16

Sensitive content ahead. Reader's discretion is advised.

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Third Person's POV

Dragging Khushi to her room, Arnav pushes her to the bed, causing her to land roughly on the edge of the bed.

Clutching the blanket on the bed, Khushi tries to reduce the trembling fear that shakes her entire body. She keeps looking down to the floor, not wanting to look at Arnav's raging face.

"I had told you clearly that you would not be leaving me, hadn't I, Khushi?"

Khushi hears the question and also hears the anger in Arnav's voice. She squeezes her eyes shut, her tremble increasing as she recounts the punishments Arnav gave her when he used to get angry with her before knowing the truth about her innocence.

She gasps loudly and bites down her sob when Arnav suddenly walks to the bed and clutches her arms tightly.

"Answer me, dammit. How many times do I have to tell you never to ignore my questions?" Arnav tells her, but Khushi still refuses to look up at him.

She tries to block the painful memories from her mind, but they keep coming back. His cruel words, his beatings, him forcing himself on her.

Everything flashes beneath her closed eyes.

"P...pll..easse, Ss.s..irrr. D..donn'tt pp..punnishh m..me," Khushi stutters, and Arnav immediately leaves her arms.

It is then that he properly looks at her demeanor and feels a crushing pain in his chest.

Her head is hung, eyes closed, whole body trembling in fear.

'In my fear. She is scared of me.' That thought brings another pang of hurt in Arnav's heart.

Raking his hand through his hair, Arnav paces in the room for a while, trying to calm his anger.

After some time, when he calms down a bit, he starts speaking. "I had told you, Khushi. I will never harm you. You do not need to be afraid of me anymore. Please."

Khushi wants to say she does not trust him, but she feels too shaken to stand up to him or argue with him.

Just a few hours back, he had said he would not harm her, but only a few minutes ago, he roughly dragged her to bring her back to his prison. And the way he clutched her arms while doing that.....

Khushi rubs her arms, trying to lessen the painful throb she feels there.

Arnav closes his eyes in guilt as he sees Khushi rubbing her arms. He realizes that he again maltreated her.

'Why do I always end up hurting her?' he thinks, blinking back his tears of remorse.

"I am sorry for hurting you again, Khushi. I promise I will be more careful from now on," he tells her. "But there is one thing you need to keep in your mind. I am your husband, Khushi, and you belong with me here.

"So, take the thought of running away out of your mind. I have promised never to hurt you again, but if you keep trying to get away, I don't know for how long I will be able to keep that promise." Arnav clenches his jaw, angry at himself for threatening Khushi, but he does not have any other choice too. He does not want to lose her.

Khushi fists her hands, her fear taking a step back in the shadow of her anger that was slowly building inside her.

"Did you hear me, Khushi? You are not going to leave me. You belong here with me," Arnav repeats, and those sentences she hears from him are enough for her to finally snap.

"I refuse to accept you as my husband, and I refuse to belong to you." Khushi stands up from the bed, now looking up at Arnav, her red eyes full of angst and anger.

"I have told you, Khushi. I know I have made many mistakes. It was all because of my misunderstanding that--" Arnav starts to say, but Khushi's scream makes him abruptly stop.

"STOP IT. JUST STOP IT, ARNAV RATHORE," Khushi shouts. "Do you even realize the extent of the ruin you caused me? Of course, you don't. Because if you did, you would not repeatedly call your crimes a mistake.

"You raped me. YOU RAPED ME." She pokes her finger on Arnav's chest.

"You claimed my body against my wish. You invaded my dignity against my consent. You ripped my soul without caring how much that would make me suffer my whole life. And yet you call that a mistake?

"You insulted me, beat me. My whole body has marks of your cruelty. And yet you call that a mistake? A MISTAKE?" Khushi shivers in anger, and Arnav only stares at her, too stunned to say anything.

After a few moments of stunned silence, Arnav walks toward Khushi to hold her, but she steps back, not wanting him to touch her.

Arnav stops, fisting his hands as he notices Khushi walking back from him.

"I know I have been stupid, Khushi. So much so that I...." He suddenly stops. No matter what, he is unable utter that word from his mouth.

He felt like if he uttered that word, he would be buried under the weight of that crime.

"You can't even say that word, and I lived through it. You are now hesitating to say the name of the crime but had no qualms about committing it. So, say it now, Arnav. Say it and realize what you are. You are a rapist. A RAPIST." Khushi shouts, her grief and pain overwhelming her heart and pouring out of her eyes.

