Hues of Love

Part 18

"Arnav, all I ask for, is one more chance. We have loved each other for years now. What happened suddenly that you cannot even give me, give us, a chance when that's all I am begging for?" questioned Rati, appearing paler than Arnav had ever seen her. Her usually smooth and conditioned hair was messed up and her face was lacking the usual glow from various treatments she uses to enrich her beauty.

"Remember what I had told you about three months back before you received the divorce notice? I was looking for a surrogate mother and like you had quite affectionately offered, I went with traditional surrogacy," mocked Arnav, his cold tone and nonchalant stare twisting the dagger in her heart.

A smile lit up on her face, ignoring the pain pulsating throughout her, and it had managed to take him by surprise.

"I am very happy for you, Arnav. Your wish and dream of years is going to come true. But there is one thing I don't understand. How is that related to our divorce?" she asked, the pain in her eyes threatening to power his conscience which lied dormant since weeks.

"The contract with the surrogate mother states that the authenticity of the contract is subject to our divorce. I do not wish to step back from my word and that's just one of the reason why I am intent on divorcing you. Apart from this, if you are forgetting, you cheated on me for years," he spat sarcastically, rolling his eyes and a smirk stretching his lips to one side.

"As if you haven't, Arnav," she retorted, looking up to prevent the hot tears from spilling out of her eyes.

"What do you mean? When have I cheated over you? You even started making up things now," he muttered through gritted teeth.

"Cheating is not just physical or sexual, Arnav. It is also emotional. Were you there beside me when my mother was on deathbed? In fact, you did not come even two days after she had passed away. My relatives were waiting for you. They wanted the son-in-law to perform the last rites since she refused to have her husband give fire to her pyre. In the end, I had to go against everyone, to lit the funeral pyre of my mother. To put up a fight when you have just lost someone so dear is not easy but I would not expect you to understand. I just expect to put the past behind us and move on. Who is the surrogate mother? I will myself go and convince her to change the contract," she pleaded, her form shaking with myriads of emotions as the memories of the past wrecked havoc on her senses.

Arnav slightly stumbled back by the impact of her words but soon steadied himself. Maybe this was the reason why she always got upset when he left her alone because she was scared that she might face a similar situation and would be forced to face it in isolation, with no one by her side, he thought.

But as they say, vengeance can turn one blind - even to their own love - and can ward away logic from the recesses of mind.

"Convince her to change the contract or leave my life, Rati? You wouldn't want to be the reason of my happiness or let anyone else be the reason, isn't it?" he taunted, laughing mirthlessly.

"I never wanted you to be bereft of happiness, Arnav. Maybe that's why I never let my inner demons complain to you, because I knew that if I did complain, whatever little bliss was left in our lives would leave us . Maybe that's why I always allowed them to live off others and allowed them to pull me to others. But maybe my love was not strong enough to guard your happiness at the cost of my own," she whispered with a sad smile playing on her unusually chapped lips.

Honesty.

That was the quality which had once endeared her to him. She had been honest about her flings from the beginning. Never trying to hide but never trying to flaunt them either. Hearing her speak about it, accept her follies out in the open, and reveal the whimpering of her heart, felt like reliving the old times. But alas, he was not the old Arnav Singh Raizada.

"Don't. Don't try to trap me in your words. You are doing this intentionally, aren't you?" he questioned, running his fingers in his already rugged hair.

"I wish I could. When I could not stop you from leaving me in solitude back then, how can I stop you now?" she jeered at herself.

Before Arnav could respond to her, a message on his phone interrupted his trail of thoughts. He immediately dug out the phone, knowing that it could very well be of Khushi's and she might be in the need of urgent help. Although it was from the woman of his thoughts, fortunately, the message was not sent from a situation of peril but of happiness.

The message contained the picture of the first ultrasound of their baby. Ecstasy, elation and euphoria swelled in his heart as he eyed the baby which was an extension of himself. Surprised by the chain of events, Rati moved towards him to look at what had caused such an emotional upheaval from the usually guarded Arnav Singh Raizada.

The sight which she beheld had at once revealed that he was rightfully blissful but before she could notice the name of the sender, Arnav pulled the phone away from the line of sight of Rati.

"I am sure you would want to speak to the mother, Arnav. Go ahead," she said, standing by her words that she would never stand between him and his happiness, as she walked away giving the much required privacy to him by closing the doors behind her.

"Khoosi! The next time you go for an ultrasound, make sure that you call me. I wouldn't want to miss this for anything in the world. I want to see this from my own eyes, want to see my baby move and respond, not just a picture," he demanded as Khushi received his call.

He heard her tinkling laughter from the other side of the phone and it managed to calm his raging nerves like nothing before.

"Surely the next time, Arnav. But the baby, isn't it beautiful? Both physically and the feelings associated with it," she asked, smiling through the tears of beatitude as she stared the image of the ultrasound. The baby which they had together created- her and her first and last love; something which would be just theirs.

"Very. Just like the mother," he said, surprising himself and the woman he had spoken about. 

The baby had begun weaving its magic in forging an unspoken bond between its father and mother but will they be able to sustain it?

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I always wondered one thing. What if the name of Rati was actually Khushi and Khushi was Rati? Of course, the ending would have been different but how would you have felt? Anyways, I hope I am doing justice to the storyline. Love you all! Please vote and comment! Do read the prequel - Shades of Love!