CHAPTER 17: ON HIS DEMAND

(SHOT)

Rahul entered the basement of the Raizada mansion and furiously closed the door behind him with the loud bang and jerked the old chair, that was kept at the entrance, on the floor.

"Saleh sahab (Brother-in-law) you didn't do any good by telling her the truth about me," he said as he walked to table that was placed in the middle and hit his hand on the table in anger. When his anger still didn't cooled down he then threw the second chair on the floor and it broke into pieces. For him everything was ruined. Every other plan he set fell like a house made of cards.

"What I didn't to throw you out of Khushi's life?" he asked.

***FLASHBACK***

The door of Rahul's house flew open. Rahul immediately jumped from his seat.

"Hello, saleh sahab!" Rahul said as Arnav entered into his home in anger. "What a coincidence I was just thinking of you and you paid a surprise visit. I assume if I would have wished someone else here, for sure they would have come here too. I am sure you know whom I am talking about? But anyways please, come in."

"Leave Khushi alone and tell everything to her family!" Arnav said with a warning in his tone.

"Common saleh sahab control your emotions. You know what you just get out of your clothes so easily. I wonder if Anjali is your real sister!" Rahul said as he kept his hand on Arnav's shoulder.

"Shut the f*** up! Don't even dare to take my sister's name from your bloody mouth!"

"Else what huh?" Rahul challenged. "What would you do?"

Arnav's hands clenched into a tight fist and Rahul sensed his angry state.

"Look how angry you are? I am saying saleh sahab even though I will divorce your lovely sister in less then a week since then not only for the sake of our brother-in-law relationship but as a human too I do care about you. So, please have a seat and I get something to drink for you! This much anger is not at all good for your health."

Rahul had just turned to walk away, when hooked his hand on Rahul's shoulder and he turned him back towards himself and the other moment Rahul was wincing in pain as Arnav has given a hard punch right in his face. 

"Tell it to the Khushi and her Bhuaji about yourself!"

Rahul had yet not recovered from the first hard blow in his face when Arnav fisted him in his stomach and Rahul's anger itself took over him but he controlled himself and laughed.

"Hit me as much you want,and I know you have no other option, but you can't do anything even if you want, you can't take my Khushi away from me!"

Arnav was ready to give his peace of mind to him now, he again lifted his fist to hit him right in his face, but Rahul prevented him to do so by holding his fist before it could hit his face.

"No, Arnav Singh Raizada not that mistake again! Don't take my self control as my weakness. You know what it's the problem of your sister and your's, you both brother and sister just can't bare if the person you love doesn't love you back. Sooner you understand better it is for you, love is simply not written in your fate, neither yours nor your sister's. Your sister loved me, but I never loved her, and another coincidence is the person you loved is, whom I love. And in return my good luck is, that person would be mine in few more days and you would just not able to do anything," Rahul said with an evil smile on his face.

"I won't let you to ruin one more life!"

"Oh common, Mr. Raizada, who is going to ruin whose life? Just learn to accept the reality. I am not ruining anybody's life. You will be shocked to know that Khushi loves me.Her Bhua ji and she herself knows everything and that's why she has accepted this proposal."

Arnav was just not ready to accept the fact.

"Your expression tells me that you are not going to listen me because you need proof for everything. Go and ask bhua ji she would tell you the truth.You can talk to Khushi too, if you want to listen the truth from her mouth.Now if you could just leave from otherwise I know how to deal with people like you."

***END OF FLASHBACK***

"What I didn't do to make you believe that she loves me. And bhua ji helped me. We both made you believe that she knew everything, but you married her. You separated me from my Khushi in seconds.I left this billion worth property just for her, I killed my own child who could have been a ticket for me to get this whole property of yours. I didn't care about anything, but Khushi and you took her away from me.I poisoned her mind that you, you have killed his dad, before you could tell her this truth and today, I was almost successful I would have convinced her to go with me, but you told her everything. You ruined my plan but how could I let that happen? Right? I won't let you to succeed after defeating me, in my plans.It was just my bad idea to let you just set free, however, still nothing has gone wrong. Your game has to end Mr.Arnav Singh Raizada!"

"Mark your next few hours of life, you have to pay for what you have done with your own life and the only way I could get my Khushi back is by killing you," Rahul said and he laughed his evil laugh as he took the revolver from his coat pocket.

"One bullet, you will be gone away from me and my Khushi."

***

"Akaash make sure you sign the deal with Mr. Williams, it's a very important deal for us."

