FF: It's Not Right - Chapter 21

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Chapter 21

Khushi woke up with a smile on her face. It was still early but she felt as if she'd been sleeping her whole life and only now had she truly woken up. She got out of bed quietly to watch the sun rise. It was so much more vibrant and colourful today than it had ever been before.

When Khushi took her phone out of the drawer just before leaving for work she looked at in shock. Seven missed calls from Arnav? Was it possible that he was just as impatient to speak to her as she was about him? Was it even possible that Arnav had feelings for her too? Khushi's hands paused over the buttons. Did she want to call him back? What if what she was thinking wasn't even remotely true? No, she'd call him later, rejection was not on her plan for this morning and it was better to put it off until later.

As soon as Khushi got to work Abhi pounced on her, 'someone looks happy today! I take it you had another successful visit to the Raizada Mansion yesterday?'

'What? No, I'm always happy,' Khushi said as she walked into her office still thinking about the seven missed calls and Abhi followed. 'Besides, I didn't go there yesterday. I was ill, remember?'

'Well then why are you so happy today? I mean extra-happy. You look all pretty and shiny today.'

'I don't look pretty normally?' Khushi tried to control her smile as Abhi pulled her down to sit on the chair.

'I know something happened, Khushi. Tell me, please!'

'Okay, okay.'

Abhi moved his chair over closer to Khushi so their knees were touching.

'Erm... Arnavji came to visit me yesterday.' Khushi smiled shyly as she remembered the visit.

'And?' Abhi asked warily. He wasn't sure he liked where this was going.

'He... he found out I was ill and he came to visit me.' Khushi smiled at Abhi before her smile started to fade at his expression. 'Abhi? What's wrong?'

Abhi's face had fallen as he saw the joy on Khushi's face. 'I thought it was just a crush but you... you really like him don't you?'

'What? Abhi, why are you... what's wrong?'

Abhi stood up agitated, 'Khushi, how can you do this? You know what he's like! He was horrible to you! And now he visits you one day when you're ill and suddenly you're in love with him?!'

Khushi stood up as well, 'what? No, I'm not in love with him! And he... I mean all those things...it's not...' Khushi couldn't control her tears. She'd thought Abhi would be happy for her, he'd practically encouraged her with all those mentions of her liking Arnav and now he was behaving so weirdly.

'Oh God, Khushi, I'm sorry.' Abhi pulled Khushi into a hug and stroked her hair, 'I'm sorry. I just don't want you to get hurt.'

Arnav pushed open the door sneering at the sight that greeted him. 'So exactly how many men are you stringing along?'

Khushi and Abhi broke apart confused. 'Arnavji? What are you doing here?'

Arnav was in no mood for Khushi's wide eyed innocence. He had been angry anyway on the way over here but seeing her hugging Abhinav had pushed him over the edge. 'What do you think of yourself Khushi Kumari Gupta? You really thought you could mess with Arnav Singh Raizada's family and get away with it?!'

'What? What are you talki...'

Arnav reached over and grabbed Khushi's shoulders, 'how dare you even look at my sister's husband!'

Abhi pulled Khushi away from Arnav almost as soon as he'd finished talking and stood in between the two acting as a shield for Khushi. 'What the hell do you think you're doing?! Don't you dare touch her again!'

'You stay out of this, this has nothing to do with you!'

'If it's to do with Khushi, then it's to do with me! So you either calm down or get out!'

Khushi stood in shock behind Abhi. She'd never even met Anjaliji's husband and Arnav was accusing her of trying to steal him? She looked over Abhi's shoulder to Arnav and then again at Abhi's back. Not 5 minutes ago she had been attempting to defend Arnav to Abhi and here he was proving Abhi right.

Arnav took a few deep breaths as he controlled the urge to punch Abhinav in the face. 'Khushi are you or are you not engaged to my Jeejaji?'

Abhi and Khushi looked at each other confused, 'what?' They spoke in sync.

'I don't even know your Jeejaji!'

'And why the hell would she get engaged to a married man?'

'That's what I want to know! Why the hell is your aunt telling me that you and 'Shyam babua' are engaged?!'

'Shyamji?' 'Shyam?' Abhi and Khushi spoke at the same time again before they looked at each other communicating their confusion with their eyes. Abhi had met Shyam a few times and he had already expressed his dislike to Khushi and even Khushi's father but this was not at all what he'd been expecting

'Khushi! Look at me when I'm talking to you!

Khushi instantly looked at Arnav but she couldn't find the words she wanted to say.

'Are you saying that Shyam is your brother-in-law?'

'Yes! And Khushi is engaged to him!'

'No! She is not!' Abhi bit out Arnav, his own voice rising to match the other man's.

Khushi stepped to the side so she could see Arnav a bit better, 'Shyamji... he... I didn't know. I didn't know he was married. He told us he had no family. And I'm not... engaged to him.' She trailed off weakly as Arnav's face wasn't losing any of its hardness.

'Khushi don't lie to me!' Arnav moved forward to grab Khushi again when Abhi pushed him out of the way.

'I said, don't touch her!' Abhi walked over to the door holding Khushi behind him with one hand and opened it. 'I've had enough of you and your accusations! Why don't you go and ask your Jeejaji why he's been living at Khushi's house for the past 6 months and why he's never even mentioned you? I want you to get out of my office now before I have you thrown out!'

Khushi watched as Arnav pushed a chair aside angrily before he left.

'Khushi are you okay?'

Khushi almost fell down on the chair behind her and Abhi knelt next to her holding her hands in his. 'I don't know. I don't understand. Shyamji? Anjaliji? Why is Buaji saying I'm engaged? I don't...'

'Shhh, shhh.' Abhi sat up and hugged her and stroked her back trying to stop her tears.

***

Arnav slammed the door as he got into his car. Why did he always let his anger get the better of him? He'd known Khushi was innocent and still he'd come here to goad her and provoke her. Why?

All of the calls on her bill to Jeejaji had only ever been a few minutes long, nothing that could amount to a relationship and were eclipsed by far by the almost hour long phone calls to Abhinav every other night. Arnav knew Khushi would never do something like that to anyone let alone someone she considered a friend like Anjali. He had even managed to subtly draw the conversation towards Jeejaji and Khushi this morning at breakfast and Di had mentioned how they still hadn't met even though Khushi apparently wanted to.

He knew why he had come here so angrily. It would have just been so much easier if Khushi was trying to trap his Jeejaji, Arnav thought. It was a much easier scenario for him to deal with than the fact that the brother-in-law he had trusted so implicitly could turn out to be so duplicitous.