The Replacement

Chapter 37: Irreplaceable You

Three months... it'd been three months since Lavanya's return from Shimla, and two months since she'd come back from her honeymoon in Australia. She was ecstatically happy with NK, still in the newlywed phase. She glowed and wanted everyone to glow with her. With her rose-tinted glasses newly added to her eyes, she wanted the entire world to be as happy as she was. And it took her nearly a week to figure out that was not the case.

Khushi was miserable. She couldn't pinpoint what it was. She talked, laughed, and acted just like usual. But there was no spark to her any more. She didn't play pranks like before. Lavanya knew she hadn't written a single word in the last three months, which was so unusual for her. Usually, she had to be dragged from her computer on the weekends, cause she got lost in creating her Diya Mohan worlds. And now, she kept herself closeted in the study for days on end, but when she asked her what she was working on, Khushi refused to divulge details. Nishant and Sneha were equally worried, but didn't know what to do.

Lavanya was ashamed of herself for snooping through Khushi's computer, but she couldn't take it any more. What was Khushi doing in the study if she wasn't writing anything? She always shared her plot points with Lavanya, saying it helped her to think aloud and have a sounding board, but it'd been two months with not a single peep from her. On the outside, she looked normal, but Lavanya was a close enough friend that she saw the weight loss, the dark circles, the disinterest, the avoidance of company. And it worried her that she didn't know the cause. When asked, Khushi always gave the same answer, "I'm fine, Lavanya. Stop worrying, please!", but Lavanya knew something was wrong, and if Khushi was not going to tell her, then she'd find out through other means.

So when Khushi was at work, Lavanya sneaked into her house and study and snooped through her things. There was nothing there that was out of place, so she finally opened up her laptop. Guessing her password was easy, Lavanya knew everything there was to know about Khushi, so it only took her five-six tries to get in. And when she looked up her searches, her video views and her picture folders, she figured out the issue.

Her friend was in love with Arnav Singh Raizada. Oh. My. God! How can someone fall in love with that scary, rude and constantly-angry man? Khushi had gone crazy! But as she looked at pictures of some party they were in, some outings with ice-cream, videos of the Raizada family playing cards, watching movies, she figured maybe ASR was not as cold as he appeared. He was smiling and laughing in all the pictures, teasing his sister and even Khushi in some of the videos, hugging his niece and nephew and playing with them. Maybe he was not that bad a person after all! And maybe Khushi knew what she was doing!

And being Khushi's best friend with a biased outlook on Khushi and her character, Lavanya couldn't imagine anyone not loving Khushi. ASR was an idiot if he didn't realize what a gem Khushi was. But she didn't know yet if he was an idiot. She needed to find out if her suspicion was right and that Khushi did have feelings for ASR. Then she needed to do something about it! Cause she couldn't see her friend in this condition.

And she started her check that same evening, "Khushi, did you see that picture of ASR with that model?"

And noted closely as Khushi blanched and went all white, "What picture?"

"That picture of him with that model! He looks pretty cool. And she's so beautiful", Lavanya told her as she fiddled in her mobile trying to bring up that picture.

Then showed it to a pale Khushi to see her reaction.

The article had an image of ASR shaking hands politely with a model after bestowing some recognition. It was very benign, but Lavanya was more interested in seeing how Khushi reacted to it than what the article actually said.

Khushi looked at the image, and her color came back, "Oh, they're shaking hands"

"well of course they are! He gave her some award or something. That's not the point. Did you see her dress, its so beautiful. She looks great in it, right?"