His first wife-a curse or a boon

Chapter 9

Khushi's POV

Taking slow yet confident steps towards  my point of disembarking.....i calmed down my frantic heartbeats and geared up my  timid self to be a warrior in the peril of drastic emotions and monsters under human skin...

I had been dressed up in a simple white anarkali,symbolizing the calmness in my mind but contradicting the violent streaming turmoil in my shattered heart and soul.....

My life had taken an 180 degree turn...with the complete alteration of my preferences ...choices ....the remarkable being the shade of my dress..the shade which I would have never worn as the bride of Aaryav,has now become the companion of my lonely self......

Reaching my destination,I opened my shoes and took predatory steps towards the direction,happiness latching my soul .....and bowing down in front of the almighty,my ganesha seeking his blessing and companionship with me in my journey of self hunt....

My vowed self didn't forget to preach and seek blessing  from my mumma...followed by my name sake father...who didn't waste a single moment in backing off as if my touch on his feet burned him...

The terrible disappointment I suffered with at that instant got overshadowed with my emotionless face which they didn't fail to notice.....

My mother was the first to gift me a pen ,on my 21st birthday......a symbol of education and self pride....I smiled in return of the gift which she gladly reflected back......her eyes had an over enthusiastic pride and happiness for me and I knew her faith in me was unbreakable...her gift was just a mere glance of her insatiable hopes towards me.....I engulfed her in my arms and she as if sensing my unsaid anxiousness and miseries engulfed me in her warm embrace which calmed me a little....

After her engulfing warmth,I was taken into another love and affection filled embrace of Kashvi di...who just hugged me close to herself....adding to the confidence of my self worth.....I hugged her back returning the same affection towards her direction...

On separating,she kissed my forehead...and said " Happy birthday..." handing me a small envelope......

On looking into her eyes...she mouthed me " your birthday gift..." which just added to my utterly confused state....

While in return she just gestured me to open the envelope....on her suggestion...I opened the envelop...which gave me the most unpredicted shock of my life...the happiest one......

The envelop consist of some of my intimate moments with Aaryav .....and some were of John's ( Alisha's brother..) pictures with an unknown girl....

I immediately looked into Kashvi di's direction with tear filled eyes....while she just smiled and uttered...

" I thought this to be the best gift for you on your birthday....your self respect and your dignity...." I immediately engulfed her in my arms....and started crying in her arms like a small baby...hugging her elder sister......

I wasn't in a state to even describe my overflowing emotions....if emotions could wet up our timid self...then I might have by now had been drowned up in my own cluster of emotions....

As we both separated though I didn't stop crying like a small baby and Kashvi di still supporting me like the big sister...she continued..

" well looking at all your faces...I have already guessed that you are all quite confused about my gift to her...well this are actually the hidden mystery behind the fake dirty photographs of that bastard John with our Khushi...on closely scrutinizing this pictures...all the people right over here would easily get to know that the pictures were photo shopped...the actual pictures were of Aaryav and Khushi which Aabheer had taken because we all youngsters had planned to gift the couple a album of their pictures....on their 2nd anniversary....and well John's pictures receiving is quite confidential though...." I could sense her smirking at the family members including her signature wink....but at that particular moment though my tears had involuntary terminated but still i had been rubbing my eyes...which had been red by now...for sure....

Sensing a brief moment of silence....I looked towards their direction...with my hooded eyes....to find Kashvi di standing there with her signature smirk at the Malhotra brothers...who had a complete baffled up expression on their faces....

But somewhere the core of my soul had been in a waiting for the insatiable
..the mocking of my self worth had been their primary play in their leisure...and now the only emotions they reflected were of anxiousness and nervousness....

On closely scrutinizing the pictures Aabheer concluded in his shaky and shuttering voice..."yeah the pictures were clicked by me...."which just added to Kashvi di's smirk while  I didn't knew but my tears had been in it's never ending journey... like in its eternal path of revealing all my hidden pain while my emotions were like flooding me through the different sets of feelings...one time my conscience knocks me...that I am proved to be loyal to Aaryav and our relation and on the very next moment all the tauntings and the humiliations comes flashing back to my memory causing my eyes to tear up again with the painful realization of disbelieve from the person I had submitted myself to....

My head already started spinning and it hurts badly...like someone is playing drum inside it....but I was controlling my demeanor so as to reach the end destination of these unexpected situation.....to witness the reaction of Aaryav to the bitter truth of his life ...that the girl he annihilated just had treated and worshipped him like her almighty....her love for him wasn't tainted....neither her body was ......her soul's journey had started for being touched by him and it will be for him till its path of eternity......

" What if the pictures are again photoshopped....." dadi broke the everlasting silence....and my head involuntary moved towards her direction.....

I could make out from her expression that she,was trying to play her last card for her victory....with a sinister smirk on her face.....

" This girl...had been out of these house for  past 6 months...and Alisha herself brought her pictures with his brother...why would Alisha try to degrade her own brother's reputation???"dadi eyes me through the corner of her eyes with a disgusting smirk on her face....which made me feel suffocated.....under her valedictory gaze towards me......

I don't know what made her hate me this much...that even after all these photographs...she is trying to taint my character again and again and degrade my soul with her disgusting and low thoughts....but somewhere her accusations and her humiliation didn't hurt me....because by now i had been quite apprised of her true self....the tainted one.....

Before she could continue further...Aaryav painfully snatched those photographs from dadi and started observing those pictures with an expression like he had been fooled....

All through this time my eyes didn't leave his face...with my inner self adorned in a hope of his trust and faith.....

His eyes had been  fixed on those photographs...while his eyes radiated pure fury....his jaw started clenching involuntary...a habit of him when he is trying to control his anger....his fists started forming a ball...crushing our pictures in to millions of folds......while his nose started flaring in absolute rage....that was when Anaisha came towards him and held his fisted hands into his....and whispered something incoherent in to his ears.....

The papers more like the crushed photographs fell from his hands and involuntarily like they knew about their point of disembarking.....reached my feet....I with my shaky hands picked those pictures up....and gazed towards Aaryav....whose eyes were softening with every passing second...with Anaisha by his side...firmly holding his hands in hers....

Realization dawned upon me that Aaryav didn't believe a single ounce of these photographs...and still thinks me as of a dirty whore who had cheated him...my legs started backing off in a stumbling way still not breaking my eye lock over Aaryav's face....

Suddenly he looked towards me and our eye met....more like he was deciphering my feelings through his eyes..... his eyes were like absorbing all my emotions into his.....but I didn't want to  lose myself again to him...I couldn't...not when he doesn't believe me...so I did  what I thought was the best to be done...I ran away from there....

How was the chapter???

Sorry for the late update....

What do you think will happen next...