Before Emperor could even think of punishing the Prince for his forbidden dare, the two women had saved him and sent him out of the Chamber leaving him useless.
"Parantu kis karan wash unhone aisa kya Maharani?"
(But what was his motive behind this Empress?)
KishoreNanda couldn't help but ask and that made Anjali realize that she needed to close the matter for now and forever.
As she turned to Emperor.
"Maharaja, aap to jante hain, kaise vo chhoti chhoti baaton pe bhadak jate hain! Aur jab se Aman ki bhentt ke baare me suna hai vo pareshaan se hain!"
(Maharaja, you know sometimes he get disturbed by the smallest of things! And since he heard about Aman's visit he is upset!!)
Anjali gave the reason making the Emperor go silent.
Of course!!! That matter might have triggered him. The siblings were in ardent opposition to it.
While King was expecting Anjali to again talk about cancelling Aman's visit, she spoke again.
"Unhein maaf kardijiye Maharaja. Ek baar wo theek hojayein, hum un se kahein ge ke vo aapse maafi maangein...!"
(Please forgive him Maharaja. Once he gets normal I'll tell him to ask forgiveness...!)
She spoke sweetly, so that KishoreNanda didn't plan something graver. And the Emperor fell for it as he cleared his throat.
"Nahi...maafi ki koi zaroorat nahi. Bas aap inki sehat ka khayal rakhiye Maharani. Dobara aisi harkat nahi honi chahiye!"
(No...no need to apologize. Look after his health Maharani. That's it! This act shouldn't be repeated again!)
And saying so he closed the matter for the betterment of all.
A few days more and he would play the last move to remove the mad siblings away from Nandagiri.
While Khushi seemed to have no interest in anything happening around, too much occupied by other tension.
"Rani Khushi hum theek hain ab. Aap bilkul chinta mat kijiye! Aur jakar... aaram kijiye!"
(Queen Khushi I am alright now. Please don't worry! And go... take rest!)
He really felt bad for the young girl who had to witness the horrible scene and the madness of Prince.
While Anjali gritted her jaw looking at Maharaja who was more concerned of this mere Queen who had done nothing.
Here she had fought her own brother to save this leech of a husband and he had nothing to say to her.
Khushi who was still looking at the retreating form of a haggard Arnav, sniffed as she heard the King. She anyhow wanted to go away from here, as she nodded fervently to Maharaja.
Bowing lightly before the two, she made a way outside, taking quick steps, to follow Prince stealthily.
Arnav was furiously marching to his chamber. His body language cold and rigid, every muscle in his body flexed tight, fingers curled in a tight fist, jaws firmly pressed against each other, eyes layered with coldness but molten from inside.
He was all quiet and silent, but his every inch of skin screaming out the fury in which he was burning right now.
Getting in the Chamber he slammed the door closed with more force than necessary, his mind controlled by his fury.
While Khushi quietly opened the slammed door, quickly slipping in the Chamber.
Sensing her behind him, Arnav just kicked the table roughly, with all his force, making it to hit the Diwan, while all the glass lamps and metal things fell down one by one.
Khushi peeked a worried glance at him.
But he cared a less. He was already struggling with the storm going inside him.
"Tum uss buddhe se mil jul rahi thi. Tum use chup chup ke bhent karrahi thi."
(You were in touch with that Oldie. You kept meeting him secretly.)
A chilling statement from him in his venomous cold tone tore the silence inside the Chamber, as Khushi raised her eyes, looking at him.
The bleeding palm was breaking her heart. He had badly hurt himself in that fight!
"Picchli baar hum unse mile the jab aap humein behoshi ki haalat me Shantivan le gaye the...aur is baare me aap jante hain!"
(The last I met him was when you had taken me to Shantivan in my unconsciousness...and you knew it already!)
Khushi took a deep breath, replying him in a very small tone. "Aur phir aaj...humein ek nibandh ka ullekh karna tha...isiliye hum AdhyayanKaksh gaye!"
