"You meant to say either there are two Karan Malliks or Karan Mallik has sent those instructions to himself?" Ratna asked.

"That's what I'm investigating right now, personally!" Khushi shrugs her shoulders.

"Can anyone tell me what's happening here?" Arnav finally decides to intervene.

Khushi and Ratna aka Suzzane look at him.

"Arnav, I saw your mother when I was just 14-year-old," Khushi said.

"And?" he frowns.

"And-" Khushi was about to say something more when Ratna cut her off.

"I'll tell you everything later, Arnav," Ratna says.

Khushi stays silent.

Arnav sighs.

"Anyway tell me, how do you know each other," Ratna questions, looking at Arnav and then at Khushi, diverting Arnav's mind towards.their visit. She wanted to reveal the truth about her being an undercover cop in Scotland by herself and not anyone else.

"Mom, actually," Arnav pauses and fumbles in his seat.

Ratna comes out of her thoughts and keeps on looking at him waiting for him to stop fumbling and talk.

"Actually I and Khushi, we, I mean, Khushi and I, love each other and are in a relationship," he says after a few minutes of fumbling.

"Really?"Ratna asked excitedly. After all, her only saint-son was in a relationship.

"Yes," he replies, fumbling again.

"Thank God! Finally," she exclaims, clapping her hands.

"Are you okay with it?" He asked, looking at her unable to believe her excitement. He didn't think she'd be excited. Oh! He'd known if she'd be excited or not if he ever had any relationship and introduced his girlfriend to her.

"Ofcourse, why wouldn't I be? You were never in a relationship and I thought you'd become a saint one day and-" she was cut off by Arnav.

"You thought what? I'd become a saint?" Arnav asks her, shocked.

"Yeah! What would you expect me to do when you never introduced your girlfriend before, that is, if you had any without me knowing," she asked, shrugging her shoulders.

Khushi bites her lips to stop herself from chuckling.

"Mom, that's because I never had any girlfriend," he exclaims.

"But you have her now, right," she states the fact, smiling at him.

"Yeah," he blushes slightly.

Khushi couldn't stop her chuckles.

Arnav glares at her. It doesn't affect Khushi anyway.

"Arnav, won't you show Raizada Mansion to Khushi?" she asked her son and he turned towards his mom.

"Yeah!" He gets up and takes Khushi with him to show her around.

Subadra Singh Raizada is in office. So, she isn't able to meet Khushi. Ratna gets up and goes to Kitchen to prepare some snacks for Arnav and Khushi.

She wasn't just happy because he's in a relationship with Khushi, the girl she knew as a child, the daughter of Nandini. She was happy because her son is in a relationship with his choice of girl who makes him happy. Though he's overprotective of her son, she trusts her son's choice. If he's happy with his choice, she's happy too. If he will not be happy or gets hurt, overprotectiveness in her soul will awoke then. But he's happy now. That's all that matters.

After Arnav showed her around, Khushi and Arnav came out and had snacks Ratna prepared for them. They had a conversation for sometime and Khushi went back to her home.

Ratna knows the time has come and Arnav has questions regarding her knowing Khushi and the conversation about Karan Mallik raises more questions in his mind. She's ready to answer him.

And on that day, Ratna herself confesses that she's an undercover cop in Scotland, how her name was Suzanne, how only Nandini, Khushi's mothers know that, how Karan Mallik played his games and filed an FIR on Ratna, how Nandini arrested Karan Mallik with their personal investigation's gathered proof, how Nandini had to ask time for proving his identity, hw in that process Nandini came across babies, girls, and few adults who were supposed to sent for human trafficking, how Nandini saved them and she helped her in the process indirectly, how she she met Khushi in hospital when she came with her mother to meet Dev, how Nandini was about to reach court and they died, how her investigation on Karan Mallik's identity went on for years and is still going, listening to all of these, his mind burst out. All this was happening around him and he knew nothing. Well, that's the talent of an undercover cop anyway. He thought, comforting himself. But he never thought there could be something like this happening around him.

Well, he's a happy-go-lucky person. He wouldn't mind what's happening around unless that particular person or thing attracts him. He takes his life as it goes. He doesn't hang on to the past. Although he hates his father and step-father, that didn't stop him from viewing the world from a positive approach. He's positive, carefree and lost in his present and also, not to forget, his Fashion World. That's not his fault anyway, that's how he is as a person and now that he knows this mother and his girlfriend, both are cops in some way, he'll have to be careful because who knows when they both will beat him to hell when he did something he's not supposed to.

After a few days, Khushi met Ratna and asked for help in investigating. Ratna has greater contacts, so, it was easy for her to get anyone's bio-data, their each and every information, from birth certificate to death certificate, and since she had no support for her personal investigation, her field work has lessened. She'd still gather whatever she could under her rader with the help of her contacts and her own technical skills.

Khushi came up with a plan. She'd send a message to Dev from her other phone which she uses to talk with Arnav, the message would be in a particular format.

Message format is molecular number of a chemical name, that applies on a subject, if no word from the subject has made a combination with its next word to form a chemical name, thus coding it to its molecular name, the words would stay without any coded format and the end number of molecular name belonging to the particular chemical name will be bold.

"I want BG on 83.798it127.91139.0983a, the pdf is attached and the password is the usual pattern."

(I want a BG on Krithika, the pdf is attached and the password is the usual pattern.)

The subject was coded here. The subject was Krithika - Kr(Krypton-83.978)ithi(hydrogen iodide-127.911)k(potassium iodide-39.0983)a. Since there's no i forming a chemical name with t, it was left as they are. The same pattern was followed for every subject. And the password for pdf will be (reverse of the subject) @ (reverse of bold numbers). The coded message would be sent to Dev, Dev will decode it by dividing it to the half and will reverse the pattern and will the now decoded message to Ratna, Ratna then receives it, re-codes it in original pattern, collects their details, takes printouts, keeps copy of it for herself, and dumps it in pale blue, named as cyanide mission, sends it through Arnav.

