Chapter 54

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtOvBOTyX00[/YOUTUBE]

Things were happening so fast and so crazy that no one had the time to sit and think through what had happened. There were so many things that happened. Khushi hugged Lavanya, Arnav hugged Vinay, Akash hugged Diya. There were so many emotions lingering in the air but none matched the one that brimmed in NK's eyes. Ariadne stood there in flesh and blood and he still wasn't sure whether he was dreaming or was she for real. Tears were cascading down her face but she was also smiling. Relief was clearly etched on her beautiful face. She was walking towards him, very slowly, as though she was afraid of each step she took. NK gulped before his hands automatically raised to meet hers mid air. They were still a feet apart from each other but their hands were dying to make contact. As soon as their fingers touched each other's, NK felt a powerful current pass through him. That's how he knew that she was for real, that his girl was really here, that he was really in front of the dream. Her eyes spoke to him, pleaded him and he knew that she had gone through a lot. He could see that, he could feel her pain course through him. He knew that something was terribly wrong. He grasped her and pulled her close to him and that was it. She broke down completely in his arms. Both sank to the ground, unsure of how much longer can they bear standing, completely into each other. It was years that he had seen her. He still couldn't believe that she actually came looking for him. He somehow knew she had since her face didn't hide any emotion. He could read Ariadne like an open book. He muted everything else around him. All chaos dissolved into nothingness and all that mattered was her.

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Vinay was still in total shock. He couldn't even move his hands to hug his brother in law back, since he was totally frozen and in a trance. This moment felt impossible for him from a few months, since he came to know why Arnav hated him so much and he had almost believed that Arnav was never going to forgive him for all the trauma he went through. But it was still happening. Arnav was actually hugging him. He didn't know why but all that he knew was he had probably earned Arnav's forgiveness.

Anjali's touch broke the trance and they moved away. Everyone were staring at them but Vinay looked at Arnav to see him smiling. A genuine smile that lit his eyes. He didn't say a word though. He just turned and walked away. Anjali looked at Vinay and that brief eye contact told Vinay that Anjali was happier than she had ever been. That initial shock of Arnav doing something impossible had worn off and she looked ecstatic that her hopes weren't trampled. There were no more conversations exchanged as everyone followed Arnav outside, completely oblivious to another blissful reunion that was happening right there. Not that NK would have wanted anyone to break that spell.

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"I am so glad that you are okay," Akash couldn't care less that his cousin was standing there with Diya's sister and both were smirking at him. He was just really glad that Diya was fine. She smiled, exhausted and just collapsed onto a platform and let out a deep breath. She tried to find her strength back to reply back to him but just couldn't. All this unwanted drama had taken the life out of her and she was still clueless that how she got into this mess. She felt Akash sitting beside her, throw his arm around her and she instinctively leaned into him, wanting that warmth and comfort. Her sister and his cousin were still shamelessly giggling but she didn't give a damn. She would take care of Khushi later.

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Vinay followed Arnav outside the warehouse, still having no idea what the heck was going on. Anjali, Lavanya and others followed them too, still finding hard to believe anything that was happening. But Arnav just got into his car and revved the engine, without speaking a word. There were people missing. Akash, Diya and NK weren't there but Chris told them to go ahead and he will bring them all home since they had another car. Vinay and others got into the car and Arnav drove off without uttering one single word.

Chris went back and saw Akash hugging Diya sideways and it was positively cute. He had always suspected that something was cooking between these two and he was thrilled to know he was right. He just apologised for ruining their moment and asked them to wait by their car. What he didn't expect when he went inside the warehouse was seeing NK with a woman. They were clutching each other tightly and he could see NK crying which positively alarmed him. He yelled NK's name, which broke their moment and NK hurried to get up from the floor. "What's the matter," he asked NK but received no reply. NK just wiped his tears off, smiled at him and said softly, "I will tell you later. Shall we leave, where are the others?"

"Nannav hugged Vinay jiju?" NK's eyes turned huge like tennis balls, "What?!"

"Yeah, but is that even a problem?" NK's reaction baffled Chris.

"You will see," NK huffed and ran out to the car, holding that woman's hand. Chris officially thought he was at cuckoo house because he couldn't make sense out of anything. Neither could Akash or Diya but they just got into the car and drove off, to see the ultimate conversation that was about to happen...

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Devyani looked up at the noise and stared at the scene. Everyone just waltzed in out of nowhere. All she knew that everyone were at the hospital till and then she didn't know where everyone had disappeared. What she didn't know was that Arnav was back and as usual, didn't bother informing anyone. Her son and daughter in law, who were sitting and sipping tea, looked up in confusion to see this big group coming in and were alarmed to see Arnav back and walking straight upstairs.

Vinay stopped in confusion and turned towards him, "what is the matter with him?"

Anjali shrugged, not having a clue what was going on. They all had one of the most weirdest car rides where none of them spoke a word and were all waiting to see what Arnav had to say but he had said nothing and just brought them home. Now he had just disappeared into his room and none of them knew what to make of it. Vinay contemplated going up but then chose not to for the sake of his own sanity and everyone just chose to sit down. All of them were exhausted to bone.

Manorama voiced the collective confusion, "what is wrong and when did Arnav come back and where did he go now?"

"I dont know," Lavanya finally answered. "We are all waiting for him to speak. He hasn't said one word since a long time but..." she trailed off as she saw him walk downstairs with a huge album. Okay what the hell was happening. Just then, everyone else came inside. Chris, NK, Akash, Diya and Ariadne, the woman who helped Diya escape. They just stared around in confusion and when their eyes fell on Arnav, everyone just froze in their place.

