Khushi
“Are you ready, Khushi? Let’s go,” Arnav tells me, about to walk out of the room.
I stand up from where I was seated in front of the dressing table, snapping out of my thoughts that have been making me restless.
“Arnav, before we go down for the Puja (worship ritual), I want to ask you something.”
He frowns, looking at me. “What is it, Khushi?”
“It’s just something that has been nagging me ever since you told me about putting a tracker in my arm a while back,” I begin, trying to voice my worry in a way that would not arouse any suspicion within him.
“Are you thinking of removing the tracker, Khushi?” He asks me, now walking toward me with an intense look in his eyes. “If you are thinking anything along that line, please stop right now. Because I won’t allow you to remove that tracker.”
What else can be expected from a chauvinistic pig like you?
I think that on the inside but smile mildly on the outside, trying my best to make that smile look genuine.
“I understand that, Arnav. You want the tracker to remain in place so you can save me whenever I am in danger. After what happened with Anjana, even I don’t want to remove that tracker.” I hope I sound believable.
It has just been about thirty minutes that I found about the tracker being inside me. But since then all I have been thinking about is to get it out of my body as soon as possible.
Still, I need to pretend to want it.
After all, we are almost at the end now.
Just an hour or two left, and everything will be over.
I will finally be free of this monster.
“Then what is nagging you, Khushi?” Arnav asks me.
“The time when I ran out of the temple, there was a tracker in my arm at that time too because you had it installed in my arm after my accident way before that day. How did you not find where I was then?”
“Because of the Rakshya Taweez (Holy amulet believed to be protective against evil),” he answers.
“Taweez?”
“Yes, Khushi. The one you were wearing that time,” he replies. “I took it off the next day while you were sleeping and took it to my technician to get it checked.
“He told me that the Taweez contained bits of aluminium which interfered with the tracker’s signal. That is why I could not find your location the day you ran out of the temple,” Arnav tells me and I get an overwhelming rush of devotion to the Gods above who helped me that day.
That Taweez was tied on my arm by the priest of the temple.
He told me that I needed it and it would help me escape the trouble I was in.
At that time I had not given it much thought and accepted to wear the Taweez as a blessing from the God.
But I know now how much of a true blessing it had been.
If not for the aluminium bits in that Taweez interfering the signal, I would not have been able to get to Anusha’s house without getting caught by Arnav’s men and would not have found the evidence against Anjana too.
I snap out of my thoughts when Arnav starts speaking again.
“Let’s go down now, Khushi. Everyone must be waiting for us. We can talk about everything else later.” Saying that, Arnav is about to walk out of the door but I stop him by holding his hand.
There is one last thing I need to say to him.
“Thank you, Arnav, for killing Vivansh to avenge our child’s death,” I say to him. “And thank you for trusting me enough to tell me all the details about how you abducted, tortured, and finally killed Vivansh, cutting one of his arms afterward to send it to police so they can verify his death.”
Arnav gives me a small smile and tightens his hold on my hand.
“Ridvansh killed my child, Khushi. I had to get back at him. No one who messes with Arnav Rathore’s family can walk scot-free,” He tells me, pulling me closer to him.
His lips hover over mine and I gulp down the bile that rises within me due to his proximity.
“We lost our first child, Khushi. The sadness from that loss will remain with us forever,” he says, his face so close to me that I can feel his breath on my face. “But we can try and move on in our life. Maybe plan another child to somewhat fulfill the void of our first child’s death.”
Unable to control myself this time, I move back and turn away from him, taking few deep breaths to calm myself.
Never in a million years will I even think about having a child with you, Arnav Rathore, let alone actually going through with it.
Arnav, however, misunderstands my reaction and turns me toward him, his face soft and empathic.
“It’s ok, Khushi. I understand your grief is too big to even consider having another child right now. Mine is too. We can take some time before planning about it. Ok?”
I am truly amazed by the nerve of this man.
Either I am too great an actress that he genuinely believed me when I lied to him about wanting to start afresh with him, or he is in such a delusion that he thinks I will forgive him and happily start a family with him after the way he brutally ruined me.
“Let’s go down?” I simply ask, choosing to avoid answering his question.
Arnav nods, frowning slightly on not getting an answer, but thankfully not pressing on it further.
***********
“Why is the media here?” Arnav asks as we descend the stairs and reach the living room.
“When I asked them, they said that Khushi called them here,” Aashish replies, and Arnav as well as all his family members look questioningly at me.
“Yes. I called them. Now that the whole country knows about Anjana being a serial killer, it is crucial that we tell the truth to everyone about her not being a Rathore but the one who killed Anjali and Arnav’s parents along with her other victims,” I tell them the half-truth.
Not only should everyone know about Anjana's crimes, but they should know about Arnav’s and the other Rathore’s crimes too.
Time for me, as in Rathore’s elder daughter-in-law, to let the world about the atrocities done on me inside this mansion from the very first night I entered this house as a forced bride of Arnav Rathore.
Everything will be brought to light today and the whole world will see the wrath of a scorned wife and daughter-in-law on the family who insulted her, humiliated her, and repeatedly abused her without any fault of hers.
Time for the showdown, my not at all dear husband and in-laws.
I smirk, nodding subtly at Nisha, who was sitting on a chair at a near distance from where I was standing with Arnav and his family.
She nods back at me, confirming that she got my hint, and presses the button.