After Khushi started working on her personal mission, she said to Arnav that she can't meet him daily at the same place. So, everyday they would meet at random and different places. In a way, these three years made them visit almost every damn place in Delhi, a Delhi Tour one could say. Khushi as a CBI Officer has always her guards on, she didn't want anyone to expect her at the same place and they could attack her. Even though she's not sure if someone would actually keep an eye on her, she's always protective, prepared, and on guard. Dealing with the Mafia, you can't overestimate yourself and underestimate others. So, the meeting places change every time they meet. They even call each other through separate phones with different numbers. For everyone else, they have another separate phone. Arnav passes her the cyanide file whenever he is asked. There were not many instances, though. But still it matters because that's dangerous and confidential.

This has been going on for the next three years when finally Khushi's able to crack who is Karan Mallik and how he sent messages to himself. All she was left with is going to submit that evidence in the court after reopening the case.

Unfortunately, she had to stop. She was disappointed. She knows who is making her do it and what else he could do. She let him do that. So that he could think he is winning and a few steps ahead of her. After all, what's the loss, if you could gain your lifetime's mission by pretending to be a loser when actually letting someone else think they're the winner. Nothing. In fact, it's the perfect plan to trap a beast. You'd be a winner in the end. So, she had to stop from re-opening the case and concentrate on her acting.

In this process, she needed someone who could give her cyanide file with the rest of the files, the same cyanide file which could give her information whenever she needed and whatever she needed. So that no one could doubt she was taking something confidential, something special from anyone. Even though she's meeting Arnav at different places, she can't take a risk when she knows who Karan Mallik is and what he could do. She couldn't afford going to meet Arnav and get the cyanide file from there. She couldn't afford to bring it along with her to her home or to her office. She's working on a Mafia, high profile case and that too, a personal one. The protective instincts and her guards reached the lower level of hierarchy.

She wanted someone who could give it, bringing it from Ratna, along with other CBI case files. So, the person should be related to Ratna and the CBI. She found none.

And that's when Arnav Singh Raizada decided to help his girlfriend. Join the CBI and help her get her files from Ratna along with other case files. After all, he had training and he could easily join and he's related to Ratna. He could easily pass cyanide without anyone's notice. But this brought the couple into a fight. Khushi fought with him about how he could leave his dream job to help her.

"Khushi, I wanted to help you," he explains, grabbing her shoulders.

"I don't want it, Arnav. Just go back to your job," she argues furiously, throwing his hands away.

"But Khushi, I'd join back when I'm done with the help you wanted," he explains, sighing.

"Arnav, no. This CBI is not your thing. You don't have to do this and to be honest, you know, you never had the passion and attitude that's required for this job," Khushi calms down and explains.

"But Khushi, I am not joining this for any field work, you know right? I'll just be an Inspector and an assistant to you," he said. He wanted to make her work easy.

"But Arnav, you-" he shuts her lips with his index finger.

"Shh. I'm joining and that's it!" His voice was husky but that didn't affect Khushi. She was beyond furious.

"Fine, do whatever you want," she screams, throwing his index finger away, quite harshly. Arnav hisses and Khushi walks away.

Arnav knew she was angry now and would not talk to him for a few days until her mood became fine or he made her mood fine.

As he thought, he joined with the Senior Superintendent of Police's recommendation and from then he concentrated on his goals. One, he has to help Khushi in whatever way possible and two, impress his girlfriend who's also a strict cop. He knew the later one would be harder. He knew his Khushi. When she doesn't like something, she doesn't like it, that's it. Khushi now doesn't like him joining CBI and she'd never like him joining, he is aware of that. But what's he here for, he'll definitely do something to calm her down and after some days, she will. He knew exactly what he needed to do.

And that's what he did. From the day he joined, all he did was irritate her because he knew if he'd go and try to make up with her, she surely would have ignored him and to top it, it's CBI, her love. He doing something boyfriendly-thing here would definitely burst her head that it already is. So, he did the opposite and it did work. He flirted with her, he knew it would irritate her. He maintained his professional behaviour, he didn't dare to mess it up as he knew how Khushi is. She'd have kicked him out the next day. So, he tried being professional although that had been tough and his tongue did slip a lot of times, in front of Khushi, thankfully, he completed the work assigned or rather thrown at him. He thought that would impress her if nothing else and she was impressed, though, didn't show it on her face because of the tiff between them, he could read what's going in her mind just by looking at her face.

After a few days, as he expected, she toned down and took his help without any convictions in her mind. It was because of him that she could get the cyanide without anyone's notice.

Moles' courtesy.

Khushi has been doubting for the past few months that there are moles in her office who were reporting her moves whatever she's doing in her office to someone. And she doubted there might be someone following her outside of her office premises too, if she's not wrong. This someone could be related to Karana Mallik if she's not wrong. Thankfully, each and every move was very careful while she was investigating Karan Mallik.

The day she got to know who Karan Mallik is is the day she got to know what he is at. And on the very same day, she re-opened her Mother's file which has Karan Mallik as the culprit. And that's the exact thing the mole has caught and informed to his boss. That's what she wanted. She let them win. File has nothing new. File shows how Karan Mallik has sent instructions to himself. But this could lead to more questions in the court and the mole's boss didn't want that. So he caused Nandini's accident 14 years ago. She expected that kind of a move from him again and he came up with a foolish pattern, repeating the history. At that point in time, when she got to know the truth, she pretended to be disappointed. So that the mole could think she was disappointed. And he noticed that.

