Our past is what shapes us to become who we are.

The tragedies, the experiences, the joy, the learning- each one of it plays a vital role in forming our innate ideas, our beliefs and our mindset.

For him, his past had been this perennial brook of agony and misery.

He had been pushed and tried so many times, that even he didn't realisz when and how he had turned out to be that insipid, ruthless business tycoon, who technically had everything in his life, but only he knew how hollow he had always felt from within.

Until of course he met her.

His Khushi.

But in all the turmoil, all the conundrums, all the miseries, all the tough times of the past, if there was one thing that had never left his side, it was his own wit.

His intellect that had guided him to enroll in Harvard, be exceptionally good in everything he did, take the fashion world by storm, become something so big that nobody could have even imagined it.

It had also made him eligible to claim what was taken away from him, one of which was his own ancestral home: Sheesh Mahal, from where he and his sister were thrown out when they were young.

.

And now as he sat silently in his office cabin, all he could think about in retrospect was how his wit was always his weapon, yet in the real hours of need he never used it.

When his sister had fallen in love with that snake of a man, he didn't really care to keep a tab of his background details and be sanguine that he didn't have an alter ego. What he rather considered was the fact that his sister was invariably happy and that was about it.

When Shyam had infiltrated his mind with the nasty statements that indicated an illegitimate relationship between him and Khushi, he had not even given it a second thought and coaxed Khushi into something she didn't want to be a part of.

He had ruined her life, her faith, her self-respect, and her everything.

Yet, he never cared to use his wit even once, the same wit that would have easily brought out the truth of Shyam and innocence of Khushi, had he run a background check on Shyam's alter life.

Even after his kidnapping, he could have easily involved the police officials to probe into the matter and that would have most certainly brought out the truth that Shyam was guilty.

And then Anjali Di too would have seen the truth much before, and perhaps today she would have had her baby with her, alive, rather than losing the child to the filthy games of that bas***d Shyam.

As he pondered and pondered, he could only come to one conclusion.

He was a man always arrogant of his stature, his power, his dominance, the authoritative tone always being his identifier; yet how foolish did he look now?

He only sighed at the loopholes of his own understanding towards everything and berated himself mentally.

Because his money, his power, his sources: All of it, only remained as a trophy that he often bragged about, but he never made the right use of it, when doing so would have actually made his life much more peaceful.

But then what's life if we don't learn from our mistakes?

His mind once again traveled back to last night, when he had found the crumpled piece of paper that was the DNA report.

He hadn't been able to sleep the whole night, the endless thoughts never letting him rest even for one minute.

He had looked at Khushi and for the first time wished to disturb her sleep, because it was so hard for him to deal with this, but he couldn't.

After all that he had put her through, even disturbing her sleep was a sin to him.

And so he had thought. Thought like his life depended on it and he could deduce only one thing.

Sheetal was most certainly playing a game.

His life and past experiences had taught him in the hard way that we must never take things at face value so easily, and he had multiple theories in the form of Shyam, his former thoughts about Khushi, et cetera, et cetera, to validate this.

Back in Harvard, his relationship with Sheetal had never crossed such a line wherein she would become pregnant.

Heck, even the thought of it made him sick in the stomach.

But then the DNA report?

Wasn't it too weird that Khushi had torn it into pieces yet it magically pops up out of nowhere, and lies on the floor of their bedroom?

Because nothing in the world could change his stringent assurance that he and Sheetal never had anything even remotely close to a physical relationship. So, he was 200 percent sure that he had nothing to do with Aarav biologically.

But then again the DNA report?

.

What if it was deliberately done, for Khushi to see it?

He fisted his fingers as he closed his eyes and chronologically settled everything in a consequential manner as they happened, in his head.

The coat swap.

Aarav's kidnapping attempt.

Khushi saving him.

Sheetal stepping in.

Sheetal coming into AR.

Aarav been diagnosed with Diabetes.

Aarav's uncanny resemblance with him, as if he was a clone.

Heck, even identical twins don't behave this similarly, then how can Aarav-

.. Unless of course, he has been trained to do so.'

.

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And his eyes opened wide. The shock, the realization, the anger adorning his countenance.

And he knew now, he was not going to make the mistake he had made in the past.

