Place: Bangalore.

Year: 2014

(A/N: Recently I thought of changing the character name instead of pulling some new characters to the story. So The character named Nivansh who was shivaay's roommate in the college and also helped shivaay and Anika to elope now will be Omkara. And his wife raised arushi and Avinash as their own child will Gauri now not Nivedita. And moreover shivaay Singh Oberoi has only one brother, not two)

When Gauri caught Arushi red-handed. The first thing she did was calling her husband from the office while conveying this information. Where on the other hand om got a call from anika's mother regarding Avinash visit to their place and his curiosity behind knowing about their parents story. Om became tensed and immediately called Avinash who was about to reach his home.

"Hi uncle..." – Avinash answered the phone in a delighted tone Even though his mood wasn't so delighted like it resembles.

"Where you went, Avi?" - Om posed the question to him in anger and slight feeling of betrayal.

"Kolkata.." - He replied after the meaning behind his tone.

"Avinash... I want you to be in house within an hour... I DON'T KNOW HOW... BUT I WANT YOU IN HOUSE" – Om thundered over the phone.

"Okay uncle..." – Avinash said and rested the phone. He didn't know what he did by going to Kolkata but he went to his house but he reached his home and slightly got surprised to see Arushi sitting in the couch while facing the ground. In these twenty-two years, he didn't see his sister depressed like this. It was too new to him.

"Di..." – Avi called her, she rose up her chin and he was shocked to the handprint on her cheek.

"Who slapped you? Di..." – He asked him while taking the seat next to her.

"I SLAPPED HER." – Gauri announced while climbing down the stairs

"But why?" – He asked Gauri in shocking tone.

"First tell me, why you went to Kolkata when we said you everything about your parents?" – Omkara asked them while entering the house. Both arushi and Avinash exchanged the glances. But didn't back answer them. They stayed silent.

"I ASKED YOU SOMETHING AVINASH... ANSWER ME..." – Om thundered both jerked in fear because he was scolding them for the first time in these twenty years. He always showed his sweet side but this time his anger went out of boundaries. They didn't answer him anything.

"AVINASH... ARUSHI ANSWER ME..." – he shouted this time Gauri also got jerked in fear. Out of frustration, he took off his blazer and threw it on the couch but the same symbol in his forearm strike arushi when she raised up her chin and looked at him. For a second, she couldn't able to think anything else. Things she read in the book glanced in front of her eyes all in once. Her breath choked. Tear grouped in her eyes. Om's anger dissolves when he saw the tears in her eyes. He calmed himself and sat on the table opposite to them.

"Okay... whatever happened has happened... Don't repeat this mistake again..." – Om said while cupping both Arushi and Avinash's cheeks. Arushi immediately took his palm from her cheek and rose up his sleeves. Om was shell shocked but he didn't stop her from doing that.

"What is this?" – She pointed out the symbol and asked him. Gauri came to his side and kept her hand on his shoulder in shock. Avi was confused. Then she rolled her sleeves and Avi's sleeves and seeks for the answer.

"Answer me, uncle... what's this?" – Arushi asked while wiping off her tears. Om immediately stood up from his place and looked at Gauri helplessly. For them, it's like they experienced the scariest question from their question. He tried to ignore the question, but arushi didn't let him divert the question.

"You're not only my father's best friend, right" - Arushi asked her. Neither Om nor Gauri answered to her

"I wondered how my father gave his kids custody to his best friend rather than their maternal grandparents who were alive by that time..." – Arushi confronted him. 

"Because you're not his friend, You both have blood connections... That's why Accha trusted you more than anyone and also gave the responsibility of protecting his children..." - Aru said with tear-eyes. Both stayed silent but Aru still confused.

"Why?" - She asked while holding om's collar. Avi tried to stop from doing that but she pushed him away and held his collar. Om had nothing to say but tears escaped from his eyes. 

"Yeah, I can understand,  You hid it from us, But what ritwik did to you? you should have told me to know, When i confessed my feelings for him... THAT CRAZY MAN LOVES ME BEYOND EVERYTHING... Do you want me to repeat the same mistake which my father did before thirty years... Why didn't you stop me?" - Arushi cried helplessly while hugging om. He had nothing to say but both Gauri and om tried to console her. Avinash stayed at the same place with confusion. 

"What's happening? About which mistakes you're talking about di..." - Avinash asked. Aru broke the hug and wiped off her tears to break the news to her brother. 

"After reading mom's diary, both were confused, you're confused why they separated, I was confused with the reason behind their death... But Unfortunately, both have a same reason, Avi... And Omkara uncle very well knows about the reason behind... At least, tell him..." - Aru asked om who nodded no with tear eyes. Gauri took control and started to tell everything to them. Even though it shook avi's earth, he stayed calm. 

"It means, THE ACCUSATION OF EXTRA MARITAL AFAIR WAS WELL PLANNED..." - That was the only question left in him after hearing the whole story. His tone was rude due to the betrayal. Om and Gauri nodded. 

"And that's not a suicide..." - Avi asked this time his tone was emotional. 

"They died for us... we killed them" - Aru replied to him while looking at the ground. When they were about to deny it, Aru took her phone and called Ritwik. 

"Hey... Ritwik, where are you?" - Aru asked him as soon as he answered the phone. All the three had no clue, looked each other with teary eyes. 

"Yeah... I will come, Wait there..." - she said and stood up from her place. She took her bag and car key from it and moved out. 

"Aru... Where are you going?" - Gauri asked her when she was about to cross the door. she stopped walking but didn't turn around and made them look at her tears. 

