"Khushi?"

She halted at the voice and could feel her heart starting to race and her blood almost boiling. For second she felt like just walking away but that didn't suit her personality. Plus, she had nothing to hide and she had no reason to be mad at him. He was the one who should be ashamed of what he did. She was stronger than this and she knew it. Taking a deep breath, she turned around and smiled at the face that she had once fallen in love with.

"Hello Karan"

Arnav impatiently waited for the lights to turn green so he could cross the road, but when the lights didn't change for a few seconds, he ran across the street avoiding the cars honking insanely at him. As he looked for the emergency ward entrance, his heart pounded against his chest. Praying that he would see Khushi walking through one of these doors any second, he ran around and finally noticed the red 'emergency sign'. Looking around one more time and not noticing her anywhere, he ran into the emergency area hoping he wouldn't have to either see Khushi or Karan right now.

Karan slowly walked towards her and looking at her, the lump in his throat grew. What was she doing here? He wondered. He had thought that she would be back in her hometown and would probably never come to this city again. But here she was looking as fresh as a flower and looking as calm as she always did.

"How are you?" she asked him again with a slight note of irritation in her voice hoping that he would stop walking towards her as he seemed to be in a bit of daze, but he didn't. As he walked right up to her and stood in front of her, he felt the tears forming in the back of his eyes but he held it all back.

Her tone finally registered in his head and halted his footsteps. He looked at her a little unsurely,but he knew he deserved it. He was hoping that he would get some more time to get his act together before he contacted her again and hoped she would someday have it in her to forgive him.

"I am ok...How are you?" he asked with a cracking voice and as he took another step closer to her, he noticed someone running towards them.

"Arnav?" he whispered and hearing his name, Khushi turned around and saw a breathless Arnav come and stand in front of her. His eyes darting back and forth between them wondering if Karan had already found out everything.

"What are you doing here?" Karan asked him again wondering why he was running. They both were suppose to meet next week so why did he come running into the hospital like this?

As Karan looked at Arnav slightly confused, the irritation in Arnav's eyes was obvious and it took Khushi a second to realize that Karan had no idea about her being married to Arnav. She looked at Arnav and waited for him to say something but he didn't. He didn't even notice her looking at him as his gaze was hard on Karan. She looked back to Karan's face and noticed the dark circles under his eyes. His form was slightly hunched and he didn't look like the carefree and jovial Karan she knew. He looked a lot thinner too than the last time she had seen him, which was what? About a month ago? Before she could say something to either one of them, Arnav's voice broke her thoughts.

"Hi Karan, long time no see" he asked with pure loathing dripping from his voice and Khushi could feel the atmosphere tense up around them. Seeing Arnav's anger, her heart beat wildly, scared of what was going to happen. Before she could muster up the courage to try and talk to either one, the intercom overhead brought them back to their worlds.

"Dr. Karan please report to unit 3C"

"I got to go. I'll see you next week" Karan told Arnav and looked towards Khushi, taking her profile in as something he could remember when he would ponder on the past. Arnav looked towards Khushi who was looking at Karan with a confused expression on her face. Karan's eyes looked over Khushi's face and then his eyes looked down at her left hand noticing the glittering diamond he had given her missing. As he turned around to walk away, he stopped and turned back around sharply. He stared at her neck and noticed the black beaded necklace peeking through the black shirt that she was wearing. He looked up at her forehead and there was nothing. Slightly confused, he tried to walk away when she shifted a bit and the neckline on her t-shirt shifted bringing into full view, her mangalsutra.

Noticing that Karan was looking at her a little weirdly she brought her hand up to pull her neckline unconsciously when her hand touched the beads. Her hands froze as she noticed the look in his eyes but before she could say anything, Karan covered the distance between them in two long strides and her whole body jerked as he took hold of her upper arms and pulled her towards him.

"Karan, leave her" Arnav dangerously whispered but Karan kept staring at her waiting for her to say something.

"This is between me and Khushi. You stay out of it" Karan replied back in just an equally dangerous voice and avoiding a scene, Khushi patiently raised her hands to remove his hands from her arms as she noticed Arnav's fist clenching and about to come up.

"You lost every right to question me when you ditched me at the mandap, Karan" was all she said and giving him a blank look, she walked away. Giving Karan one last look, Arnav turned around to walk after Khushi but stopped.

"I don't appreciate anyone talking to my wife like that and I mean it. Keep that in mind for next time". Saying that Arnav walked away pulling the ground from under Karan's feet.

As Arnav raced down the hallway, he looked around for Khushi and found her standing at the doors looking as cool and composed as anyone could be. As he walked up to her and looked into her eyes, he couldn't tell what she was feeling as her face was void of any expression and her eyes looked blank. When he kept staring at her, she raised her eyebrows at him and giving him a "are you insane" look, walked out of the hospital with Arnav trailing behind her.

