Khushi felt content after receiving the prestigious award. It was subsequent to that that she got a phone call after heading to the backstage.
Her P.A sounded abnormally worried. When she required about the reason, she herself felt the ground disappearing from her feet.
She asked for a private room from one of the organizers and decided to settle there for sometime as she didn't want the news to get to someone else's ear. She tried to get more updates about the situation.
Bidding her thank you and goodbyes, she decided to check out. The people there asked her to stay back for the after party, which she refused, saying that something crucial had come up.
Getting in her limousine with her retinue she decided to head towards her company.
~~**~~
For a man who didn't feel a lot a few years ago, there seemed to be appallingly thousand feelings running inside Arnav, mixed with thousand questions.
The combination together made him feel, preposterous, deranged, nonsensical and absolutely insane. He had, without bidding farewell, departed the award ceremony several minutes ago along with his brother.
Now sitting together with Akash in his limousine with the privacy barrier pulled down, he felt ineffable.
"But bhai what if that's not Khushiji?" Akash's question pulled him out of his thoughts.
"No Akash, that was my Khushi. Didn't you see how she called her parents 'Amma and babuji'. She used to call them that. Didn't you notice how she thanked her parents who are in heaven and the ones on earth? Akash, Khushi had lost her parents when she was eleven in a car crash. Doesn't that make sense to you?" He explained.
"But bhai Laila badr Hadid?" Asked Akash, bewildered.
"I don't fucking know Akash! I don't know shit." He spat, vulnerably.
Akash further decided to not push his buttons as he could only imagine what his brother would be going through at this very moment.
Saying a silent prayer, he patted his brother's back, reassuring him that he'd be there for him.
~~**~~
Khushi was in a turmoil, in fact her whole team seemed to be in a disarray, exactly how they should be.
There had been news that one of her company's branch in New York was caught on fire. It hadn't been confirmed yet, how it happened, who did it and how bad was it even? The questions and the assumptions made her delirious.
The whole thing was a mess and everyone one was stressed to the max.
"What the fuck is happening down there Michael?" She yelled in her phone.
Her poor manger who was attending the New York branch held his phone at a distance preventing his eardrum to not bleed.
"Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am!" He tried calming her down.
"How did this shit happen Michael? Why wasn't I informed earlier?" She asked after catching a breath.
"Ma'am just listen to me carefully now. Ok?" He asked her politely. After getting her approval, he continued.
"Thankfully it wasn't something very big or harmful. I've, got the whole situation under controle. An employee was trying to warm up something in the kitchen, on the stove, when suddenly a cloth got on fire. The fire-alarms went off and we thankfully got everything under control before it could harm anyone."
"Is everyone safe? Are you ok?" She asked, worried.
"Yes ma'am, not a single person was harmed by this. And I too am ok, just a bit alarmed after this whole thing. We have sent all the employees home as it had startled them quite a bit. They'll be continuing tomorrow after we've rechecked everything in the office."
"Don't be Michael. I'm sure you'll be fine. And thank you for having controlled the situation so well. Do you want me to get there?"
"No! Everything's absolutely fine here. We'll call some people tomorrow to fix the kitchen. You have a busy schedule ma'am, we've got it covered here." He said with a smile.
"Thanks again Michael, I'll get going now."
"By the way Miss Laila, I just caught up with the news. Congratulations on the award, you totally deserved it." He praised her.
Blushing slightly, she said her thank you and hung up.
Heaving a sigh of relief she slumped back on her chair. Oh what a day it had been!
From winning an award to her company almost getting caught on fire. She bet it was someone's 'buri nazar' (evil eye) that made her day end on such a bad note. But she wouldn't let that happen, who was she even Khushi for? Not for being sad and depressed obviously, those feelings she had left far behind, from a couple years.
Reassuring herself that everything was fine, she decided to once again rejoice for her accomplishment.
She decided to give her sister a call and inform her about the new, crazy updates.
What she didn't know was that she was gonna get a big shock herself.
~~**~~
Upon reaching his house he marched inside with long strides.
He got his second shock by seeing his family members gathered around the living room, baffled, with their jaws hung to the ground. It seemed that they had seen something on the television which had startled them immensely.
"Phatti sari... humra matlab Khushi ne naam aur bhes badal liya!" Expressed Manorma, dumbfounded. (Torn sari... I mean Khushi has changed her name and gone undercover.)
They saw Arnav and Akash walking inside with startled emotions visible on their faces, especially Arnav's. He looked delirious and completely disarranged, in his impeccable 3 suit.
"Where's Payal?" Asked the brothers at the same time.
It was after an ephemeral minute that Payal stepped inside the house, being done with the meeting with her manager about 'Zaika'.
She was perplexed upon seeing everyone's shocked faces.
What the hell was going on?
They must be playing some type of game. She decided to check for herself, walking inside.
Little did she know it was about to become the biggest questionnaire game from now on.
*************************************************
Things will start taking a turn from here.
Keep reading and voting if you like it and do share your thoughts, I really appreciate them. Do follow me to get regular updates, I often write some OS'es or two shots on Arshi, which I'll soon post.
Also stay safe people, let's hope that this coronavirus situation dies down soon without affecting many.
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