He blinked back the moisture of angst rapidly and forced a composure in his demeanor as he lifted his hand to caress her head fleetingly.
"Hey." He smiled through the residue of his tears. "How are you?"
He rectified his faltering smile when he no longer found those same round eyes twinkling at his voice and shrugged his shoulder, giving out a broken chuckle.
"I know I shouldn't be here this early but I wanted to talk to you."
He gulped a mouthful of air before he could stable his smile again.
"Remember our plan? It,"
He exhaled, irked when his constricted throat hurdled his speaking ability.
"It's becoming a success, Khushi. First day, and she's already worn out." He chuckled, this time a somehow genuine one as he remembered Sheetal's state since last night.
"In fact, we didn't even have to do anything and she created a drama herself this morning. She was so scared that she thought Payal's shadow to be of the one scaring her and just decided to attack her."
He gave out a relieved sigh as he added. "Thank god she was not successful. But whatever happened was for good. Everyone was even more angry on her. Especially Di. Di was so done that she made arrangements to send Sheetal away today itself and I had to stop her."
He laughed again, this time as the moisture brimmed in his eyes again whilst the scene he just escaped from rang in his ears like an excruciating thunder.
"But Di got more angry." He whispered, no longer having any strength left to feign being alright.
Tears spilled forth as his sister's words started choking him again, pricking needles in the pieces of his already shattered heart.
"So angry that she said I never loved you. That I, I was like my father, a betrayer who left you to, to di-" He stopped, unable to utter the word that seemed to be a blow to his guts - the whole statement in fact being nothing but a stigma on the love he carried for this girl in front of him.
Taking a sharp intake of breath, he blinked to clear his vision of Khushi's face, caring less of the tears that fell down in the process.
"She said I don't love you, Khushi." He croaked, his hand reaching to cup the side of her face, taking care not to move the mask that kept her breathing.
"But you do know that that's a lie, right?" His pained voice shook as he desperately tried clearing the doubts he feared she might have gotten.
"I have not forgotten you. I, I can never. Whatever I'm doing, every step I'm taking is for you. My love for you was never and is not a facade. You're everything to me, Khushi. My life, my happiness, everything and I can never leave you. I won't. You know that, right?"
A silence followed his heart-breaking whisper, bringing him no comfort like the old days. Unlike those days, Khushi was unmoved. Neither did her arms flung around him to hide him from the monsters that clawed at him, nor did her soft voice utter any words of comfort to sooth his pain.
But as he watched, a lone tear dripped from her eyes and landed on his hand. He stared at the glistening drop, his heart shattering as he realized she was still there - listening to every single words that he spoke. She was there and she was trying to reach him but the shackles of helplessness had gotten the best of her, giving her no choice but to simply cry along with him.
She was caged. Caged away from him in such a dark place from where he couldn't find no easy way to rescue her. She was here but also so far away from him that he could hear her voice cracking and breaking as she called out for him, but he couldn't see her. He couldn't see where she was or which path to thread in order to reach her.
The realization of their separation was a punch far more stronger that Anjali's accusations and he cried again, this time tears of pure fury at the person who drove his wife into such state, forcing her to stay captive in her own body for god knows how many tormenting days.
His hand on her face tightened as he neared her, his whole body shaking with a mix of grief and wrath.
"But I'm fine. And I won't stop. Not until I fulfill the promise I made to you."
His breathing ragged and his eyes blazed as he continued - with the pain that she was undergoing, the pain that Sheetal afflicted on her.
"She hurt you, right? She troubled you so much, caused you so much harm and even now you're suffering so much, just because of her." He paused to clear the lump in his throat before he uttered his promise to Khushi once again, promise that he has been uttering since the past week.
"She will pay, Khushi. She will pay for everything she did. I won't leave her. She will have to cry, twice as much as you cried and she will have to feel more pain than she caused you. She will fall and regret the instant she thought of harming you and I promise you that. I promise. You will get your justice." He promised, more to him than to her as the thousands misdeeds of Sheetal crawled in him, giving birth to a venom that was so destructive, it burned the heart it resided in.
Anjali had been right. Khushi did not deserve whatever happened to her, not even a bit. She did not deserve what's happening to her but still she is has to endure it all. She is condemned. Without any fault of hers, she is forced to suffer so much. Sheetal on the other hand has committed so many crimes, how can she be free?
"The punishment has already started, Khushi and I assure you, she'll be ruined by the time I'm done."
________________________
It was after almost an hour that Arnav finally gathered the strength to leave Khushi and come out of the room, not before he promised her that he will be back soon. With that, he had closed the door to let her rest and as soon as he turned around, a pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders in a friendly and concerned hug.
He sighed, patting his back twice before breaking the hug.
"N-"
"Are you ok?"
Arnav sighed again as worry flared in the pair of eyes that looked at him and he smiled gently, reassuring him of his bettered state after having met Khushi.
"I'm fine, NK. There's no need to worry."
His statement however did nothing to clear NK's concern as they started moving to the room adjacent to Khushi's.
"But whatever Di said," He started again as he sat himself on the couch across from Arnav, who sighed and intervened before he could continue.
"Was hurtful." Arnav admitted. "But she's right at her place. Seeing my closeness with Sheetal we don't expect her to plan a wedding, do we?" His soft chuckle was laced with a dark humor that did nothing except deepen NK's distress.
