Chapter 2
Feeling bored, I look around the limousine but find nothing that's appealing to me. My husband is on his phone and outside is just traffic. Realising it will be a long trip, I decided to catch up on some of my sleep.
Flashback
A small girl around the age of five is seen running around the play centre.
Lady - be careful Khushi, you will fall!
And as if on cue, the girl trips over a rock and falls. Seeing the blood oozing out of her leg, she starts to cry, causing the lady to be worried.
Lady - Khushi, beta, let me call your dad...
Khushi immediately gulps and starts to cry even more. The lady tries her best to help her, but the cranky Khushi doesn't stop crying until a young boy around the age of six goes up to her.
Boy - Khushi! You are my princess, aren't you (Khushi nods)? Then, you have to let the lady help you...
The boy who was barely six, helps Khushi stand up on her feet and then holding her hand, he takes her to the first aid area. The lady watches the scene, impressed. Arriving at the first aid room, the lady tries to help the girl, however, due to the pain from the injury, she keeps moving her leg. The young boy, seeing the trouble of the lady, goes to distract Khushi.
Boy (smiling) - Khush... jalebi...
Khushi immediately looks at the boy with happiness after all jalebi is her favourite food. She starts to look at the direction that the boy is pointing at, allowing the lady to do her work silently. Noticing that there is no jalebi, Khushi pouts and looks back at her injury which the lady has dressed. The lady impressed with the boy smiles at him and asks him:
Lady (smiling) - who are you?
Before the boy could even answer, Khushi answered him.
Khushi (smiling) - my best friend... Arnie...
Arnav then helps Khushi get up, by holding her hand and helping her walk, while the lady watches the scene with a smile.
An hour later
A smiling Khushi is seen running around with her friends, ignoring the injury that happened not so long ago. Suddenly, another figure comes behind her and hugs her.
Khushi (smiling) - Payal!
Payal smiles warmly as Khushi swirls around to hug Payal properly. Before Khushi could properly greet Payal, two figures come and force Khushi away from Payal.
Person - Khushi! (sees her banded) What happened to you?
The lady that helped Khushi before comes out and smiles seeing their favourite parents,
Lady (smiling) - Mr and Mrs Gupta... (upset) I am sorry actually... Khushi fell over and hurt herself... I already explained the situation to Mr Gupta.
Mrs Gupta turns towards her husband, who nods at her.
Mrs Gupts (upset) - Such careless behaviour from you guys... if my daughter gets hurt once more... I will report this to the higher authority...
The lady looks shocked but covers it up with a fake smile.
Lady - We will try our best...
Mrs Gupta walks while holding Khushi's hand in her hand, while the husband smiles warmly at the lady, but gives a disgusted look to Payal which gets unnoticed by the lady. As soon as the mini family sits in the car, Khushi starts talking about her day while both the couple listens and smiles. Soon, the car stops in front of a mansion.
The family gets down, and heads inside with smiles, however, as soon as they step inside, the smiles vanish. Khushi's smile turns into fear, while both the parents glare at her in anger.
Mr Gupta (angry) - can't you be careful, you ungrateful child... (turns towards Mrs Gupta)... this is all your fault Garima! You haven't taught her how to be grateful... we give her everything and yet she talks so much... even though we told her a hundred times to keep her mouth shut...
Mr Gupta storms towards Khushi and twists her ears, making Khushi whimper in pain.
Mr Gupta (angry) - you ungrateful child... How many times do I have to tell you to keep your mouth shut in the car. Also, why are you even friends with that poor brat, Payal... you should be friends with people like Arnav.
He angrily lets go of her ears and then pushes her a little making her fall on the sofa and leaves the room, angrily.
Garima (angry) - my life is ruined because of you...
Saying those words, Garima leaves the poor girl to cry on the sofa, by herself. It has been an hour since Khushi slept crying to herself and also on a hungry stomach. Soon, one of the maids in the household goes to her and caresses her while she is asleep, causing the little girl to wake up.
Maid (smiling) - Come on baby... dinner time...
