Shantivan.
At the kitchen.

"Sahil," Khushi's fingers came to a halt as she shifted her concentration from chopping the vegetables to his sullen face, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Really? I don't think so.. Just look at your face," Khushi raised her one eyebrow, staring at him with suspicious look. 

Sahil sighed, "I fought with my girlfriend early in morning."

"Oh!" Khushi nodded, "It's normal.. everything will be fine.. I guess.. Me and Arnav also fight some time.. later we become okay!" she smiled consoling him. 

"Every relationship is different Khushi. There are those couple who can't stay angry with each other for more than a day, and there's me and my girlfriend.. She takes a week to patch up with me," Sahil pouted.

"What are you both talking about?" Anjali walked in the kitchen, smilingly.

"That I'm a bit off today because I fought with my girlfriend. She wants to keep a puppy home and I hate dogs!" Sahil said in complaining tone.

"Aww.. but puppies are so cute Sahil. You should listen to her," Anjali said, her eyes shining at the mention of the cute puppies.

"I think he's scared of dogs Di!" Khushi giggled.

"Of course not," Sahil stammered, looking here and there, "It's just.. It's a huge responsibility. Who will take care of a puppy when we both work?"

"Acha (Oh really)," Khushi smiled.

"Yes Khushi.. Now concentrate on making the food otherwise Boss (Arnav) won't spare us!" Sahil said, faking stern tone.

Khushi nodded while Anjali shook her head smiling.

"Di.. did Arnav talk to-"

"Hmm.. Don't worry," Anjali quickly silenced Khushi, taking a glance behind her to check if anybody heard Khushi mentioning Arnav's name to her.

Khushi just assumed everything is fine between them now. She didn't know the entire story as she didn't talk to Arnav till yet. She smiled at Anjali, happy that Anjali forgave Arnav and didn't thought bad about him. 

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

1 pm.

"Oh does that mean-" Arnav kept his index finger on Khushi's lips, "Khushi shhh! We can't speak about this matter here at home." 

Khushi removed his finger from her lips, whispering with a frown on her face, "But the Crocodile (Shyam) is not here!"

"But Nana's Annabelle is still here!" Arnav reminded her, "She's not on our side."

"Oh yes," Khushi nodded, "But how did-"

"Oh God.. What will I do with this girl?" Arnav groaned making Khushi pout, she was unable to control her curiosity.

"Be ready at 7pm. Aman will drop you and Lavanya at our home. You will clear all your doubts there," Arnav caressed her cheek gently.

"Is everyone going there?" Khushi asked. Arnav nodded.

"Won't Crocodile get suspicious about it?" Khushi asked.

Arnav shook his head, "Di has a friend's wedding tonight to attend so she will leave with Payal and Akash. I will give some excuse of meeting you."

"Aayu?" Khushi asked concernedly.

"He's with Nana," Arnav replied.

"Okay," she replied checking her wrist watch, "You need to go, right?" he asked staring at her seeing the time on her watch.

Khushi nodded, "Yes. I don't know what NK wants to talk with me so urgently."

"I guess it's related to Meera. Since he's her friend. But it might be something else too," Arnav said, leaning his head on the headboard.

"Yeah.. Anyways I'll get to know what is it when I talk with him only," she stood up from his bed, picking up her purse.

"Bye.. Do have lunch Tomato!" he said.

"I will.. Bye bye Karela!" she bend to drop a kiss on his forehead.

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

At XYZ Restaurant.

"So you must be wondering why I called you here, right?" NK asked.

Khushi kept her glass of juice back on the table, nodding her head, "Yes."

"You know Khushi I really like you.. for me you're a girl with a beautiful heart.. You treat everyone in Shantivan so well.. You're really caring but I seriously didn't expect you to treat your own sister as a stranger.. even worse.. as an enemy!" he spoke hurt.

"What makes you think like that?" Khushi looked at him perplexed.

"First you didn't told her that you're dating Arnav bhai. You share everything with Lavanya, why was it so difficult to say to your own cousin sister that you're having a relationship with Bhai? Like I seriously don't understand why you hide such an important thing of your life from your cousin, who lives in the same house with you?"

"NK that's my personal life. I will share what I want with whom I want. First of all, Me and Arnav are not officially dating, we decided to take things slow between us this time. And second, you know nothing about my relationship with Meera.. So please stay out-."

"I know.. She told me everything," he interrupted, "You and Lavanya are cruel towards her. You both fought with her just because she wanted to know who's your boyfriend. It's really sad that her parents raised you up, and you are humiliating and taunting their daughter, just because you pay her college fees and buy things of her necessity. I really didn't expect this from you Khushi."

"And I thought you're my friend.. but you're judging me without even hearing my side of the story. True friends don't do that," Khushi said, with moist eyes staring at him deeply hurt by his words.

"Then tell me your side of-"

"Please NK. Why should I say anything to you when you already formed an opinion about me without even trying to know from me what really happened? You called me here so that you could accuse me for all this.. to call me an ungrateful woman.. to be Meera's lawyer! Right now Meera's friend is speaking to me, not the NK who I consider as my friend.. So I don't think I need to justify myself in front of Meera's lawyer, after all I'm not any criminal!" Khushi stare at him with moist yet determined eyes, she stood up from her chair, taking her purse she took out the money to pay her bill and kept it on the table and walked away from there.

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

7:30 pm.
Mr. & Mrs. Raizada Villa. 

"We called you all here so that we could tell you all some important things that are happening in our family," Anjali said as she took a quick glance at Arnav, who nodded his head, then at Akash, NK, Payal, Khushi, Lavanya and Aman who were settled on the couch at the living room. 

