17

Third Person's POV

Looking at Khushi sobbing, slumped on the floor, Arnav walked to her and tried to put his hand over her shoulder to reassure her, but she swatted his hand away. Fueled by her anger, she pushed her hand over the floor and stood up, facing Arnav.

"Why did you tell me this now, Arnav? You thought your guilt would lessen if you admitted to your crime? You thought I would forgive you if you showed me your honesty? Is that it?"

"I will correct all my mistakes, Khushi. I have already called my lawyers and asked them to prepare bail papers first thing in the morning tomorrow. You will have to write a letter, taking back your complaint, and once my lawyers present it to the court, your parents will be free from jail.

"And about everything I did to you, I will atone for it my whole life, Khushi. I will keep you so happy that you will forget all your pain. Just one chance is all I ask with you, Khushi. Please." Arnav looked at Khushi, his face marred with a mixture of hope and desperation.

"I am going to the police station right now and taking back the complaint. I won't let my parents spend another night in jail." Ignoring everything Arnav said, Khushi only focused on getting her parents out of prison.

Arnav shook his head, and Khushi saw him walking towards her, a quiet determination on his face.

Khushi knew he would not let her leave, but she will have to leave, will have to escape this place so she can free her parents, who are facing punishment for the crime they never committed.

She looked around, hoping to find anything that could help her escape. She felt desperation rise in her as she looked at Arnav about to reach her.

As she continued to look around, her eyes fell on the vase on the table beside her. Not thinking anything else, she took the vase and broke it by banging it against the edge of the table. Then she held a broken piece of glass in one hand and brought it over the wrist of the other hand.

Arnav was alarmed when he saw Khushi holding a glass piece against her wrist. "Khushi, what are you doing?"

"If you won't let me go to the police station right now, I will cut my wrist, Arnav." Khushi hoped Arnav would believe her lie. She would never hurt herself, but she needed to lie now because she felt it was the only way to escape Arnav and reach her parents.

"You said you love me, right? So, you would not want me to die, right, Arnav?"

"Khushi, listen to me, please, I can.... KHUSHI, NO," Arnav suddenly shouted when Khushi pressed that glass shard to her wrist, a drop of blood coming out.

"Let me go now, Arnav. Just let me go, please. I would rather die than spend another second with you and breathe in the same space as you." Khushi hissed as she pressed the shard a little harder to her wrist, taking care just to let some blood out to scare Arnav but not do any serious harm to herself.

Arnav sighed, closing his eyes, feeling guilty regarding what he was about to do. He had hoped that things would not come to this point, but when it has, he has no other choice.

Opening his eyes, he looked at Khushi, silently apologizing to her for what he was about to do before starting to speak. "Ok, Khushi. You can go. If you have made a firm decision to leave me, I cannot stop you even if I want to."

Khushi frowned at the way Arnav spoke, not believing in his words. "I am not stupid to believe what you said, Arnav, especially when you were begging me not to leave you just a few minutes back. I know something is going on in your mind, and I am warning you not to do anything to stop me. Because if you do that, you will have my dead body in your arms."

"I am telling you to leave, Khushi. You can go. The door is open. And if you still don't believe me, you can lock me inside and go now," Arnav sat on the bed, not making any move to stop Khushi.

"Of course, I will lock you inside, Arnav. And not only you, but your five bodyguards too. Call them inside right now."

Sighing, Arnav called all bodyguards inside the room, who came running, hearing their boss call them.

"They are all inside, Khushi. Now, please let go of the glass. Otherwise, you will seriously hurt yourself."

Not paying heed to what Arnav said, Khushi quickly acted. She walked out of the room and immediately locked the door. Then, throwing the shard of glass to the floor, she made a way to the house's main door, feeling light now that her freedom was within her grasp.

Inside the room, Arnav dialed a number and instructed the man on what to do. After hanging up the call, he looked out the window, seeing Khushi run towards the main gate.