"Don't worry bhai I will finalize the deal!" Akaash had assured. "And by the way why are you telling me all this you will be there too!"

"No, I will not be!"

"But Bhai you are the head and without you the meeting can't be finalized."

"You don't worry I have signed the papers mama Ji will sign the rest of the papers on my behalf and I had done the conference and I have explained everything to Mr. Williams."

"But are you going somewhere?"

"I have to go to the U.K."

"Is everything alright bhai?"

"Yes, doctors need to see me, they want to discuss Anjali di's health report."

"Oh!"

"Don't worry bhai, I will manage everything!"

"Hey Nanav bhai why Khushi bhabi is standing alone?"

"Yeah, that's true. Hey Khushi come!" Akaash said as he looked at Khushi's side.

Arnav and Khushi both looked at each other, but Arnav immediately moved his gaze to somewhere else.But Khushi kept looking at him.

"Hi Bhaiya!"Khushi said to Akaash.

"Why were you standing alone?"

"No,just like that."

"Where is Payal?"

"Here I am just went to see kids!" Payal said as she cane from behind. 

"Okay, come we go outside and sit!"

They all were about to leave when Lavanya came.

"Hey guys where are you going?" 

"Outside!" NK replied "wanna go?"

"Oh common guys, party is still going on!"

"So what la?" Payal asked.

"Sis it's our party and we have to be here."

"Yes, la is right okay let's go and dance then," NK answered.

"Yeah that's a better idea!" Payal replied back.

Everybody left before and it was just la, Khushi and Arnav.

"Okay, ASR one dance with me. And I hope your wife won't mind at all," Lavanya said maintaining a smile on her face.

Arnav looked at her.

"You may Lavanya ji!"

"It's la!" Lavanya corrected her.

"I am sorry,La"

"Better!" Lavanya snapped and took Arnav away from her.

And now Khushi stood alone, and exactly under the chandelier where Lavanya had set her trap. She turned around to look at Khushi and smiled a smile of victory.

Arnav slide his arms around lavanya's waist and she kept her hands on his shoulders. A pang of jealousy hit Khushi's chest.

Lavanya gestured Shoan for his next step.He then pointed his gun to target at the wire of chandelier. And on the other hand Rahul took out his revolver to shoot Arnav. Rahul and Shoan stood right opposite to each other but at the spot where they didn't see each other at all. 

"La I am actually not feeling well! Could I just go?"

"Oh, common ASR what's wrong?"

"I just want to go out from here."

"Another few minutes you would be free ASR!" Lavanya replied.

"La, I have to leave!"

Arnav had already moved to walk away but Lavanya was terrified by the fact that what if he saw the chandelier fell.

There Shoan shoot his gun at the chandelier. Due to the loud music the sound that bullet made was muffled. Arnav had just moved to walk away and his gaze moved to Khushi who was looking at him too. Rahul pointed the gun at Arnav.

And lavanya's fear came true as Arnav saw the chandelier broke free from its hook at its top speed.

"Khushi!" Arnav shouted and took out running towards her. Khushi's got startled and her heart heat increased in panic. 

Lavanya's own heart beat has increased. 

Lavanya counted to quick 4 sec."but she silently prayed that Arnav doesn't get hurt by all means."

4 sec

Arnav ran as fast as he could.

3 sec

"Khushi move from there!" Arnav shouted.

2 sec

Lavanya's own heartbeat had increased in panic.

"ASR!" she screamed. Another bullet left Rahul's gun. Music stopped. Happy faces were replaced with a pure shock followed by the sound of the shattering chandelier.

1 sec

Chandelier landed on the floor and it hit with the loud shattering noise. It glass fell in all the directions.

"ASR!" Lavanya yelled.

The whole Raizada family screamed Khushi's and Arnav's name in unison.

A havoc had spread like a wild fire in the whole party. As people started running here and there.

Both Shoan and Rahul ran from there.

The RM security too went in every direction to find out what had just happened.

Khushi had tightly shut her eyes in panic.

"Khushi are you okay?" Arnav asked as he slightly moved up from Khushi ignoring the pain that he felt in his left shoulder.

Just before chandelier could hit Khushi, Arnav was successful in moving away from under it but not in escaping the bullet that left Rahul's gun. As he quickly pick her in his arms and swirled and they both landed on the floor (Arnav on top of Khushi). Arnav kept his hand under Khushi's head to prevent her from any injury.

