Mugdha was upstairs in a guest room flipping through some channels on the T.V. Some boring Saas-Bahu serial was going on. She shut off the T.V. and started scrolling through her Instagram account.

Suddenly, a picture of Sumedh and Vedanti popped up. It was a very adorable selfie of both of them. Vedanti had posted it with a caption, 'I miss you baby😘 Be back soon.'
Mugdha smiled. She hit the like button and commented,'You're pregnant and I know your hormonal levels are at their peak but control yourself 😉.'

As soon as she commented Amit's unofficial account liked her comment. Amit had two accounts. One was private for all the close people. The other one was his typical 'neta' account through which he propaganded the various policies and programmes that their party took up.

Amit had commented something and tagged her. She clicked on the  notification to see what the comment was about.

"And what about you, my lady? Do you want me back home?😋😆" he commented. She smiled.

"Ofcourse!😙" she replied back.

She went on to see what else was happening around the world. Nivi and Rohan both had posted a selfie infront of the Big Ben from their last trip to London.

Siddharth had posted some picture of himself with a colleague.

Sameeksha had posted a picture of herself as Yudhveer got down on his knees and kissed her bump.

Awww.

Then she saw something which cracked her up and she started laughing.

Aarushi had posted a picture of herself  with a very weird expression. She had her tongue sticking out and eyes closed. It was very cute. Her caption was, "YOLO✌ 😋".

Not very wise but okay.

Some sponsored page's picture came up on her screen. The picture hadn't yet loaded. But Mugdha saw whose picture it was.

Devaki Mahajan.

She curiously waited for the picture to load but it was too slow.

Mugdha's phone rang suddenly. It was Amit. She picked up the phone.

"Hello..?" She asked.

"Hey, kaisi ho meri jaan?" Amit asked her.

"Tanhayi mein doobi hun..." She said sadly.

"Aww....aisa kyun? Agar meri Rani mujhe ghar wapas chahti hai toh uske commands mere sir ankhon par." He said. Mugdha chuckled.

"Aye, Natak! Zyaada jhoot mat bola karo tum..." Mugdha said.

"Arrey? Mein jhoot nahi bol raha...I am really coming..." Amit said. "Par agar tum chahti ho ki mein na aao toh phir..."

"Shutup. Chup chap ghar aao." Amit laughed.

"Aata hun baby."

"Haan, aao..hum teeno tumhara intezaar kar rahe hai..." Mugdha said.

"Teeno matlab?" Amit asked puzzled.

"Mera baby, mein aur meri tanhayi" Mugdha laughed. Amit chuckled.

"Chalo, bye milte hai phir."

                       *************

In the evening, everyone was sitting down in the hall and joking around.

Rohan got a call. He went in another room to speak. Nivi sighed.

"Meine ispar work ka bahut pressure daal diya na?" Aarushi asked Nivi sadly.

"Arrey nahi...tumne kahan se daal diya?" Nivi answered.

"Politics join karne ke baad Rohan hi mera sab kaam sambhal raha hai na? Uska khud ke kaam ka pressure itna hoga plus ab mera bhi..." Aarushi said sadly.

"Arrey, nahi aisa nahi hai...woh manage kar raha hai..." Nivi replied.

"Don't worry...abhi elections khatam hue hai...abhi mein thoda free rahungi raat ko...I'll do my work on fashion designing that time..." Aarushi said to Rohan as he came in.

"Arrey wah...thik hai...par chinta karne ki koi baat nahi hai...in case tum free nahi hoti ho toh I will manage.." Rohan replied.

Aarushi gave him a nod.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed.

Panoti was calling.

"Yeh Panoti kaun hai, baby?" Siddharth asked her. Everyone was laughing.

"Yeh ladki logon ke naam kaise save karti hai.." Sameeksha laughed.

"Arrey? Yeh wapas kyun call kar rahi hai?" Aarushi wondered aloud.

"Kaun?" Vedanti asked.

"Devaki Mahajan." Aarushi replied. Everyone gasped.

"Tumne uska naam Panoti save kiya hai?!" Sumedh asked her in shock.

"Haan...so?" Aarushi narrowed her eyes.

"Arrey phone toh uthao.." Nivi said.

Aarushi picked up her phone.

"Haan Panoti-err-Devaki ji boliye." Aarushi said. Devaki's fists clenched.

"Ji...meine isliye call kiya tha ki aaj shaam humare yahan ek party hai...Mere aur Randhir ki anniversary hai...Mujhe khushi hogi agar aap aur aapke dost humari party mein aayenge." Devaki cunningly asked.

"Umm...no thanks. You guys carry on." Aarushi replied. Everyone gave her a questioning look.

"Arrey? Abhi se answer de rahi hai? Aap please try kijiye ga..." Devaki said.
Aarushi hung up on Devaki.

"Kya hua??" Nivi asked. Everyone looked at her curiously.

Aarushi told them about what Devaki told her.

"Seriously? Usne humein party mein bulaya hai? Is she crazy?" Sumedh said.

"Waise yeh Devaki dikhti kaisi hai?" Aarushi asked. Nobody knew.

"Ajeeb hai na? Humne usse kabhi bhi dekha tak nahi..." Rohan observed.

"Shantabaiii! Zara mera laptop lana toh mere room mein se." Aarushi called out to her servant.

"Ji..madam." Shantabai hurried up the stairs. A few moments later, she came and handed the laptop to Aarushi.

Aarushi switched it on and searched for Devaki on the net.

Aarushi froze. A chill went down her spine. She started shivering. Siddharth noticed this and came and sat next to her.

"Aarushi? Kya hua? Itna darr kyun rahi ho?" He asked her.

"Ye-yeh..." Aarushi pointed at Devaki's picture.

"Kya yeh?" Siddharth asked.

Aarushi realised what she was about to say. She shut herself up. Everyone looked at her confused.

This was the same woman as that day in her car. Same face, same eyes, same nose, same clothes.  Its just that her face was normal and not scarred.

"Kya yeh?" Sameeksha tried to persuade Aarushi to spill the beans. She knew that Aarushi remembered something from that dreadful night.

"Kuch nahi..." Aarushi trailed off. "Kya hum aaj iski party mein jaa sakte hai?"

"NAHI! Pagal ho kya tum?  Dimag thikane par hai ya nahi?" Sumedh shouted at her. Aarushi flinched.

"We can go actually..." Nivi said suddenly. Aarushi looked at her with a ray of hope. She needed to know the answers. She had to go to the party to find out.

"Nahi." Rohan said sternly.

"Koi kahin nahin jaayega." Amit declared.

Aarushi  began to devise an escape plan in her head.

Jaakar toh mein rahungi hi. She thought.  Isse mere sawaalo ka jawab dena hoga hi..

Sameeksha understood that Aarushi was planning to go to the party somehow. This was something related to that night. She decided to keep a close watch on Aarushi. She would follow her wherever she went. This would prove that Aarushi is hiding something from them.