'I am sorry, Khushi. I know this will add up to the mistakes I have made to date, but you left me with no choice. I can never let you leave me. Never.'

***********

Khushi

"Are you an idiot, Niranjan? How many times do I have to tell you to stay away from me?" I glared at Niranjan, who, in return, just smirked at me.

"I will say away once you fulfill my wish, Khushi. One night is all I...." He stopped when I gave a tight slap.

"How dare you even think such a lewd thing, let alone bring it to your mouth? I had decided to keep quiet about our history because I did not want to cause any trouble in Priya's marriage and also did not want to hurt a wonderful person like Anjali, who loves you so dearly.

"But what you just said has made me realize that you will never change and will end up hurting Anjali one day. So, I will not be quiet now. I will tell the whole truth to Anjali and Arnav." Saying that, I began to turn to go down the stairs to the living room when Niranjan tightly clutched my arm.

"How dare you slap me?" He raged at me, and looking into his menacing face, claws of fear gnawed at my heart. I had never seen this mad look on his face before, not even when I had got him fired from the university.

"You made a big mistake by slapping me, Khushi. Now you will have to pay the price," he said, and my eyes widened when he took out a gun from his pocket.

With his hand clutching my arm and the other holding the gun, I feel fear rise within me with each passing second. "I will scream, Niranjan. Everyone will come up then. You will spend your whole life in prison if you shoot me."

I had hoped he would drop the gun and free my arm with the threat of prison, but to my surprise, he started laughing, throwing his head back.

"Really, Khushi? Shout then. Come on, shout," he said to me, and I wondered why he was not scared of anyone when just until a few minutes back, he had been threatening me against telling the truth to the Rathores.

"Surprised why I am telling you to shout?" He began, tightening his hold on my arm, making me hiss. "Well, it is because no one is in the house now. While you were resting after handling all the wedding decorations, everyone went to the temple. They wanted Priya and Aashish to take God's blessings so their wedding rituals would go without any hitch tomorrow."

"Why didn't anyone wake me up?" I wondered why no one bothered to ask if I also wanted to accompany them to the temple.

"They wanted to, but I stopped them. I told them you are too exhausted, and it is better if you rest for a while so you can be fully energized for your sister's wedding tomorrow. As a good son-in-law, I also offered to stay back at Rathore Mansion, lest you woke up and needed something.

"Being foolish as they are, they showered me with blessings, saying how good a person I am. And they left, leaving you in my care," Niranjan said to me, and I stilled.

I was trapped with Niranjan, alone in the Rathore Mansion. He has a hold on me with a gun in his hand, and no one is here who I can call for help.

'I need to distract him enough to let him go of my arm.'

Thinking that, I pretended to see someone on the stairs. As Niranjan's back was facing the stairs, he would not know no one was there.

"Arnav, help me, please," I took the name of the first person who came to my mind and noticed Niranjan's eyes widening.

He quickly left my arm and turned back.

"Arnav, I..." He stopped when he saw the empty staircase.

"Khushi...." He began, but before he could say anything, I took my chance and ran.

As I have been in the Rathore Mansion only a few times, I did not know the way. The mansion was huge, with many rooms and pathways.

Hearing Niranjan calling my name from a short distance, I ran faster, hoping to find a place to hide.

Running to the corner of the floor, I saw a small staircase going down.

Not thinking anything, I went down the stairs.

Luckily there was a small room at the end of the stairs, and its door was opened too. So, I entered the room and slowly closed and locked the door, taking care not to make any noise.

I stayed there for a while, leaning against the door to hear if Niranjan was following me. I sighed in relief as I did not hear any steps and decided to stay in the room for a while. At least until the others arrive.

Once they do, I will tell everyone everything. I have made the mistake of keeping quiet about Niranjan till now, but I will correct my mistake now. No matter the consequences, I will bring the truth to light.

I hope that Anjali has the strength to listen to the truth and that this will not affect Priya and Aashish's marriage.

