Next morning the workers witnessed an over enthusiastic Khushi working in the kitchen making different kinds of dishes, first she made breakfast and then she made some storable snacks and then she cleaned the whole porch and then had a lot a breakfast, then she had bath , cleaned the whole pooja mandir, cooked even dishes for lunch apart from roti, all this by 9 am.
Arnav who was going for jogging at 8 was really happy seeing Khushi behaving normal and cooking food and making her favourite Rangoli.
Arnav thought, "I know, I know that you are very strong and matured Khushi .I know you can do it, even you know our family doesn't mean to hurt you, its just that they are really upset and worried for Di...like every time, you make me fall more in love with you with your understanding power and maturity .I love you ...", but nonetheless he didn't say it to her and let her be in her own world.
He thought , she is not crying or leaving meant she was okay.
After a week:
The whole week the same routine continued with Khushi doing everything that is required at the house, having her food only when she feels extremely hungry, but having a lot, like really lot of food whenever she eats, then doing something that no one knows what she is doing , but she didn't look sad or disturbed at any moment of time to anyone, for anyone who has a closer look would notice that her face and as a matter of fact her whole body is kind of swollen and she had put on a little weight , but no one actually observed her, all just thought that she is doing just fine, and is not really hurt because of the nameless accusations they are throwing at her, they kept on saying whatever that pleases their little tongues, Arnav didn't bother to correct them either, if Khushi is fine with it; if Khushi is understanding and mature enough to not really bother their accusations and verbal abuses, she is doing it because she doesn't want to create any more drama and create any kind of imbalance between me and my family , then I shouldn't spoil her efforts by talking rubbish or defending her.
"Just not to disturb my relations with my family, you are keeping calm .I am really lucky to have you as my wife, that is why I love you Khushi ", he thought.
The worst part about Arnav was, when it comes to venting out his anger and frustration he was more expressive than one should be and when it comes to expressing love, concern and thankfulness , he is too subtle for one to understand, but in all other cases, Khushi used to understand his subtle actions and get into confusion whether he loves me or hates me, but this time she is too much into her own world to understand someone's unsaid words.
It was in the id afternoon when Arnav who was returning to office after a client meeting found a familiar figure standing near a small road side jewellery shop. Curious he was, he asked his driver to go near that shop, and stop there, by the time he reached there, he saw Khushi coming out of the shop securely keeping some money in her bag and walking away, curious he was of what his wife was doing here, he asked the driver to follow her and he went inside the shop.
It was a really small shop , the one where they buy and sell low class jewellery , he went inside and saw some men cleaning some small gold items in some solutions, he went to the man who was comparatively well dressed, and who probably might be the owner of the shop and asked,
"Excuse me, the girl who just went from here...what did she buy ?"
"Who?"
"That girl who just went in pink salwar."
"Why should I tell u ?", he asked...
"OK then."
He said and pulled out few notes from his pocket and put it on his desk.
"Now tell me, will you? "
That man immediately took those money and put him in his pocket and turned to him and replied,
"She came here to sell this."
He said taking out an gold anklet from his drawer on the other side. It was similar to the one she was wearing on Diwali night , he immediately recognised it .It was similar to her mother's anklet, and may be it is.
"Why on earth she would sell this? That too for money!", he thought.
"What the fuck is going on that little brain of yours Khushi?
Why are you doing this?
I know how important these are to you.
Why did you do this?
He swore under his breath to even kill Shyam with his bear hands if this is anything related to Shyam .
"How much did she sell it for ?", he asked barely controlling his anger.
"15000 rupees."
He pulled out some notes from his pocket and took that anklet from him and called the driver to ask where did she go .
"Sir, mam went inside some stationary shop and came out with some big big charts and she went to Shantivan with those in an auto now I am outside Shantivan sir.", the driver replied.
Hearing that he was somewhat relived, but what does she have to do with charts and stationary shop. But he let it be and asked the driver to send the address of that shop and hired a cab and went there.
He then bribed the shop owner to know what she bought.
He was surprised to know that Khushi had bought some diary, a canvas, chart papers, rich water colours, pastels, sketches, pencils, color pencils.
"Seems like she is some professional painter sir.", the shop keeper said.
Feeling relived he went back to his office, but what was for sure hurt knowing that she didn't take money from him instead she sold her mother's anklet instead which was so precious to her.
But he bought that anklet and kept it safely with him and promised himself to gift it to her once everything comes back to normal. But what he didn't know is that there is no way everything going a back to normal .
Its been a week more;
Two weeks from that day when he called her the biggest mistake of his life.
Two weeks since he had spoken to her.
Two weeks since she spoke to anyone.
She had been surprisingly calm and composed.
All she did was cook food, clean everthing , eat alone, paint, make some art, she would stay in their room most of the time sleeping.
She hears all that they talk about her, everytime they blame her, she blames herself more. But she doesn't cry anymore, she doesn't want to cry, so before her tears betray her and make their way out of her hazel orbs, she would eat those pills and sleep.
She doesn't want to think anything .Thinking hurts her a lot, it would make her want to kill herself, she doesn't want to die or does she?
She really didn't have it in her to leave all her loved ones and go away. She knew she wont be able to live anymore, so she seek her solace from the only ones who gave it, sleeping pills.
Sleep and forget everything.
Just sleep and go into that peaceful land;where no one would scold you , no one would hurt you.
Somewhere where she doesn't have to think why is this happening to her alone ?
what is all this in her life?
Where she don't have to blame herself for anything.
On the other side, Anjali is getting better , not because she had accepted the truth of her life, but because along with her she made her family also believe that her husband not the culprit and not able to see her pain , they had arranged some secret meetings with him ofcourse with out the knowledge of Arnav and Payal.
When Nani , Mama, and Akash made him sit and directly asked Shyam about all this, he just kneeled before Anjali and said.
"I swear on my life, I love you more than anything in this world, you and our Rajkumari means the world to me.Trust me, I hate Khushi ."with genuinity splitting out of his words that they couldn't help but go along with his lies.
But nevertheless he refused to answer to all other questions about Arnav's kidnap, and being a PG in Gupta house, he again and again said the same thing that he loved Anjali more than anything else and she is his life.
Though they were not completely smitten by his charm of his sweet words, the started to believe that Khushi is responsible for everything .
In the middle of all this, Arnav had hired a private investigator to find everything about Shyam and all the results said that he is a famous criminal lawyer in the city with a good track record, but also proved that Shyam had indeed lived at Gupta's as a PG.
He thought of clearing stuff with Khushi also, but its been three weeks now that he had last spoken to her or even looked straight in to her eyes for a second.
Now there is an awkwardness to go and talk to her about anything, so he had stayed aloof to her most of the time, and when ever he would muster up some courage to go and and talk to her, she would be sleeping in a deep peaceful sleep
Would he realise that there is something horribly wrong with her before she goes to a permanent sleep?
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