When I Met You! - Chapter 39

"Wha..y..you? h...how...?..." Shyam stammered as Lavanya walked inside the house with a flourish, making sure she had kept the door slightly ajar. She smiled at his bewildered face and replied "Yes, its me...if you still remember me...La.Van.Ya!" she said making sure she pronounced her name very slowly.

"I know who you are! My question is...what are you doing here! And where is katya?" shyam said menacingly getting his bearings, he was shocked to find Katya's friend here but he knew she must have confided in her or something...'Stupid girl!' he thought tightening his fists in anger, Lavanya seemed least bothered as she sauntered into his house "Nice place...love what you've done with it!" she said smiling at him again.

Shyam looked at her as if she'd lost her mind "What the hell do you think your'e doing here! Don't you know what i'm capable of! If Katya has sent you here...she'll be surprised to find your and anjali's broken bodies sent back!" he said coming closer to Lavanya who looked him straight in his eyes and shook her forefinger "Na...nah...don't even think of coming near me!...who knows...maybe I have the police with me?" she said smirking at the sudden fear his face showed.

"You wouldn't dare! Katya knows that if she contacted the police or that ASR, anjali would be dead by now! The fact that she told you will also result in lots of harm towards anjali...so be careful where you thread La.Van.Ya!" he said smiling evilly, trying to intimidate lavanya who seemed to be non-plussed with his entire dialogue..in fact she seemed to have gotten bolder as she now walked towards him.

"Ok...so you say you'll harm anjali huh? What like you harmed her like this?" she said showing the same video which was sent to Khushi earlier, Shyam looked at the video, his face twisting in a grotesque smile "Yes! But worse...this was just a trailer...but now that your friend did not heed to my demands...its time to start the movie..what say?" he said as he dialed a number on his phone.

Lavanya stared at him as shyam waited for the other side to pick up, she saw him cursing under his breath as he tried calling the person again, after a few more tries he seemed really disgruntled "What happened? Phone problems? I thought you were going to start your movie or something.." Lavanya said innocently as shyam gave her a disgusted look.

"Don't look too happy...the phone is out of network...doesn't matter...its not like he's the only one! And keep that mouth of your shut tight...otherwise you'll be starring in that movie as well" he said as he tried another number, his tensed face turned normal as the other person picked up, she looked on as shyam asked him to tell the status of the 'girl' and smiled to herself as she saw the sweat break out on his forehead.

"What the hell do you mean? Why would he say that? You were the one who tortured her you fool! Have you hit your head and lost your damn memory!" shyam barked as he kept the phone and tried another number, only to be told the same thing. He looked up with eyes full of fury towards Lavanya who stood serenely looking at the scene unfold.

"What the hell is this bitch? What game are you playing huh? Where is Katya? Call her right now and tell her to come here at once! Otherwise she'll never see both of you ever again! I have had enough of this shit!" he said as he lunged towards Lavanya who had anticipated his move, she quickly jumped sideways as he came hurtling towards her only to hit his foot hard on the centre table and crash on the floor.

"Not so soon Mr Jha! Don't you want to see the 'behind the scenes' act? I think you will absolutely love it!" Lavanya said as she held out her phone once again to Shyam who was still lying on the floor, what he saw made his eyes turn dark with anger and frustration, he grabbed her phone and hurled it towards the other side of the room.

The movie showed Anjali and Lavanya setting up the room with a single dirty chair in the centre, they were giggling as anjali sat down while lavanya carefully tied the rope around her, then she proceeded to get some red paint and smear it around her nose and lips..someone then handed lavanya a scissor with which she proceeded to cut the sleeve off anjali's top and ripped it before messing her hair with some mouse, when she was done...they both practiced anjali's little act of pleading...

"Oh..please be careful! That was my new iPhone 4S! Best picture quality you know! I mean Mishru seemed to think that while we filmed this...oh sorry...you know him as Mishra right? Do you even know his first name?" She asked as Shyam's eyes twitched in uncontrolled anger, "Didn't think so..anyways..we had a blast filming this and laying out our plans...God its been ages since i've been soo excited about something! I mean...you know.." she went on to be cut by shyam's angry growl

"Shut up. SHUT UP!" he screamed as he got up and caught an unaware Lavanya by her waist, he twisted her hands around her back as he held her in a death grip, "What? Not so confident now are we?" he whispered into her ears as she struggled to get out of his hold. "Ooh...so i must say that that Dog Mishra and you are together in this...looks like lil anjali is part of your play too...but who will help you now? Huh? From what i remember of you La...you were not too bright then..and you are not too bright now!" he rasped as he further tightened his grip making her whimper

"Oh..i think she's mighty smart Shyam...why would i involve her in my plan otherwise?" a deep smooth voice drawled from the doorway, Shyam's hold on Lavanya slackened enough to let her free herself from him as they both turned towards the door to find a perfectly well groomed Arnav singh Raizada leaning lazily against the door.

