Making Her Mine- An IPKKND story.

Chapter 43 - Plan

Khushi was as glum as Arnav when she returned to their bedroom.

"What happened," he asked her.

"Jiji seems unhappy. I think Jijaji is being cold to her, but she won't tell me."

"Let him talk to her in his own time, Khushi."

"What happened to you?"

"Di wanted to know why I am so unfriendly with Shyam."

Khushi looked at him with rounded eyes. "What did you tell her?"

"Nothing. I tried to evade her, but I can't go on like this. After all this, I can't pretend. I'm not like you, I –"

"What do you mean?" she snapped.

"No no no. I mean – I can't hide how I feel. I'm not saying –"

"It's fine.." She frowned. "So, what are you going to do?"

"I was thinking we could go stay with your parents for a few days," Arnav said. "I can't be around that man anymore, Khushi. We have to make some excuse. And we have to send him away somehow. The thought of him in this house with Di makes me sick."

"Arnav ji..." Khushi said. "What if – what if you and I went away, somewhere. On our honeymoon."

"What?"

"To Mussoorie? Or Shimla. Somewhere like that. Just to get away from all this. Do you think Shyam-ji will follow us there?"

"But – no offense, Khushi, but I don't want to go on a holiday right now. And, even if we go, what if he doesn't follow us? Then there's no point."

"We won't actually go. We can go stay at Buaji's. But we will tell everyone that we are going to Shimla. Or Mussoorie."

Arnav considered this. "You think Shyam will follow you to wherever we go?"

She looked uncomfortable, but nodded. "Us. He will follow us. He must have been keeping watch on us at Buaji's, that's how he found the chance to – to have someone attack you"

"But the minute he gets there he'll know it's a ruse, and he'll come back."

"We will make it hard for him to find out. Maybe you can send someone else in our place – maybe Preeto and Ankur, it can be our wedding gift. You can say you booked it for yourself but now you can't go. So the booking will be in our name. If Shyamji calls, the hotel will tell them we are there. He will try to see us... And we can stall. We can pretend to suddenly change hotels, give Di one hotel name and tell her later we changed it. I'm sure he will use her to find out where we are staying. It will take him some time to get there, figure it out, and then return."

Arnav stared at Khushi. "You came up with all of that right now?"

"I'm good at coming up with ideas," she replied smugly.

"It has loopholes," Arnav muttered. "What if Buaji and Aunty talk to someone in the family? Everything will be exposed in a minute."

"We have to tell them the truth," Khushi said gravely. "At least, that we suspect Shyam Ji and are trying to get him away. That you know."

Arnav was still shaking his head.

"And we need to tell Jijaji... and Jiji," she added.

"But Khushi... you didn't want to tell her."

"I know. But Jijaji is determined to do it. And, I think it's for the best." She lowered her eyes. "I mean, we need her to know."

She was serious about this plan, Arnav realized. Serious enough to involve her sister, whom she was protecting at all costs.

"Arnav ji, we can tell Dubey ji, too. And your investigators can keep an eye on him. Maybe when we are away – I mean when we are pretending to be away, he will try to do something."

"Khushi... I don't know..."

"Do you have any other ideas?"

"Not Shimla. Mussoorie. We can take a flight to Dehradun. Akash can drop us off at Buaji's instead of at the airport."

"Will he find out, if we book tickets but don't board the flight?"

"No, actually. As long as he doesn't try to follow us into the airport, he won't know."

She gave him a wide grin. He rolled his eyes. But he was going along with her plan, wasn't he?

-

Akash, inconveniently, had gone to office. Arnav decided to talk to him there, and reluctantly left Khushi at the house.

"I know that man is here too, but – go stay with Nani. And call if – you need anything. I'll get the security guys to check in. Maybe it's a good time to tell Nani about our h – er – holiday. We can tell the rest of them at dinner. But I have to tell Akash the plan first," he said before leaving.

"Don't worry, Arnav ji. Come back soon," she said, clutching his arm as he stood at the door. Very wifely that was. He patted her cheek, and smiled when she turned a round-eyed, questioning look at him. "I'll come back soon," he said, smiling wider, and bounded out of the house.

He called Akash and Aman to his office, and told them Khushi's plan.

Akash seemed much more impressed with it than Arnav expected. "Khushi ji always has brilliant ideas," he said, agreeing instantly to everything.

Arnav had to stop himself from backtracking. "You really think this will work?" Akash was usually sensible. Since when did Khushi's harebrained schemes impress him?

"Yes bhai, remember how well the plan to get Payal to confess her love for me worked? Khushiji is brilliant!" he gushed. Arnav rolled his eyes.

"Well, there's a lot riding on you. You have to drop us to Buaji's house, pretending that we are actually going to the airport. You have to talk to Payal. You have to tell that – Dubey, you have to keep an eye on Shyam, and make sure everyone is okay at home when I'm gone."

He turned to Aman. "What do you think?"

"I – er," Aman hesitated. "We don't know that Shyam will actually try to follow you to Mussoorie. But you intended to go away anyway, so why not try this? If he doesn't go, we can think of something else"

Arnav nodded. At least Aman wasn't blinded by love-fueled gratitude.

"Okay. Then book flight tickets for Dehradun. Don't cancel them, we'll just miss the flight. Then tell that boy, Ankur – he's in the Gurgaon office – that he can go to Mussoorie, in my place, with his wife. Tell him I couldn't make it, and now I've decided instead of cancelling, to give it to him as a wedding gift. Tell him – tell him I don't want people to think I'm showing favoritism because he's married to my wife's friend, so he should keep it from other employees. Shyam knows some of them. If he can't go, offer it to someone else in the office in the same way. Then book a hotel – book two hotels, in fact. Whoever is going in our place can stay in the first one, but book a second one after a few days, and give me the hotel names."

Aman was nodding vigorously at all this.

"And, Aman. I'll be working from Buaji's, so keep me in the loop. And, tell the investigators to send daily reports of Shyam's every movement from now on."

"And, Akash will need help. Keep an eye on my sister, will you? I hate the idea of leaving her with that – with Shyam."

"Noted," Aman said. "How long will you be away, sir?"

"One week. It's not long, but I can't think of being away longer than that. Hopefully we will have something on Shyam by then. That Dubey better work fast. Otherwise we are back to square one."

"Yes sir. And when do you plan to leave?"

"Tomorrow."

Aman lifted his eyebrows. "I have to make some quick arrangements then."