(And today....I was to refer some thesis...that's why I was there in Study!)
She never knew that this was going to come in front of Prince like this. He had asked her about what transpired between them two, but she had hidden the truth from him back then, scared of the same reaction which he gave today.
But fate played its role.
"Vo kambakht aadmi tumhein apne saath sone ke liye bol raha tha aur tum ne ye baat mujh se chhupai! Kyun? Itni mhattvapurna cheez tum ne mujhe batana zaroori nahi samjha?"
(That fu**ing man was asking you to sleep with him and you hid it from me! Why? Didn't you feel like sharing such important thing?)
He bit on his each word, coming out as a venomous spit, as she looked at him with dismay, shaking her head in negative, as she moved ahead to have a look on his palm but he jerked himself away.
"Aap man se cheezein bana rahe hein!"
(You are assuming things!)
She murmured, with accusations lacing her voice.
Why had he to be so much enraged?
The tears which were on bay, again stroke her orbs, as her eyes welled up with glassy hot tears.
"Maharaja ne khood hi prastaav rakha tha us raat, jab hum zakhmi the...Laikin hum ne usi raat saaf saaf mana kardiya tha."
(Maharaja had proposed me himself, that night when I was injured... But I had denied it...clearly that night itself.)
She said controlling her tears, while her voice broke from her suppressed emotions.
"Aur us ke bavajood us din, tum us ke paas gayi!"
(And you again went to him the other day!) He murmured darkly.
"Hum is baat ko jane nahi de sakte kya? Hum us din pareshan the!"
(Can't we let the matter go? I was upset that day!)
Khushi snapped, prompt in her reply.
Firstly she needn't to answer him about it, but still she was answering him because a part in her, wanted to explain her ground to him, to clear the misunderstanding between them, to have his trust back.
But if he was not ready to show an ounce of trust on her, she too didn't desire to clear her stance in front of him.
Let him think, whatever he wanted to.
"Kyun? Kyun gayi thi tum us ke paas? Jaan se marne oose? To phir maara kyun nahi? Tumhein achanak pyar aagaya apne moorkh pati pe!!!"
(Why? Why had you gone to him? To kill him? Then why didn't you kill him? Got aware of the wifely love for that f**ker!!!)
He was going senseless with her stupid reasons, as he asked in mad whispers, "Oos ne tumhare saame itna ghinauna prastaav rakha, aur tumhein koi farq hi nahi pada. Aaj bhi tum kafi hans hans kar baatein karrahi thi Us se. Tumhein pata bhi hai ke tumhare liye uske dimagh me kaisi gandi soch hai!"
(He had put forth that disgusting proposal to you and you are all cool about it. Even today you were talking to him all smiling! Did you know what thoughts he has for you in his filthy mind!)
The words came out in a steady cold grave tone, lacing with menace, all the while his eyes fixed on the wall ahead, not even looking at her.
Khushi stared at him blankly, having nothing to say. All words had stuck in her throat.
Suddenly she had forgotten, how to form sentences.
Neither he was trying to understand it, nor he was letting it go. Couldn't a person behave in flow of motions. That's what had happened with her.
He was bothering her, suffocating her with his cold furious attitude, trying to make her feel like she had done something wrong, like she had gone behind his back.
But the conversation she had with Maharaja that night, it wad not on the level where Prince was taking it. He was making an issue out of it.
What Emperor did and said that time was a misdemeanor!!! Yes it had infuriated her too, but the matter and conversation got buried the moment it took place. It didn't hold anything, it didn't matter to her.
"Is ka.... humare liye koi matlab nahi tha."
(It.. didn't matter to me.)
What felt like the longest minute, she finally spelled it out, her eyes wavering from his stone like face to his injured fist, his knuckles had grown white with the force he was implying on his fingers.
"Haan...bilkul. Kyun matlab hoga tumhein? Jabke ye to main hi tha jo use sabaq seekhane gaya. Ye meri behen thi jis ne mujhe thappad mara..mujhe baatein sunni padi!"