"Exactly. It was hurtful." NK said, ignoring the last bit of his statement which was an attempt to hide the severity of this situation. He exhaled, when Arnav looked away, knowing what he was about to say.
"I told you Nannav, this plan will cause you more harm in the process than it will to Sheetal. This past week was already hell for you. You had to contain so many emotions inside of you and that was not healthy. You bursting into anger every time you returned from spending time with Sheetal was not healthy and now, now the toll Di's words is taking is not healthy. And you know we have a long way to go, a long time until this will all be over so why don't we stop and take the easier way. You're Arnav Singh Raizada, Nannav. One command of yours and boom, all the evidences we are working so hard to gather will be at your feet. In fact, Sheetal can get her punishment even without any proofs if you want it. Then why are you here, suffering so much in this revenge of yours? Finding people whose voice and physique resembles Khushiji's to scare Sheetal when you can easily do that yourself?"
NK finished with an almost exasperated sigh, his own heart breaking at the state of his brother. Only he knows how he managed to withhold himself back at home when Anjali was hurling abuses at him, and out of everyone, only he knew how much Arnav was breaking with every words of his own Di.
The pain was excruciating for his brother, especially after what he's been through ever since they found Khushiji and now the way he is afflicting more torment on himself was just unacceptable to NK.
"Sheetal will get her punishment." Arnav nodded slowly to the words of NK, then looked at him, his curt eyes conveying that he hasn't budged an inch from his decision.
"But for what? What can law punish her for?"
His question forced NK to close his eyes and sagged into the leather furniture. He felt like he was in the throes of grief as the answers that laid after this question were devastating.
"Attempt to murder. That's it. That's what it will punish her for." Arnav replied to the question himself when NK kept quiet.
NK sighed, opening his eyes to find Arnav on the verge of exploding.
"Nannav.."
"Then what about the other crimes she committed, NK? She will be condemned for the physical hurt she cause to Khushi, but what about the emotional hurt? The many scars she gave that poor soul in her madness?"
NK's eyes heavied with the burden of tears as Arnav stood up, pacing the length of the room in search for composure as his brain went through the list of sins Sheetal did, whilst his heart teared apart at the effects those sins have had on Khushi.
One piece of that broken heart pricked Arnav's flesh and he halted abruptly, staring at nothing in particular with his teary, fiery eyes.
"And what about the emotional pain she still has to undergo once she's awake from that sleep?" He asked, his voice so low that it vanished in thin air before it could even reach NK properly. His next words seemed have punched his lungs on their way out for he whispered them breathlessly,
"What about the death she'll die when she finds about what happened with her unborn, with our baby?"
A tear dripped down NK's face and he hung his head low, having nothing left to say. This revelation, this fact, always seems to snatch his ability to talk or to argue with Arnav against his plans. It was like the last nail in the coffin - the ultimate line that Sheetal crossed in her insanity, rendering Arnav himself unhinge with sorrow.
Arnav gasped for air and ran a hand on his chest when the ache in his heart worsened.
"My baby, NK. She killed him. So mercilessly." He chewed on his words and look back NK already staring at him in defeat.
"I can't NK." He rasped, shaking his head sideways. "I can't just let her go. She will never suffer as much as Khushi did and will, I know that. But she will have to go through hell. She will have to lose everything, just like Khushi did. She will have to and I will not stop until I make it happen."
His voice grew more fierce and acrimonious, causing NK to bit back a shiver as the future state of Sheetal flashed in his mind.
"Then what about at least informing everyone that whatever you're doing is an act? That you are not really involved with Sheetal?"
Stabling himself, NK tried to request. Even though he knew that Arnav was dead right in his place, he also did not want him to suffer more. He has already seen so much, including the death of his unborn - being disowned by his family was the last thing he needed.
Arnav's eyes softened at the mention of his family and he sighed, shaking his head in a no.
"They will for sure be of great help NK but if I tell them everything, it will be hard to keep the act going. Sheetal will be suspicious because once they find out the truth, they will stop worrying about my closeness with her. And besides, do you think we will be able to keep them away from Khushi? What if Sheetal ends up finding out about her as such?" Arnav said, stating his points clearly to NK who nodded in understanding, cupping his own face as he tried to calm the headache he got this early morning. In fact, the headache that persisted since yesterday as he moved here and there to scare Sheetal - first by tempering with her water and lights whilst the recording of Prachi - a mimic artist - played, then by jumping like crazy in her poolside to get her close to the electric wire.
It was fun, NK admitted, and highly satisfying but at the same time, it was tiring as he had to balance his presence among the rest as well as to not let any suspicion raise on him.
It was a relief that they had Neha, the doctor of Khushi who has been looking after her, for she was the one misleading the family that Sheetal had fainted due to stress that day, making their work much easier.
"Everything alright?"
A familiar voice sounded closer and the duo turned their heads towards the door as the said Neha sauntered inside.
NK smiled softly.
"Yeah, we are fine. Don't worry."
Neha reciprocated him the smile and looked at Arnav whose eyes were still distant.
"Shall I get you both something to eat, or drink?" She asked, knowing from NK that today's breakfast did not go so well in their house.
"No, thanks." Arnav denied, looking at her with softened eyes lest he scares her with the earlier tumult.
"You and NK go on, I'll get something later on." He said and after passing them the ghost of a smile, made his way outside the room and to Khushi's direction, ignoring the stares of pity drilling into his back.
________________________