A Night on a Highway (completed)

chapter-2

Quick revision: This story is set around the time in the show when Arnav didn't know Anjali's husband Shyam was same as Khushi's fiancé shyam, neither did Khushi or Guptas knew Shyam was Anjali's husband. Arnav and Khushi share love-hate relationship. It's my version after that point where Shyam kidnaps Guptas and keeps them hostage to marry khushi. Khushi manages to flee, on the other side Arnav gets to know Anjali's husband is cheating on her with someone, he doesn't know with who. He is also worried for Khushi as she is not seen in 2 days. Coincidentally Khushi asks lift from Arnav on that deserted highway and Arnav is mad as well as relieved seeing her after 2 days (he is unaware she was kidnaped). They get in the car and then accidentally hit someone who turns out to be Shyam who is dead. They decide to dump Shyam's body in a valley along the highway when highway police catch them...now onto next part -

--*--

Inspector Manik Malhotra watched with curiosity as the pair in front of him had varied expressions playing on their faces when his men went a few feet down in the valley to look if they find something! Sub-inspector Nandini Murthy, in the meanwhile only had her eyes trained on the hazel eyed girl in front of her as she watched a flicker of fear in those eyes...

"Sirji, there is a body here, but it's face is unrecognizable." constables shouted from few feet below, who had gone to search if Arnav and Khushi were indeed speaking truth.

Khushi jumped hearing that and clutched Arnav's arm which didn't go unnoticed by Nandini. Inspector Manik, however, found those details rather amusing.

"Tsk tsk, unrecognizable face? matlab isne toh sach mein apna mooh kala kar liya hoga (he has indeed blackened his face)." the inspector said with a soft chuckle while Arnav and Khushi looked on horrified.

The thing with working in the crime world, even if as a police officer, was Manik had learnt to find humor in his otherwise dark world! To others, it may seem insensitive or harsh even but being in his shoes, he couldn't afford emotions every time he saw a dead body or every time, he was interrogating suspects...even if the said suspects included an intimidating man in front of him in his 3-peice suit or a beautiful girl besides him...

He watched them in scrutiny while also ordering his staff to take care of few things.

"Yadav, escort these two people in our jeep and Ms. Nandini, call ambulance so this body is taken for postmortem and identification" Manik said, as he moved towards his jeep, leaving a tongue-tied Arnav and Khushi behind.

The only thought playing in Arnav and Khushi's mind was, "what kind of a nightmare was this?"

--*--

Hariprakash helped Devyani Raizada with her nightly medicine dose. He had been a loyal servant of this house since he was teenager, when Devyani Raizada and her kind husband had given him shelter and taken him in. Since then, this family and its safety became him main priority. And Devyani Raizada was like his own grandmother while Anjali didi and Arnav bhaiyya were like his own siblings to him...

Which is why, he was also worried about Arnav's whereabout this night. It was way past 2am and Arnav was not back yet...

--*--

Inspector Manik and sub-inspector Nandini took their places in front of the two people that were in their custody from the crime scene. And they began usual interrogation, as Manik asked questions and Nandini started writing them in the big register.

They began with the man in front of them, whose face was devoid of any expressions, but his eyes couldn't hide the storm in there...