Khushi stared at Karan across the table, noticing the sly grin and she almost wondered what was going on. Something was cooking in that intelligent head of his and she couldn't pinpoint what it was.

"I am waiting Karan. I don't have all day" she told him as she snapped her fingers in front of his face, her anger starting to take over.

He straightened up at her tone and looked at her mockingly. Before she could repeat herself, she noticed one of the workers walking towards their table with two cups in her hand.

"Here you go guys. Enjoy" she told them with a smile on her face and Khushi looked at her drink questioningly and before she could say something, Karan told her that he had already ordered her drink.

"It hasn't been that long that I don't remember what you like and don't like Khushi. We do have a history" he told her while he moved forward to take his mug and take a sip out of his coffee. In order to calm her nerves, she took a deep breath and counted in her head. If Karan didn't speak up within thirty seconds, she was going to walk out. There was no reason for her to be here like this and the situation she was in was way too ridiculous. Since when had Karan become like that? The Karan she knew would have done anything to make her happy especially when he was the one that had left her at the last moment. But before she could go back to her counting, Karan finally decided to break his silence.

"Oh ya, you were saying something about not having all day? Well you do have another four and a half hours. I'll give you half an hour to get to the airport, knowing the rush hour traffic" he told her while her jaw almost dropped in shock, wondering how he knew about Arnav's whereabouts, but she kept her face in control.

"Anyways, I haven't called you here to go over your day's plans. I need to talk to you about something important" he told her as he put his mug down and the grave look in his eyes told her that he was going to reveal something not too pleasant.

*************

Khushi sat in the airport parking lot, replaying the past few hours in her head. How long had she been sitting in this underground parkade? She wasn't sure. Atleast two hours. She couldn't go home as she knew she needed some time to gather her thoughts together; to digest everything Karan told her.

Your life is in danger Khushi. You have no idea what kind of a household you have got married into. Didn't you ever wonder why Arnav was single even though he probably could have got any girl with a snap of his finger? Why do you think he lived alone with his Nani? Why do you think Anjali and Shyam don't have kids? Haven't you ever wondered how nobody in that house really talks to each other? There is a reason to all that Khushi. Why did Arnav all of a sudden decide to become God and take decisions into his hand at our wedding? If he was my true friend, he would have tried to track me down before going ahead and marrying you. This isn't the 19th century Khushi where you HAD to marry someone just because you were dressed up as a bride. The world has moved alot forward than that. Girls don't even have to get married these days and are allowed to live a single life if they choose to. We were engaged Khushi! It was OUR wedding day! I know what I did was wrong but that didn't give him the right to snatch everything away from me but perhaps that's what he had always wanted. Growing up, there was always this invisible wall between us and it was of jealousy. I had loving parents, a well settled family, a good career and then I had you. There was nothing else that I had wanted after that and Arnav knew that. God, there wasn't a moment when I didn't talk about you when we were together. He knew how much I loved you and still do, but he still went ahead and within a span of few hours, took the one last thing that I had asked God to give me. Doesn't it sound fishy to you that all of a sudden on OUR wedding day I get a message from some random girl, giving me all these details from the night me and Arnav were together. How did she get your phone number? How did she know about all our wedding stuff? Think Khushi- there was only one person that could have done all this.

But that isn't something I can change. I had made up my mind to walk out of your life as I knew it was my fault. I was the coward that ran away however, there are things that I have found out that I believe you need to know about that family. Whatever you are thinking of Shyam, it is true. How I know what you are thinking, I can't tell you but I would strongly advise you to wipe out the history of your computer after you type in someone's name in a search engine like that. Do you think Arnav doesn't know? Anjali doesn't know? Of course they do. They live with that man. However, they are breathing because they have sworn not to open their mouths. That brother and sister don't want to lose each other so for their own happiness, they are sacrificing millions of lives out there. You might just become one of those millions. You are a huge risk to Shyam and your dad being a former DEA (drug enforcement agent) doesn't help your situation.

Leave Khushi. You know what is going on and those people know that you are close to the truth. I am here to tell you that this is your chance- walk away quietly as if you don't know anything. I will arrange for you to go anywhere you like. You name the place and I will get you there but think twice before telling Arnav. Do you want to live under the same roof as someone who is probably the reason hundreds of people die per day? Shyam doesn't want you in that house and for the life of me, I can't believe that Arnav was so jealous of what I was about to have that he risked your life by marrying your and taking you into that house. Think about it Khushi. You have my number. I just want your happiness and safety.

His voice rang in her ears, over and over and Khushi felt like she was going to lose her mind. Some things did make sense. Anjali's quiet behavior, her not associating with anyone, Anjali being so protective of Arnav. But then, what about Arnav? It made sense that he knew something. His sister's behavior, Shyam's disappearances, how could Arnav not have a clue? Since he was so protective of Anjali, how could he not know about the biggest problem of her life? Or perhaps it wasn't even a problem for them?