If he was a bragger, he will brag about real stuff, make use of his power the right way, and unmask the masked, which he had failed to do when he was dealing with Shyam!

He was ASR.

And if someone was trying to mess with the peace of his life, his love, he would definitely give them HELL!

And with that thought, he asked Aman to send in the best detective in town to his cabin in half an hour.

Poor Aman had to be at the receiving end of ASR barking some hurried orders, but well, if the end result was going to be worthwhile, then why not?

...

..

.

Khushi was smiling wide after a long time.

After everything that had conspired in the last few days, the unexpected meet with Shea came as a welcome surprise, the one that showed her a new way of life, a new ray of hope.

And now that she had a perfect meeting with Shea and her husband, discussing vividly about the upcoming venture, she was feeling happy butterflies in her gut.

She was elated.

She had a strong urge to take her phone out of her purse and speed dial Arnav's number right away to inform him about the development, but no, out of the little things she wanted to change in herself, one was her impatience.

So she would rather wait till she got back to Shanti Van and then tell him about her new lease of life that was to start from next month.

As the driver opened the door of the car's backseat for her and she slid in, another thought struck her.

It was Karvachauth tomorrow.

She was going to fast for her Arnav Ji.

She smiled at that realization.

Yes, she was angry on him. Yes, a lot had changed in the last 24 hours, but in no regard could it mean that she didn't love her husband.

She still loved him dearly, more than herself, and would still go beyond boundaries to do things for him.

Yes, she wouldn't be the docile, naive, gauche Khushi who let everyone take undue advantage of her nicety, but she couldn't completely rid herself off her true essence, could she?

She could always be herself and at the same time be the amended version of herself.

After all, weren't humans called God's best creation?

So this multidimensional essence could be very well carried by them!

She chuckled at the thoughts in her head as she asked the driver to start for Shanti Van, when suddenly another thought struck her, making her frown this time.

She really didn't know what could be the top and bottom of this, but there was only one way to figure out.

And so with a determined face, she asked the driver to take the other route, instead of Shanti Van.

...

..

.

There were only a few things that could surprise him.

When shock after shock, had greeted his life, he was pushed into the world of darkness, from where he could only vouch for achieving something better and in the journey of the same, he carried heavy responsibilities on his shoulders from a tender age.

Although that only shaped him to become this immensely strong individual, he was still vulnerable whenever it came to his loved ones, and he was most certainly very possessive and protective about them.

And the only two persons who topped that list were Di and Khushi.

And so if anyone even dared to annihilate anything related to these two, he would wreck havoc on them.

And today, Sheetal Kapoor had dared to do so!

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He clenched his jaw as he read the reports that the detective had prepared as a background check for Sheetal Kapoor.

Today afternoon, his employees had seen the power-bragging man in his truest form as he had thrown bundles of cash in front of the detective, telling him to get the reports made in less than eight hours.

And who would want to bear ASR's wrath?

And the money was amazing too!

So the detective did what he had to, and it wasn't really a tough task after all!

Because Sheetal Kapoor had always stayed in Delhi since the past six months, not in the United States like she had claimed; never married, never turned pregnant, and had been ensnared in the webs of bankruptcy.

Oh, all she did do in the past few months was adopt Aarav from Bal Ashram, get him trained in basketball, and most important of all: Train him to walk, talk, eat, act like Arnav Singh Raizada.

So in a nutshell, all that was said, conveyed, and portrayed by her had only three words of as a conclusion:

Lies.

Lies.

And lies.

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As the impact of the minute details from the report caught his attention, Arnav felt murderous instincts mercilessly pop inside his system!

And now he didn't really need a genius to figure out why Sheetal was doing this.

Money.

But did she really think by doing all this, she would be able to break his and Khushi's relationship?

Damn! If she even dared to think so, then she was in for a BIG reality check.

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It was 10.00 p.m. in the night and all he wanted to do was go home now.

He knew Khushi might have slept early today since tomorrow was Karwachauthand she would wake up in the middle of the night to have the Sargi prepared by Nani along with the other ladies of the house.

Then, tomorrow it is!

"This drama will be OVER tomorrow!"

He said to himself as he closed the report file and lashed out of his cabin to start for Shanti Van.

**