Put down your gun guys! I know you all are very angry with me for going invisible for months. What to do, life is keeping me busy following by writer's block. And sadly, I am not going to be regular for atleast this year. I'll give frequent updates from next year onwards. Thanks for your mountain of patience.

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Arnav POV

Releasing myself from Iniya hold, I marched towards my room. More than Meghna, Khushi needs a lesson now. How can she speak to my dadi like that? Who gave her the right? Doesn't she know the basic etiquette of respecting elders? And who the hell is she to take decisions for this family without consulting us?

Pushed opening the door, I lurched forward seeing her sitting on MY bed. How dare she? Creating havoc in my mind, she's relaxing peacefully. Taking long strides, I yanked her from sitting position and pulled her arm harshly “How dare you Khushi? How dare you? What do you think of yourself? From the start itself dadi is supporting you and see yourself today; you didn't think twice to insult her that too before Meghna? What the hell do you think of yourself? What are you trying you to do by behaving like this? Do you even realise how much hurt she must have felt? Is this way to behave with elders? She's my dadi dammit!”

I roared not giving damn to her crocodile tears. It doesn't have her desired affect on me. I gripped her arms harder, triggered by her silence “Answer me dammit. Why are you silent now?”

At once, I staggered back and it took few seconds to fathom her harsh push. All my nerves turned attentive by raging flow of blood. With the same fury, I shoot daggers at her form which turned red due to crying and her nose seems running non-stop. She kept wiping it with back of her palms. Does it affect me? Never! Huffing, I was about to tweak her arms when she hunched forward.

“What do you want to hear? Haan?? What do you want arnavji? Just because I spoke something against your dadi you're ready to pounce on me. Did you ever thought about me? I am also experiencing the same shock as you're undergoing. Did you ever thought how would I cope up with everything? Not few minutes ago, I manage to bring myself to believe our marriage. When I convinced myself what I got? A little girl is calling you daddy and her mother vowed to marry you. Did you ever thought how much it would've pained me to see all this commotion right after my unexpected wedding? Do you even know how much it sting my heart seeing Meghna’s advances towards you? After going through hell for five minutes, I got to know she's your brother's wife. Tell me how am I supposed to react when there were bundle of mysteries crouched down, wherever I lay my eyes on this house? I still don't know how much you and dadi are hiding from me. If dadi spilled everything earlier at least we wouldn't be in this situation. But no, she decided to hide everything and expect a lot from me. Won't I have that right to know your problems before marriage? Or atleast after that? Yesterday, she was with me all the time till midnight but never once she opened her mouth even after my assurance of working on this relationship…

I deserve it. I hurt my amma yesterday na, I deserve this. For YOU and DADI, I went against my amma yesterday. She disowned me. Now see what I got in return? You claimed me as your wife in front of Meghna to defeat her & dadi used me to fail her plans. Where do I stand as a wife and daughter-in-law here? You both are using me for your own needs. But… Don't think I'll sit quiet seeing you all using me & making me a puppet snatching my rights. If I didn't get what's mine then I won't hesitate to take it forcefully.” She breathed heavily with her long fringes strewn all over face.

“You’ve gone insane.” I mumbled not knowing how to reprimand her argument as whatever she said was nothing but truth. But wait, Her mother disowned her? Why? Does dadi knows it?

“Cat got your tongue?” I frowned as she sneered. By then, her tears has stopped & her breathings are close to normal from uneven state. It’s an utter waste to pity her. It's not even a blink of eye, had I worried about her relationship with her mother and here she's ready to grab the chance & taunt me. It's good that I didn't divulge much on her issue. She deserve it for snatching my peace. There's more to solve Arnav. Stay alert else she'll walk upon you.

“How can you decide about Meghna stay here? Don't forget, you came here just yesterday. More than you, dadi and I have say in this. Stop dreaming about ruling us. It'll never happen. And moreover I am going to throw Meghna out. Be ready. Who knows you'll be next too!?.”

Pleased with her flabbergasted expression, I passed a wicked grin before taking a step to move out. It's an absolute pleasure to get her tongue tied. How many times had she got on my nerves?

“Keep dreaming Raizada.”

I stopped on my tracks abruptly. She'll never learn her lesson, does she? Huffing, I passed a stern glare obvious of her reaction. A mocking smile spread across her lips as if she vowed to confuse me.

“It's not good to live in bubble arnavji. A coin has two sides. Don't judge everything by one side. Who knows what lies on other side? Try to see the other side, maybe everything is not the way it looks.”

