White Flag

Chapter One

- Broken Wings -

"I'm surprised your still here?" Arnav said his detached tone desecrating her as nothing had till now.

Was she so unworthy now?

Didn't any of this matter to him...didn't she matter?

Would she ever matter?

Here she at the doorway to his room, and he hadn't even bothered to turn...he just knew. He would always know, just as she would.

Always.

For a second it all stopped. The world stood still and she realized that still ' even now all she wanted was him to know. To care.

God she loved him.

"Chote?" asked a hesitant voice from behind her, and Khushi spun around, her hand at her heart. Anjalii? With him in this mood...Hain Devi Maiyan...

"Chote'you can't to this to him..."

But Arnav Singh Raizada was not called the decade's most prolific businessman for sluggish reflexes. Quite the contrary. "Out."

One word.

Enough.

And just when she'd thought he couldn't get any more brutal, he'd proved her wrong.

She watched persistently mute as the sister who had meant the world to him, sank down, before him, sobbing, begging him to listen.

"Chote...

...you have to understand'

...he was going to leave...I just...

...I couldn't let him leave.

...he said he just wanted to talk to her."

Then just as Khushi was about to step in and say something in her defense...explain why she'd refused to be in the same room with him 'explain that it wasn't her fault...he turned around. What she saw terrified her. His eyes were colder than the marble flooring under her bare feet.

"Do you realize... he asked, his voice softer than a feather touch "... 'Di'...that because of you, because you refused to listen when Khushi said she didn't want to be alone with him, because you plotted she was trapped in a room with a man who tried to..." his voice broke ever so slightly, "...to rape her."

"Chote...you have to listen..Shyamji said she was lyi'"

"Not. Another. Word. Am I clear?" Snapped Arnav fiercely, his entire body trembling in rage.

Sucking in a much needed breath, Khushi watched mesmerized as she saw a side to Arnav she'd never seen before, but for that one time at Naintal.

Silence thundered in the Raizada house, making Anjaliji's pitiful sob's only more heart wrenching, as Arnav stood statuesque as before but for the nerve throbbing on his temple. His voice, was a bare rasp, as he detachedly demanded that his sister leave his sight.

The silence that ensued was deafening.

Minutes like hours passed by...and only when it was devastatingly evident that there was nothing Anjali could say that would have the least impact on the brother that had once worshiped her, that she dragged herself to her feet, flinching away when Khushi attempted naively to help her up.

"This is your fault." She spat, looking venomously into Khushi's still tear stricken eyes, "All of this is.." and then all on a sudden she wasn't looking at her anymore, but instead at a outstretched hand and a half rolled sleeve.

"Don't." he bit out.

"You would believe her over me, Chote? You would choose her?" Anjali screeched, denial raging through her, this was not how it was supposed to happen.

She was his sister.

He was supposed to pick her!

"Leave. Now."