It has always been about me, really! Chapter 14
Arnav asks his guest to come in, hearing a knock on the door. Sunaina walks in. He welcomes her and asks her to have a seat. "You called, Mr. Raizada?" she asks and grabs a seat on the opposite side of him. "How is Hazel doing?"
"Hazel is good. But, just to let you know, Ms. Fernandez, we are talking business here. Yesterday, I talked to your father, and I would like him to handle this deal with me..." he said, unafraid to get his message across.
Colour from her face drains. Her lips parts to say something but then they shut almost immediately. She was surprise as why he all of sudden he did not want to work with her. She smiles nervously.
"Mr. Raizada, I think we already talked about it. I did say, we shall be working together," she said, in fear.
"I know, but it's a company's rule to work directly to the owner when it comes to making decisions..."
She stares at him, as she straightaway knew, it wasn't him speaking.
"I am the only daughter of my father, and I am pretty sure I am the boss as well. This project is solely mine."
Arnav rolls the paper holder in his hand as he looks back at her.
"Also, why all sudden this decision? Mr. Raizada, this is extremely unprofessional of you...I wasn't expecting from you this at all!"
"Ms. Fernandez, this is my decision, I decide whom I want to work with..."
"Mr. Raizada, if I am not involved in this project you are loosing millions..."
He let go of the paper holder, and leans forward on a chair with his arms crossed on the table in front of him. "I have lost most valuables then that, Ms. Fernandez..."
Sunaina gave it a thought and she believed it was because of Khushi. She just have told him her intentions. Good for her, she thought.
"You didn't have any problem working with me until yesterday...Why I feel it has more to do with your wife's insecurities?"
"You are getting personal, there is no reason to bring in my wife in it..."
"You started it first," she said. "She must have told you I am after you, or something like that..."
"How do you know?" he instantly asked.
Dead silence followed when Sunaina took her time to come up with a reason in her head to tell him to his question, and he waited for the response.
"I didn't mention anything such t to you..."
"I don't think I need to, Mr. Raizada. Your wife has always been insecure. I am pretty sure you know this..." she looked back in his eyes, unafraid.
"Ms. Fernandez, you are no one to point fingers at my wife..."
"Sure I am not, Mr. Raizada. And tell me, how many girls you would actually turn out to work with, just because your wife is insecure. She doesn't love you, neither she trusts you, the only thing is she wants you. Sooner you get this, easier it will be for you. I know about you, way more than I should. And let me tell you it is not because I want you. I have a very loving person in my life, that's Aditiya. And it's really fine if you don't want to work with me. I don't want to work with you either, not anymore atleast. I am never judgemental, but your wife is stupid!"
"Ms. Fernandez!" he said in a loud voice, and stood up from his chair.
"Do not raise your voice, Mr. Raizada, even I can do so..." she shouted back, however, controlled her anger immediately. "Anyhow, good luck with your wife, and as far as to terminate the contract is concerned, instead of you, I do it...And guess what, I will pay you every penny," She says, looking straight in his eyes. His anger not at all affecting her.
"Good bye; and before leaving all I want to do is, warn you, and your darling wife. Ask her to be extra careful, because she is just ruining her life by hiding secrets..."
Arnav looked at her as if she knew something she didn't know.
"What are you talking about?"
His voice cooled down.
"Ask your innocent wife..."
"About what?"
"Something that she is hiding from you for the past five years..."
"Stop making me guess these riddles, Ms. Fernandez, and tell me what you are talking about?"
"I am not making anything easier for you, since you have insulted me...Good bye!"
More than creating havoc in Khushi's life, she had created hell in Arnav's mind.
"Khushi, was hiding something from me?" he thought. "But what?"
"Ms. Fernandez, please wait!" he almost pleaded.
Even though she was pissed off, she stopped and didn't know why?
"What?" she asked.
"What is it, that you know Khushi is hiding?" he asked.
Since he had been asking much more patiently, she decided to tell him somewhat...And after all she had to fulfil her motive as well...
"Mr. Raizada, ask your wife which letter did your first wife, Lavanya wrote to her. Or ask what does she actually knows about Lavanya? She claims la was her best friend, had she ever mentioned it you about her? And did you read the letter? If you have, do you even know it was written by La, or not? And if you get the answer to these questions, do tell me who is actually desperate to get you. Mr. Arnav Singh Raizada, you had not been loyal to Lavanya either by choosing the second woman in your life either. Me being the part of life of such a person? Is not possible," she says, and without another word, she walks straight out of his office. Door shuts with a loud bang as if storm was finally in their lives and Arnav found himself trapped in it.
