Bride of Sheesh Mahal - Season 3 - Part 54

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Chapter 54

Arnav’s POV


I collapse on the floor, feeling my heart beating achingly slow. I’m aware Chandrika is still chanting the mantras to get me in control. I can feel that I’m no more the blue-eyed version of mine, hypnotized by the black spell casted by her. I can’t lose my sight from NK’s phone which is over the top of the table some distance away, where I see Khushi’s lifeless body falling on the ground, with blood oozing out of her wrist. She sacrificed. Her life.. for me.. For her love. That one thought is enough for me to feel out of control. I look at the dark sky above and scream aloud. Harsh winds blow in the area, blurring the visibility. I shout… shout and shout until I decide what I have to do. The lunar eclipse has begun and even if Khushi’s sacrifice might have ended the black spell, I wouldn’t let the woman who is responsible for her death, live anymore. My brothers Akash and NK are lying on the floor, injured by me. Chandrika and her thirst for unnecessary revenge from my family has crossed every limit. This ends today, I promise myself. Rising from the floor, I march towards Chandrika who is deathly scared seeing me coming for her but she doesn't stop chanting. I kick off the wood burning on the floor along with the other items she was throwing in the fire casting the spell on me to control my body. She still thinks she has a chance to control my mind and body? Huh! I destroy everything that Chandrika had so far accumulated in this room to control me. It's like my body is acting on its own. I don’t know if the spell is making me do this or the angst in me that Chandrika killed my wife. Once I destroy everything else, I turn to Chandrika again. I’m not raised to hurt or kill anyone and definitely not a woman, but Chandrika is an exception for me tonight. Though she is too old to fight me physically, I pull her up and pin her to the pillar behind, holding a knife in my hand to take her life. She keeps continuing her chanting of dark mantras which has begun to annoy me now. So I shut her mouth with my palm and lean over her ears to whisper.

“Hell awaits you Chandrika. Good bye.”

And just when I am about to pierce the dagger in her stomach, I sense something and duck myself down only to hear Chandrika scream in pain and fall on the ground, dead.


“Maa” Mohan cries holding the bloodied dagger in his hand. He was probably going to kill me when I was about to hurt his mother. But when I ducked down, he killed his own mother instead. Probably that’s what Devi Maiyaa wanted. Chandrika’s own son to kill her and thus.. it ends here. Shyam barges inside with the police force and immediately arrest Mohan, whilst calling for ambulances to get NK, Akash and me some medical help. I turn to the phone on the table whose battery is dead and the video call got disconnected. Khushi??? I shut my eyes, kneeling back on the floor, cold and in grief. But my heart is still beating.. and it means my wife is alive too. She can’t die. I know she can’t!!

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

Two hours later I’m at the hospital where the doctors are treating Khushi. After she cut her veins, Sheetal and Daadi brought her here. Now NK and Akash are also getting their wounds treated which is all because of me. Khushi’s Babuji, Payal and her father are all here to support our family. Shyam is the only one who is handling it all alone. I feel for him. Di is getting treated for her condition and though I know Shyam loves her a lot, it will be hard for him to continue having Di as his wife, a woman who hurt this family so much. Plus I’ve heard that ever since Di has got to know from the police that her mother is dead and her brother Mohan is now under their custody too, she has gone way too silent and is not even reacting.


But none of that is my concern for now except knowing that my wife is doing well. My Khushi is doing well. The nurse tries to bandage my bruises but I ignore her and get up from the chair as soon as I see the doctor coming out from the ICU.


“Doctor, my wife?” I ask.

“Khushi is out of danger but it’s strange that despite losing so much of blood her bruises are healing fast.”

I don’t understand but right now that’s the best thing that can happen.

“Can I go meet her?”

“Of course, she is conscious but she was asking for her father.”

Father? No. I need to see her first. I don’t wait for anyone’s permission to rush inside the room. She is lying on the bed, looking absolutely confused and staring at the bandaged wrist.

“Khushi…” I quickly sit next to her on the bed and cup her face. I kiss her forehead, and the next moment she flinches away from me.

“What are you doing?” she angrily asks.

“Khushi I…”

“Where is my Babuji?”

“He is out. But it’s all over, Khushi. You did it. You did it baby.”

“Baby?” she swallows nervously pulling her feet away when I try to touch her.


Why is she acting so weird??

“Khushi?” Her father ushers inside the room and the smile that pops up on her face is beyond pleased.

“Babuji,” she lets him hug her and then cries. “What happened to me? How did I get my wrist hurt?”


I and Shashi Gupta look at each other and then back to Khushi.

“You.. you cut your wrists Khushi.” he replies.

“What?” she has a horrific expression on her face. “I cut my wrists? But why would I do that?”

“Khushi what are you saying?” I try to touch her but she clings to her father, away from me. “Who is he, Babuji?”


I pause my arm in the middle and look stunned at Khushi’s behavior.


“You don’t know me?” I ask to be sure if I really heard that right.

“Of course I don’t know you.”

What the hell!! Shashi Gupta looks equally shocked as he strokes Khushi’s head.

“Khushi, how can you not remember him? He is Arnav, your husband.”


Her mouth hangs open as she stares at her father coldly and then her smile is back.

“Babuji, your sense of humor was never good. But how can you lie something like that? If I’d married, wouldn’t I remember it?”


She doesn't remember we being married? I get up from the bed.

“Khushi you stop playing with us, now,” I scold her. “I am your husband and you are the bride of Sheesh Mahal.”

