Love or Retribution?

Chapter -27

Note: Hope all you good girls and boys have revised the earlier chapters, else please do so before reading this to fully feel the impact of the chapter.  Build up over ah irukkula... :P chumma jolly kku.. As long as you remember the crux of the story, you should be able to follow the flow.

A warm feeling started to spread through Subhashini as she saw the men who wronged her family dragged away in handcuffs. She stood there all misty eyed. 

She did it, she finally did it, yet she struggled to accept the success completely. Now that the adrenaline rush that accompanied the victory had started to come down, the reality hit her hard, the man whom she considered to be her father, whom she loved almost as much as she loved her real father was the man behind all her misery, more than the success, this betrayal squeezed her more . 

Emotions started to overwhelm her, she felt like she was about to faint when Bhargav moved next to her and pulled her into his arms.

She turned her head and looked at him with drained eyes.

"Relax Subhi ma, you did it, wherever uncle is now he would be beaming with pride. Concentrate only on that for now.",  he said and kissed her on top of her head. She moved even more closer to his chest and hugged him tight. She felt a huge weight lift from her chest.

She slightly moved away from his shoulder curves and looked at him with new found love. He looked even more handsome if that was even possible, busy, giving some instructions to the inn employees while still keeping her inside his arms.

"Mkkmmm... ", Nikhil came there and stood in front of them with folded hands.

Subhashini tried move away from Bhargav's arms but he didn't let her. 

"Bugsii", she hissed with a blush which shocked both the men.

"Oh, please, I have seen more than this, sincerely happy for both of you", Nikhil said with real content smile.

"Nikhil, who is that? Is that?" Subhashini asked looking at an eastern Indian guy who was talking to her mother.

"Yeah, Assistant commissioner Arun Thapa, we owe him a lot for today, despite pressure from Madhavan, he stood with us and got things done." Nikhil replied and just then her mother and AC started walking towards them.

"Subha kutty, this is Arun, Arun, Subhashini", her mother introduced the two of them.

"Hi Subha, heard a lot about you, it's a pleasure to finally meet you", Arun said extending his arm.

Subhashini gave her hand but struggled to get the words out, but when she did, she regretted instantly.

"Oh, the one who replaced me?", her sarcastic tone shocked everyone including her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way, let me try again, Hi Arun, thank you for everything you did to apprehend my father's murderer, we couldn't have done it without you and thank you for being there for my mother all these years", she said with a smile.

"No problem, and no I did not replace you, there was not a single day in my life that went without hearing something about you, "My Subha is like this, my Subha will do it this way, my Subha would love this", these are all constant slogans around our house that I feel like I grew up with you", he said with a smile.

"Now that all the problems are solved, we both can get to know each other and I am sure she will repeat the same slogan when she is with me from now on, right ma? How is it going to be, "Arun likes it this way, Arun will do it this way?"", she laughed looking at her mother.

But her mother's face did not reflect the same happiness.

"What?", Subhi asked confused looking at her mother and then at Arun.