And just when she was pretend-planning how to reveal who is Karan Mallik, a few weeks after, as she expected, they made their move, she has got to know that someone is playing the same game that has happened with Ratna, Nandini, and Karan Mallik towards her friend, Aryan Rathode now. Krithika was in place of Karan Mallik, Aryan was in place of Ratna, she was in place of Nandini. If the player was Karan Mallik that time, it was Krithika this time. If Karan Mallik was instructed by Karan Mallik himself, Krithika was instructed by Krithika herself. Now who is the real player? Krithika or Karan Mallik?

She knew who it was. But she has no idea about Krithika, so she investigates her with the help of Dev, Ratna, and Arnav.

She then listened to whatever Aryan had to say, saw whatever he had to show, the original notes, video recording, and everything else was known to her. It was just that she pretended to know nothing.

Arnav Bhatt was unexpected for her too. She never knew Arnav Bhatt is the son of Karan Mallik. She knows Karan Mallik has a daughter. But then this confusion got cleared after reading the cyanide file from which she got to know Arnav Bhatt was Karan Mallik's or rather say Ankura Bhatt, wife of Karan Mallik's adopted son. He was adopted when Arnav Bhatt was 17 years old. Karan Mallik and his legal wife got separated, not divorced, tho, when Ankura Bhatt gets to know about his illegal marriage with Ratna Singh Raizada 14 years ago. Their real daughter, Chitra's custody was taken by Ankura Bhatt. So, when she investigated about Karan Mallik, she just knew he had a wife and daughter, named Ankura Mallik and Chitra Mallik.

Since she wanted to let the Player believe that he is winning, she has arrested Arnav Bhatt and Krithika.

Present Day,

Shantivan

"Khushi," Devyani calls for her just as she was about to go to office

"Yes, nani?" Khushi turns towards Devyani Singh Rathode, her grandmother.

"There's a proposal for you from Singhanias. What should I reply? They called me like days ago and I still didn't respond," Devyani questioned her granddaughter. She knows what she will get to hear. It's normal for her now. She'd not have asked if she would not have a hope. And the Singhania guy turned out to be a good boy from her PI.

"Not again, Nani." Khushi sighs.

"But beta, when will you marry then? Hope it would not be too late," Devyani said sadly.

"Nani, I'll marry for sure, just let me get done with this case," Khushi gives a hint and Devyani catches it.

"Do you mean you've already selected a boy for you? Tell me, tell me!" She gets excited.

"Nani, that's it from me. I'm getting late. I've to go to my office," Khushi said and walked away.

Still that didn't decrease the smile on Devyani's face. For the first time, Khushi talked positively about marriage and maybe she did have a boyfriend. Mayb her investigation skills are getting weaker. Well, if Devyani is good at investigations, Khushi is beyond good at manipulating those investigations.

Devyani wanted to know who the guy was. So, she targets Akash who's a little prankster and easy to manipulate among the three. She did. In her manipulation, Akash blurts out Arnav Singh Raizada's name.

That's it! Her work is done. She will do a background check on him even though she knows her granddaughter can never fall in anyone's trap. For her satisfaction, she does it. And the next will be preparations for her marriage. She's too fast!

CBI

10:00 AM

Khushi is at her office and they have now a court hearing date, it's after two weeks. Khushi has to wait two weeks until she hits her final target.

Karan Mallik.

Player of players.

He was the reason why she had no parents today.

Years ago, Nandini got to know that it was Karan Mallik.

She went to Karan Mallik's cabin with the help of access given to her by Ratna. She checks his system files, and she finds nothing. She opens his email, personal email. There was nothing. She opened the hidden files and there appeared some mails.She opened the mails and those seem empty. There's nothing in it. But how can there be nothing? If you're sending it, it has to be having something. She copies the empty space and pastes it in a notepad. She changes the colour texture and then she gets to see a website link. She copies it and pastes it on the web. Website link was written in white colour and that seemed empty. Now when she pasted it in another file and changed the colour she could see the link. When she visited the link, she could see some latitude and longitude numbers along with some dates that said about how and where these people have to be sent after kidnapping them. With the help of it only she saves some of the people. But the problem was when she opened the wordpad and email, the computer started crashing and all files were deleted.

She did one good thing by opening the website in her phone rather than the laptop and has already copied the wordpad file into her pendrive, and took photos of mail.

Everything is good except that the mail was sent from Karan Maillk to a Karan Mallik. That confused her. Nonetheless, this proof was enough to take the permission from the judge to investigate more, raise more questions.

She takes her phone and pendrive and walks away.

"Hey, hi," Arnav greets her as Khushi remembers looking at her Mother's file and a copy of pendrive. File has the printout of whatever she copied into her phone and pen drive has locations and dates that were 14 years ago.

She was already working on it after a year and half of her joining the CBI. And after another few months, she meets Suzanne and her investigation paces up.

"Hi," she replies, coming out of her thoughts.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Playing!" She was sarcastic.

"I can see that," he mumbles.

"And how many times I'd have to repeat-" she was cut off by Arnav.

"I'm sorry. I won't talk personal, again," Arnav pouts.

"This is the only thing you do every time," she sighs.

Arnav sighs and rolls his eyes.

"So, do I have anywork, Madam?" he asked playfully.

"Yeah, go and study the old case files," she said just as a constable entered after a knock.

"Yeah?" Khushi looks at the constable.

"And what are you still doing here? Told you to study case files, right?" Khushi mentions sternly.

"Sorry, Madam. I'll be on it, now," he said and walked away very innocently.

She looks at Constable and he explains his doubt about another case and gives her the latest updates.

The day goes normally with Krithika and Arnav still in custody.

Evening

6:30 PM

Shanitivan

Khushi reaches her house after a hectic day and enters through the main door.

Just as she was about to go to her room to freshen up, she heard Nani. "So, Arnav Singh Raizada it is, isn't it? Fashion Designer in our company. Resigned a few weeks ago and now working with you, isn't it?"

Khushi sighs. Really, her Nani should think of becoming a spy oneday. And who said she isn't already? Her inner voice screams.