She glanced over at the clock and realized it was almost five o'clock which meant that Arnav's plane had probably already landed or was going to be landing soon. She didn't even know what his exact arrival time was. Knowing that there was no use in waiting in the parking lot, she drove out towards the arrivals area to see Arnav standing infront of the gates, doing something on his phone. Her heartbeat rose and she wondered if it was due to the excitement of seeing him or if it was because of what Karan had told her? Could her husband be so ruthless? She didn't believe so.

Putting a smile on her face, she pulled the car up to him and rolled her window down to get his attention and instantly his face lit up, seeing her. Throwing himself in the passenger seat, he leaned over and kissed her cheek.

"I missed you" he mumbled as he traced the lock of hair that was caressing her cheek. "What did you do today sweetie?"

"Nothing much. Just sat around at home and relaxed" she replied, while keeping her eyes on the road and she could feel her face flaming up from her own lie.

"How was your meeting?" she asked, hoping the attention would divert from her. She needed to delay this till they were home and alone. Talking about something so serious is the car was probably not a good idea. In response, he muttered a good before he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started typing something furiously on it.

************

Shyam Jha sat in his office, his patience running out. Karan was suppose to tell Khushi that her life was in danger and Arnav had intentionally done it. Arnav had married Khushi just to get back to Karan as he was jealous of him, plus once Karan convinced her that Arnav was ok living with a drug dealer, it would be game over. Being the strong headed girl that she was, Shaym knew Khushi would walk out of Arnav's life without any questions. As much information as he had gathered about her, he knew she was the kind of girl that would walk out of this marriage without any explanations. The girl had too much pride and her morals were too strong to stick around like that and once she walked out, his job to erase her name off this planet was going to be easy. He hoped Karan had convinced her enough to not say anything to Arnav and she would walk out without a word. He had enough of his men watching over the Raizada mansion and once she walked out of the house alone, they would strike.

The girl had ended up seeing too much and she was too big of a risk for him. He wished he didn't have to do this to her, but she had left him with no choice. Even though she probably wouldn't have figured out everything on her own, associating with her family was way too big of a risk for him. Before shifting departments her dad was on the hunt for the 'Ox', the man who was smuggling oxycontin and even though her dad wasn't directly looking for the 'Ox' anymore, his involvement in the police force was too much to take a risk.

Now all he had to make sure was that Karan had fulfilled his part of the promise so that the mystery of 'Ox' would remain forever. Ox suits me, he mused as he took a sip of water. As much as he wanted to have a drink right now, he knew better.

************

Khushi walked towards the dining table, helping Anjali bring the food, when Arnav walked down the stairs, still typing away furiously on his phone. When he looked at her, she gave him a small smile which he returned before he plunked down on his chair to eat.

"So how was your day Di?" Arnav asked out of the blue while Khushi almost choked on her water. What was with him and asking everyone about their days?

"It was good. We watched TV for awhile and then me and nani went to the mandir. Khushi had to go to work so she couldn't accompany us. You need to cut the poor girl some slack!" Anjali laughed while Arnav looked at Khushi across the table.

"I should" was all he muttered before he went back to his food, not before giving Khushi a long, hard stare, letting her know that he knew about her lie.

************

After taking a long shower, Khushi paced their room, waiting for Arnav to show up so she could talk to him. The look in his eyes at the dining table told her that he knew she had lied and perhaps knew something more and before she could help it, she found hot tears flowing down her cheeks.

They had promised each other to share everything, to stick beside each other through thick or thin so how did she for even a few minutes think that Arnav would do something to harm her or ruin her and Karan's marriage out of jealously. They had discussed this already and he had told her that wasn't the case. Something wasn't right. After Karan had explained everything to her and had portrayed himself as a victim, she had only asked him one question- how did he know all this? But he had refused to answer that. She knew Karan wasn't as clean and innocent as he was making himself look. If Shyam was indeed into something illegal, there was no way he told Karan about this during a buddy-buddy talk.

Wiping her tears, she walked out of their room to notice all the lights in the house off. Assuming everyone was in bed, she tiptoed down the stairs to find Arnav and noticed the light to the study on. She knocked on the door once and waited for a few seconds for a reply, but none came. She knocked again and not hearing anything, she slowly opened the door to find Arnav sitting on the large leather chair, his head thrown back and eyes closed. She quietly walked up to him and before she could bring her hand up to wake him up and tell him to go to bed, she noticed a trail of water, from his left eye, down his cheek and ending somewhere around his neck. He was crying?

Panic rose in her but she controlled it. Something wasn't right with him and she slowly raised her hand and placed it on his shoulder, giving it a tug and within a second, his eyes flew open to find Khushi hovering over him, her face etched with worry.

