Trigger warning. Readers discretion is strictly advised.

"Chote?" She choked standing up too. "Don't be like this. Please?" She burst out sobbing seeing him averting his eyes.

"I don't deserve the treatment you dished out to me when all I ever wanted was your happiness. Your safety. Even when I asked the doctor to sedate you I didn't had any intention to keep you away from Khushi but just to keep you safe. Alive." She cried out. "You do know what's its like to loose a sibling still you,"

Khushi felt Arnav stiffening by her side with his hand snaked around her waist.

"I didn't want to lose you like we lost--" Anjali burst out only to be sharply cut by him.

"Enough Di. You made your point and I heard that." He looked at her angrily.

"Come out of your shield now and accept that you did the same to Khushi what that bastard did to our sister in the name of love." Anjali wasn't stopping while Khushi gasped at the revelation.

"ENOUGH. I SAID ENOUGH!" Arnav bellowed causing Khushi to jerk at her place to which he pursed his lips.

"You have another sister?" Khushi's question froze Arnav for a moment as he breathed hard.

"Arnav?" She asked firmly.

"Yeah." He swallowed thickly. "We were three siblings once before it was just Di and I"

"Is she saying the truth? What happened to her?" Khushi shoot another question while Arnav started perspiring and for the first time since their marriage he withdrew from Khushi and without answering stormed upstairs clearly upset while Anjali turned around sobbing herself.

"What happened to her?" Khushi turned to Anjali dreading her reply. But she needed to know.

Anjali blinked back the tears looking at her brokenly.

"Anjali, will you speak up now? You can't shut up after dropping a bomb over me. Start talking!" Khushi said sternly.

Anjali gulped and wiped her face trying to compose herself.

"Did you ever wonder what planted that notion in his mind to make you suffer?" She whimpered.

A chill ran down Khushi's spine at that.

"He took a leaf from an unrelenting monster himself of how to torture people." Anjali cried.

"Who?" Khushi asked quietly.

"Our sister's lover. She was my twin." She choked.

Khushi swallowed hard whilst a gasp escaped her.

"She went on a trip with her friends one day and from there she never came back. At least not alive." Anjali cried out.

Khushi's face whitened.

"She ran away with him. We don't know what he told her but she called us and declared that she was marrying her boyfriend and would never come back home. She did though one day when she got into an accident."

"Accident?" Khushi whispered aghast. Her eyes widened and body trembled.

"Yeah, he killed her." Her voice cracked. "She wasn't lucky like you to survive. She was 19 like me and Arnav, just 14 at that time. That incident took away our parents lives. In a flash oru family broke apart leaving just Chote and me in midst the ruins."

Khushi felt herself wheezing. She struggled to breathe. Her stomach churned.

"Why? What did she ever do to him?" Khushi asked hoarsely with her eyes glistening with pain.

"When the police arrested him he blurted out everything nonchalantly as if it was the daily occurance for him." Anjali sobbed out.

"He was diagnosed with severe OCD. He was obsessively compulsed to draw pleasure through pain. He trapped my sister in order to inflict pain on her for his pleasure. He didn't even bother to marry her." She burst out.

Khushi felt her vision blurring whilst her heart clawed in her chest. Stomach turned and twisted as nausea built up in her. Sensation made her feel dizzy but despite that she kept standing as her ears caught the words being said.

"The man told everything as if even remembering it was giving him pleasure. He didn't leave even a single detail out. Arnav read his whole statement and from what I know he still has that file with him."

Bile rose up in Khushi's throat. Several questions reverberated in her mind. On the top of all one voice was screaming in her head which she so wanted to shout at Anjali that,

'What the hell was that kind of file doing with a 14 years old Arnav which contained all the tortures his sister went through? And who the hell allowed him to read that all at such a delicate age? For heaven's sake he was just a kid! Why didn't Anjali stop him from reading it? Why does he still have that file with him goddammit?' But nothing came out of her mouth whilst she stood stock still at her place staring at Anjali stupefied.

Anjali was still speaking not realizing how much havoc it was wrecking in Khushi's senses.

"Now you see, my brother wasn't a monster of his own making. That man made him. When he thought Shyam was cheating on me he did whatever he could for me to not end up dead like our sister. He trapped Shyam himself before he could harm me which he thought he would."

Composing herself hardening her heart Khushi let out the plausible question as she swallowed and tasted the bitter liquid down her throat making her feel more nauseatic.

"Didn't this thought ever cross his mind that when Shyam was married to you for months and didn't hurt you even once in that span then why would he have had later?" How she managed to not stammer she was herself amazed at her own composure even though everything was disrupting inside of her.

"I don't know. Only he can answer you that. The rational thinking leaves him whenever he think about the tragedy our sister suffered. Maybe that's why he was so overprotective of me for he feared I'd have the same fate as Ananya."

Khushi felt her eyes prickling. Her heart felt so much heavy and her shoulder weighed down as the revelations sank in her mind creating a storm of emotions inside of her making her almost lose her sanity.

Without another word, not even bothering to see her off or console the sobbing mess of her sister-in-law Khushi turned to the stairs and climbed up straight to their room where she was sure he would be right now.

Just when she thinks she knows him enough, another layer of him unravel in front of her crumbling down all her beliefs and resolves.

Why?

Why Arnav?

Why didn't you tell me?

Why dammit?

What did he think that he would keep such a big truth about his life hidden forever? For how long? Till she accepted him back or left him again?

Was he planning to tell her this ever at all? If Anjali hadn't brought it up would he have kept it under the wraps forever?

And he says he wants their marriage to work? He wants to earn her forgiveness? How? By keeping things from her again? What in the freaking hell?

Along with pain and anguish she also felt her heart aching for him to have suffered such a tragedy in his life yet it nowhere calmed down other emotions running through her.

Disappointment coupled with rage coursed through her veins with every step she took forward with her eyes shining with various glints.

Only her face-off with him would determine which one of her emotions would dominate when she would be in front of him. Nevertheless,

They needed to have a serious conversation. Period.

______________________________

Ye ishq samajh na paye hum,

Phir bhi toh baaz na ayen hum,

Ye khel hi yaar anokha hai,

Bas apni nazar ka dhoka hai!

______________________________

Kindly do leave your votes and comments to support me to keep writing :)

➡️ Did Anjali do right revealing the truth? Or not?

➡️ If it's the truth then why didn't Arnav tell Khushi till now?

➡️ How'd it affect Arnav and Khushi's relationship? For better or for worse?

➡️ Your thoughts regarding the revelations?

➡️ What's going to happen next? Any idea?

➡️ Any questions?

We are going to reach the highest point of SRHNT in the upcoming updates. Buckle up guys. The story is going to become more intense than ever.

P. S. Don't worry the chapters are going to be as long like before. This is Interlude as it's supposed to be. Short and crisp.