"Nani, you're unbelievable. I hope you haven't started marriage preparations yet," she asked her Nani.

"I was waiting for your nod," she explains.

Khushi sighs and bobs, "Thank God!"

"You've nodded your head. Should I proceed with rishta?" she asked excitedly.

Khushi sighs and is about to nod but stops herself, "After this case gets solved, do whatever you want, Nani. Not now."

"And when will this case get solved?" Nani asks.

"Maybe after two weeks," she said.

Nani gets relieved that it's not two years. With her granddaughter, she can't be sure.

After a week,

Khushi decides to visit Karan Mallik once. So, she's here in central jail and walking towards Karan Mallik's cell. Constables salute her and she plainly walks, occasionally nodding.

And here she is, in front of Karan Mallik who has sat on the floor and is thinking something.

"Thinking how to send your son to trap me again, Mr Mallik?" Khushi clicks her fingers not opening the lock and just standing outside.

Karan Mallik turned towards the figure and saw Khushi, "Oh. Khushi Kiran Gupta, daughter of Nandini Kiran Gupta. Heard alot about you." He smirks.

"Even I heard a lot about you," she says.

"Oh, that's nothing compared to what I did. Ask me and I'll tell you!" His smirk wasn't gone.

Khushi turns her head aside in anger as she remembers the small baby who was growing without consciousness.

"You're not like your mother, you know. She was about to prove my identity, Karan Mallik's identity and you're trapped in my son's hand," he said laughing.

Khushi stays silent.

"I know you'd get trapped in my son's trap. How was the experience? I heard you never fail!" He is proud.

Khushi says nothing, just stares at him angrily. She so badly wanted to give punches left and right to him, but no. She controlled. She let him win.

"You, Khushi Kiran Gupta, has underestimated me and I, Karan Mallik, has estimated you rightly," Karan Mallik laughs as he looks at Khushi who looks at him in anger.

"Right!" Khushi just nodded at him, gritting her teeth, got updates from constables, and on knowing his behaviour wasn't suspicious, threw a look towards Karan Mallik and went away.

After one more week,

Today's the court hearing date. Khushi brings Krithika and Arnav Bhatt with her to the court.

Krithika has to be proved innocent today and Arnav Bhatt has to reach just beside his father. And Khushi has been waiting for this day. Arnav Singh Raizada is beside her. Ratna is sitting in the front row. Dev was with her along with Aryan and his mother.

Court Session starts. Everyone was called inside.

Prosecutor takes the file from his desk after the case number and time has been announced. Court Reporter is ready on the side to record each and everything that'd be confessed now.

He checks the file Khushi has submitted two weeks ago.

Judge asks to start the session.

Prosecutor is ready who then turns towards Arnav and Krithika who stands in front of him with handcuffs.

"So, Miss Krithika, do you agree with whatever you've done?"

"Yes," she simply states.

"And you, Mr Bhatt?"

"Yes," he replies.

"My lord, Krithika here agrees that she was a part in kidnapping Mr. Bhatt's sister and Arnav Bhatt here agrees that he was blackmailed," he states.

Judge looks on. Krithika looks shocked.

"You agree you were blackmailed by none other than your father, Karan Mallik, Mr Bhatt?" Prosecutor asked, looking at Arnav.

"Yes, and he kidnapped my sister, Chitra and with the help of Krithika, blackmailed me into passing drugs and Notes," he explains.

Judge makes a point.

"We've evidence in this file, my lord," he removes some contents from his file and hands it over to the clerk. He then passes it to the Judge.

This is Evidence Number 1:

Judge checks the file and for the statement that has been made by Arnav Bhatt, verifies it, and he can see the photos that were of Chitra being tied to a chair and audio recording of his phone conversations between him and the blackmailer, who has a female voice, and another paper proving that voice modulator has been used, in another audio file, it has the original voice which was of some guy.

They play all the audio files as he checks and Krithika gets shocked, that was not a part of their plan.

Evidence Number 2:

Soon they go for Krithika's statements made by her in the CBI office which was recorded, the statement about her sister being kidnapped and blackmailed. They hear the same content that has been heard for Arnav Bhatt in the audio file that they gathered from phone calls she got. Photo was the same as well which she received in fax.

Both the contents were verified and are original.

"Why did Arnav Bhatt lie in the confession video?" Judge asks.

"Because I was blackmailed and Chitra wasn't released till then," Arnav Bhatt defends himself.

"Whose sister is Chitra?" Judge asked, confused.

"Arnav Bhatt's," Prosecutor replies and submits the next proof.

Evidence Number 3:.

Judge sees that, it's a picture of him, his sister, and their mother and paper with a stamp that states Arnav Bhatt was her adopted son.

"Is Chitra's mother here?" he asks and Ankura Bhatt stoods up. She was told to walk in the witness box.

She was made to pledge and she confessed Arnav Bhatt was her son and someone kidnapped her daughter Chitra.

"We have another proof, my lord," he said and judged gestures to carry on.

Prosecutor then passes the next proof which has a video. It was played.

Looking at it Krithika sweats.

Evidence Number 4:

It is a video of Chitra's confession as she is in hospital getting treated. She confessed Arnav Bhatt was her brother and a man had kidnapped her when she was coming from her college.

It was proved that Krithika lied and Arnav Bhatt was blackmailed.

"Any explanations for your lies, Miss Krithika?" Judge asks.

Krithika sweats. What would she say? She's been a ball all the getting played in someone else's hands for her own benefits.

Judge waits for a few minutes and when he sees her nodding a no, he makes a note and gestures to proceed further

"Chitra was rescued a day ago and we have some evidence about the person who kidnapped Chitra." He passes the next proof.

The voice which they heard in the audio file matches with the frequency of someone.

Evidence Number 5:

It was none other than the mole in her office. A Constable. He sweats as he comes into the courtroom just now, who has disappeared from the past few hours. Well, Khushi's trusted inspectors were behind catching him.