The young girl wipes her eyes and with a fake smile goes with the maid. After all, her own parents wouldn't even bother to check up on her.
Flashback Ends
Feeling a jerk, I get up to see I am already at the office. Feeling wetness on my cheeks, I wipe it, in order to make sure my makeup isn't removed. Great time for another act. Arnav gets out of the limousine and then holds out his hand. Another act of a gentleman. Holding his rough hand, I step out to be greeted by camera lights. These people will surely make me blind. Of course, Arnav wouldn't know how it feels, because he has his sunglasses on and also has a fake smile plastered on his face. I also plaster a fake smile as I walk hand in hand with my husband. Soon, we are stopped in our tracks by my father, who comes towards me and hugs me.
Father (whispering in my ear) - you need to work on that smile... and the saree you are wearing is so ugly, your choices since childhood are bad...
He lets go of me, while I try to hide the pain, by plastering a better fake smile. Why does my life involve always pretending? After greeting me, my father goes to Arnav and as he is about to hug him, something happens and he immediately moves away and starts to head to the stage. My mother soon comes forward and hugs me, however, she doesn't whisper anything nasty in my ears, instead she gives me a small smile after the hug and follows my father. Soon, the time came for the media to question us...
Reporter - congratulations on completing your three months anniversary... Mr and Mrs Raizada, how does it feel to have been married for this long? Are you guys still in your honeymoon phase?
Honeymoon phase, we didn't even go on our honeymoon. And that question, how does it feel to have been married for so long? Such a ridiculous question. Three months isn't even that long. Does the media always ask dumb questions? Of course they do..
Arnav - Interesting question. Well first of all, these three months have been the greatest months of my life. They went by so fast. In fact, I feel it was just yesterday we got married. (puts his arms around me and pulls me a little closer) Well since it has been 3 months I have a surprise for the media as well as for my sweet wife (lets go of me and moves a little away). The Guptas and AR will be merging companies.
Everyone starts to clap around me, while I still try to maintain that fake smile. This isn't a surprise but more of a shock. Thanks to this announcement, I know why he decided to marry me. We married each other for a business deal. My marriage was a business deal from the very beginning, but why am I not surprised? The reports are shocked by the news, and one of them even asks the question that I wanted to ask.
Reporter - Wow! What a surprise... Well Mr Raizada, is this marriage a deal for the company's benefit or is it out of love?
I smirk a little hearing the question, deep inside I know that my family will obviously lie to the media to keep a 'clean' image, however, I really hoped that they would tell the truth.
Father - What a rubbish question! Of course, it was for love.. Don't you see the happiness that my daughter and son-in-law share? Does it seem fake? And this company merging was just a coincidence...
The reporter looks satisfied with the answer and soon they start discussing business, making me bored to the core. Finally, after a long hour, the discussion ends, and we are finally about to get up when someone asks the last question. Oh god! Why? I want to go home. Home... do I even have one that I can call my own?
Reporter (interrupting my thoughts) - Mrs Raizada... you haven't spoken a word since the start of the discussion... What are your thoughts regarding marriage? And how do you like your present?
I gulped upon hearing the question. I am so not good at lying, despite having lied a million times to the media, I still struggle.
Me (fake smiling) - This marriage is and will be for love... Lies... and I love this surprise, it feels good to see my husband and father bonding professionally Lies.... And I wish them all the best in the business.
Italics = thoughts
I am then escorted out of the place, by my so-called family. Why can't I get a normal family? Finally waving my last goodbyes to my parents, I sit down in the limousine, while Arnav also follows inside.
Arnav - driver, go to my office...
The driver starts driving while I sit reluctantly on the cold hard floor of the car. I really want to question Arnav, why is he avoiding me? And why does he hate me all of a sudden? But nothing comes out of my mouth. In a few minutes, we arrive at his office, and after instructing the driver to drop me home, he leaves, not even saying 'bye.' Do I really deserve this? How hard is it to say bye? How hard? It's one simple word...
Precap - None
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PS: Not edited, so ignore all rammer and spelling errors.
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