CHAPTER 4
Khushi was in the centre of the fire, in a panic state, she didn't know how come it spread in under the few minutes, may be she wasn't wrong when she had entered the room and she could smell kerosene oil, however, she was too lost and hurt to pay attention this detail.
Heat all around her was hard to bare, the smoke was making it difficult for her to breathe, she covered her face with her dupatta.
"Help!" she shouted, and screamed, as wood and clothes all around burnt, and she knew she was going to be eaten by the aggressive flames. Arnav as soon as he heard her shouts he was running to see what had happened.
Seeing her caught in between the fire, his heart jumped in hid throat. He looked around, it was hard to grab a water to quench the fire, he would not have gone to ask for help, he had to do whatever it was possible for him.
"Khushi!" he shouted, quickly he grabbed a shawl from the cot in the courtyard. He didn't care about himself and ran through the fire.
"Khushi, don't panic, I am here!"
She was angry to see him.
"No, just go from here, I don't need any help from you, let me just die here!" she shouted. He looked around, fire instead of calming was spreading mpre and more.
"Khushi, don't be a child just lets get out of here!"
"I would prefer dying, rather taking help from you!" she retorted.
Arnav wrapped a shawl around her and mounted her in his arms. For some reason she was not denying his help now. A broken wood covered in fire was falling towards them, Arnav moved her away and let it fall on his own back and head. He somehow let it drop down on the floor, and luckily his clothes hadn't catches fire.
Khushi screamed. "Arnav ji, are you fine?" she asked. He had no time to answer her, he had to get out of the room, before aggressive fire had chewed them up.
"Cover your face, Khushi!"
She dug her face in his chest and he pushed the things that came in his way. He broke the door by kicking it, and it fell outside. And he walked through the fire as fast as he could.
"We are safe!" he said. She looked at him as her face was covered in tears. He put her down. "Are you alright? I hope you didn't get any burns!"
"This fire was nothing, Arnav ji," she said. "It couldn't even kill me then your betrayal did."
He was looking at her.
"Did you set yourself on fire?" he asked in anger.
"Yes!" she said. "By loving you and marrying you. I had set myself on fire on that day itself..."
He walked to the courtyard, and looked at the night sky. He had tried every way to stay calm, but she was now really hurt by his actions.
"I didn't cheat you, Khushi!" he muttered. The crinkling sound of the fire killed the silence of the night.
"What do I believe in?" she said.
"I have my reasons behind all this!" he said, and thought he had to, to save his love.
"The land and this Haveli that I have taken, Khushi. Belongs to my dead parents!"
Her eyes widened in shock, and her land slipped underneath her feet. Her mind was always thinking if this was the truth that he was not ready to tell her.
"If I had wanted I could have taken everything, why just the land along the lake side and this Haveli? This land was taken from my parents 27 years ago, forcefully. By your father...And your brothers are in the jail due to their own bad deeds!"
Her eyebrows scrunched. "What did they do?" she asked the most important question in her head.
"On that land they are doing illegal stuff!"
She laughed, as she wasn't ready to believe him. "Here you will say anything and I will believe it? I know my brothers very well and I know what bad deeds they must have done. And by the way, why were you afraid to tell me this?"
"Because I didn't want you to hate them...It is okay, if you think you still want divorce from me. I will give you. But Khushi, I didn't use you. I genuinely love you. I only got to know that it was your father who forcefully took my parents property after one week later of our marriage...
"And I never said I don't love you. Or used you to get what I wanted. You were hurt because I got my parents justice by getting that land for whom they had worked all their life..."
She was shaking her head. "My father can't do this, and my brothers doing illegal things, is not true. I know it. They can't do anything such!"
"I know you won't believe me, you can go and ask your father itself! I have told you everything, rest depends on you!"
She was in a dilemma. Whatever reason he gave her seemed to be the truth.
"Khushi, you told me you trust me, where did that trust go now?"
She walked up to him, and cupped his face, "Arnav ji, I still trust you," she said. "I knew there was some reason behind what you were doing, I said you mean words was because I wanted to hear what made you do all that you did!"
He was surprised and literally felt tonnes of weight lifted off his shoulder. "You were acting?" he asked.
She nodded her head. "Yes, I was, Arnav ji. I knew you will hurt yourself but not tell me the real reason. You will let me hate you, but my family."
He smiled.
"Arnav ji, I know you love me and you will never use me, but I am not ready to believe that my father and brother are involved in a bad stuff. I love you, but not blind trust you that I will believe anything wrong against my family..."
"You don't trust me?" he asked in disbelief.
"Not on this part!" she said.
Now he was angry, "What kind of trust is that, Khushi?" he asked. "It is basically to prove me wrong?!"
"It's nothing like that, Arnav ji!"
"It is, Khushi. I need to give you a proof of telling that your father took my parents land? Hell with it," he shouted, and shoved her hand away, "seriously don't need your trust."
"You are misunderstanding me, Arnav ji!"
"Yeah of course, I am, Khushi. I am misunderstanding you! And you know what, if I had to use you I would have done without even caring to marry you...I have told you everything, now believe or not."
She smiled, "you are getting mad for no reason, Arnav ji, I didn't say I trust you...All I am saying is my father can't do whatever you are saying. May be the truth is hidden from you, it might be someone else!"
"Who is living in this Haveli?" he shouted. "Who owned that lakeside land? It's not a joke, Khushi. For you it might, but not for me. And remember this, I only know who took the land, and the day I came to know who killed my parents, I will not leave that person alive. Police is doing their job, and if it turned out to be your father, he is gone! Also, if I had to react without knowing, I would have got your father arrested long time ago..."
Khushi's world now had turned upside down. "Your parents were killed?" she asked in a tone full of pain.
There were a tears of rage in his eyes. "You know what, we are taking a divorce. Let me tell you this I am alive till today because that person is still alive somewhere who took my parents life, and the day that person came in front of me, he is going to be strangled to death! Also, I am not that weak that I have to use a woman for my purpose..." he fumed and turned on his heels to leave.
"What did I do?" she thought, and kept her hand over her mouth. "Arnav ji, please listen me..."
She ran after him.
"Arnav ji, please I am really sorry, I didn't know about your parents. Please don't say so that you will give me divorce," she said as she reached closed to him, and kept her pace fast to meet his own. She kept her hand on his shoulder, but he shoved it away, as he kept walking at a faster pace. "I only was doing this to know the truth that was bugging you...I didn't want to hurt you! Arnav ji, we will find about the truth, the person who killed our parents," she said, but it seemed like he was hardly listening her. Tears of agony was in his eyes.
"Please forgive me!"
"Khushi, go home."
"No. I am not going to leave you alone," she said.
He turned his ear deaf to her pleas. "Her father was a murderer?" she thought , and it completely killed her. What was happening, she was unable to understand. And now only one person had answer her was her own father...
Edited by NidhiAS.Raizada - 11 years ago
Cricket
Anupamaa
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