Silver Linings

Fess-Up

Happy New Year everyone :)

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The silence that was settled in the hall was broken by Mr. Roy, "Ma'am, Iss mei aap ke signatures chahiye" (Ma'am, I require your signatures in this) He extended a file towards Khushi, she looked at the file and then at Arnav "Fraud case file karvane ke liye Khushi" (To file the Fraud case Khushi) He answered her unasked question, she nodded her head and took the file from Mr. Roy's hand, he handed her a pen as well, She placed the file on her lap and opened it, taking a deep breath she signed on the first page, then Mr. Roy showed her a few more places to sign and she signed them without any question.

"Okay Mr. Raizada, Kal milte hai.. What time should I be here?" (We will meet tomorrow) Mr. Roy asked as he carefully placed the signed documents in his bag "Why don't you come here for breakfast? we can leave immediately after? Di will be accompanying us, so the drive would be slow" Arnav walked up to Mr. Roy, The lawyer agreed with a nod "Mr. Roy, woh dusre papers bhi ready honge na? We will need them tomorrow" (The other papers will be ready right?) Arnav asked as he walked with Mr. Roy to the door, "Yes Mr. Raizada, Mere assistant uss pe already kaam kar raha hai, they will be ready by tonight" (My assistant is already working on them) The two men shook their hands and Mr. Roy exited the house.

Arnav walked back to the hall just in time to hear Madhumati "Humka maaf kardo Titaliya... ee sab humri ghalti hai.. aur ab tumhe corat kacheri ke beech phasna pad raha hai" (Forgive me Titaliya... All this is my fault.. and now you will be stuck in this court business) She cried and then looked at her brother, "Agar humne Sashi babua ke baat maanke thoda aur jaan kaari ki thi... tho ee sab nahi hota" (If I had listened to Sashi's words and investigated a little more, none of this would have happened) She shook her head as tears poured down. Khushi was stunned to silence and everyone else tried to make sense of Madhumati's words, but it was Payal who spoke out what most if them were thinking "Buaji.. yeh aap kya keh rahi hai? Aapne kahan tha ke Babuji chahte the Khushi ki sagai uss Shy... uss aadmi se ho" (Buaji.. what are you saying? You had told us that it was Babuji's wish to get Khushi engaged to Shy.. to that man) she looked at her father who was shaking his head side to side, making it clear to everyone that it wasn't his wish.

Madhumati looked away guiltily as everyone bored their eyes on her, It was Garima who spoke up "Jab Jiji ne ee baat inse pehle ki thi... tab inhone kahan ke jaldi kya hai.. Khushi abhi bhi bachi hai.. baad mei dekh lenge" (When Jiji brought up this topic for the first time with him, he said what is the hurry, Khushi is still a child, we will see later) She swallowed a lump, she knew she is about to throw her sister in law under the bus, but it was time to be open with everyone "Par Jiji ne kahan.. ke Khushi ke liye uss aadmi se zyada acha rishta kahan milega.. jaise hi Shyam wapis ghar ayenge hume baat chalani chahiye" (But Jiji said that we would never find a better match for Khushi than him, and as soon as he comes back home, we should talk about it) 

Garima looked at Khushi who was silently listening to what she was saying and she felt even worse, this girl had blindly trusted them and they had almost pushed her into an empty well. "Phir Shyam wapis ghar aagaya, aur pata nahi kyun.. Sashi ji ko unpe shaq tha.. aur Sashi ji ne kahan Jiji se ke hume aur jaan kaari karlena chahiye Shyam ke baare mei.. phir achanak ek din Sashi ji ko lakwa lag gaye the... aur hospital mei shyam ki taraf ishara kar raha tha.. aur shaa shaa aise kuch kehne chah raha tha.. hume tho kuch samaj nahi aayi thi... uss waqt woh Shyam hi humaare zehen mei yeh baat dali, ke shayad Sashi ji Khushi ki shadi ke baare mei baat kar rahe the" (Then Shyam had come back home, and for some reason, Sashiji did not trust him.. and he told Jiji that we should investigate more about shyam.. Then suddenly one day Sashiji had a paralytic stroke, and in the hospital he was pointing towards Shyam and saying something like Shaa shaa.. and we did not understand anything.. At that time it was Shyam who put the idea in our head that Sashiji was talking about Khushi's wedding) She spoke in one breath as tears rolled down her cheeks, Payal held Khushi's hand in support as both girls tried hard to control their emotions.. Their family had been manipulated when they were at their most vulnerable state.