Chapter 30

arshiforever123

@arshiforever123

A Twist of Events Ch. 27

Arnav got off the couch and tried prying the floorboard completely off. Within a few mere seconds, he was successful and the floorboard was removed, revealing a small opening containing a folded, slightly wrinkled, yellowed page.

He opened it slowly to reveal neat and unrecognizable writing, covered by smudges indicating the presence of either water or tears at one point in time.

November 18, 1980

My Dear Aarti,

Please forgive me. Forgive me for leaving you, for leaving our children. As you have probably figured out by now,( due to my absence for these past few months) I have left this world and there is no intention of my returning. I do not know exactly when you will find this letter hidden beneath a loose floorboard in the room I know you so dearly love- The room with our most cherished memories; I vividly remember those nights, staring out at that lovely garden of yours as we watched the moon set and the sunset appear, sitting peacefully, awaiting for the birth of our first child, and then our next. but when you do find it, I can  only hope it has reached you on time.

Aarti, I need you to know I did not die in a car crash, I did not fall off a cliff, I did not commit suicide. No, I did none of those; I would never leave you or our children willingly. Everything you have been told by Kavindra is false, it's a lie; its all a part of his  bigger scheme. Do not trust him Aarti. I..I love you dearly, you will never understand how much you mean to me. You need to know what has happened, the truth from the beginning.

I was young when my mother died due to a fever. My father, a few years later remarried and sometime later had a son. This is the man known today as Kavindra Malik. My step mother despised me, she hated the very sight of me and would never waste an opportunity to remind me how I was nobody to her, just a bas***d. You may have seen some of this side of hers that day I brought you to my home declaring to my family I wanted to marry you. You never met my father as he had already deceased by then. He died when I was 20 years old. But he was a very caring man, much different than my step mother. After his death, my step mother would have kicked me out if it wasn't for the will my father had left insisting that I live in my home and take care of the business.

And this caused even more of a rift between me and my step mother and brother. By my inheriting the business rather than Kavindra, I was hated even more in their eyes. But unfortunately there was nothing they could do about it. I took care of the business and then I met you. Those months in which I courted you were some of the best in my life. My stepmother insisted against our marriage, she would never allow it, but by that point I had become a grown man and would not let her decisions empower mine. I did not give her any right to choose my life for me, so I married you and as you know, we moved out, out of that hellhole.

This angered Kavindra even more. You may not have known, but he developed feelings for you (this was the reason my step mother wouldn't allow our marriage- because she wanted you for her son)But you married me, infuriating Kavindra. You gave me my children and I was the happiest man alive, I didn't care about any business, any power or wealth. My wealth was the happiness I found with you and our children. But Kavindra was jealous; in his eyes I had everything, while he was left with nothing. He wanted my happiness. And he would go to extent to get it.

Im pretty sure you may have now understood this predicament and seen that the cause of my death was not any suicide or crash, but rather, my own brother. This is why I lay here on my deathbed, writing to you. You need to save yourself, our children. Do not fall prey to the clutches of that wicked man, please...please Im begging you. Run. Run

And I can only hope and pray that by the time you have read this letter it isn't too late.

I need you to know, there is nothing you could have done to stop this. This death was inevitable, just a matter of time. Please, never blame yourself. You will never understand how I will never forgive myself, for not watching my little princess Anjali grow up to be just like her loving mother, for not being there to watch my two month old son, Arnav, take his first steps or hear him utter his first words. I will forever rue the day I let Kavindra Malik be a step ahead of me.

Please just  take care of yourself. I love you

                Yours,

                                Raghav

Arnav set the crumpled sheet aside and wiped his tears off his face. But to no avail; they flowed freely down his face. His father was unsuccessful- his letter had reached his mother either too late or had never reached her as she had ended up in Kavindra Maliks unforgiving, steel grip. How he despised that man. First killing his father, then his mother, and was now after Khushi. Arnav could only hope against all hope that she was still alive and breathing. He wouldn't know how to live without her. He couldn't live without her. No...no she was still alive...she had to be.

As he knelt on the floor, his head in his hands as guilt and sadness consumed him, two things were happening in that moment that he was unaware of. The first was the relentless ringing of his silent phone. The second was the man moving stealthily behind him holding a large metal rod ready to whip it across his head.

The unknown man's presence had only become apparent to Arnav once he was smacked mercilessly across the back of his head. The last thing he remembered before everything went black was a pounding head and a blurry silhouette of an unrecognizable man tower above him tying him up.

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