Vinay got up to see Arnav coming near him and handing him over a large file. He took that in confusion and opened to reveal the most exquisite paintings he had seen in his life. He knew Arnav was great at drawing since he was a top designer but did not have the slightest clue that Arnav was also a fantastic painter. He looked up at him, still not understanding where was all this going. The paintings were beautiful, depicting so many things but in every painting, one thing was common. A little girl. Then adding two + two, Vinay knew it had something to do with Arnav's love... the one he had painfully squished. Knowingly or unknowingly...

"You probably are wondering what happened to me, why was I acting like a loon all of a sudden and why am I giving you these paintings to look at," Arnav finally spoke, "it is because this was the only distraction I had for fifteen long years, when I thought I had lost everything. She only remained in my thoughts and the only image that came to me was how she looked the last morning I saw her. She was in the church, preparing bouquets for every vase, cutting down roses and humming as she did it. This was before all the chaos ensued and I lost the most important person of my life."

"Arnav I am..." Vinay tried to cut in but Arnav shushed him, "no listen to me..."

Vinay couldn't speak. He knew where this story was going on. Arnav had heard the conversation he had with his family about the fire in orphanage and he had known that Vinay was the root cause of all this shit. He tried to speak but was tongue tied. However, Arnav continued.

"Arnav," Vinay spoke softly, "I know how you feel about me..." but Arnav cut him yet again, "I am not done yet. I thought that everything was over. She was gone forever but that hatred burned a hole through my heart and gave me a passion to prove your bloody guts wrong and honour her life. I split from you, from this family and took to carve my own life. I decided to weave Chippu's dreams and memories into my life and worked hard to achieve what she had envisioned for me. She always knew that would be an artist. She had told that to my face a thousand times. She knew in her heart that I would follow what she told me and I did. Your decision for Di was the final nail and it launched me into the path that I was to follow and look where I am now. I am all me, I created my life from scratch and I am very proud of it. But the bottom line was it was you who pushed me to the line of fire. It was you, in the final, that made me create the life and I cannot thank you enough for that!"

Vinay looked dumbstruck at the momentous explanation Arnav gave. Even though he practically had ruined Arnav's life, he thanked him for pushing him into creating a better version of himself and Vinay had no answer to that. He just stared at Arnav, not brave enough to speak a word. Arnav smiled and continued, "you have saved my life twice. Not once but twice. I know you are confused but let me explain. The love and those potent feelings I had for Chipps would have destroyed my life if you hadn't gone out of your way to save yours and in the meantime rip that apart from me. As I said, the love I had at that age would have destroyed me but it didn't. It gave me courage to carve myself and rise again. You pushed me to the deepest pits only to pull me out to light again and today, you saved my life again when you held the fort when everything else was crashing around. You saved her and you have saved my life and I cannot thank you enough!" Arnav pointed at Khushi, who had tears falling on her cheeks. "You saved her and you saved my life..."

Khushi slowly walked to the middle of the hall and clasped Arnav's hands. She had some confusion in her her eyes but she was still bold enough to proclaim her love in front of everyone and Vinay could see that in the way those two regarded each other. It wasn't just love. It was devotion.

"I am so happy Arnav that you found love again in your life..." Vinay said meekly, "I am sorry for taking that away from you. I am sorry that I took your Chippu away..."

"But you haven't..." Arnav smiled. Vinay looked baffled. Arnav smiled and said, "you only took her away to get her back to me... as I said, you have saved my life twice."

"What do you mean?" Vinay asked, wringing his hands, extremely nervous.

Vinay couldn't make sense out of anything. He just looked around confusedly until Arnav cleared the air, "remember I told you that my happiness would never be back?"

Vinay just nodded but Arnav smiled broadly, "but guess what, my happiness is back, literally. My Chippu, my life, my love is back and she is standing right next to me."

Vinay gasped as the revelation hit him like a freight train. The girl who had looked him in the eye and told that he would never be happy with his decision was the same girl who stood right in front of him, looking queasy. Arnav just clasped her hand and smiled again, "you have given me back my life and I cannot be more thankful!"

Vinay stared at those bright green eyes, the ones that had given him sleepless nights but those didn't not have hatred in them for him. They had only respect. She smiled at him and clasped his hands, "thank you. Thank you for looking after him. Thank you for giving him that love and the life he has today. You will be relieved to know that no one was killed that night, when the fire broke out in the orphanage. I know it wasn't the best decision of yours and you have regretted that more than anyone else. Arnav told me how you have suffered. I know it is hard for you to come to terms with it but in some form, you have changed our lives for the better. All of ours. We were all like frogs in the well, finding happiness in the life we had but you thought us to dream big. You snatched the only home we had to give all of us a better one. Now that I see how well every kid I grew up with is doing in his or her life, I can't be more prouder. But the thing I am most thankful for is that you have been there for my Arnav when no one else was. He was always protective of me and he was my everything. My parent, my sibling, my best friend and my protector but there was no one who was that for him. No one gave him that love of a father, a brother or a best friend. He needed that and he got all that from you. Don't mind Arnav for being so rude to you all these years, he hasn't had the best behavior when he is angry and he takes things a little too personally."

Vinay couldn't speak, he was just too touched. The burden of almost a decade was melted within seconds by these two amazing people and it was so great that he felt light headed. He tried to speak but couldn't so he just embraced both of them tightly and put all that emotion in that hug, hoping they would understand and they did. They did understand. The amount of maturity these two brought forth astounded him and robbed him of any word but he didn't mind for words were never suffice to convey your truest feelings. They were all mirrored by your heart and your eyes and right now, the respect that shone in Arnav's eyes was the biggest, greatest gift of his life.