"Oh, don't look so shocked SJ...it was my plan all throughout...and lets just say you played right into it!" Arnav said flexing his arms as he came and stood right in front of Shyam, he gestured Lavanya to move away towards the door as Arnav and Shyam stood face to face, the former giving a death stare.

"Wh..what? ASR...you here? What the hell...how.." Shaym stammered as he ran a shaky hand through his hair as Arnav went and quietly sat down on the later couch "Don't exercise those minuscule brain muscles that you have...let me make this easy for you...i mean let me jog your memory and bit...do you remember that day when i spotted anjali's car in the cafe across my office?" arnav asked casually leaning back.

The day Arnav spotted Anjali in the cafe...

"ASR? Did you call me? uh...i mean can i come in now? Or are you still busy?" Aman asked on the phone "Khushi just left Aman, yes you can come in..." Arnav said as he kept the phone sighing in satisfaction, this was probably one of the best days ever!he heard a faint knock on his door and shouted a 'Come in'; he waited till aman came and sat in front of him.

"So, any progress on the man? Did you finally get his name from the university?" Aranv asked, as the familiar feeling of wringing that man's neck started coursing through his veins "Uh..not yet ASR, but surely in some time we will...in fact i have bribed the admin person there, who will shortly let me know his name...i'll inform you about it as soon as i can" Aman said confidently as ASR nodded.

"Fine, make it fast...I can't wait to get that A*****le's name, so that i can rip him apart with my bare hands!" Arnav said his eyes showing pure anger at the thought "Also, I saw Anjali at Noni's today...but something was not right...I know my sister very well and I can make out when she lies..go and check who she was with...i need to know what she's hiding" he said as he got up and glanced back at the cafe.

One hour later...same day.

"Sally, i'm leaving...if there's anything please call me.." Arnav said to his secretary as Aman came running towards him with a printout "ASR, wait...i need to talk to you..its urgent!" Aman said as Arnav looked at his tense face, he nodded as both of them proceeded towards arnav's room "What is it? Did you know who she was with?" arnav asked as aman looked at him confused

"Whaa? oh..you mean anjali maam..yes she was with a man...that's what i came to know...I have asked their manager to send me a screen shot of the person she was with...he'll be mailing me the same...but that's not why i stopped you..." Aman said uneasily. He came and stood next to arnav and lowered the paper which he had in his hands "This is the person who...Khushiji...uh...the man from London...you'll be surprised to see the name" he said tapping the printed name on the sheet.

Shyam Jha

Director – Jha Textiles

Teaching Term : April 2008 – July 2008

Subject : Advanced designing techniques

-Suspended and Job terminated due to disturbing behavior towards student and harassment

Aman saw as arnav's eyes went red with suppressed anger, he touched his shoulder to bring him out of his thoughts, "ASR, are you ok?" aman asked as Arnav turned towards him, "No..I am not ok dammit!" he said getting up quickly from his seat and snatching the paper off the table "How should i react? I don't understand how this scumbag...how the hell did this ba****d...Aman! Are you sure this is the correct name? There can't be any other Shyam jha?" arnav said still trying to make sense of the situation.

"Yes ASR, this is your guy...she confirmed that the name of the student who accused him was Katya Gupta, registered as Khushi Gupta, her actual name and there cannot be another Shyam Jha of Jha textiles...it is SJ!" aman said pouring a glass of water for arnav who gladly took it and gulped it down in one go "I will kill the bas***d! I swear to God..today is the last day he sees...give me his address right away!" he asked aman who tried to make him see sense.

"ASR, you can't just go there wielding a gun and shoot the guy...you have to think about this more rationally!" Aman said as he opened his phone to check his mails, Arnav ran an irritated hand through his hair and looked at aman angrily "Rationally? You want me to think of this rationally? Are you retarded! This man...who did those awful things to my khushi...who made her go through hell...because of whom she's still afraid of certain things...the guy who harmed her innocence! The as****e who had the nerve to harm her...you want me to think rationally about him.." he said as he came and stood in front of aman.

"Sorry aman, i am not a saint...and at this point even if God comes here himself to stop me, I'll still go and shoot the b****d's brains out! So don't you dare tell me to think about this rationally!" he all but shouted at aman who's eyes seemed to have frozen on his iPhone screen "Are you even listening to what i'm saying aman! What the hell is so interesting in that phone dammit!" ASR said snatching the phone from aman's hand.