"I am fine, Arnav Ji!" Khushi replied.

The whole family came running.

On the other hand everything had gotten blurry in front of Arnav's eyes as shattering pain grew in his left shoulder. He tried getting up but couldn't able to gather the energy. The bullet that left Rahul's gun had shot Arnav in his left shoulder as someone had jack hammered him and immediately adrenaline was released by his adrenal medulla that caused his central nervous system to synopsis faster. White flashes flickered in front of his eyes as thousand cameras flashing together. He winced in pain and all he could see was blurred face of Khushi that was terror struck but that all of sudden faded as his body went numb.

Before she could get reply from Arnav his whole weight fell on top of her.

"Arnav Ji!" Khushi asked in panic and was frightened as she saw her sari getting wet with his blood. 

"Chote, Khushi are you fine?" Nani asked as her voice was totally startled.

"Bhai!" Dhruv, NK and Akaash, all three said.

"Khushi, are you fine?" Payal asked in panic.

Khushi was just too shock to say anything or even nod her head. The colour of Arnav's face had turned paler and his blood on her hands made her alarmed. It took few seconds her to realize that Arnav was shot. The blood oozed out his body mercilessly but his body didn't move an inch.

"Somebody call the ambulance!" Khushi shouted.

NK moved Arnav's body away from Khushi. And Khushi immediately sat up but didn't let go of him and put his head on her lap.

Akaash immediately took our his phone and called the ambulance.

"Arnav ji!" Khushi yelled his name again and again as she patted his cheeks to get any response from him.

"Bhabi, nothing has happened to bhai," NK said with stability in his voice but he knew how distressed he was from inside.

"Arnav ji, please open your eyes! Arnav Ji!" Khushi said as she cupped his face and her voice trembled and her heart felt a strong tug upon getting no response from his side.

"Arnav Ji!" She again called his name.

"Arnav bitwa!" both Mami and mama Ji said in unison.

"Chote!" Nani said as she sat close to Arnav."What has happened to him who could do all this?"

"Please, Nani Ji don't cry nothing has happened to Arnav Ji!" Khushi said trying to convince herself more than to Nani.

After few seconds, an ambulance vehicles siren wailed. The paramedics with the stretcher came rushing into the house.

"Please everyone move away,"

one of the paramedic shouted shoving everyone away. And everyone moved back. But Khushi held Arnav in her arms.

"Please, mam please let go off him!"

"Bhabi please!" Dhruv said as she moved her from there.

"No, Dhruv Arnav Ji!"

"Nothing will happen to him bhabi. I promise you nothing will happen," Dhruv assured.

Khushi's brain had stopped working.She was panting heavily. Her vision was blurred with tears. Her mind wasn't processing but she was pretty conscious to see her husband's limp body. 

Paramedic checked Arnav's heartbeat and had put his lifeless body on the stretcher and took him straight to the hospital. 

"Arnav Ji!" Khushi shouted as she ran after the paramedics.

"Bhabi," Dhruv said as he caught Khushi.

"Please, Dhruv let me go! Arnav ji!" 

"Nothing has happened bhabi,bhai is fine."

"Why can't you see he is not okay, he is shot!"

"Khushi bitiya please calm down!" Nani ji said as she comfort her. 

"No, I want to go with him please!" Khushi pleaded.

"Rahul? He has done all this!" Khushi suddenly realized."He was here. He is the one who has tried killing Arnav ji! How could I forget about him. It's all because of me I should have told Arnav ji about him," Khushi thought. "It's all because of me!"

Her mind reeled and the other moment she had collapsed.

"Bhabi!" Dhruv said with concern and properly held her in his arms.

"Khushi bitiya," Nani said as her attention fell on Khushi.

"Dhruv take her to the room and call Dr. Sharma," Mama Ji said.

"Payal Bitiya where are kids?" 

"Papa they have gone to bed!"

"Okay that's good!"

"Kids we have to go to the hospital. Payal bitiya you take care of Khushi. Dhruv you stay here in case they need something at home."

"Yes, mama ji!"

"Security!" Mama Ji yelled.

"Yes, Sir!"

"Where were you guys when all this happened? What's the point of hiring all of you?" Mama Ji asked.

"We are sorry, sir. I don't know how come this happened. We are checking every person present here."

"Let all the guest go only after the checking check all the CCTV cameras and whosoever has done this shouldn't leave this building!"

"Sir, due to some technical problem CCTV cameras had stopped working," security head said as he looked somewhere else but him.

