Hues of Love

Part 27

Khushi took Kuhu into her embrace noticing Arnav's lack of consciousness and control after her allegations. The tears which froze in her eyes on the day of their separation finally melted to the maternal warmth which coursed through her as she held her second born in her arms.

"Arsh, your younger sister is here. Say Hi to her," she whispered, bending down in front of the pram as she placed the siblings beside each other. The bond which was already established between them as fraternal twins was reinforced once again as the babies let slight chuckles out and patted each others' cheeks.

Khushi's heart swelled with innumerable emotions when she eyed her children enjoying themselves but the reverie was soon broken when she was left bereft of their sight as Arnav harshly turned her to face him.

"You separated the twins, Khushi. How can you punish them for my mistakes?" he questioned, holding her still both by his grip on her and his intent gaze which unnerved her.

"Punish them? I did not punish them, Arnav. I punished myself. You think I was happy to do this? I chose the only option left with me if I wanted to move on. Tell me honestly, is it wrong to hope to have a souvenir of one's love? If I had informed you of the twins, you would have forced me to give them up both or sued me in the court," she replied, holding her head high as if daring him to deem her to be wrong.

"But how did you do it? I was right by your side when you delivered and had your ultrasound," wondered Arnav, unable to think of the time when she could have delivered.

"You are forgetting that I am a doctor. The image you had seen during ultrasound was that of Rachna's son Rahul and I delivered Arsh before you came. We stopped the delivery of the second child through the injection of syntometrine till you came and induced the labor with oxytocin. Is it wrong to want my baby to myself forever when you hardly distinguished between the right and the wrong? I heard your conversation with Rati. How could you betray her and use me at the same time?" she counter-questioned, shrugging her arms away from her as she furiously wiped the remnants of pain from her flushed cheeks.

Arnav knew that her statement held truth. He would have forced her to give up the twins and move away, with rights only on the paper, if he had never fallen in love with her but after that emotion struck him right in the heart, he would not have wanted to distance her from himself at any cost.

"I think it is only fair that I betrayed her when she betrayed me for years," he began, only to be cut in between by Khushi.

"Betrayed? People like you are the reason why people think twice to sacrifice something for others, why they are scared to fall in love, Arnav. You wanted your dream to be fulfilled right? What if I tell you that it was her dream too?" she remarked, folding her arms against her chest.

"Her dream? Rati has time and again reiterated that she does not want to have children. How will she not want to fulfill her dream?" quizzed Arnav, shaken up by the revelation and hoping that Khushi was just forcing guilt upon him.

"Because if she chooses to have children with you, then the children have a high risk of contracting Tay-Sachs disease. Since you may have forgotten, let me remind you that it is an autosomal recessive disorder in which there is no cure and the patient dies before the age of five. Her brother had the disease and when she found out, after your marriage, that your elder brother had the same disease, she did not want to take the risk," explained Khushi, moving up to her desk and pulling the drawer out to pull a set of papers out.

"Obviously you would not be trusting this so here is genetic map of her genome and yours. You can get it checked anywhere. She is a carrier and so are you. A clear twenty-five percent chance that your child will suffer the disease," spat Khushi, thrusting the papers into his hands.

"But why didn't she ever tell me about this?" mused Arnav, his whole body shaking in myriads of emotions as he recounted the number of times he had seen flicker of pain in her eyes when she rejected his request of trying for children and had ignored it.

"She knew that if she ever told you, you will set your own dream aside and move on for her. She thought that if she pushes you enough, you will look out and have your dream fulfilled. Imagine, if she had been so desperate as you were, she had more ways than you because maternity is solid but paternity is not. She could have passed off someone's child as yours but she emotionally never wanted to cheat you. But your constant abandonment of her and the pain she felt when she reached closer to the end of her reproductive period with no appreciation of her selfless act whatsoever pushed her in seeking comfort out of marriage. End of the day, you did the same - stepped out of marriage," berated Khushi, feeling guilty of all the times she had taunted Rati without the knowledge of her reasons and her story.

"You know Arnav, it is incredibly tough to love the children who are your husband's but not yours and show concern to the other woman in the life of your significant other, whom you have loved enough to give up your dreams, but Rati did it all. I know how tough it would have been because I did that for twelve years. You did not have children but I was sure that I will love them and Rati showed the same emotion. She was the one to provide shelter for me and serve me when I was weak after labor and had no one except Rachna. And you cheated on her with me, and kept me in the dark? How could you? Was it so easy to betray two women who loved you so much?" she whispered, pulling him close to her by his collar, her eyes finally allowing him a glimpse into her heart. There was no anger in her eyes, it was just scorching and shattering pain.

The vulnerability in her eyes stirred the very soul within him. He had seen her standing stand despite multiple adversities and being the reason of weakness in such a strong-willed woman whom he loved felt like the biggest punishment he could receive for his deeds.

He caressed her cheek gently with his right hand and his left hand cupped her shoulder from behind to hold her in place. As regret floated in the pools of his eyes, it sent ripples of multiple emotions in her heart. She had finally found the name of the emotion which she found in his eyes during her pregnancy and she had a feeling that it was going to make its way out through his lips.

"Please forgive me, Khushi. I never wanted to hurt you, in fact, I love you with every bit of my soul and heart."

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I was waiting to post this part since so long because I wanted to see how people will respond to this. Everyone who has pointed out that Rati has cheated and make it look like she is the only guilty party, I want to ask you one thing, don't you see that Arnav did the same thing? Moreover he cheated Khushi in the course.

Let me put Rati's psychology in simple words. She has seen marital discord and its effects from a very small age and Arnav was literally the only one who gave her time and attention so she fell for him. Her quest for attention, which she did not receive from her parents, made her look towards others as a teenager and hormones only boosted her emotions.

When she got married, she decided to give it all up but Arnav who made up his own image about her being obsessed with fame thought that if he reaches the pinnacle of success, she will look at him when all she wanted was his time. Few people mentioned that how wouldn't he realize that she is craving love when he has been with her for so long. Arre, that man did not attend his mother-in-law's funeral even after his wife begged him and just dropped a text to her. You think he will see something even if it slaps him in the face?

Then Rati realized that having children is risky and she cannot be selfish to bring someone to life only to kill them. She readily gave that sacrifice but like a kid, literally, she expected appreciation in return but she got only bitterness and fueled by her mother's last wish, she swayed. If she really wanted to sway, it would been so easy to show someone's child as Arnav's and fulfill her wish but she truly stayed loyal to her marriage unlike Arnav because the vow of marriage is to have children together. She set her dream aside to ensure his gets fulfilled and thought that his dream was bigger than hers. What is love if not for that?

Sorry for the rant, but I seriously think that it was necessary. I love reading your analysis and comments but I just cannot tolerate bias because someone has the name of Arnav or Khushi and someone doesn't. About Khushi's decision, let me rant about it the next time. For now, please VOTE and COMMENT!