Chapter 13

    Anjali looked around the ballroom uncomfortably. She reached the party with Shyam half an hour before. She was having a hard time to keep her behavior normal. Here She did not have any excuse to go away from him as no one else in the party was familiar to her. Shyam was engaged in an enthusiastic conversation with Mr. Mittal and she smiling at them occasionally without contributing much to the discussion. Mr. Mittal stopped in the middle and smiled warmly at someone who was approaching them. The man muttered an apology to Mr. Mittal. Seeing their exchage one can tell that they were very close friends. 

"This is my close friend Vijay, He owns Verma Constructions." Raj Mittal introduced the man to them.

Anjali immediately recognized him as the brother of Vivek Verma.

Shyam shook hands with Vijay with a wide smile. 

"Nice to meet you Mr. Verma.. This is my wife Anjali.."  

Vijay looked directly into her eyes with a smile and extended his hand to her. She can feel his gaze was penetrating through her, as if he can see through her.  Anjali  gave her hand to him mechanically. He held her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles in a formal way. Anjali was not sure how to react to the gesture. She smiled at him in a polite way.

"You have a pretty wife Mr. Jha.."  He complimented her with confidence to her husband.

That was their first meeting. 

There was something about the way he looked at her and It was making her uncomfortable. 

.........................

    It was after one week of the party, Shyam was in Mumbai for the case. She tried Arnav's number many times last week. His phone was directed to the voice mail. The incidents happened in last two weeks triggered many changes in Anjali. For first time in her life she decided to be an elder sister. 

    

    She decided not to bother her chote with any of her problems. To save her marriage her brother did so many things but it was destined to be failed. For Shyam she was his ticket to the luxury life. And his sick games destroyed her Chote's happiness also. 

    But when her brother's marriage was considered it was not entirely Shyam's or Dadi's fault. Her brother was a damaged man. He did not see the depth of his love for Khushi, he ran away from the wedding blaming the past. He has seen how his own sister went through hell the marriage was cancelled before 10 years. Still he did the same to the girl whom he claimed to love. Her Dadi tweaked the truth about Garima but in any case Khushi was innocent. He was supposed to be there with her despite of the circumstances. 

    She was about to inform Arnav about everything but later she decided against it. If  She tell him he might come back. But that cannot nullify the fact that he chose his past over Khushi earlier.   If he is coming back to Khushi then not Shyam or Dadi or Garima's truth , the reason should be his love for Khushi. This was his home, he can come back anytime.. She decided to let him deal with his emotions and reach a logical conclusion just like she did for herself. 

......................

    After one more week Shyam was arrested. They got enough evidences against him regarding his illegal businesses and all those crimes he committed. They got hold of his full gang. But what shattered her was the video clips they retrieved from his laptop. She was very angry on herself for being so blind and foolish...She felled into his trap easily and killed her own daughter. She was responsible for her rajkumari's death. She sucked in a breath, struggling to calm herself. Her life was empty.... 

......................

    After Shyam's arrest, Dadi returned to ashram. Raizadas went to visit Gupta's in Lucknow and apologized on Dadi's behalf. Gupta's gave them a cold shoulder. They expressed their wish to see Khushi but Garima dismissed them saying she was staying at her relative's house now. Nani was consumed with guilt, she spend most of the time reading holy books and attending satsang. 

    When Shyam was arrested Vivek tricked him to sign the divorce papers and freed her from the burden of that marriage. Anjali and Khushi's written statements were presented. Akash traveled to and fro from Lucknow and Delhi whenever the hearing was there. Finally Shyam was sentenced to life time imprisonment after the three months long court trial. 

..............................

Present

    Anjali saw different emotions flashing through her brother's face. She kept Vijay's and her personal details away from the story. Seeing no response after few minutes Anjali placed her hand on his shoulder.

" Are you angry with me for not telling you before Chote?"

"No Di .... I did not even bother to check if you all were fine here. It took me one month to talk to you once after that fateful day. I abandoned everyone Di.. What right I have to be angry at you? I wish I was here with you when you were dealing with all those...  "

"If you were here you would have killed him for what he did to me. I was glad that you were away from that mess. I was the one who brought that man into our lives so I decided I will only throw him out of our lives. You have done so much for me chote. You were the elder one always. You have always protected me. For once I wanted to do the right thing for our family rather than crying over my follies.... But It is all in the past now.. I have moved on Chote.. " 

Arnav looked at his Di , she has really moved on and he felt happy.

"You have changed a lot Di.. I know Vijay is the man behind it.. What made you choose him?" He gave her a small smile while asking that.

" He made me face the reality which no one else bothered to do before.. "

"Kya?"

"Yes.. He helped me to come out of the imaginary world I was living in. It hurt me first but later helped me to realize my follies. I was a fool who was living in a world far from reality.I always feel why it took so many years for us to meet?"

    She looked at him and smiled genuinely. He did not miss the glint in her eyes when she talked about Vijay. He never thought his Di can love someone else other than Shyam. Even though she did not say, he can see that she was hopelessly in love with Vijay.  

"Di.. Vijay's family.. are they ok with this relationship?"

"Yes... they are ok.. I was also worried about their reaction when Vijay told them we are seeing each other. But they were fine with it."

"Di you said you did not meet Khushi when you went to Lucknow. After that You went to Vijay's house to meet her?"

Arnav asked curiously..

" I went to meet her but that was almost 10 months later.. "

"Why? "

"I was not aware that she was staying at Vijay's place. I came to know last year only.."

"You were not angry at Vijay for hiding it?"

"I was.. But he had reason for it.. Khushiji did not want me to know.. But she was aware of the things happening here from him. She even helped us to find people from Shyam's gang. "

He smiled sadly .Only Khushi can selflessly help the man's sister who ditched her.. She was always selfless.. He was the selfish one.. 

Anjali and he left for their respective rooms. He lied on the recliner for one more hour thinking about the girl who ruled his heart and dozed off..

Love,

ST