Changing Shades - 9

Chapter 9

Lavanya looked up as Khushi stormed out of Arnav's office into the outer room, barely holding back her tears. Lavanya's face mirrored her shock.

“Khushi! What happened?!” she gasped out.

“I've had it,” said Khushi, fiercely, stuffing her drawings and plans into her briefcase with trembling hands. “I can't work here any more. He wanted to break me ... for the last four months, he's been trying to break me ... well, bully for him, he finally has. I'm going to my hostel. If he asks for me, tell him he'll have my resignation in the morning.”

Lavanya tried to hold Khushi's papers, her mind reeling. “Khushi, you can't do that! What will you do? The nursing home, the bills…”

“Damn the bills!” said Khushi explosively. “As you said, they're not my concern anyway. I'll starve if I have to, but I cannot work with him anymore. Let him find another slave to work all the god-awful hours he expects and put up with the abuse also. I refuse to keep apologizing for what happened four years ago. I've paid for it enough, I don't have to pay any more ... and not to him!”

She laid her briefcase on the table, her hands still shaking. In her mind, she heard her voice again … ‘Manish knew everything,’ … she saw again the look on her husband’s face as he faced her on their wedding night with his knowledge of her love … his eyes glittering strangely ... his contorted, twisted sense of triumph … the boy she had known all her life turned into a frightening, maniacal stranger, a man she didn't recognise ...
When her personal journey into hell had started.  

Lavanya was aghast. She had never seen Khushi in this state. She came up to the other girl and put her arms around her.

“Khushi, what happened? What did he say? Khushi, calm down, for god's sake. You can't go home like this!”

“I'm going,” Khushi said, more calmly. She looked at Lavanya in something akin to despair, her voice husky with unshed tears as she spoke.

“You see, Lavs, the problem is that he doesn't know I would have given my right arm to be free to love him all those years ago. And I still would. But I’m not free – my life’s not my own – and it never has been. Anyway, forget it. He is not going to forgive me, and I can't make him understand. He doesn't want to understand. So the best thing for both of us, is that I don't work here anymore. He's won. He wanted to break me, to drive me out of here – well, he has. Tell him I'll send the plans with the revisions in the morning, along with my resignation.”

She picked up her bag, and made to move to the door. Lavanya watched her helplessly.

Just then, the phone rang, startling them both.

“Who could it be, at this time of evening?” muttered Lavanya, as she rushed to get it.

“Maybe the boss, saying he's had a heart attack?” asked Khushi half-jokingly, then she continued … “oh, can’t be – he doesn’t have a heart.” They both smiled wanly. Lavanya picked up the phone.

“Suri Constructions, good evening. Can I help you?” she said, schooling her face into a solemn expression, then her face changed. “Just a moment , please.”

She held out the phone to Khushi, her face serious.

“It's for you. Some guy. Says he's calling from Kathmandu.”

Kathmandu. Where Khushi's long search had ended in a dead end.

Khushi looked at Lavanya, her own face changing, and the color draining from it. She came hesitantly forward, and her hand shook just a little as she took the phone.

“Hello?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

She listened for a while. “Yes, I am Khushi Dewan, that's right. Yes, I am an architect. What?”

Her face still pale, Khushi listened to the caller for another minute, then her voice very low, she answered again.

“Yes, that is correct. I am. Who are you?”

She listened again, and Lavanya watched, getting more and more concerned. Khushi looked as though she was talking to a ghost. Her voice almost threadlike, she spoke again.

“I'll be there as soon as I can. Can you give me a contact number or an address? I'll call you as soon as I reach, or as soon as I get organized.”

She took a pen and wrote something on the pad next to her. Then she spoke again.

“Right, I'll get my ticket done and try to be there tomorrow morning at the latest. I will call you when I get there. Thank you.”

She made to put down the phone, then quickly spoke again.

“Just a minute. What is your name, and does he know you are calling me?”

She listened again, then put the phone down with a brief word. She turned to Lavanya, her face empty of expression.

“Lavs, you'll have to cover my back from Arnav. Maybe for a day or two, maybe longer. I don't know yet how long. Can you do it?”