He admits he did that as ordered by his Boss and this proved he was the one who kidnapped her and made threatening calls. He also admits he has never seen his face but his voice. Communication between them was just a phone call.

He was arrested and made him stand beside Krithika.

Judge makes a note.

"He was just a middleman, my lord. Who is his Boss, to know that I request you to check the next proof."

Judge gets the next proof.

Evidence Number 6:

He then checks the constable's phone conversations. Reports were given and the number he had made a call to had been tapped. Phone number is registered to a guy named Manish Singhania. The sim is inactive now. It was verified.

"Is Manish Singhania on the run?" he asked.

"He was on the run. Mumbai police will hand him over to us in a few minutes," Prosecutor responds.

Judge nods.

"Manish Singhani was not the main culprit, my lord. To prove that we have other evidence." Prosecutor passes the next proof and the judge checks it.

Evidence Number 7:

This proof shows two mail id of one person. Karan Mallik. Two different IMEI numbers were reported on two mail ids. It's verified as well.

"There were two different IMEI numbers and are reported to be the same person's mail ids but existing in different locations," Prosecutor explains.

Judge checks the locations. It was Mumbai and Delhi. He makes a note of it.

"With Karan Mallik's involvement, this case led us to the Mafia case that happened 14 years ago, my lord." He passes a file.

Evidence Number 8:

File that was then submitted by Nandini in the court.

Judge studies it and asks, "What's the connection between both?"

"There's a connection between both of them, my lord," he said and passed the file. The cyanide file that has every truth in it.

Judge checks it.

"Karan Mallik is the father of Manish Singhania, my lord. He was the one who instructed his son, Manish Singhnia and his girlfriend Krithika, to kidnap Arnav's Sister and blackmail Arnav Bhatt. Krithika also on instructions of Karan Mallik, played with Aryan and betrayed him, filed a false case on him," he stated. Judge checks the proof. Make them verify it.

Evidence Number 9:

A video. It has Krithika and Arnav's footage where Krithika takes drugs from Arnav. From Aryan's Laptop.

Evidence Number 10:

Private Notes and Public Notes that were sent to Krithika.

Evidence Number 11:

Drugs that Krithika submitted. Manish was seen giving those notes and packets to Krithika in a few photos and audio calls confirmed that.

Evidence Number 12:

CCTV Footage of Corridor. Arnav and Krithika's conversation.

Arnav Bhatt explains what has happened in the corridor in his defence.

"Why did you come here? What else do you want me to do?" Arnav Bhatt whispers coming behind her in the name of getting her address and Krithika froze in shock.

She turns around and looks at him, "So, you know?" Disbelief is written over her face.

"Yes, I know. Don't forget I'm a cop," he grits his teeth glaring at her angrily.

"Yes, I know," she laughs sarcastically. "Do you think I can forget that? You're a cop, which is why you were threatened by my men, with your sister, at the gunpoint, in that phone call. I knew there would be a day when you would try to find your sister and remember, no one would know that your sister's kidnapped. After all, it was your dad himself who kidnapped your sister, right? Remember the pictures that has been sent to you and me through fax and the voicemail-"

Arnav Bhatt cuts her off.

"What would you do with the pictures and voice-mail? They're no use to you. My sister is with you and what more you want, kill her and me?" Arnav Bhatt laughs.

"Why are you here? I'm sure there's some plan. Speak up! Don't think I'd always be helpless, I can arrest you right now," he glares at her.

"Don't you dare threaten me, okay? Don't you remember it's me who hired you to send these two notes and drugs to myself," she whispers and Arnav Bhatt drops his head.

Those exact expressions were recorded in the CCTV and the last words were heard by Aryan Singhani who was out of CCTV's radar then.

Arnav Bhatt frowns at her words. When did she hire him? It was threatening, wasn't it? Well, who knows, maybe she is used to such dialogues!

"Manish Singhania was a middleman, as I mentioned, his father was the main culprit," he said.

"But Karna Mallik was prisoned, isn't it?" he raises a question.

"Yes, my lord. However I request to check the evidence number 7 again," he requests.

Judge looks at it again.

"We have two different IMEI Numbers on one person, Karan Mallik who has two different mail ids. Locations were different. There are two Karan Malliks, my lord. I request you to check evidence number 13," he said.

The judge looks at it.

Evidence Number 13:

It has a pen drive and file Nandini has failed to bring to the court and the same things that Khushi found out when she came out of her depression.

The judge makes note of it.

"This evidence can prove that, 14 years ago, the crimes that happened matched these locations that can actually synchronize with evidence number 8, the file that was submitted by Nandini Kiran Gupta 14 years ago which proves Karan Mallik as our culprit," he says.

"But that case was closed because police failed to provide evidence of Karan Mallik's identity, right," Judge exclaims.

"That's where this Evidence Number 14 comes from, I request you to check it, my lord."

Judge goes for evidence 14.

Evidence Number 14:

It shows the report Khushi had investigated for 4 and half years after she joined the CBI and started on this mission a year later.

He thoroughly checks the whole file that has been submitted. There were video files, audio files, photos, and some written statements. This is the last evidence which could actually prove who Karan Mallik is.

Judge makes a note of it.

Manish Singhnia along with his father, Arvind Singhania was brought to the court with handcuffs in their hands.

"Father of Manish Singhania is the real Karan Mallik, my lord. I hope you've seen the evidence in the file," he asked.

Judge after going through the notes and evidences all over again, talks, "So, you say Karan Mallik is not the actual Karan Mallik and the Karan Mallik we've in the jail is-" Judge was cut off by the Prosecutor.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, my lord. But Manish Singhania and his father are here and yes, the Karan Mallik we've in jail is Arvind Singhania," he pauses as Manish Singhnia along with his father, Karan Mallik was brought to the court with handcuffs in their hands.