Arnav staggers back, feeling the sting of Khushi's words. His heart wrenches in overwhelming pain and guilt.

"Khushi, I love you. Please don't think of running away from me. Please," he pleads, willing to beg even more if that would keep Khushi with him.

When Khushi only shakes her head, not saying anything for a few moments, Arnav tries again. "I know you too had developed some feelings for me, Khushi. In those weeks during Priya and Aashish's marriage preparation, you, too, had been drawn to me as I had been toward you. So, let's give that feeling a chance, Khushi. Please listen to--"

Arnav abruptly stops when Khushi suddenly starts laughing mirthlessly with the expression of hurt and anger marring her face.

"Either you are so delusional that you are not seeing the truth, or you are so stupid that you think I will continue to be with you despite all the pains you gave me," Khushi says once she stops laughing.

"I agree I had developed some feelings for you at that time. I also agree I was drawn to you and attracted to you. But all the feelings I had for you got crushed when you forced yourself on me. After committing such heinous crime, you now want me to love you and stay with you? How dare you even think that?

"There is only the feeling of hate I have for you, Arnav, and it will remain that for the rest of my life. You only deserve my hatred and loathing, nothing else. Not only you but your whole family deserve only my hatred. Even my so-called sister and parents deserve my hatred. You all are the same. You all--" Khushi stops because Arnav interrupts her.

"Your parents do not deserve your hatred, Khushi." Arnav clenches and unclenches his hands, nervous about revealing the truth to Khushi.

"What do you mean, Arnav?"

"Your parents never misunderstood you, Khushi. That night, when Niranjan showed us the evidence after Priya and Aashish's wedding ceremony was over, your parents disappeared because...." Arnav trails off, scared of how Khushi would react after knowing the truth.

"Because what, Arnav? Didn't they leave because they believed that evidence and were ashamed of me? Isn't that why they did not once call me and did not come to take me away from that mansion? That is what Priya told me when she came to visit me that day." Khushi feels her heart clenching painfully as she remembers the way Priya behaved with her that day. She can still feel the stings of her slaps and betrayal.

"Priya lied to you, Khushi. She had always been jealous of the love and attention Satish uncle and Amrita aunty gave to you, their adopted daughter. That is why she agreed to lie to you when I requested her. I wanted you to feel utterly alone, which is why I told Priya to tell you that your parents also hate you after seeing that evidence."

"Then why didn't they call or come to get me from your mansion? Why didn't they save me from you? Why didn't they take any legal action against you?" Khushi inquires.

"Do you remember the papers I had made you sign on our wedding night after I--" Arnav pauses, hanging his head, feeling ashamed.

"After you raped me," Khushi completes the sentence Arnav left unfinished, her entire body lining with goosebumps as she remembers how harshly he had forced her that night and how he had clutched her hands to make her sign those papers right after ripping her apart.

She was bleeding then, the excruciating pain on her lower body....

Tears pour out of her eyes as she remembers the details of that night. But she hastily wipes those tears. "What about those papers?"

"Those papers were for our marriage registration, except one blank paper. Later, in that blank paper where you had signed on the bottom, I made my lawyers type that your parents had been abusive towards you. That is why you ran away from their house and got married to me, the person you love," Arnav replies to her, and Khushi's eyes widen, hearing him.

"What did you do to my parents, Arnav? What did you do with that paper?" Her heart races as she waits for his reply.

"Right after Niranjan showed that evidence in the living room, Anjali ran crying to her room, and I went to her to console her. While we were talking, your parents also came to the room, telling us that Niranjan was lying and you were innocent. My anger consumed me when I listened to them pleading with us about your innocence when that video clearly showed how guilty you were.

"And I made a plan right there. I called the police and filed a complaint about them being abusive toward you. They were arrested soon after that because I put all my sources and money towards that arrest. After that, police wanted evidence to retain them in jail. That is why I made you sign those papers, which became evidence against their crime. This is why they could not come to save you because they are still in jail."

When Arnav finishes speaking, Khushi slumps on the floor. She sobs, feeling overwhelming remorse for thinking that her parents didn't believe in her.

"They still love me. They didn't abandon me," she whispers, wanting nothing more than to get her parents out of prison as soon as possible.