“Of course,” said Lavanya, instantly. “You don't have to ask.”

Khushi nodded, and picked up the phone again, calling their travel agency. She quickly booked a single ticket to Kathmandu, and putting down the phone, looked at her watch.

“I don't have much time,” she muttered. “I'd better leave right away.”

Lavanya looked at her.

“What's this all about?” she asked directly. “Or would you rather not say anything?”

Khushi smiled, but there was strain in her smile. She said one word.

“Manish.”

Lavanya knew the bare details enough for that one word to make sense. She nodded in instant understanding.

“He's there? In Kathmandu?”

Khushi nodded. “Seems to be. How they traced me, I don't know. I'll find out soon enough. Lavanya, if Arnav comes comes, please make some excuse for me. I may need a couple of days, there seems to be some major problem.”

The other girl nodded again. 

"Will do, Khushi. You need to go and sort this out. As soos as possible."

Khushi looked briefly at her. 

"I just hope ..."

She stopped and swallowed. 

"I hope this isn't a dead end again, Lavs. I just hope this guy is telling the truth."

 

“Are you going to tell your in-laws?” Lavanya asked carefully. Khushi shook her head decidedly.

 ‘No, I don't know if this is a wild goose chase. I'll go to the nursing home, break my fast, and then go home. The flight is early morning. I don't want to raise their hopes, if there is a mistake. Let me find out first. I'll come back and tell them."

“And Arnav?” Lavanya asked quietly. Khushi looked at her helplessly, then she did something she had never done before. She came into Lavanya's arms, rested her head on the other girl's shoulder, closed her eyes and held her tight.

“I need him,” she whispered, so softly, that Anjali barely heard her. “Oh, God, how I need my old Arnav. My best friend ...”

Neither of them noticed Arnav standing just outside the room, in the corridor, watching them, nor did they notice as he stepped quietly and noiselessly back.

Lavanya hugged her back, her throat aching with unshed tears.

“Go,” she said, her voice suspiciously husky. “I'll handle Arnav.”

Khushi nodded and stepped back.

“What will you tell him?” she asked, as she got her things together rapidly. Lavanya looked at her a little wickedly, wanting to lighten her mood.

‘I'll tell him you're pregnant and having morning sickness,’ she said happily, and Khushi looked at her for a horrified moment, and a smile grew on her face.

“You'll do it, too, if I know you,” she grinned, “but please, I think I need to live a little longer. Could you possibly think of another excuse that won't endanger my life?”

Lavanya laughed. “I'll try,” she promised. “Now, off with you.”

Khushi nodded and disappeared. Lavanya sat down with a sigh, frowning, as she tried to think of what to say to Arnav.

She needn't have bothered. He walked in a couple of minutes later, whistling, as though without a care in the world, greeted her and went straight into his office. After a little while he came out, and came to Khushi's desk, casually picked up her pad, on which she had written the Kathmandu address, and tore off the paper, while Lavanya watched, horrified, completely unable to say a word.

“Cat got your tongue?” he asked, casually. “What's happening around here?”

“N…nothing much,” she managed to say, watching as he glanced at the piece of paper, before crumpling it in his hand, then she breathed more easily, as he wrote something on the fresh page of the pad.

“Can you contact these people for me?” he said, handing her the paper. “I have an appointment with them tomorrow afternoon. Reschedule it for next week, will you?”

She nodded, thankfully, and waited for him to ask about Khushi. But he didn't, and she didn't notice, as she looked at the paper he had handed her, that he had put the crumpled one in his pocket. He went back into his office, and she was left wondering at his uncharacteristic behaviour. So puzzled was she that she forgot to wonder at his change of mood after the fight with Khushi.

She wasn't left to wonder long. In about half an hour, he came out of his office, closing the door. Lavanya looked at him in surprise.

“You're off, Arnav?”

“Yes, I am. Cancel all my other appointments, as well, will you, Lavanya? For the week.”

“Week?” she stuttered, in complete shock. “Wh…wh…where are you going?”

He leaned over her desk casually.

“Kathmandu, of course. Where else?”

Leaving her completely and absolutely stupefied, and for once, totally bereft of words, he disappeared.