"To End everything..."- she said and left. 

Arushi waved at ritwik when she saw him coming out of the office. He was very delighted to see her at his place. It had been eight years since they started to date both sides. Even though Arushi didn't show it on her face, she was head over heels for him and can go any extent for him. And she could do anything for her welfare. 

"Hey..."- he greeted her from outside with a wide in his face. 

"Come in..." - She said in a guilty tone. He caught that at an instant. The smile in his face faded away. He got inside her car. 

"Don't keep your face like this..." - he said and sat comfortably on his seat but Aru didn't speak anything and didn't even raise her eyelids towards him. 

"Do you want to say anything? you're not looking normal" - He asked, she stayed silent. 

"You know you could share everything to..."

"I slept with someone else" - Aru said before he could finish the sentence. There was no guilt in her eyes. 

"Wh..what?" - He asked her to repeat. 

"You heard it, right... I slept with someone else..." - she said with a pang of guilt over-flowing his eyes but she wasn't ashamed. 

"This can't be true..." - He replied to her in a shocking tone. 

"This is true ritwik... I understood it now..." - She said in a casual tone. 

"What you understood?"- he asked her in a low tone. 

"Whatever we had between us was nothing... I don't love you..." - she said while looking at his welled up eyes. The sentence 'i don't love you'  hurt him more than her confession of sleeping with someone else. 

"What?" - he asked. 

"When i did that, there were no guilt in my heart... In fact, I started to forget everything..."  - She said but she stopped when he clutched his fist in frustration. 

"So..."-  he asked her after a long pause. 

"I think we should end this namesake relationship..." - she said in a same tone. 

"It's not a namesake relationship on my hand, At least..." - he said after exhaling a deep breath. She understood he was trying to the core to control his tears even her heart ached unimaginably when she spelt everything. But she calmed herself saying that she did everything for his welfare. 

"So we are good, Right..." - Aru asked him. He nodded monosyllabically. 

"Take this" -  She pulled out the ring from her left-ring finger and handover to him. First, he denied to take it back but eventually he had to when she purposefully put him in his shirt pocket. 

"So shall i drop you?" - Aru offered. 

"Nope, my car is waiting outside..." - Ritwik said and denied her offer politely. He got down of the car and waved her bye with a painful smile. She acted normally and waved back with a smile and drove back home. While driving back her concentration were only on the roads. Her brain didn't allow her to think about anything else. 

Hearing to her horn sound, Avinash, om, Gauri rushed outside. They got more scared to see her calm face. Without facing them, she started to move towards her room. But holding her wrist, Avinash dragged her back to him. She initially tried to release herself from his grip but she became weak when he asked about her ring. 

"I gave it back to him..." - she said with welled up eyes and smiling lips. 

"Why?" - Avi asked her. 

"I don't want to do the same mistake which accha does with mom" - She replied. 

"But you still love him..."  - He asked him. 

"That's why i did that..." - She replied, Avi released his grip and she moved towards her room and closed the door. Om and Gauri cursed themselves for the whole situation. Consoling both Aru and Avi became impossible. 

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

Place: Chennai. 

Year: 2015. 

Shivaay and Anika ride their bike in their high speed. Both didn't know what to get into them and made them desperate to see him. Their heart came to their mouth but they consoled themselves. But anika got disappointed when she didn't find his car in the parking lot of her department. 

"What happened?" - Shivaay asked when he saw her changing facial expression. 

"He left..." - She whispered in disappointment. Tears welled up but didn't come out.  Even shivaay felt a large pain in his heart for no reason. 

"He left..." - Bhavya came to the entrance and said that to them. Suddenly an idea sparked in anika's mind. 

"Where's Khushi ma'am? They both were chatting with each other, right?" - Anika asked. 

"Don't know, What happened to her? She left, as soon as, he left..." - Bhavya said. 

"Together..." - shivaay asked. 

"No separate..." - Bhavya said. Anika went away from that place, shivaay asked bhavya to attend the class and he came next to her. she became silent and sat one of the stone benches near the department garden. He came and sat next to her. 

"Don't know why i am feeling like this... But i am feeling very connected to him and his look, his face, his expression everything telling me that he's in a very bad situation and he's not happy..." - Anika spelt to shivaay, who instead of becoming suspicious he consoled her while side-hugging her. He understood she spelt out everything to him but he had the same feeling with him for a long period of time since he saw his interview with Arushi in the television.

But for Avinash, He was dealing with the truth which he couldn't digest for the past one year. When he accidentally met Khushi while selecting student in the campus interview, he understood the two most important truth in his life. What he had or still has for her not friendship but pure love and also she didn't move on in these five years. And he was also sure what he should do for her. he did that by making his heart stone. He hid his emotions from everyone but with his sister, he can't.  He attended his call and said, hello. 

"What happened, avi?" - She sensed his trouble in an instant and asked him. 

"I met Khushi today... when i come to her college for some work..." - He started, Aru stayed silent. 

"You're right, di... I Love her..." -  Avi finally confessed her. 

"That's why i hid my real feelings for her and acted like moved on... And she believed that..." - Avi said while wiping off his tears. 

"Avi... come back soon..." - Aru asked him. 

"Will be there in five hours... Don't worry... I am fine... But i missing mom very much, now... I wish i could get an opportunity to lay in her lap now..."  - Avi said. 

"Come back soon... My lap is waiting for you..." - Aru said. 

"I love you, Di..." - Avi said with teary eyes. 

"Not more than me... wipe your eyes and come to me..." - she said and rested the phone. 

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TO BE CONTINUED...