“ASR’s been arrested…”
Khushi felt all the blood drain out of her body.
“What are you saying?”
“Arnav is being held in police custody right now and he has asked me to call you and let you know so you don’t worry.”
“I don’t understand.”
“He’s told me not to say anything more and that when he gets home, he’ll tell you everything himself. But right now, he’s in custody, his lawyer is on his way down here and we shall try and get ASR out as soon as we can.”
“I…”
“Please don’t worry, we’ll get it all sorted and we’ll get him back to you as soon as we can.”
Khushi disconnected the call and put her phone down. What on Earth!? How could this happen. Slowly lowering herself onto the sofa, Khushi tried to make sense of what she had just been told. Surely, she must have misunderstood? Arnav, in prison?
*****
It was nearing 4am when Khushi heard their bedroom door slowly open. Jumping to her feet, Khushi rushed over to the door. Arnav walked into the room as quietly as he could, thinking that Khushi must have fallen asleep already. Before he could shut the door, Khushi rushed into his arms.
“Hey you.”
“Arnav…”
“Why are you still awake baby?”
“How could I sleep?”
“Let me freshen up and then we can go to sleep.”
“Arnav please, tell me what happened.”
“I know you need to know but please can we talk about it in the morning, I really just want to get into bed with you right now.”
Khushi understood, she could see the deep lines in his face, how tired his eyes looked. He needed rest and he needed her. The questions could wait until tomorrow.
Arnav went into the bathroom and Khushi quickly rushed over to the mirror to make sure she looked nice. Her husband needed her, now more than ever, and she knew how she needed to ease his tensions.
Once in the bathroom, Arnav got out of his clothes, and stepped under the warm water of his shower. It felt so good to be out of his clothes, he’d been in them for so long, he’d started to feel suffocated. Whilst washing himself, Arnav reflected over the events of the day. Sheetal had done as she’d promised, she’d got him, and she’d got him good. Anger coursed through body, and Arnav punched the wall. How could this have happened, how had he let this happen. Everything was in jeopardy now, everything he’d worked for, everything he’d earned. His name, his respect, everything. And then there was Khushi. They had spent so much time building their relationship, establishing a level of trust. Now due to Sheetal, his relationship with Khushi maybe in trouble.
Arnav finished his shower and got out of the bathroom. Walking into the bedroom, he found his wife waiting for him in bed. Did he really believe that Khushi would have gone to sleep knowing that he was troubled. Smirking, Arnav dropped the towel and walked towards his bed. He didn’t care that his penis was hardening with every step he took towards the bed, he didn’t care that he was letting Khushi see just how much she affected him without ever doing anything. He cared that she was there, that she was there for him.
Khushi crawled forwards to the edge of the bed and raised her arms. Arnav fell straight into them, holding Khushi close. This was all he needed right now, everything with Sheetal could wait until tomorrow. Right now, he needed his wife, he needed his Khushi. He let his lips, find hers, and he moved into Khushi, making her move back towards the centre of the bed. Arnav’s hands found the hem of Khushi’s nightdress and he pulled it away from her body. He didn’t want to play it slow, he didn’t want to be patient. Glad to find that she had decided not to bother with any underwear, he grabbed hold of one of her breasts and kneaded it with his palms. Khushi moaned against his mouth, her hands running down his body to take his member into her hands. He was hard, ridiculously hard.
Arnav pushed Khushi onto her back and placed himself over her body. This wasn’t how he usually played it, he usually liked to take the time to love her body, to kiss every inch of her, to tease her, but right now, he needed one thing, and even if that seemed a little crazy or messed up, he didn’t care. He just needed sex with his wife. He needed to have her, to know she was his and always would be. It was that simple.
*****
“Arnav, Aman ji’s on the phone.”
Arnav rolled his eyes without opening them, groaned and then got up slowly. He opened his eyes to find Khushi stood by the edge of the bed, fully dressed, holding the phone out to him. Taking the phone off her, Arnav made a mental note to take every scrap of clothing of Khushi’s body the moment he got off the phone.
“What is it Aman?”
“I’m really sorry to be calling so early, but your lawyer really needs to see you.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“The sooner we get this sorted, the better. If we leave it too long, we risk the media getting whiff of this and we really can’t afford for that to happen.”
“What time does he want to see me?”
“Half 9.”
Arnav looked up at the clock, it was just passing 7:15.
“Alright, where does he want to meet?”
