asked not to share the bedroom with me by someone else? Lavanya? Is he sleeping with her and she’s specifically asked him not to have any kind of physical relationship with me? Is that why he is still not home? Could he be with her? Another round of jealousy hits my head. If he is doing anything like that at my back, I am going to expose them.


I head to the couch and sit there. Suman looks startled that I don’t return to my bedroom.

“I’m going to wait for him to come home.”

She nods and asking me if I’ll need anything else, she walks back to her room to call it a day. Let Arnav Singh Raizada come home. I’m going to speak to him what’s keeping him out at late night when he has his newly wed wife at home.


*****************

Arnav’s POV

I park the car and get down. It’s around 2:30 am and this is not the kind of delay which I expected. Since Khushi challenged me to show what I could do to shake the base of Guptas, I had to lay my foundation strong tonight itself. When I enter the living room, my eyes fix on Khushi who has dozed off on the couch. Suman had told me a while ago that Khushi was waiting for me to return and was unhappy that I was out this late. I know she’s already aware by now that our bedrooms can never be one. I might have married her for whatever reasons, she’s never going to sleep on my bed, ever. That’s a promise I have made to myself from the beginning of my motive to revenge her. But the way she has curled up on that couch, with her hair flowing over the tiny pillow, and with her palms folded under her head, halts my steps.


She looks so innocent in sleep. But she doesn't have that innocence even in a single fiber of her body. She could fool me then, not now. Though my body coaxes me to pick her in arms and carry her to the bedroom, my bleeding heart stops me from putting those into action. She doesn't deserve my concern and I’ve nothing left with me anymore to shower it on upon her. So giving her a cold stare, I make my way to my bedroom. Under no circumstance, I am going to give her another chance to destroy my life. Doesn't matter what she does.


*******************

Khushi’s POV


My back hurts and more than that my neck does. I slept on that couch throughout the night. If it hadnt been the lights falling on my face from the huge glass windows of the living room, I wouldn’t even realize it’s morning. I yawn, stretch by the time I recall why I slept here. I was waiting for Arnav. Suman is around, speaking to the chef so I call her instantly to me.


“Good morning, Ma’am.”

“Morning.. Is Arnav still out?”

“No. He came back last night around 2:30 am.”

“He came home?” I snap. He came home means he saw me sleeping on couch, yet he didn’t do anything about it? Forget carrying me to the bedroom, he didn’t even wake me up?

“Anything else, Ma’am?”

Suman’s voice breaks my trance.

“Where is his bedroom?”

“Upstairs.” She hesitates to give me details beyond this. “Where upstairs?”

“Ummmm”

“WHERE?” I shout and this time Suman jerks.

“Left side, last room,” she answers in panic.


See!!A little threat and warning tone always works!! Mentally patting my back, I hurry to her said location.


I barge in the room and my jaw drops. I hadn’t expected Arnav to be sleeping on the bed, shirtless. I’ve never seen him sleeping so this is the first time I come to know he sleeps on his stomach, with one hand over the pillow while the other stretched on the bed. He literally takes half of the bed. Wait. I am not here to drool at him but to fight. But before I get into that, I give some time to admire the room. It’s beautiful contemporary style lavish bedroom with grey-white interiors. And that’s when my gaze falls on the photo frame hanging at the center wall. It’s a picture of Arnav with a woman slightly elder to him. By the look on Arnav’s face, I can tell this was of the time when he used to work for my father. His innocence is clearly the same in the picture which he once had. But who is this woman. Before I can touch the frame, someone grabs me by my elbow and whirls me around. It’s Arnav. He’s woken up.


“What are you doing here?” he yells at me and I can see it on his face that he disliked my presence in his bedroom.


I use his frustration as my small win.

“What does a wife do in her husband’s bedroom, Arnav?”

My question catches him off-guard but the next instant, he points at the door.

“Never come here again. Now get out.”


I hadn’t expected a better response from him. So, I am not surprised. I cross my arms showing no hurry.

“Why? If I am not allowed in this room who else is? That… Lavanya Kshyap?”


Arnav grits his teeth but I continue to rant.

“Was she the reason of your delay last night?”

“Yes” he agrees. “After you left for home, I was with her. Got your answers? Now get out.”


Not good!! He is saying this only to coax me but I don’t want to trust my assumptions. So, I scoot to his laundry box where he has dumped the last night’s shirt in it. I pick it up and smell it… It has traces of ladies’ perfume scent. He isn’t lying. He was with Lavanya after I left. When I turn to Arnav, he is staring at me with a mixed emotion on his face as if he didn’t expect me to be jealous but yet here I am.


“You love her?” I ask my doubt because I know if Arnav gets this close to a woman, he has to love her. He didn’t touch me six years ago until he was in love with me. So, I know him that much. I keep staring at Arnav whose eyes turn dark as if he is contemplating what to answer.


To be Continued.

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