He stood stunned for few minutes, he didn't even know what he heard was actual or otherwise? What did she really mean? First, was there no letter? Because yes, he never read it. Secondly, this thought actually never came into his mind that why didn't he know about Khushi? Why la never mentioned it to him about Khushi?"
He didn't know how he should react, he tried to understand, and summed everything and came to the conclusion that there was no letter written and Khushi is not at all La's friend. It was her lies.
This was too much for him. Everything around him, starts revolving, the sickening sensations inside him returns, as if every single of it was going to kill him slowly and gradually.
He pulls his antidepressant out of his office desk drawer and gulp it down his throat with a glass of water. And crashes in his seat, completely out of breath.
For few seconds his mind totally shut.
First he did not at all want to go home, he knew that the molten lava that was boggling inside was full of disasterous flames and it was going to harm everything possible and the most important his relationship with Khushi, if by any chance what Sunaina told him was true.
His world already had been upside down but it was slowly returning, however, now only to return to its usual place, upside down. Back then he had suppressed all his anger knowing he was at fault and was still trying everything that it took to make this relationship flourish of his with Khushi.
He was blaming himself for everything, whether it was hurting everyone in his family, Khushi herself, or every situation that followed. But not anymore. Why he was being on a forgiving end, he questioned himself. It was not that he was doing a favour on anyone but himself and to the worst, he did not even want
to do favours, not even to himself.
Their relationship again stood at the place where it had ended three years ago.
He somewhere also knew that his family members had been supporting her, they were the one to say that she was La's friend, and they were the only one who told him about the promises that seemed faked to him. It could be more of their plan to hook Khushi with him, then Khushi's own plan to do all this. This only killed his soul and kindness to bring out the brutle side of his that was not at all good if anyone had to face it.
He was right to himself that he had let everyone to hurt him, if by any chance he had thought and respected himself enough, nobody had ever dared to take advantage of him.
He did not know if he should call them a family anymore, he was said every hurtful words possible by them, he tried not to be affected, intially, but now it seemed they were never his.
He never liked to be this negative, at first place he did not want to think of all this, but he was forced to. He was forced to keep every positive thought away from his mind.
His child. Hazel. Thought of her never escaped his mind, he felt more like her, she like him had nothing to feel but a fear that what she has now was going to be taken from her. He wished he had not given every right to the person who was going to prove every existence of good to a big question to bring in a child in their already messed up a relationship. Should he be quite for her? He thought. For her?
Because after these many defeats in a relationship they shared, nothing was going to be "Always about us!" after the mistakes he and others did, and in all this why that innocent soul was going to be punished?
However, one thing he did learn from Khushi itself was not to react without knowing the actual truth, and that somewhere helped him calm himself. He hoped, Khushi did have better reasons to tell him. What it was, did he have right to know? May be the truth that she was hiding was worst then hiding all these truths from him.
And another question, that he failed to ask Sunaina was. how did she knew so much about Khushi or about Lavanya and him? Does it matter, because she was just a stranger. May be not! The way she was calling Lavanya, La, it seemed she knew lavanya very well...
Does he keep silence and let things go just the way things were going? As far as patience and the fire inside him was concerned, he was ready to handle it. He did not know how long his patience was going to survive, but he decided he would and today, he was actually not going home. The only way for him to avoid his emotions and stuggle alone just the way he had always been.
Why he would do so?
The utmost reason, his daughter. Second, he was actually in love with Khushi, he did not know anyone was going to take place of her ever, despite of all the odds she did. He would not have left her alone and his child knowing they were the part of his life. He will know the truth one day, and he promised he would try to keep silent till then. If all his efforts went down the drain he promised then his daughter was not going to live in a false hope that her parents loved each other.
***
Every day, he wished someone in the house will break his or her silence to tell him what they were all hiding from him. But they never said anything in the past five years, why would they now?
Everyday was becoming a struggle for him. A week passed, two week passed, and then a month that for him was a year. He was trying hard to be quite.
After a heated talk at the office with Sunaina he never heard from her later. He tried to contact her, her father and even Aditiya, from their side as well he was turned down.
Today, he almost asked Khushi, but he was stopped, yet again.
He saw his rose pink cheeks, her eyes denying to look up at him, and a hospital file in her hands.
His heart picked up the race against his body as he knew somewhat, what was coming.
"Before you say anything, I have to tell you, Arnav..." she said in a low shy tone, and she raised on her toes.
"You are going to be a father once again!" she said in his ear.
His world came to an abrupt stop. He wasn't happy, neither sad.
She hugged him and he stood as a statue with no emotion. It was not just Hazel, but this new addition in their world for whom he had to stay quite for...
***