Looking around the room, I saw that the room was big. Although it looked small from the outside due to the small doorframe, it was like an extensive suite from the inside. With its own living room, an office with a table, files, and a laptop in a corner, and there was another door in front leading to another room.

'Must be someone's office or den where they come to work when need of a quiet place inside the mansion.'

Curious, I continued to walk inside, looking around, and saw two sets of keys hanging on the wall. Those were identical keys, and as I had been locking the door earlier, I had seen the keyhole which matched these keys.

'Must me the key of the main door.' I thought and took one set of keys as I would need it to go out of here later.

I kept rummaging around for a while and sat on the sofa, hoping to kill some time before everyone arrived.

Taking the magazine placed on the table in front of me, I began to read it but stopped suddenly when I heard someone crying. Listening carefully, I realized it was a woman crying. It was coming from behind the closed door of the room in the front.

Frowning, I walked to the door and was about to open it by turning the knob, but stopped when I heard someone's voice.

"Stop crying now. You are giving me a terrible headache," the man said, but instead of the woman's sobs subsiding, they became louder.

I did not know what to do in this situation as I did not know whose den this was and why those people were here. I did not want to interfere, but with the way that woman was crying, I also wanted to ensure she was fine.

I searched for any peephole on the door and was surprised when I found one, a rather big one right in the middle of the door.

Uncovering the peephole, I looked inside the room, and my eyes widened at what I saw inside.

The woman was naked, sitting on the floor with her knees against her chest, hiding her body.

The man was crouched beside her, a knife in his hand, tracing the planes of her body.

"I... I am sorry, please. I will not open my mouth. Please let me go." The woman sobbed, and the man suddenly pressed the knife to that woman's cheek.

"You knew how dangerous that person is, and still you went against them. Now, you need to bear the punishment. Only your body is shaking now, but your soul will also tremble once that person is done with you," the man said, pressing the knife further into her flesh.

She began screaming as he slightly cut her flesh, and I was tempted to go inside and free her.

But I could not. He had a knife in hand, and if I went inside without any plan, he could kill both that woman and me.

'I will also need to find a weapon for fighting the man and rescue that woman.'

Thinking that, I began looking around, hoping to find something, anything that I could use.

After searching for a while, I found a wooden stick beside the office table.

Taking the stick, I was about to turn and go to the room when someone hit my head from behind, and the darkness surrounded me.

I open my eyes, my head pounding as I repeatedly blink to clear my vision and see where I am.

Slowly, the room comes into focus, and I can also hear some voices.

"How could you be so careless? I had told you no harm should befall her." I recognize that it's Arnav's voice.

"I did not mean to. But she saw me and started to run faster. And in her haste, she did not see the truck approaching her. Luckily, the hospital was close, and I brought her here right after the accident." A man replies to Arnav.

"Ar..Arnav," I call Arnav and hearing my voice, the two of them immediately stop speaking.

Arnav quickly comes to me and sits beside me on the bed. He holds my hand, and I tighten my hold on him.

"Where am I, Arnav?" I ask him.

"You are in the hospital, Khushi. You were injured and had been brought here after that. You had repeatedly been in and out of consciousness, but now you are finally awake. Wait, I will call the doctor," Arnav says, his relief at seeing me awake apparent in his voice.

He climbs down from the bed and starts walking toward the door, but I stop him.

"Arnav, where are Maa, Papa, and Priya?" I ask, and Arnav looks at me in surprise.

When he does not reply for a while, I begin to get restless. "Why aren't you answering my question, Arnav? Where are they? And who was the person that hit me on my head in the mansion? That is the reason why I am injured, isn't it?"

"What is the last thing that you remember, Khushi?" Arnav asks, and I narrow my eyes at the strange way he is looking at me.

"I remember being in someone's den in the Rathore Mansion. There were two persons in that den—a man and a woman. The man was threatening the woman, and I wanted to save her. But before I could do that, someone hit me on the head," I say and notice Arnav still on the spot where he is standing.