The Replacement

Chapter 9: Serendipity

Khushi was still staring out the window half an hour later. Tina came to sit with her, holding on to her hand, needing the reassurance that the other adults in the room were unable to give her. She'd always looked up to her Lavanya Di, right from childhood. The obedient, quiet older sister had always been held up to her as a paragon of virtues. She'd tried to model herself on Di's footsteps, quietly dealing with her parent's expectations of her, squashing her own dreams to follow her parent's ideas. She was four years younger than Lavanya Di, and during her teenage years had hated Di for being so good.... someone she was compared with constantly... and found lacking.

Apart from the heartache of the scandal, and the fallout that her family would have to deal with, a little selfish part of her was pleased that Di had finally fallen from her pedestal. She was no longer the golden girl now. No matter what Tina did, Chachi can never call her lacking. Oh, I wear too much makeup? Atleast I didn't elope on the day of my wedding. Oh, I returned home late from a party? Atleast I didn't leave my family in the lurch.

She was grateful to Di for giving her this freedom.... Freedom from comparison. A little part of her was scared too. She knew her parents would tar her with the same brush. She was looking at another year of freedom before she was sure she would be married off. With no opportunity to elope or digress from the path that her parents would set for her. No opportunity to live her life safe in the knowledge that nobody expected her to excel at anything, they had Lavanya Di for that. Not any more, Tina sighed. Lavanya's elopement had caused trouble for more than just her parents. She fleetingly wondered what ASR was going through. Knowing your bride would rather run away from the wedding hall a mere few hours before the wedding, than spend her life with you, is quite a blow. It wasn't like he was in love with her, so there was that, but for someone with an ego the size of ASR's, it was likely a major blow.

Just as she finished this thought, the Kashyaps filed in, this time accompanied by Ratna, Arvind and Arnav Raizada. The Raizadas looked puzzled and Simran was on the verge of tears.

Khushi turned around to look as she heard the newcomers file in. She made eye contact with Arnav, and quickly looked away, back to staring at the celebrating, clueless crowd outside.

"What's going on here?", Arvind Raizada asked, a little suspicious of being asked to step into the bride's room just before the wedding ceremony was supposed to start.

"Mr. Raizada,.... Arvind.... We have a slight problem", Sameer began, not sure how to explain this issue.

"Problem?"

"Lavanya left", Simran blurted out and then started crying, her sister trying to calm her down.

"Excuse me!!??" Arnav was genuinely puzzled.

"ASR..... Lavanya had an anxiety attack a few hours ago, and she kind of lost it a little bit. She left us a letter saying she wanted to spend a few weeks in isolation.... And then come back to get married", Sameer explained.

Khushi's eyebrows went up in surprise, her eyes widening as she whipped around and stared at Sameer Kashyap. He had lied so smoothly and confidently. Lavanya's letter strongly stated that she did not want this marriage and was eloping with NK to get married to him. She had said that she would be back when her parents accepted her marriage with NK. Sameer was concocting a wonderful story. Even at her disgust with this blatant lie, she had to admire his strategy. The Kashyaps would get sympathy instead of anger, and the wedding could be postponed until Lavanya was found, with no one any the wiser. He could easily save face with the Raizadas. She wondered what he would do when everyone found out Lavanya had married NK.

"She's sick?", Arnav asked, still a little puzzled.

"Just a small anxiety attack. A wedding is a big deal, and this one didn't leave her much time to prepare", Sameer clarified.