Chapter 1: Khushi

Khushi hurried through the corridors of Shantivan, her thoughts darting in a million directions. She had just had the most horrifying encounter of her life, with her ex-fiancé Shyam-ji.
Whose back she had seen in the pooja downstairs and had walked towards on the terrace. In the one place she had never anticipated him to be.
Who she had thrown her ring at.
On whose face she had dealt the most satisfying slap.
Who was already married. To Anjali-ji.

She ground to a halt. Anjali-ji and her family, with that man in it, would soon be her sister's.
Her sister's upcoming engagement! Amma's and Bua-ji's happiness at finding someone so perfect for Jiji!
What would happen to Jiji and Akash-ji, when his family found out the truth about Shyam-ji? They wouldn't want to be associated with her family anymore, they would feel hurt and betrayed. Mami-ji would seize this as the perfect reason to prevent the marriage from happening.

She also reached deep down to acknowledge her relief that she now had an even better reason than before to break her own engagement. She knew how much Bua-ji liked Shyam-ji, and she had seen his "good heart" when he looked after her and her family; but her mind, fully against her will, wandered to another person currently in the same house.

The diyas lighting up the pool and his face…his eyes glowing as he leaned closer to her...how her breath seemed, for a second, to taste of him…

She shoved it all away as she walked again. It was wrong to remember that moment with any tenderness, as Arnav-ji had soured the night so badly with his harsh words and discarded her for Lavanya-ji without a second thought.

Lost in contemplation of her dilemma, Khushi blindly rushed past that same pool and bumped into the man from her memories. As though from a huge distance, she heard a smash as his cup of tea reached the ground, and unseeing eyes fell on Arnav-ji's face shouting, "What the..! Can't you watch where you're walking?!"

She shakily knelt and began to pick up the shards, as if it would help her pick up the pieces of her own shattered life.

"Khushi, I'm asking you something!"

Past events flashed in her mind's eye: Getting Jiji and Akash-ji to meet and realise how much they needed each other. Nani-ji happily asking Bua-ji and Amma and Babu-ji for Jiji's hand. Jiji and Akash-ji walking hand in hand back to the car. Mami-ji barely smiling as she agreed to their marriage under her terms.

A softer version of her name floated down, but her distress didn't ease.
She saw a movement on her side. The same eyes levelled with hers, concerned this time.
"Khushi, what happened to you?"
His kind tone was almost more than she could take. She started trembling uncontrollably.
His hands reached out to her shoulders to steady her; his touch was like fire and ice.

He slowly stood up, taking her upright with him. Though she felt his gaze burn into her, she still couldn't look back at him properly, she felt so full of shame and fear.

A bit more forceful, probing for clarity. "Khushi, is there a problem at home?"
She thought about the problem right here, tainting both their homes.
Shyam-ji using every means possible to get uncomfortably close to her. Anjali-ji smiling with longing every time she mentioned her husband away from her for work. Shyam-ji putting the ring on her right hand. Anjali-ji putting the ring back on her left hand for her.

"Do you need something?"
He softly pressed her shoulders, causing Khushi's heart to stop for a beat.
Why was he holding her like this? Being so gentle and soothing? Where was this man a week ago when she needed him?

Arnav-ji said her name lightly once more, then seemed to come out of a spell. He let go of her, and she saw a flash of guilt cross his face. It was too much.
He had nothing to feel guilty for. He didn't know what had just happened.
She needed to touch him, to know that he was still really there with her. She grabbed his shoulder and finally let the dam holding back her emotional turmoil break.

Arnav-ji sounded alarmed now. "Khushi?!"
She fumbled for the right words to tell him about the terrace and what she'd been through.

A tinge of desperation, she could hear how badly he wanted to help. "Khushi…Khushi…what happened to you?"
He tried to soothe her by shushing her, but the painful vision of Anjali-ji crying the same way she was right now, because of her, kept her tears flowing.

A pause. He seemed lost in contemplation.

"Khushi, did your fiancé do something to you?"

At that, she took a breath. Now was her chance!

She looked up at him, partially in relief that he was on the right track, and partially to gauge what kind of mindset he was in from his expression. Would he listen to her?

"What did he do?" His voice was lower, she felt his anger building up.

She steeled herself to say: His jija-ji is a liar and a scoundrel! His jija-ji is her fiancé! He is cheating on his wife! He is lying to her family!

"Khushi, what did your fiancé do? Did he try to hurt you?!"

Her mind screamed the words she was frantic to tell him: Yes, he has! He's broken my trust, my family's trust and your family's trust! Listen to what he's done, and then go beat him up!

She was ready to speak, to tell him everything.
"What he did to me was…"

But then she stopped. Remembered all the times she had tried to tell Arnav-ji something important.
She didn't sabotage his fashion show in Sheesh Mahal. She wasn't a corporate spy. She did have to go save her sister's wedding. She did hit his car by accident. She didn't mean to start working at his office. She did knock on the door before coming into his office. She had been in danger at the guesthouse and tried to call him. She hadn't spoiled the sweets at the anniversary party. She had been given permission by his sister to be in his house.

All those incidents had one thing in common.
He didn't believe anything she said. Her word was mud to him; he would immediately start spouting the same nonsense about a "girl like her" with her "status and class" who would "do anything for money".
Every time he had either ignored what she was saying, or he had gotten the same truth from someone else, and then finally believed her.

She would sound completely crazy, even more than usual, if she tried to tell him the whole truth right now.
Even running through the events as she had pieced them all together sounded incredibly farfetched, and she was part of them!
How would he see it? Nothing more than the ramblings of a lunatic versus his trusted and respected jija-ji.

Her sentence had trailed off in the time it took to come to this conclusion, and Arnav-ji was getting impatient now.
"Tell me, Khushi!"

She opened her mouth to try a different approach and looked into his eyes. So much like Anjali-ji's eyes.
Their bond was beyond brother and sister. She thought about them at the temple, him telling her that she was his whole world. Her tying a rakhi on the one person who doesn't believe in religious festivals but who fasts with her on that special day and accepts only her blessings. The panic in his voice as he saw her out of her brace and in pain, as he yelled at her to walk carefully.

Anjali-ji would be the one cheated on, but they would both be broken.

She considered not telling them and figuring out a solution on her own to spare them the pain.
But her mother's voice echoed through her head, from a time she caught Khushi sharing her homework with her classmate. "No, Khushi. That would help now, but hurt more later."

She heaved a small sigh while thinking of all the lives that would be ruined by what she had found out, then squared her shoulders as she reaffirmed that she needed to do this properly.

It was too important to her that Arnav-ji and Anjali-ji understood Shyam-ji's deceit, and and acted as quickly as possible, without stopping to think if she was right. She needed to make it completely clear that she was right.
She had finally realised something about Arnav-ji: he needed something more solid than her words.
He needed proof.

She would not say anything…yet. She was ready to start explaining right now, but she acknowledged the sad truth that, without a way to confirm her story, there was small hope that Arnav-ji would help her.

Unless…
Maybe she could find something at home if she hurried there, while Shyam-ji was here?