His Knife Her Chest

Chapter 35 |The conversations start|

"Have what?" Khushi asked, confused and shocked by the sudden shrill.

"A tattoo!" she exclaimed in surprise, looking at her wrist.

Releasing a breath of relief she replied.

"Oh this? Yeah!" She looked at her inked wrist.

The people sitting in the room held an astounded expression on their faces. They would've never thought that this delicate looking girl, could've done something staggering like this, they never thought that she could have this rebellious and fiery side to her. It wasn't that they had a problem with tattoos, Arnav had several too but.... they would've never thought Khushi to have such changes.

"Can I see it?" anjali asked politely.

Khushi took a few steps to where she sat and showed her tattooed wrist.

"What does it say?" Arnav asked, ever so intrigued by this sporadic girl.

"It says " العزيمة " (aleazima) which means determination in Arabic." She explained.

"It's beautiful!" Anjali complimented before continuing.

"And I also heard about your Arabic origin. Are you really Arab?"

"Yes I am."

"What's your nationality from the Middle East, like what country are you from?" Akash asked curiously.

"Well my mother was Palestinian and my father was Egyptian. When my mother moved to Egypt, she met my father and they got married. After sometime they settled here in Dubai and that's when they had me, so I'd say that I'm from Dubai" she smiled, reminiscing the faint events in her head, the ones her brother had revealed to her.

"Wow! That's a revelation. I would've never guessed that"

"I know! It feels a bit unbelievable but believe me, I've had quite a happening life since I was born" she said smiling, sighing loudly.

"I can only imagine how hard it must be coming from a totally different country and then settling into a totally different one. It must've been hard to learn everything, from the culture, to the traditions, the language and what not" Anjali added, sympathetically.

"Yes it was hard, it was very hard to adjust at first especially when I didn't even know how to communicate properly because of the language barrier. But babuji" she sighed again, "He made it easy for me. He gave me everything I'd lost. The love, the shelter, the home, the safety, a father figure and a family. Of course I still get very sad over my misfortune but then again, we can't just sit and cry our whole lives over it."

"Seeing how you're not even Indian, you adapted our culture better than us" Akash said, grinning.

"I know right, it was just something I was told to strictly follow. But all this didn't make me forget my own culture. It was always in my heart. And I may not be born in India or be an Indian by ethnicity, but I'll always be a proud one from my heart. India is a very integral part of me, and it'll always remain that way." She turned her gaze towards Anjali and eyed her intensely.

"And seeing my very cultural appropriate self you forced me to train Lavanya as 'the perfect traditional wife' for Arnav, no matter how much I told you that I didn't want to do it" she made a snide remark, with a mocking smile, remembering the time when she was so helpless.

Looking at her apologetic face she sighed deeply.

"Haha, if only I had the 1 lakh rupees, I would've given them to you right that moment when you threatened me, but I had no other option that time unfortunately" she smiled sadly at the end. Her voice unbothered.

"What do you mean by threatened you?" Arnav finally asked.

"Your sister asked me to train Lavanya, but I declined the offer knowing you hated my presence, me too, duh. She told me that as per the terms, I have to pay you guys the one lakh, if I breach the contract, in other words, don't train Lavanya. She then left, and I remained there with another mountain of tension sitting on my head."

She saw two shocked faces and an apologetic one.

"Ahh weird old days they were!" She laughed to herself.

"I'm sorry if that hurt you. I needed you...direly and I knew you would never agree if I didn't bring up the contract" Anjali stated, apologetically.

"It's ok. Don't worry about it. I settled upon the fact that you guys had always been very threatening. First your threat, then his threat that changed my whole life in a snap of fingers" she decided to keep Shyam's threats out as she didn't want to talk about that evil man anymore or even remember anything about him.

Not wanting to upset her jiji anymore as it was a very crucial day for her, she decided to stay quiet from now. Continuing with what she was busy before, treating her sister, she looked away from their apologetic faces.

She wanted the awkwardly thick silence to go away, so she decided to break it herself.

"So who's coming to the opening?" She asked.

"Everybody except Nani" Arnav answered.

"Why not Nani?"

"She can't stand crowds or clangorous noise anymore"

She passed him an understanding look, nodding her head.

Adding some last touches to her sister's makeup she let her see herself in the mirror.

And she was right! Her sister loved the soft glam.

"I love it khushee!! Thank you!"

"Now go change girl, it's about time."

Payal left to change, leaving the three in an awkward silence and that was when little adi came running in the room. And what a great time to come he had.