Accepting Reality ✔️

Part 19 - Breaking or Mending?

Arnav walked back into his room, his mind was a whirlwind of guilt and confusion. As he sat on the edge of the bed, he heard Khushi's footsteps approaching. She entered the room, her face was composed, a stark contrast to the devastation he had seen earlier. Their eyes met briefly before Khushi moved towards the washroom. Desperate to explain, Arnav blurted out,

Arnav: "I wasn't doing anything, really. She was the one forcing herself on me. You know, this isn't how I operate, Khushi."

Khushi: "It's fine."

Her calm demeanour stunned him. There were no tears, no signs of the emotional turmoil she had displayed downstairs.

Arnav: "Why are you so chill right now when you were crying buckets a few minutes ago?"

Khushi: "That's exactly how a wife would respond whose husband was sleeping around behind her back, especially on the day she had kept a fast for his well-being."

Arnav was now thoroughly confused.

Arnav: "What do you mean?"

Khushi: "Arnav, like I mentioned during our contract signing, it doesn't matter to me if you sleep with other people. Whatever you saw downstairs was just an act, for your family."

Arnav: "An act?"

Khushi: "Yes, an act. Be with who you want, but I didn't expect you to be stupid enough to not cover your tracks. How did you let this happen? And then, what was I supposed to do? If I behaved like I was okay with it, Anjali Di and Naani wouldn't have been able to take it. So I did what they expected me to."

Arnav's frustration grew, his demeanour tinged with anger.

Khushi: "I really have no complaints from you except for the fact that you need to cover your dirty acts. I don't care what you're doing and with whom, but I expect you not to be this dumb and create more problems for me."

Arnav: "Why would you do that?"

Khushi's eyes flashed with anger, and she finally let her emotions spill out.

Khushi: "You know what, Arnav? I did wish that maybe, just maybe, we could have a normal marriage. But you just want to play your stupid games, and now you have problems with everything I do to save us. I married you. Have I taken your money away? Have I hurt your family? No. I destroyed all the proofs like you wanted. I'm trying to live my life happily, but you won't let me with your constant poking. You have this sinister idea that I'm conspiring against you. You agreed to the terms, I agreed, and that was that, no more games. But your ego cannot take the fact that I played you in your game."

Her words hit him hard, and for a moment, Arnav was speechless. He had never seen Khushi so resolute, so detached. The realisation that he had underestimated her once again stung deeply. Arnav clenched his fists, trying to contain his anger and frustration.

Arnav: "You think this is a game? Then why didn't you eat anything?"

Khushi: "I did it for Naani, she should believe that I am genuinely upset over what I saw"

Arnav: "And you are not?"

Khushi: "I am not, just stay out of my way Arnav. You live your life, and I'll live mine."

Arnav realised that his actions had deeply affected Khushi, she was just trying to cover it up in front of him. In that moment, he understood that perhaps, he should put effort into making this marriage work. So what if she had played him? She had signed his contract. If she tried to mess with him further, she had much more to lose. Khushi, on the other hand, was joyous in the washroom. She wanted to teach Arnav a lesson for belittling her, for starting her own business and calling her low-class. She knew his family was really upset with him, and her playing the role of the hurt wife had only made things worse for him. Anjali didn't even want to see his face. To her luck, this incident came at the right time for her. Although initially she felt sad seeing Arnav with a random woman, but then she calmed herself down. How could she not be okay with it, she had signed a deal with him, he could sleep with whoever he wanted. But something did seem strange to her, were all these incidents actually happening with Arnav or was he purposely staging them.