"Sorry, I think I passed out. Let's go to bed" he whispered as he straightened up but before he could walk past her, her small hand engulfed his and she looked at him, her eyes worried and scared.

"What's wrong?" Khushi asked him and telling her nothing, he tugged her hand and walked out of the study towards their bedroom in silence. Taking his side of the bed, Arnav laid down while Khushi slowly sat on the bed, not sure how to talk to him. Why was he so quiet? Was he mad that she lied about staying home? Knowing there was only one way to resolve this, she sat up straight on the bed, determined to talk to him but all her thoughts scattered as she noticed him turning his back towards her to go to sleep.

"Good night Khushi" he mumbled before he yawned but she didn't respond. She needed to talk to him and she knew she couldn't wait till tomorrow. She had already wasted enough time thinking about different ways to approach him and it wasn't doing her situation any good, but his dismissiveness threw her off guard.

Slowly she laid down beside him and listened to the silence in the room. His breathing was still irregular and she knew he wasn't sleeping.

"Naraz ho?" she whispered, gulping nervously as she felt a tear trickle down the side of her face while she stared at the roof.

"Kind of" he whispered back while taking a deep breath.

"Kyon" she asked, partly knowing the answer.

"Why did you lie?" he asked and her heart sank even more, hearing the hurt in his voice.

"You told me to take the day off but I just couldn't sit at home so I went to the o..." but before she could finish her sentence, his voice cut her off.

"You weren't in the office Khushi" he stated the fact and in that instant, she knew he knew about her whereabouts.

"Yes I wasn't. I had to go see Karan" she told him and she held her breath, waiting for him to turn around and say something to her but it never happened.

"I know" he told her and her head flipped towards his side, staring at the back of his head, wondering how he knew that.

"Want to know how I knew?" he told her, before he grabbed his phone and showed it to her. There was a text message from an unknown number and she stared at the pictures, horrified. There were about 10 pictures of her and Karan, taken from one angle. The first picture was of her and Karan, where Karan was leaning on the table, towards her with a smirk on his face. A few more pictures in the same position. Another picture came where it looked like Karan was playing with her hair and she vividly remembered someone opening the door of the caf, causing her hair to blow and as she tried to tuck her hair back, there was a picture of Karan with his fingers almost touching her hair, as if to move it back. She remembered she had instantly moved back in her chair when he had done that and told him to keep his distance but someone seemed to have known that that was going to happen. She stared at the rest of the pictures and looked towards Arnav to see his expressions but he was still in the same position, with his back towards her.

"Arnav I can explain" she started but when he turned around, something about the way he looked at her, stopped her.

"I know you can Khushi but how were we going to explain this to the whole city?" he told her, while she looked at him, her expressions changing from confused to horrific.

"This has nothing to do with money Khushi but it costed $5 million dollars to avoid having these published in the newspaper with the headline 'Business Tycoon Arnav Singh Raizada's wife caught cheating with her ex-fiance'" and she felt her heart almost skip a beat, hearing the sadness in his voice. She would have been ok with him being mad at her and even yelling at her after seeing that, but the pain in the voice was harder to take.

"I am sorry Arnav... oh god I had no idea...I had to see him otherwise he was threatening to come home while Di and naniji were here and your phone was already off... I couldn't get a hold of you... I didn't know what to do... so I just.... Oh god I shouldn't have... I never thought that could happen... oh my god" and before he knew it, she was almost hyperventilating, realizing the damage that she almost caused, or perhaps could still cause.

He instantly turned around, hearing the panic in her voice and feeling her trembling and he wanted to kick himself for being mad at her and telling her everything like this. He knew she hadn't done anything wrong but the pain that he had felt when she had lied to him about where she was all day had compelled him to do this. Arnav had seen the pictures while he was at the airport after his meeting, ready to board the flight. Whoever had sent him the pictures seemed like they were waiting for a response for him as when he had messaged back to ask who it was and what the person wanted, he had received a reply instantly. Someone had did this on purpose to strain his relationship and apart from Karan, he didn't know who else would do this.

Khushi laid trembling in his arms, not sure where to start and what to tell him but she knew she had to do it now. As much as Karan had convinced her not to tell Arnav anything because Arnav was probably involved with Shyam and that could pose a threat to her life, she was going to do what she believed was the right thing to do. She loved this man and as hard as Karan tried to convince her that Arnav was the wrong person, she knew better. Karan wasn't Shyam's random messenger. The guy had more involvement than that but she could think about that after. Knowing this was the time to clarify everything with her husband, she pulled herself together and untangling herself from Arnav's arms, she grabbed her phone and turned it on.

Smart phones didn't have a voice recorder for nothing, and if Karan thought she was a fool enough not to have recorded his conversation, he was highly mistaken.

Pinki