“I offered my office at my house or we could go to his office?”
“I’d much rather do it at your house.”
“That’s fine by me, I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Yeah.”
“ASR, it’s going to be okay, we all know you’d never do what she’s accusing you of.”
Arnav thanked Aman for his support and then disconnected the call. He really didn’t want to be talking about this right now. The moment he put the phone down, he realised though that he would need to talk about it, he needed to tell Khushi. She may not have pressed the matter last night, but right now, she was standing by the side of the bed, biting her nails, waiting for him to tell her what was going on.
Arnav extended his arm out to Khushi and she took his hand. Pulling her towards the bed, he got her to sit down and then shuffled closer to her. He took a deep breath and then looked into her eyes. They were filled with worry. Arnav looked away, feeling ashamed that he was doing this to her.
“Sheetal… She’s…”
Khushi held Arnav’s hand tightly, urging him to go on.
“She’s accusing me of attempting to rape her.”
Khushi dropped Arnav’s hand, her eyes wide with shock.
“She WHAT?”
“I swear to you Khush, I didn’t.”
“No, no, I believe that you’d never even think about doing something as ghastly as that but…”
Arnav explained the events of yesterday, how it all began, what had gone down. He told her everything, he didn’t leave any details out, she deserved to know the truth, the whole truth.
Khushi pulled Arnav close to herself and she just held him. How could someone be that low? Did Sheetal honestly have no shame.
“You do believe me, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. She’s deranged and she’s jealous. This will all be over before you even know it.”
“But it’s my word against hers, and people always believe the woman in cases like this.”
She could feel he was getting scared now, he was holding her more tightly, his breathing shallow. Khushi pulled herself away slightly and she kissed his lips lightly, with more meaning than ever before.
“But people know you Arnav, people respect you. No one is going to be that stupid to believe her over you.”
“What happens if they don’t. They’ll throw me into prison, they’ll castrate me.”
Khushi looked at her husband, the man who was always so collected was a nervous wreck. She took him into her arms and held him close to herself.
“It’s going to be okay, we are going to get through this. We will find a way to get this sorted. It didn’t happen, nor were you trying to make it happen. They won’t find any proof. Nothing can happen if they can’t prove that you wanted to do anything to her.”
“Khushi what are we meant to do…”
“We hold our heads high and we fight this bi*ch for everything she’s worth and we win. We will win and we will destroy her.”
“Thank you for believing me, thank you for being here for me.”
“There’s nowhere else I would ever want to be.”
“But if you weren’t with me, I’d understand. After everything I put you through and now all this…”
“Shh, remember we said we would never talk about what happened before ever again.”
“We did but… I can’t forgive myself for it.”
“Well I have forgiven you.”
“I honestly don’t deserve you.”
“Maybe you don’t, but you’ve got me any way and we’re going to get through all this together.”
*****
“Are we going to win this case Singhania?”
“She doesn’t have any proof but neither do we. But that article in the newspaper she got published could be beneficial for us. We can use that to show the court that she is obsessed with you, that she’s trying to defame you.”
“But the article was written in her support, she made it seem like I’d made a move on her back then as well.”
“But she’d lied. She said she broke away from you and that she ended the party. But that was lies! All we have to do is get people from the party to tell us who actually ended the party, they will say you. Once they do that and people are aware that Sheetal lied, they will start questioning everything she’s been saying. Once that happens, she has a harder case to fight because how are people supposed to believe a liar.”
“That’s one way of looking at everything, but at the same time all this can be used against me. They could say that because she lied about all that I wanted to punish her or something and so I did what she’s accusing me of doing.”
“It is a tricky case, but we will fight it and we will win. We will prove your innocence and we’ll get her sent down for being a lying little bi*ch.”
Arnav looked to Aman.
“Aman what did the security company say about regarding the security footage from my office?”
“They said we can’t access it. It’s against company policy.
Arnav shook his head and buried his face in his hands. That footage was all they needed to prove his innocence. At this point, Aman looked up from the notes that they had.
“ASR, I think we just have to go for it. We all know you could never do what she’s accusing you of. The people of the jury know who you are, they don’t know anything about her. Once we start showing people that she’s a liar, her case will become so weak she may even admit the truth.”
“I really hope what you’re saying happens, because if it doesn’t work out, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“We’ll get through this, don’t you worry, we will make sure the whole world knows the truth.”
Tanzeela’s Creative Writing Corner 