"And the Arvind Singhania here is the actual Karan Mallik," he breaks the silence.

Judge couldn't deny much. Evidence clearly showed the manipulation of Identities.

Judge gives a break for 15 minutes to decide on the final judgement.

Arvind Singhani, who was the first husband of Ratna Singh Raizada was the actual Karan Mallik. Ratna got to know about it a few days ago and she was shocked then. And when got to know her marriage with him was illegal as well as he already had a wife and 2 years old Manish Singhani aka Mallik when he married her, she was more than shocked. The Divorce she had comes under void as well.

Arnav Singh Raizada hated him more when he knew the truth. Arvind was already married and had a kid, yet he married his mother for property and to make use of his family's company just to have indirect contact with his Mafia crimes. He used his family's name to do more crimes. Their company was a medium for him. And when his wife asks him to leave Ratna, he leaves and goes back to his wife who is a part of the Mafia world too. His feelings are beyond hate.

Khushi Kiran Gupta, tho, wasn't able to prove her parent's accident as murder, she knew with the number of crimes they have done, their punsihment would be no less than death penality and that was enough for her.

It's been a year and more she has joined the CBI. She wanted to work on her mother's incomplete case personally as somewhere she had a doubt it wasn't just an accident. So, Khushi, when has gone through her mother file and pendrive over so many times, she understands there's something hidden in the message. And those are mail ids themselves. She hacks into them. She finds out the IMEI numbers of both the mail ids. IMEI numbers come out different. And on tracking one location shows Delhi and another location shows Mumbai. She doesn't know what to do with the locations. She cannot keep her official work aside and keep on tracking this.

So, she starts from the base. She asks Ratna Singh Raizada if she has any childhood photos of Karan Mallik. And when her answer was a no, she gets disappointed. Ratna has her wedding photos and a few prior to her wedding from the office. Khushi takes them though she wants a younger photo of him. She doesn't have it.

However, she does have his bio-data, where he was born, his education, and all that. So, she goes to his birthplace one day with his latest photo. Since she was always careful and on guard, she decided to go for her relative's place incase if anyone kept an eye on her movements. After spending a day or two, she has gone to Karan Mallik's birthplace from her village and that too on taxis changing them frequently at odd stops.

As she enters his place, instead of going to his house address, she enquires about people who've been staying for more than 50 years. And she rushes to some of the neighbours who were staying there from so long, she gets to know what's been searching for.

In one of the houses there, there's one of Karan Mallik's friends and she met him. She enquired about how he knew Karan Mallik, she never showed him the photo of Karan Mallik she had with her. She has just asked him questions based on the house address, name, and parents name. He told her they were friends and used to play together. He also had a photo with him with a couple of friends. She takes a copy of Karan Mallik's photo and also asks him if he knew about the school he studied in, although she knew the school's name, she still wanted to re-confirm it, who knows if he completed his high school in a different one and Primary Classes in a different school, and he told her a different name. She has expected that. He then tells her he shifted from there like when he was some 11 years old renting out their home.

So, after a few weeks, she sets out to his village again through the same pattern but from a different village this time. As she enters his school with a young picture of Karan Mallik, instead of going to the principal, she makes first inquiries for the people who've been working here from 40-45 years and there's a Peon.

"This is Karan Mallik, he was in this school till 5th class. I can't ever forget him. He's used to being so silent and then becomes so violent all of a sudden. He beat his teacher too, once, when he was in 5th class. He was then distincted and I've never seen him after that," the old man, who is a peon, said looking at the picture. She records the statement.

Khushi thanks him and goes to the principal. Instead of asking him for Karan Mallik, she has asked for his seniors.

"I cannot give you the information, Miss. It's against our rules," he denies shaking his head.

Khushi takes out her CBI Badge and keeps it on the table.

Principal looked tense, "Is someone from the batch a criminal?" he asked.

"No. But they would help me to get to the criminal, nothing is wrong with your ex-students," she explains.

He nods and gives her information of two batches who are seniors of Karan Mallik. She thanks him and gets out of the school.

She then comes back to her official work, takes a break, and personally investigates some of the senior students.

After some more weeks, she goes to some of their homes each week. Three members were already completed where she gets no information as they don't remember. She then goes to a few more people from where she gets the same information the peon has said to her. She records their statements too. She collects some of the photos too that were taken on various cultural occasions.

Khushi looks up at his bio-data and sets out for his high school. Till now she only had his 11-year-old photo. That's not sufficient to conclude that adult Karna Mallik and young Karan Mallik are same.

Khushi doesn't repeat the same pattern. She goes to the one of the teachers who has been working from 30-35 years. She finds one woman who's in her late fifties. Instead of asking her in school, she follows her to her home. Who knows if there's a mole here, after all, Kara Mallik has included this school's name in his bio-data. She starts her inquiry showing her identity, letting her know she belongs to the CBI and that she wants information on one of her students.

The woman without asking any questions helps Khushi.

Khushi shows a photo of a younger Karan Mallik which she got in from peon, "can you recognise him?"

That woman frowns for a few minutes and then widens her eyes. "Arvind Singhania! He is Arvind Singhania. He was a rebellious boy in the beginning. Every alternate day, he'd get into fights with teachers and his fellow students," the teacher says, remembering the young boy and his starting days when he joined as a 12-year-old kid, who became a controversy in the school in the beginning.

Khushi records the statement even though she was confused and shocked knowing that someone is calling the younger version of Karan Mallik as Arvind Singhania.

"Do you have any photos of him?" Khushi asks, masking her feelings.

"Yes. In our school's website, we have photos uploaded of every batch," she says and opens her laptop, enters the website name and goes to the gallery section, routes to the particular batch.