"Gosh am starving!" She told him as she loaded up her salad and Arnav just quietly went to the corner to grab one of the premade sandwiches there. He quietly walked back to the office with her, observing her,as she kept on talking about the little boy and how hurt the child was. Wondering if she wasn't comfortable talking to him about what she was feeling, he waited for her to walk into his office, locked the door and told his receptionist not to put any calls through to him.

Grabbing her salad, Khushi sunk back on the couch in his office and sat cross legged digging into her salad when she felt Arnav's hands take the salad out of hers and put it on the table and sit beside her on the couch.

"You know you can talk to me right. Before your husband, I was your friend and that is something I would like to keep the same. So tell me Khushi".

Smiling, she looked up at him and told him there was nothing to talk about.

"I have nothing to say. The little boys turn came and as I was walking out, Karan recognized me and I decided to say Hi and asked him how he is. Before I could say anything else, you were there". When he kept looking at her with an unsure expression on his face, she realized what he wanted her to explain.

"Look, don't think that I am worried, sad or depressed seeing him. Karan WAS a part of my life but he broke any kind of relationship that I ever had with him when he decided to disappear because that's the day I lost my trust in him. If there is no trust between two people, there isn't much left to say or discuss. Honestly, I thought that when I will see him, I will demand an answer as to why he did that and how could he have disrespected me, my family and his own family but seeing him, I really didn't care. It doesn't matter why he left. At the end of the day, he decided to make that decision without talking to any one of us so I guess none of us were that important in his life. I am not the kind of person who will let her past pull her down. You learn from your experiences and move on. He isn't somebody I need in my life, so why should I waste my breath, time and energy asking him what happened". As Arnav just sat there and stared at her, she took his hand in hers.

"You were always my friend and now you're my husband but you will always be my friend first. If something is bugging either one of us, we have to share it and I promise you I will share it with you. I am not the kind of person who will wait for God to fix things since God only helps those that help themselves and if there is anything between us that might cause a problem, we will discuss it. So, can I eat now?" she asked him pouting and the next second her stomach grumbled. Laughing at her, he cupped her cheek in his hand and bringing her face closer to his, he pressed his lips to her forehead before handing her her salad back.

A few hours later, Arnav dragged Khushi out of the office once he realized that she was starting to hunch over realizing that her back was probably sore. Even though she didn't complain about anything, a part of him couldn't remove that guilt knowing that she was in that position because of him. Once they reached home, he cooked for both of them and after finishing everything, both of them sat on the couch with their different types of coffees in their hands to watch TV. As Arnav caught up on the business world, Khushi sat beside him and quietly read her book.

Even though neither one of them said a word, the silence that engulfed them was surprisingly soothing. As he looked over towards Khushi, he smiled at her posture. She was holding her coffee mug in one hand and her book in the other and was trying to remove her bangs off her face with her arm. Quietly, he walked into their room, grabbed a bobby pin and pinned her hair back. Giving him a weird look and mumbling a thanks she went back to her book but eventually found it hard to read as they didn't have the lights on and the sun was going down. Putting her book away, she leaned back against the couch and closed her eyes.

A few seconds later when she opened them, she caught Arnav staring at her and as hard as she tried to smile, the look in his eyes stopped her. He shifted closer to her and gently pulled her towards him. As he wrapped his arms around her, he thought he could feel her heart beating against him, but he wasn't sure. After a while, he could feel her hands slowly move up his back and she lightly held onto him, not sure on what happened to him all of a sudden.

She thought she felt him drop a butterfly kiss against her hair, but she wasn't sure about that either as she felt her heart beat wildly and all she could do was try to control it knowing he could probably hear it with the speed at which it was going.

"I just want to hold you. Is that ok?" he whispered against her ear and she nodded in response. She could feel his body tensed and she wasn't sure what had happened.

Arnav held her tightly against himself and he didn't want to think why he was doing this. All he knew was that he wanted her close to him. Seeing her with Karan had set him off and he knew that. Even though the logical part of his brain told him that it was ok if Khushi had talked to Karan. Maybe they did need to talk, he thought. They were in a relationship and he had no idea how close they were as a couple. Did they talk about everything? Did they share everything? He wondered. All of a sudden, the suddenness of their marriage left his heart heavy.

Did she even want this marriage? Maybe at that point she did, but what about now? Even though what Karan did was not forgivable, should he have just stepped into their lives like that? Maybe Karan had got cold feet or something. He didn't even give Karan and Khushi a chance to talk to each other.

He pulled her even closer to him, if that was even possible and breathed in her scent. Her soft form felt so good against his. She was the kind of woman he had dreamed of having in life, but never thought existed. She was independent, smart, beautiful and above all so damn rational that he wondered if she was even real or not. Everything was going good between them so why did all of a sudden he feel like something was being snatched away from him. She only met Karan but he couldnt help but wonder if her love for Karan was strong enough to rock their relationship. If not her, what about Karan? Would he come back for Khushi? Arnav wasn't sure but the thought of her leaving his life made his heart constrict and as much as he tried to avoid this feeling, he knew the answer to it all and it hit him as hard as a punch in the gutt.

He was in love with his wife. He was in love with Khushi Singh Raizada...