Till Death Do Us Part

Part 10

"You don't have to do this right now, you know that right? I mean, you just finished your mother's last rites yesterday...."

"Maa got her liberation and I want mine. I am doing this for myself, not for you, so let's just get over with this," replied Khushi, staring out of the window, her nonchalant tone gnawing at his conscience. He took a deep breath to control the onslaught of emotions as he entered the address she had told him in Google Maps to be shocked by the results.

"This address does not belong to an orphanage.." he trailed off, looking at her in shock.

"I know. It belongs to Dr. Sunidhi Sharma, the one who has adopted her as soon as she was born and the one who was my consultant during pregnancy," she replied in a matter-of-fact tone, shocking him further.

"Damn! I went mad looking into every orphanage's records and talking to their heads, do you know that?" he demanded, unable to wrap his head around the fact that he had been played for long and he did not even realize.

"Do you think that matters to me? Being a sperm-donor does not equate you to being a father, do you know that?" she cross-questioned, with a sarcastic smile playing on her lips with a dangerous glint of sadistic pleasure dancing in her eyes as they reflected his forlorn image.

"Wait, wasn't Dr. Abhinav Kapoor your consultant? I checked your records myself," he retorted, retrieving that information through his muddled mind with great difficulty.

"Oh, that was a farce. Dr. Sharma could get into trouble by adopting the child of her patient so she transferred the case to Dr. Kapoor in the name. She had no offspring of her own and she could not conceive due to some health issues. When she saw my breakdown when I was told that I was pregnant, she offered to terminate the pregnancy but I did not want a death on my conscience. You see, my conscience is not a farce like yours, so she went ahead and proposed to adopt the child as soon as they were born and I agreed," she replied, relishing the way blood drained out of his face with every word that she enunciated.

A part of her mocked for turning as insensitive as the man whose sorrow was yielding her pleasure while another part of her reminded her of the way he played with her life. Who knew that when he said he will color her in his colors, he would turn her into an insensitive jerk like himself?

Arnav struggled to hold his reins as fury and penitence intensified their onslaught on him. His repentance reminded him that he had no right to feel fury towards her after what he snatched from her. Yet, another part of him could not help but lose itself in furious gallows.

"Come on, start now!"

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"Khushi! You should have informed me that you were coming!" greeted Sunidhi, smiling in a heartwarming manner as she took Khushi into a warm embrace.

"How are you? You told me that you had joined the Police, how is it going?" asked Sunidhi, guiding Khushi into the house as Arnav trailed behind her, his heartbeats racing as he awaited the moment of meeting his daughter with great anticipation.

"It's going fine, Sunidhi! How are you, Shekhar and Anvita?" she questioned, feigning a smile, wondering if after all these years she would be able to feel something towards the daughter she had given birth to. Would something have changed through time?

"Everyone's good! You know, Anvita is an achiever! Everyone loves her at her school and now she wants to join music classes as if joining dance classes was not enough. She is sometimes over-energetic even for a four-year-old!" answered Sunidhi proudly and her face glowed with happiness as she spoke of her adopted daughter.

That gleam of bliss in her eyes, that excited tone of hers which shook slightly because of excitement and her gratitude towards Khushi, everything indicated about her love towards her adopted daughter and Khushi just knew that she would not be able to do justice to Anvita in the way Sunidhi and her husband Shekhar did.

"Well, before we go in, you did not introduce me to this gentleman behind you?" asked Sunidhi, stopping suddenly as she realized that in her excitement of meeting Khushi and conveying that she had been taking excellent care of her foster daughter, she had forgotten to get acquainted with Khushi's companion.

"It's him. He wanted to meet her," she replied, her feigned smile replaced with thinned lips drawn into a straight line as Sunidhi looked at him with contempt and disgust.

"Well, let's go in then!" stated Sunidhi, plainly, averting her eyes from Arnav, reminiscing Khushi's breakdowns due to the man.

For a woman who had yearned for years to have a child of her own, Khushi seemed like a sinner in the beginning, like everyone else who terminated their pregnancy, but when she broke down in front of her, yet, refused to terminate her pregnancy, Sunidhi knew that the woman in front of her was someone like her but forced by turmoils of life to change her view. Although she was glad that she was blessed by the presence of Anvita in her life due to her, she had hoped against hope that Khushi would change her mind but Khushi's pain had overpowered her completely.

Sunidhi opened the door to a room of vibrant colors and a beautiful and excited girl came running to her as soon as she opened the door.

"Look what I drew, Mumma! How is it?" she questioned, handing her drawing over to Sunidhi as she pointed various parts of the drawing and explained to her mother, who seemed to be stifling her smile at her daughter's attempts at drawing.

Time seemed to halt for Arnav as he realized that the child standing in front of him was his daughter whom he was yearning to see for weeks. His eyes welled up, his lips trembled as unknown warmth spread to every cell of his which burst with bliss. She had his nose and facial structure with her mother's eyes and smile, and much more enchanting than he had dreamed of. That amalgamation of features felt so intimate that it hit his heart harder than he thought.

That moment, love sprung from his heart, not just towards his daughter but the mother of his daughter as well and he just knew that he was going to be damned.

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So, Arnav loves Khushi and I don't know what to feel about it. He is spineless and all but the Arnav from the initial parts would have reacted so differently after knowing that his searches in orphanages were just to infuriate him and make him feel helpless, so he is changing. No, that does not absolve him of his sins but it means he is going right on the path of redemption. Oh, just have to say this, I am not white-washing the character, just doing character development :P

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