"The one on the left side, second row and third person is Arvind Singhania. It was when he was in 12th class," she shows. Khushi looks at the photo and stares at it for a while. She remembers Karan Mallik's face when he was married to Ratna and some photos a few years before that. The photo teacher's showing is nowhere matched with the photo of Karan Mallik she had with her, or the Karan Mallik who has been married to Ratna or the Karan Mallik who was an employee in Raizada's office.

As she stares at the photo, she remembers she has seen him somewhere and before she could think more, her eyes fall on the person beside Karan Mallik who is a Arvind Singhania as mentioned by the woman here. The person beside Karan aka Arvind shocks Khushi. That guy looks like he's the younger version of Karan Mallik, who is the second husband of Ratna.

"The guy beside him, who is he?" Khushi asks, fixing her gaze.

The woman looks at the photo, the person beside Arvind and smiles, "He is Karan Mallik. It's because of him that Arvind has changed a lot. He became so disciplined in the company of Karan Mallik and they both were best friends till the end. They both joined at the same time as well, I think."

Khushi then takes the adult photo of Karan Mallik she got from the previous and shows her, "Can you recognise him?"

"Yeah. He's Karan Mallik," the woman exclaims.

She then opens her phone and searches for something in her gallery and her eyes catch the photo of Arvind Singhani. She remembers it now. The younger version of Karan Mallik who was recognised as Arvind Singhania here is the first husband of Ratna.

She shows that photo to her, "This is Arvind Singhania. The younger version of him you've shown me in the start, right? I told you he is Arvind Singhania," she said.

Khushi's so confused. Nonetheless she records the statements and downloads those photos and thanks her. The next day she goes to the school again and discreetly gets the information on Karan Mallik and Arvind Singhania. She copies the data into her pendrive and leaves the school.

The revelations left her in so much confusion and there were so many questions in her mind. She gets a break for a few weeks and starts her investigation again.

She makes notes.

She got two different IMEI Numbers with the same name and different mail ids with different locations. Karan Mallik sending mail to Karan Mallik.

She starts from the base. Goes to Karan's village and without showing any of his photos, inquires and gets a younger Karan's picture.

This leads to his school and from there, by showing the peon Karan's younger photo, gets to know he was violent and his seniors' confession confirmed the same.

She then goes to his high school and from there gets to know that the younger Karan Mallik's photo is recognised as Arvind Singhania by the teacher.

The 18-year-old Karan Mallik(who according to teacher was Arvind Singhnia) in the photo shown by the teacher resembles the photo of Arvind Singhania's picture in her phone but if he is recognised as Arvind Singhania in high school, the younger version of the face she got from Karan Mallik's village is recognised as Karan Mallik in primary school, which by the way was nowhere mentioned in the bio-data. It's because she thought to enquire about school too, she got to know he studied his primary and secondary in different schools.

And that's where she thought of something, what if Karan Mallik in the jail was not Karan Mallik and he is Arvind Singhania?

So, She digs about Arvind Singhani and follows the same pattern. She gets his 10-11 years-old photo and he joins the same school Karan Mallik has joined. And as he joins, his name which was Arvind Singhania in primary school gets updated to Karan Mallik in high school.

And now she understands what the whole thing is about. Arvind Singhania and Karan Mallik exchange their identities. Their face remains the same but their whole bio-data from birth to present gets exchanged when they join the school. This is why the younger version Karan Mallik was recognised as Arvind Singhania in high school because they exchanged their identities after leaving primary school.

Now if they did it by themselves or if anyone has helped them remains a mystery and is only known to Karan Mallik and Arvind Singhania and a third pair of eyes who was hidden somewhere, if there's a third pair of eyes.

When she went with Karan Mallik's biodata to his village, she was guided by peon and neighbours and their information was right. They gave her a younger Karan Mallik's photo. And when she went with the same photo to high school, he was recognised as Arvind Singhania and Karan Mallik's adult face was recognised as Karan Mallik. On her investigation towards Arvind Singhania, the same story repeats. His younger photo in primary school is Arvind and on joining high school becomes Karan Mallik.

Thus, exchanging everything except their face.

And that's how she found out how their identities were exchanged and then she knows who Karan Mallik really is. How clever of them to exchange identities and join Raizada Industries to run their Mafia Business, making it a medium. That's why there are two mail ids on the same person. Arvind Singhania who was a real Karan Mallik uses his real mail id and sends it to Karan Mallik who was Arvind in real and who's using mail id on his fake name. Thanks to IMEI numbers, she found two locations. The sender was Mumbai and the receiver was Delhi. Arvind Singhania was in Mumbai giving instructions to Karan Mallik in Delhi.

Arvind Singhania through the mole found out what's Khushi upto, after she found out who Karan Mallik really is in the span of 3 years, keeps her mother's file on the desk which was seen by mole and Arvind Singhania was informed. He sends his son Manish Singhania and they implement a foolish plan Karan Mallik has applied years ago. Arvind's Plan was just to include Krithika, Manish's girlfriend but the foolish girl comes in Karan Mallik's words and includes Arnav Bhatt too, Manish gets involved too.

And because of three people or actually four people, if we include Khushi, he's now arrested. Mole's courtesy. If Arvind can afford a mole, Khushi can afford a mole too. Khushi made him arrested with the help of her men.

He was having BPD as a kid but he recovered soon. However, his thoughts never left violence, thanks to his background. Arvind alias Karan Mallik's father involved his cousin brother's son, Karan Mallik alias Arvind Singhania in his game as he knew his heir has to carry their Mafia's business forward. For the same purpose, he killed his own cousin brother and his wife when his son, Karan Mallik, was 11 years old and now is using the couple's son, Karan Mallik Alias Arvind Singhania. Fortunately for humanity, he dies in a crash and from then his son, Arvind alias Karan Mallik runs the mafia, and today he's caught, because of Khushi, who was the daughter of Nandini whose accident was done by him. He planned to play the same game and let her die the same way but his foolish people flopped the plan. Who knows if they were foolish or if Khushi was more intelligent? After all, he believed when his mole reported to him just the information Khushi wanted him to know. He won because she let him win when in reality it was Khushi who was the winner in the end.