“Sheeh Mahal? You mean the one that belongs to the Raizada family who comes here every decade for the Maha puja?” she laughs again. “You people have fooled me enough.”


She then turns to her father again.


“Babuji please take me home. I don’t even remember when I got this bruise and you got me here.”


I can’t take this anymore. I walk out of the room to call the doctor and ask her to check Khushi again. Why the hell is she not remembering me or our marriage?

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


Two more hours later and after a few tests, the doctor confirms there is nothing wrong with Khushi’s reports. They did a few brain tests to check if she has any memory issues and that’s why she isn’t remembering us but her tests results were good. Probably the shock and trauma had partially blurred away her memories of our marriage from her head. But Sheetal was sharp enough to predict this and had her own logic and reasoning to why this happened.


“The spell demanded a blood sacrifice which clearly meant she had to die, Arnav,” Sheetal mentions.


I glare at her for using such words.

“But she didn’t. So though the spell broke and everything is back in control, Khushi’s life is intact but her memories are sacrificed. She no longer even remembers meeting you, the Raizada family or anyone of us except her father, Payal and her father.”

“What the hell!!” I mutter annoyed.

“We should be happy that she is alive but how soon she gets her memories back or will she ever remember any of us ever in this life is something we have to worry about now.” Sheetal adds.

“Why is Devi Maiyaa doing this?” Daadi sighs. “She took so much of her and now she even took the memories of Khushi that she is the bride of Sheesh Mahal?”


What kind of fate is this? Just when I thought things will get back to normal for us, and Khushi and I could lead a happy life, she doesn't even remember me? How will our lives go from here on?


“Then we should tell her everything,” Akash suggests.

“No,” the doctor denies. “Telling her all of this at the present can impact her health. Though her reports are normal, we can’t take that risk. Let us give her some time to regain those memories and recover her health. Until then please don’t force her or burden her with this truth.”


I lean back on the wall in aghast. How long will I have to wait for Khushi’s memories to come back?


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

A month later

Obviously, we couldn’t bring Khushi to Sheesh Mahal as she still didn’t know she was my bride and we were husband-wife. She went from hospital to her home in Laxmi Nagar and continued to stay with her father there having no remembrance of my existence but I wasn’t ready to leave her yet. Khushi was my wife and with or without her memories she was still mine. The only way I could meet her now was at the little office of the Raizada trust where she worked on the accounts. Though all of my India work had been completed and we brothers were now needed to focus back on our company in London, I couldn’t leave Khushi and her father here. Shyam had left for Bangalore again after getting the divorce petition signed from Anjali who was now serving the jail term in Delhi along with Mohan. It was decided that Akash and NK will fly to London with Chacha and Chachi and handle the business there while me and Daadi stay back in Sheesh Mahal until Khushi regains her memories of us.. of the relationship we shared.. of the love we had for each other.


Though I always saw her working happily in the little office, she always kept a distance from me. It was like I had to woo her again and this time it was harder than before considering she was back to her ‘touch-me-not’ self. After devouring every inch of her body before, not getting to touch her was torturous. But I’d to control it for her sake.


I hear someone clear her throat to break my stupor. It’s Khushi. She knocks my cabin door too.

“Are you done?”

She is wearing a cute pink Anarkali dress with all the pom poms on her sleeves and dori’s at her back, like the ones she used to wear before our marriage.

“Uh huh,” I quickly give her a hungry once over and then meet her gaze again. Thankfully she was checking her phone when I was admiring her.

“Hey Devi Maiyaa, we are already late. Your family must have reached Payal’s home. C’mon. Let’s go.”

I recall what is happening today. Since Akash and NK have to leave for London, they are not going to do so without getting married to Payal and Sheetal respectively and then take their brides back to London along with them to start their family. I wish I had that privilege too. Today, they were going to exchange rings at Payal’s home amidst only the two families. Khushi had no remembrance of Sheetal as Yogiji’s granddaughter too but in the last one month they had befriended and Khushi liked her instantly.

“Mr. Cuss, we are getting late,” she mentions.


Yes she called me Mr. Cuss because I still used to use the cussing words often before her and the first time I did it, she made me say sorry to Devi Maiyaa again, like she used to do before her memories vanished. This was a relief to us considering that day wasn’t very far when her memories would return.


I get up from my chair grabbing my phone and car keys.


“Let’s go, Miss touch me not,”


She rolls her eyes.

“Don’t call me that. Only because I don’t like men touching me unnecessarily doesn't mean I am a touch-me-not woman,” she argues as we walk out towards my car. “I’ll give that right only to my husband.”

Which is me!! And you have already given me that right over and over again. I wanted to shout that at her but just as Sheetal and the doctors wanted, I continued to take this slow.


I open the car door for her and she gets inside after which I take the driver seat and drive us off the little office. Only I know how I work from this small trust fund temple office and it is only because Khushi works here the full day.


“Technically, it should be you getting married first,” Khushi raises her doubt as we drive towards Laxmi Nagar. “As you are the eldest son of the Raizada family.”


I grin at her question.

“Why are you so interested to know that? It is my wish when I want to get married. And I am going to marry out of love,” I tease her and she shrugs.

“The women of our town don’t marry out of love. They marry according to their parents choice and love happens after marriage.”

“Oh is it? So, would you do the same?”

“I’m never marrying,” she proudly replies. “You see I am a Devi Maiyaa’s devotee. I want to serve her throughout without getting married to anyone.”


Yeah. She used to tell me the same thing even before and yet, she’d agreed to be the bride of Sheesh Mahal.. and my wife earlier. I wonder how would I convince her for all that again this time.?


To be Continued.

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