(Yeah...right. Why would it matter to you? When it was I who wanted to teach him a lesson. When it was my sister who slapped me....my sister spoke nasty things to me!) He was blabbering while she realized how deep the matter had gone.
And with all of her courage, she held him again, to pull him to his bed. Although he was mad with intense anger right at the moment, but he didn't oppose her as she fetched the bandages to do the needed.
The eerie silence was giving her shiver, creating the uneasiness in her, but she kept her eyes down, doing the cleaning and healing work, breathing fervently.
"Maharani ne jo kaha, unka vo matlab nahi hoga. Aur aap ne jo...itni Laparwahi ki... ye koi bahaduri nahi thi. Si..sirf Bewaqoofi thi!
(Maharani might not mean what she said. And after what you did....so recklessly... it wasn't something brave. Ju..just stupidity!) She also blurted out. In fact she was glad that Anjali intervened.
What if he had really killed Maharaja? Or what if he himself had got hurt seriously?
It was all too much!!!
On the other hand if Arnav wanted to lash on her he kept mum.
He wanted to...but he was just upset with her hiding things from him, as he bolted up everything inside him, keeping the lava inside him.
A storm was building in his mind. That bastard had expressed his desire to sleep with the girl with whom he was sleeping with, the girl who was his.
He thoroughly despised the thought of her in other man's mind. He hated it with all his cells, nerves & tissues. When that Maharaja even looked at her, he felt maddening!
When he witnessed the admiring in that Emperor's eyes for her, looks from which she was always evasive to! She didn't even care to notice stimulus of that man around her. She was highly ignorant. But he was Not!
And with same thoughts he snatched away his hand from her grip, not wanting to get her wound dressed, while his heart was burning with stress.
"Theek hai phir....kyun ho tum ek bakoof ke saath? Ek bahadur insaan dhoondlo apne liye!"
(Fine then....why are you with a stupid man? Find a brave man for yourself then!)
He spat acidly before leaving her alone.
"Rajkumar, rukiye to...!"
(Prince....a minute!)
She protested, as he didn't let her do the bandage. While he marched out of the chamber.
But before she could think anything else he came back and this time he held her small wrist in his stone like grip.
"Chalo mere saath. Ek aur kshan yahan nahi rukogi tum!"
(Come with me. Not a second more you'll stop here!)
He spoke coldly as he dragged her outside the Chamber, in long strides, while she followed him, her hand clutched tightly in his, as she followed him...running him to match his steps, as he crossed the lobby to get out of the Palace.
Why was this man so difficult? A minute fire another minute frost!!!
Jumping on Rustom himself, he waited for her to sit behind, wanting to get out of here soon.
The incident had pierced him badly, the words.... the images like needles filled with poison piercing his skin deep down.
And more painful was the idea that the Emperor desired her, desired his Khushi and then the Old King had overstepped by asking her to give a heir to him.
It couldn't happen, and he wouldn't let it happen ever. She was his, only His! He will chop off ever filthy paw which would aim towards her!
Finding her presence behind his back he signalled the horse to talk with air while she clutched him tight.
True that Emperor was her husband. That's true. But Arnav didn't accept that relationship! It was forced. If Khushi would have been given a chance, she would have never agreed to it.
So this marriage was null in his view!!!
Prince himself was also no better. He too had lured the naive queen into his trap, claimed her innocence, conquest her purity.
But....
But it was done, the deed had been done which cant be reversed. He didn't regret it either in fact!!!
She was someone whom he wanted to be his for so long and he had got her, by hook or by crook, by playing dirty, whichever way it could be called. And now she was his territory!!! His only his!!!
"Door raho us Buddhe se! Peeche pad gaya na to chhodega nahi... phir mere paas mat aana rona leke!"
(Stay away from that oldie. Once he got hold of you, then he won't leave you....then don't come crying to me!)
Those were his the last words that exchanged between them that night.
._._._.
Emotional scene coming soon.
Edits left.
Take Care ❤