Present

"Yes SJ...what i saw chilled me to the bone...you were the guy with my sister that day! You son of a bitch...didn't you get enough playing around with Khushi that you had to target my sister too!" arnav got up and strode towards Shyam who by now was too shocked to say anything..he moved back as Arnav came towards him ready to hit him only to be stopped by Lavanya "Arnav, please calm down...please" she said as Arnav backed away stood facing away from Shyam.

"I swear Shyam...i wanted to chop your head off at that moment itself...but i waited so that i could make my next move correctly...i was worried if anjali was deeply involved with you or not...but when i saw the cctv tape which aman acquired from the cafe owner...it looked like anjali was least interested in you, but then i thought why were you pursuing her still...thats when it hit me...that maybe it wasn't anjali who you were pursuing now...maybe it was khushi" he said as shyam held on to the banister and looked around nervously.

"I even kept bodyguards to follow khushi and Anjali everywhere...I actually thought that you may pull a stunt when they both went to the night club..in fact Aman was there along with my two best bodyguards keeping an eagle eye on the girls..but you did not do anything at that point..." he said as Shaym looked up surprised "Oh don't be so shocked...i even had a man follow you the entire time...in fact that's how i came to know about your man..Mishra." arnav said as shyam's face contorted in anger

"That filthy dog! I should have known he will betray me..." shyam said as he hit the wall behind him with a force, he could not believe that he was the one being played this entire time "Oh, that's not very nice...he was very loyal to you..in fact he did not tell me anything..but i knew that somewhere your focus had shifted from anjali to khushi when Mishra said that you had nothing to do with my fiancee instead of saying my sister...that gave me an idea of how you may be using anjali to get to khushi..." he said in a clipped voice

"I tried my best to understand what your plan was but couldn't figure out what you actually intended to do...that was when Mishra approached me...i guess you were very mean to him...the poor guy was distraught and could not make up his mind about the task you had given him...so i went to meet him last night..." arnav said as shyam's nostrils flared.

"Oh don't get angry now...what do you expect huh? Even Loyalty has a price...its called respect!" arnav said walking slowly around the room, his eyes focused on shyam "He told me everything you were planning...i spent two hours with him last night trying to work out a plan to mislead you..but then that meant involving khushi in it as well...when i wanted to keep her far away from all this, so early next morning I involved lavanya and anjali in my plan...yes it was a shocker to both of them...especially anjali...but without their help all this would not have been possible...then something unexpected happened...i met khushi" he sighed as he narrated their meeting earlier in the day.

Same day...afternoon...before Khushi's haldi

"Khushi...are you ok darling? Anjali said you wanted to talk to me about something..." Arnav said as he entered khushi's room, he was worried to see her this nervous and lost, Khushi turned around and ran towards arnav, she hugged him fiercely before muttering "nothing it right arnav..oh God! I have so much to tell you..." she said as arnav hugged her back "What is it sweetheart?" he asked tilting her chin up.

She looked at him and said in a scared voice "The man from my past, the one who...wh.." she sniffed as arnav stroked her hair "...what about him babe?" arnav asked her gently, he gazed down at her watery eyes running his thumb over the unshed tears as she stammered "H..he...is the s..sa..same...h..he is anjali's ex boyfriend...Shyam Jha!" she cried as she buried her head in his chest.

"I know you may be thinking i'm mad..and you don't know about her boyfriend..i mean her ex..but arnav i recognized his voice...he...he is the same person...arnav you have to protect her...he is an animal...arnav please...do you understand...we have to go and speak to her...Lavanya thinks i'm crazy...but i know its him...it is him!" she sobbed as arnav hugged her again "Shh...sh...stop crying darling...i know...i know everything...even anjali does" he said as she looked up with shocked confused eyes towards him as he narrated the entire story to her.

Present

"So Mr Jha...when you thought that you are playing my my fiancee's mind...and torturing my sister..they were well aware of your plan...they knew exactly what you were going to do...in fact lets just say that we helped you along! Or did you really think that anjali was dumb enough to come running to the place you asked to meet her just because you told her some sob story of how you were leaving this country! Or khushi was stupid enough to come here on her own on her wedding day without involving me...no SJ...you were terribly mistaken!" arnav said as shyam held his head with both this hands and went to stand by the side table in the living room.

He could not believe that all his plans had gone down the drain...he felt his head would burst with all that he had heard today, but he'll be damned if Arnav Singh Raizada walks out of his house alive! he slowly crept his hand to the second drawer in front of him and opened it slightly, making sure that arnav could not see him..he nudged his hand inside the drawer and felt the revolver resting there..he slid his fingers over it and pulled it out before turning around to face him but a small voice from the other side made him whip his head towards her...'Arnav' she said softly as all three people turned to see khushi standing in a plain kurta and jeans watching the scene unfold in front of her eyes.