What I asked? What is she saying? Two sides? What she's trying to imply? I stood watching her going outside taking her mobile. I badly need a coffee before dealing with Meghna.

Khushi POV

My heart galloped against the fabric. Never ever have I imagined this type of wedding and certainly not the reception of morning drama. But it happened! An impromptu wedding and the truths following by is not what I expected and apparently it's not giving me good vibes. Seems like destiny wanted to play a crucial game with my life.

“Khushi beta… Drink this coffee first.” I jolted out from my thoughts and my vision automatically downcasted to my hand where a mug of steaming coffee is placed. It's dadi. Maybe arnavji is right, dadiji is looking as if someone suck the life out of her, I've gone overboard. I shouldn't have spoken harshly. But… Isn't her fault that the issue is dragged unnecessarily for years? She may be completely not at fault but as an elder she has certain responsibilities towards her family before jumping into conclusions. Her wrong assumptions regarding Meghna paved way for Meghna to think in wrong connotation. If only dadiji had little patience before coming into culmination.

“Dadiji… Why did you thought Meghna is after arnavji?”

I keenly noticed her perplexed expression which itself shows her wrong judgement “Khushi… What are you asking? Isn't that obvious from her behaviour?”

“I am asking about the first time when you concluded her as a characterless girl who's running behind her brother-in-law.”

“Khushi beta…” Dadi called out in shock “I am not getting what you mean. I… She… herself came to our home and demanded Arnav to marry her after she divorced my first grandson.” She stammered little as if recalling the past moments.

“Try to recall your memory dadiji. Hasn't she came to you asking for shelter right after her divorce?”

“She did. But Khushi… she herself stood stubborn on getting divorce. What is the need of divorce if she wants to stay with us? You tell me, how can I allow her to stay here after divorce when chote just rec… struggling in his career to make his place? Moreover we settled her money after divorce procedures and even I made chotte to give a part of company profit to her. What more can I do? Won't this society badmouth about chotte and Meghna if I allow her to stay with us after divorce?”

“Haan.. there you're. This is where she gets this idea of marrying arnavji in first the place. Though I don't know the reason of divorce.” I stopped her at right moment as the root cause for all this problem lay there.

“I still can't understand beta. I don't know what you think but this is what I felt right. I can never allow her in my home when she's not related to us.”

“She needed secure place for herself dadiji. When you refused to give her, she chose the wrong nerves that too by your own words.”

Her dubious expression mirrored her doubt which I chose to clear. It's high time this people should know why Meghna is behind the son of this house.

“You told her about how society thinks if you allow a divorcee to stay with her bachelor grandson. And she picked the concept of marrying arnavji from there. If they marry, neither you nor this society can point at them.”

“What is the need for all this beta? Why are you trying to cover up for her mistakes? I still can't see any valid reason for her to behave this way snatching our peace.”

Taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth to clear this unnecessary shit once for all “She badly needed a SHELTER for herself and her daughter after her divorce dadiji. When she came to you with this purpose you shrugged her off tagging her as characterless and accused her of eyeing arnavji. She even tried to convey the real reason behind her request but YOU never gave her a chance to explain nor let arnavji to hear it out. Having all doors closed, she chose this way to protect herself. The legal papers which arnavji signed regarding iniya responsibility is somewhat safeguarding her. And the stay order for arnavji marriage which she confessed few minutes before was fake. There's no such practice of law where one can stop the wedding when the parents of the child are not real ones. She used that card only to create havoc in your senses so that you can at least convince to have a decent conversation with her. All these years she's running for a SHELTER.”

“Why she need shelter when she have her mother? They're not homeless beta.”

“Do you think life would be easy having a stepfather hovering around her like a lion roaming for its prey? Even Iniya is not safe. Her stepfather guarded her almost all the time that she barely got time to look out for herself. It's only when he's away she turned up to your doorstep for help.”

“Is he her stepfather? They are divorced and living separately, aren't they? That's what her mother said. In fact… it's only him who feed me about Meghna intentions. He said Meghna is trying to get close to chotte in bad intention since Abhay failed to give her desired life. And I thought he's saying truth so I did all possible ways to cut her off from our life. Come on how can I not believe her father?”

I expelled a heavy sigh. A simple thing is dragged unnecessarily due to lack of communication and wrong interpretations. If only Meghna tried hard in her part to convey the real reason than pursuing arnavji, he would've surely helped. If only dadiji give an ear to her plead. Perhaps, it seems dadi is angry on Meghna for divorce. But… why did Meghna divorced her husband? And how doesn't she notice her stepfather intentions earlier? How did she tolerated him for almost two years?...

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