Arshi FF: Entwined Souls

2. Fantasy

Raizada Mansion

A Sunday in Shantivan was supposed to be the same day as usual except for the men in the home who gets a holiday to sit and relax. So while Anjali and Manorama were sitting on the sofa talking randomly, Shyam, Manohar, and Akash sat a little away from them, reading Magazines while Hari Prakash was busy preparing breakfast for their bosses.

Devyani was in the temple, reading her a holy book — Bhagwat Geetha when she saw her elder grandson walking down the stairs, with a BlueTooth in his ears. And she gets up to stop him.

It's been three and half months since they've talked about Lavanya Kashyap and every time she opened her mouth to talk about her, he dodged her as always. She had to talk to him today, no matter what happens today.

"Chotte, rukiye," she stops him coming on his way.

(Chotte, stop!)

Arnav rolled his eyes sighing, he hoped his grandmother wasn't talking about what he she would and so he asked, "Yeah, Nani?"

"Aap ke paas 10 min ka vakt hai ya nahi bhi hai, toh hume aapse baat karni hai," Devyani's voice sounded stern. She wasn't giving him any option. Everyone had heard her voice and stood up from their places, walking towards them, knowing a drama would happen for sure.

"What's it, Nani?" he was impatient to get done with the conversation, and go office and relax his mind as he worked.

"When are you going to marry Lavanya Kashyap?" she was straight to the point. Anjali knows her brother would get angry and so, she tries to stop her Nani from asking him further about Lavanya but Nani had to show her palm, and Anjali halts in her place, who was supported by her over-concerned husband.

"Marry Lavanya? Nani, did you forget what happened three months ago? I told you I'm not going to marry Lavanya. Isn't that clear, Nani? I thought I made myself clear then," he was frustrated as he said that.

He denied marrying Lavanya. Didn't he? Why are they behind him?

"I don't know anything, Chotte. You have to marry her. No choice. How will I show my face to her parents when I promised them she'd be your bride?" Devyani questions. She was being unkind. She had promised Lavanya's parents that only her daughter would be Raiazda's daughter-in-law.

"And I told you for the hundredth time I don't like Lavanya and I won't marry her at any cost. This is the final time I'm telling this, Nani. Let me go now if your important discussion is over." He hoped it'd be the final time he'd tell them away.

"Chotte," Anjali reprimands him for talking to their grandmother like that while Nani whispers his name in anger as well.

Arnav walks away, furious at his grandmother, ignoring her and everyone's calls behind him.

If it was Lavanya who behaved like his girlfriend in the office even after his frequent admonition, always behind him, mentally harassing him; it was his Nani in the home who's always behind asking him to marry Lavanya — her family's friend's daughter.

In both cases, his words were never taken seriously. He hoped there shouldn't be a day when he had to cut his ties off with his Nani for someone like Lavanya who is nothing but a stranger in his eyes. He was being patient all the time with his family and fulfilled all of his responsibilities, he let them do whatever they wanted and they, taking that as a chance, if they tried to interfere in his life, they'd get nothing but his ignorance and maybe a really bad confrontation when his patience snaps off.

Arnav shuns the thoughts as he drove away all the way to AR when his phone rings.

Jeff!

He doesn't think a second before lifting his call, impatient to know the further details and improvement in the case. Jeff was the private investigator he hired to know about Khushi's whereabouts — the very same night she went missing.