My arranged wedding

A toast

Everyone waits in the sitting room when Ria and Shekhar come in and take in their gloomy faces.

"What's going on ?"

"Shalini called earlier, Vedant is currently in the hospital." Indira says sadly.

"Why? What happened?"

"She couldn't say." Ruchi sobbed into Rowan's arm.

Shalini and Vedant walk in and Ruchi darts to them closely followed by the others. On noticing the bandage around Vedant's head, Ruchi demands to know what happened.

Shalini narrates the masked man incident and Rowan rushes off to call the police but is stopped by Vedant who says there's no need since the culprit escaped a long time ago.

"You guys can describe him?"

"Yes."

"Then what are we waiting for?"

"There's no need dad. The most important thing is that he didn't get anything."

***

Raj walks in with bruises all over his face which surprises Khushi who is curious to know the type of trouble he had stirred up to get such beating.

"What happened Raj? Why are you in this bizarre state?" She asks as she approaches him warily.

"Oh mum, your son almost embarrassed Shalini today. I was this close but Vedant is being too smart for my liking. I hate him."

Raj scowls but Khushi shakes her head with a scoff.

"You can't even do one thing correctly." She hissed.

***

Shagird uses every opportunity to tease Vedant about being a whipped lover boy but the latter always ignored him.

Rachna barges into his room and with several questions on her lips.

"Are you fine?"

Vedant nods not looking in her direction.

She walks towards Vedant but Shagird stops her.

"Don't worry about him, I and Shalini will take care of him." He proudly tells her and Rachna walks out of the room leaving the two friends alone.

Minutes later, they hear a knock on the door and Shagird asks the person to come in.

Shalini walks in and starts "I hope I'm not intruding."

Shagird lifts his eyebrows to Vedant playfully in return but he's ignored. "No Shalini, is there anything you need help with?"

"No. I actually came to give you your medicines." She hold up bag given to her with Vedant's prescription.

"I'll leave you two to it."

"No Shagird." she stops and continues "I have up give my my mum a head massage, I won't be here for long."

Shagird exclaims "Vedant you are so lucky. Shalini, he also loves a head massage you'll be giving him a lot of it after getting married."

"Why after marriage?" Vedant grins

"What do you mean?."

"What I mean is why don't we start now?" he smiles enjoying the sight of a blushing Shalini.

"You are injured wait till you get better." she gives the bag of medicines to Shagird who assures her that Vedant would take it all in some gulp.

**

Rachna gets off the phone and Shalini grumbles when she tosses her phone away. "You are always on the phone Rachna, who is it this time?"

"You don't need to know Shalini. It's for the best if you don't."

Shalini pleads with Rachna to tell her who it was ready to hear some gossip.

"Fine, I'll tell you ... It's an an old friend of mine ... She was madly in love with Vedant and he was in love with her too but aunt Ruchi wouldn't approve of her and their relationship broke off."

"Why did she call?" Shalini turns pale but manages to blurt the words out.

"She's still in love with Vedant. Believe me, I've tried to make her forget him but it's of no use. She heard that he's getting married and just called to confirm if it's true." Rachna shakes her head.

Shalini buys the lie in an instant and inquires "Be honest with me please, do you thin ... Vedant still loves her?"

"Shalini you know I want both yours and Vedant's relationship to work out but I'm afraid Vedant still has feelings for her. Don't tell him any of what I've told you ... He'll be very mad at me but you deserve to know the truth."

"You don't need to worry. I won't tell him." Shalini interrupts and walks out on a pleased Rachna.

***

Ria praises Shekhar for being a good actor when they went undercover but the mystery of the locked room had yet to be solved.

"Mr and Mrs khan have travelled mum, this is a good chance to enter that room." Shekhar informs his mother.

"We can't go as journalists again." Ria reminded him.

"Leave that up me, I'll handle it." Shekhar smiles mischievously.

***

"She really is so naive, she believed me in a heartbeat." Rachna said as makes a toast to her new plan.

"That's Shalini for you. Too innocent, now we've set the ball in motion and no one can stop us. The wedding won't take place and our goals will be achieved."

"Cheers to that."

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