Mama Ji got really angry now after listening what the security had had told him. 

"Why didn't you tell anyone of us or informed the company to get it checked?"

"Sir, we did, the company sent one of their worker, but he said he forgot his important stuff so he went back. But sir at the same there were tight security around the mansion."

"How could any unknown person would enter the mansion? Who was that person? Where is he?"

"Sir, I don't know!"

"He was the one who did it! Check with the security at the entrance and call the company and ask whom did they sent to fix the issues with the CCTV cameras."

"Sir, we have checked it," the other security guard came running. "Sir, the company said they didn't send any person."

"What?"

"Yes sir!"

"How could you just let this happen? Find the person by any means and else everyone of you are fired.

"Yes, sir!"

***

@The Hospital

The Raizada family had reached the hospital and doctors had taken Arnav into the I.C.U.room.

The nurse came running outside the I.C.U.

"Nurse how is Arnav bitwa doing?" Mama Ji asked.

"Sir, we can't say much at this stage, his condition is really critical, due to the blood loss," Nurse told Mama Ji and ran from there in hurry to get what she had came for.

"Who could do all this?" Nani asked.

"Sasu ma please don't worry Arnav bitwa would be fine. We all are with him!" Mami Ji said and hugged her.

***

"La if police get to know about me they won't leave me alive!" Shoan said in panic state.

"First you tell how you dare to shoot ASR!" Lavanya asked as she held Shoan from his collar. 

"What are you saying? I haven't!"

"Then who the heck made Arnav his target?"

"I did what I was suppose to but believe me I didn't made Arnav sir my target. Why would I do that? Please now help me to get out of here! Just understand one thing if I get caught I will not keep my mouth shut."

"Are you blackmailing me?"

"Don't you act smart la, you must have hired someone else and later decided to put all the blame on me!"

"Shut up why I would want to kill ASR? I can't even think of that!"

"Whatever it's your headache La get me out of this mess if you want yourself clear of all this situation!"

"Here, go through the back door here is your ticket to the U.S. and never ever dare to come back to India!"

***

"I am sorry Sir, Mr. Raizada hasn't much time left his condition is getting worst and worst," Doctor said.

"Please doctor don't say so, do whatever to make him okay!" Mama Ji pleaded.

"Sir, just pray to God. We did our job now it's all up to almighty."

"Sir, sir...Mr. Raizada's heart beat has stopped," Nurse said as she came running towards the doctor.

"What?" 

"Yes, doctor!"

Doctor rushed back to the I.C.U. The heart monitor that showed Arnav's heart activity was a straight line. Arnav was panting harshly his chest raised and fell. Doctor took his wrist in his arm to check his pulse rate but all of sudden Arnav's stopped taking harsh breathing. His back droppedback on the bed the heart monitor showed a single straight line. Arnav's hand dropped from Doctor's hand beside his lifeless body.

"He is no more!" Doctor confirmed.

***

"Arnav ji!" Khushi screamed as she immediately woke up from the unconscious and bad dream.

"Khushi!" Dr. Sharma said.

"Arnav ji where is he? How is he?" Was her first question she asked as she looked around. "He was shot. How he is?" 

"Khushi he is in the hospital. Doctors are doing his treatment," Dr. Sharma replied.

"At this point you have to take care of you and your baby Khushi!" Dr. Sharma replied. "You have to take care of the little life that is growing inside you."

"But Arnav Ji is important too."

"Yes, Khushi he is. I am sure he will be fine."

"I want to go now! Please,I want to see him."

"You may Khushi! But first calm down. Have you told the family about your pregnancy?"

Khushi shook her head. "Why?"

"I...I was going...to tell Arnav Ji today but couldn't!"

"I assumed that you haven't yet, you take your time and let the family know."

Khushi nodded her head.

"Khushi!" Payal said as she knocked on the door.

"Come in Payal!" Dr. Sharma said.

Payal got in the room and Dhruv followed.

"What happen I heard Khushi's scream?"

"Nothing to worry about she just had a bad dream."

"Bhabi bhai is fine," Dhruv said as he came closer to her.

"Yes, Khushi he is fine now. Just got the call from the hospital."

Khushi took a sigh of relief but she wasn't going to believe any to their words until she herself see him with her own eyes.

"Then why don't you just take me to him?" she protested.

"Okay, we can go!" Dhruv replied. "But doctor is she fine?"

"Yes!" Dr. Sharma replied with a smile.