The Replacement

Chapter 10: Monsoon Wedding

Khushi looked at Arnav's pointing finger, and then up at his face incredulously. He had no expression, nothing on his face, but she could read the fury in his eyes. Why was he angry? And it looked like the anger was directed at her.

"But Tina can do it. Better to keep it among family, yes", Sameer tried.

"Khushi is the replacement.... or we take the Baraat back", Arnav stated clearly, then whirled around and walked out of the room, his fury palpable.

Ratna and Arvind Raizada looked at a startled Khushi, who was still staring at the door through which Arnav had just walked out. The Kashyaps were just looking at each other, then at Khushi, in a confused game of tennis heads. Sameer was the first to recover.

"Arvind.... Can you please talk to ASR?"

"I don't know what he's thinking.... But it shouldn't matter right, whether its Tina or Khushi?", he mentioned and then followed his son, confused, hoping for an explanation. Ratna followed after an apologetic glance at Khushi's wide-eyed stance.

"This is all your fault", Simran rushed to Khushi with a raised palm, and Khushi flinched, expecting another slap like earlier. But it never came. As she glanced up at the hand holding the slap back, she met Sameer Kashyap's furious gaze.

He pushed his wife away, and closed his eyes, swallowing his rage, realizing Arnav had left him no choice by refusing to negotiate. He tried to salvage the situation.

"Khushi? You will do this", he ordered.

Khushi came to her senses and the absurdity of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks. Along with it came anger. Sameer Kashyap was not only playing with his daughter's life and his niece's, now he wanted to dictate hers?

"This is a complete shitfest! Why don't you just tell them the truth?", she seethed.

"Because it would mean the ruin of two good families. This way, we have a chance to salvage the situation somewhat", Sameer tried to convince her.

"Ask Tina to do it. Why should I? I'm not even family"

"You will do it because he specifically asked for you... for his own reasons, I am sure. I have heard that ASR doesn't take decisions impulsively, and he wants you", Sameer clarified.

"Well... he's not going to get me. My answer is no", Khushi stated firmly.

"You owe us Khushi. I don't believe that you don't know where Lavanya is, or that you didn't help her with her elopement. I'm not that stupid. I'm Lavanya's father. I know her very well. Atleast enough to know that Lavanya doesn't have the gumption to plan something like this. You definitely had a hand in it. So you owe us"

"I owe you nothing. If you'd heard Lavanya's plea to not get her married to ASR, all this wouldn't have happened", Khushi was incensed. How dare they try to pin all the guilt on her?

"It doesn't matter why it happened, what matters is how we're going to salvage this? And you're going to stand in for Lavanya at this wedding", Sameer's voice was cold.

"I don't think so", Khushi stated calmly.

"You do realise that I can make your life hell. That school that you teach at, I'm friends with half the board. You'd lose your job and won't find another one in any of Delhi's schools"

"That's all you got! I'll get you fired?" Khushi taunted him.

"Your apartment, your friends, that cafe that you help out at, all of those things will be taken away from you, in the blink of an eye. That orphanage that you spend so much time at, imagine if they lose their funding completely"