The break gets over.

They get back to the court and the judge sentences Karan Mallik and Arvind Singhania to the death penalty and the date will be given soon. Krithika was sentenced for her crimes, Manish is sentenced to life imprisonment, the constable gets sentenced for his crimes, and Arnav Bhatt was released with an apology.

Khushi becomes happy.

Police take the culprits away.

After 2 days,

Khushi heard the date for the death penalty and wanted to meet them for the last time.

So, she's here in jail.

Karan Mallik and Arvind Singhania were in the same cell. They look at her as she enters.

"Hi!" She greets them with a smile.

They burn in anger.

"Actually I didn't want to meet you both at all. But you know, one day someone was insulting my profession so badly and I was silent that day. I want to give it back now." She turns towards Karan Mallik alias Arvind Singhania.

"Remember once you said, I, Khushi Kiran Gupta underestimated you and you, Karan Mallik, rightly estimated me? Well, take it on your face. Seems like the dialogue should be reversed." Khushi smirked at him looking at Karan Mallik who was Arvind Singhania in real, and Arvind Singhania who was Karan Mallik in real. While Arvind and Karan were fuming at Khushi's double game.

She let them think they were winning while in reality, she was winning. Mind games!

"What do you think? Was I that foolish to underestimate you? How do you think I was at this stage in my life in a very short time, magic?" Khushi questioned them, smirking at their failure.

"How intelligent of you, KKG!" Arvind Singhania alias Karan Mallik chuckles evilly. His BPD is still sensible, although a little, but still is. 

"Yes, intelligent that I'm, I know, and a little more than both of you. You can see the result in front of you, can't you?'' She asked, looking at both of the criminals, well, someone can refer to them as brothers if given a chance. What she didn't know was they were brothers indeed. But cousin brothers.

"I'll kill you," Karan Mallik aka Arvind Singhania screams at her.

Khushi laughs at the statement.

"You'll kill me? Me? I think I should throw your dialogue back to you. Remember the court session? Death Penalty? You, Karan Mallik, I'm sorry, Arvind Singhania, have underestimated me and I, Khushi Kiran Gupta, have estimated you rightly, dear! I was always ahead of you. I just made it look like you were ahead of me and you fell for it!" Khushi chuckles.

"Now just try to rest in peace here. I know you both are lacking that!" She turns around and walks away.

"My son, Arnav Bhatt will not leave you," Karan Mallik alias Arvind Singhania screams at her back.

And when she's out of the cell, turns around, looks at them, and, "Fortunately your son is not a beast like you. And you're forgetting things I see, your son was one of the pieces of evidence against you."

She gives it back to them and walks away.

After 2 days,

Mafia's heirs were killed by the death penalty today. And this is the same day when Khushi revealed her relationship with Arnav Singh Raizada with her own will between her family members. They already know it but Khushi declaring it in front of the three people made it more enjoyable than the first time. She's happy. After all, her years of hard work have paid off. Devyani decides to talk with Ratna Singh Raizada.

And they meet, fix a date for engagement which is just a week away. Khushi takes a much-needed break and Arnav Singh Raizada, as promised, resigns from the post and takes a break too, for his engagement.

Engagement preparations were going and Khushi and Arnav were busy in their own world. Arnav tries to flirt with her and Khushi blushes and then gets back to her grumpy mood.

"Khushi, remember, don't forget to wear a saree on our engagement. Don't come with one of your jeans and a shirt. I'll be in my sherwani and we should look like a groom and bride. I'm sure I'd look like a groom, not sure about you, though," he teases her as they talk on the phone.

Khushi rolls her eyes, "I think you forgot but let me remind you that I wore a saree once."

"Yeah, totally looking funny," he laughs. It was one of the celebration days on their campus and the theme was traditional. Since Khushi had no saree or any traditional outfit, she borrows a saree from Aaliyah, and that was the time after Arnav confessed his feelings.

She doesn't know how to drape a saree and Aaliyah helps her. She looked beautiful in her black saree but the problem started when she started walking. She wasn't able to carry the saree that much. The ends of her saree pleat touched her feet and she was about to step on them and topple over about 10 times now.

Arnav looks mesmerized but couldn't stop chuckling at her irritation. She looked beautiful, cute, and funny.

And from that day he used to tease her with the same thing whenever a saree topic or related to it comes up.

"Yeah and you were the one who later came to me and told me something, remember?" she takes to the same night again.

Yeah, after looking at her antics, he walked toward her in a trance and asked for a dance. She agrees and they dance to a romantic song.

"You look beautiful," he compliments her as he keeps on looking at her, admiring her.

"Thank You!" Khushi just smiles.

"But I think I'd need cyanide now!" He bites his lips.

"What?" she frowns.

"You look so killing, you know! The first time you looked at me, I was literally killed. You're such a poison, like cyanide," he chuckles as they dance. Her hands were on his shoulder and his on her.

"You should stay away from me, then," she suggests stopping herself from smiling.

"I need this poison," he argues.

"You're the first one to need something like this," she laughs.

He grins.

Arnav grins remembering that.

And they talk more waiting for days to end and they could get engaged. 

THE END

So, it's the end. 

It took 10K+ to write this and I didn't want to drag it more. Otherwise there's so many ArShi Moments I wanted to write. Blame my time! 

So, finally, here it is!

Let me know how you found this story.

Awaiting your views!

And yeah, I'll be updating a long OS or TS on a crossover. Ananya Saini x Nikhil Nair.A Crime Thriller. I'll be updating the blurb and disclaimer in a few, if you're interested you can go ahead and read .

After this I'll be updating my ongoing stories, let me know which one would you like me to complete. Based on your vote, I'll update.

-polymath_land

-05/09/2022