Ishqana Dil

Part 45

A/N: This might be... long...

She made her way outside, to the meeting point, with bottled up anger. Wasn't this too late already? Now her poor son was going to be stuck with that miserable girl for the rest of his life!

"Boliye! What do you want from me now?" she snapped as she caught sight of him.

Dev Agnihotri scoffed. "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want me to leave, Mrs Gupta?"

She ground her teeth together. "Does anything you want to tell me matter, now? The wedding starts in half an hour! Ab kuchh nahin ho sakta!"

"Bohot kuchh ho sakta hai, Mrs Gupta, bohot kuchh," he laughed. "But only if you know how to make it happen."

"Come to the point," she snarled.

"Rachita Mathur is not Rishi Mathur's daughter." He paused, allowing it to sink in and bring the shock out on Sumitra Gupta's face. "She is Sneha's illegitimate daughter. Now, you can do whatever you want with this information. I will leave you."

***

Her sister-in-law released a dramatic gasp. "Hey Bhagwaan! What will you do now, Bhauji?"

She smiled cunningly. "I have already done what I had to, now Gajanand Chaubey just needs to accept my demands and whatever is supposed to happen will happen all by itself."

"Saaf saaf bolo, Sumitra!" her mother hissed. "We are already sick of this pretense. Arrey, if you didn't want this marriage to happen why did you accept the proposal? What was the need for all this tamasha? And now we find out that the girl is illegitimate too..."

"Arrey, Amma! Why do you worry? My Rama will not marry that girl!" she said gleefully. "I have given Gajanand Chaubey an ultimatum. He should get his daughter to sign her haveli over to us and send that Amaya to the mandap instead of her sister. If he doesn't, I will expose the truth of that girl in front of the whole of Banaras!"

Her sister gawked at her in disbelief. "Jiji? That Amaya Mathur? Your daughter-in-law?"

She had to laugh at their stupidity. "Paglaayi gayi ho, ka? Voh ladki humaare ghar ki bahu kabhi nahin banegi. I will let neither her older sister nor her marry my son. If Gajanand Chaubey accepts my demands, we will have this splendid haveli, think about it! As for that Amaya, she will only be hidden in the ghunghat until Rama has to put sindoor on her, na? We will get rid of her then! Rama will not agree to it and I will encourage him. She will be left there half-married and no one will ever even consider her for their son. And I will bring that Rachita's truth out either way. These Chaubeys and Mathurs will be so humiliated by the end of the night they won't even know where to hide their faces..."

***

"Amaya, chalo, Dadaji tumhein bula rahe hain," Neeti whispered, interrupting her wildly running thoughts.

She noticed the worried look on her cousin's face. "What happened?"

"I don't even know, he told me to call you... Come on..."

She followed her to her mother's room, stopping uncertainly by the door. The whole family seemed to have been gathered there, with the exception of Jazz and Rachi Di.

"Is it true, Sneha? Answer me, I am asking you something! Kya Rachita tumhaari... naajayaz aulaad hai?"

All her happiness drained out of her within the second that followed. No. This could not be happening now...