"Then why did you just call us here Di? You should have called everyone na?" Akash asked confused.

"And where are we?" Payal looked around the living room, equally confused.

"Akash only we present here can know about this. We should keep it a secret," Anjali replied.

"And... this is my and Khushi's house. After marriage, we're going to live here," Arnav cleared his throat.

"Oh okay," Payal smiled brightly, she glanced at Khushi teasingly, who lowered her eyes blushing.

Anjali started by sharing her initial plan with Shyam when they entered in Shantivan, then how Nana and Arnav showed her the real face of Shyam, how she decided to change for good and help Arnav instead.

NK, Payal and Akash were quiet amused that all this happened behind their backs, even though they knew about few things, like Akash and Payal knew that Anjali and Shyam wanted the property for themselves and hated Arnav, or NK knew that Shyam was a suspicious character. But later, as the family started getting along with each other, they had almost forgotten about these things.

"Remember on Sunday after our visit to the orphanage, we went to a restaurant. I received a call from my friend, she told me that Shyam was with a girl in a restaurant talking about some plan. She couldn't hear properly but she sent me their pictures," Anjali said, showing her phone screen to everyone.

Arnav, Khushi, Lavanya and Aman shared a knowing look to each other.

"I know this girl.. that's... your sister Khushi! Hain na?" Payal asked, scrunching her eyes while trying to recognize the girl in the picture.

"Meera!" NK gasped shocked.

"Yes, she's Meera only. Khushi's cousin sister," Arnav said.

"What is she doing with Shyam?" he frowned.

"To understand that we need to go back to the day she came in Shantivan and walked in my room without permission, then I scolded her and instead of realizing her mistake and apologize to me, she kept feeding hatred in her heart for me. On the other hand, Shyam who has been planning his first move to spoil my name in the business world and later snatch the property from me through Di, on hearing about my fashion show, approached the showstopper Sheetal to join him in his dirty plan," Arnav explained. 

He continued, "That's how he formed his group against me. Meera who is ambitious for fame and money and hates me for the past incident accepted to be a part of this to revenge me. Sheetal, although accepted to be a part of the plan, was still on my side. She just accepted to be a part of it, to extract information from their side and then alert me about their moves."

"And seeing this picture, I realized that Shyam is getting suspicious about my proximity with Arnav, hence he stopped sharing about his plan to me. He's doing everything behind my back!" Anjali said.

"I don't believe this.. Meera! She's still a kid. And how does she know Shyam?" NK covered his mouth with his palm, still in shock.

"He must have found out that Meera is my sister.. turning my sister against me would be beneficial for him at any point of his plan. Meera is close to me, and I'm to Arnav. He needed someone like her to make things easy for him," Khushi replied.

"And why did she accept it? Doesn't your sister love you?" Payal asked curiously. Akash glanced at her, gesturing through his eyes that this is a personal question and she shouldn't be asking it now. 

Glancing once at NK, she looked back at Payal and shared about her past story to them.

After hearing her side of the story, NK looked at her guiltily. Khushi didn't look at his side, she lowered her moist eyes and played with her fingers, trying to compose herself.

Arnav, who knew what had happened at the restaurant between them, caressed her shoulder gently and dropped a loving kiss on her head. Khushi looked up to him and blinked her eyes with a small smile.

"So we called you here to share about this.. also to say, that right now me and Arnav are acting to be enemies again in front of Shyam. I'm trying to earn Shyam's trust again so that he shares what they're planning to do on the fashion show day and then we can act on defeating them," Anjali said. 

"Even we will keep an eye on Meera from now onwards," Lavanya said.

"Me and ASR will be working with Sheetal," Aman said, earning a glare from his half-girlfriend.

"Even me and Payal will stay alert," Akash said cutely determined to help his brother making everyone, except NK drowning in guilt and desperately wanting to talk with Khushi to apologise, chuckle silently.

Arnav smiled at Akash. He genuinely likes Akash and the bond they share.

"I can't believe this is happening in our family.. Doesn't it look like that serial we watched yesterday?" Payal whispered to her husband, with wide eyes. Akash nodded. 

"I think you guys need to relax after these shocking revelations," Anjali said as she stood up, "Chote ordered food from outside for us.. Let's have dinner."

"Stop calling me Chote!" Arnav frowned, following her to the kitchen to help with the plates and glasses, "It doesn't even suit me."

"You're my younger brother, aren't you?" Anjali asked as she put the pot on the stove to heat the food.

Arnav stare at her astonished for a moment standing behind her, not knowing what to answer. If they shared normal siblings relation, then it would be easier to reply. He never thought in his life after his Ratna ma, Advay and Sana's death, that he would be accepted in his family.. that too by Anjali, who hated him to the core.

Anjali turned back to look at his face, "What happened?"

He shook his head, blinking his eyes to send back the tears threatening to slip.

"Should I call you Chotu, then?" Anjali asked, patting his cheek lightly with a mischievous smile. She knew he had gone back to the past memories, hence she tried to distract him.

"What the.. No way!" Arnav whined.

Back to the living room, as soon as Arnav went to the kitchen with Anjali, NK took his seat beside Khushi. Akash, Payal, Lavanya and Aman went outside to see the landscape garden.

"Khushi.."

Khushi looked away. 

"I'm sorry.. I'm really sorry. I never thought Meera would turn out to be like this.. I've been chatting with her these days and we became good friends.. She was so sweet and funny girl. I seriously still am in shock after knowing all this. Never expected this from her. I'm sorry Khushi.. I thought so wrong about you."

Khushi looked at him directly into his eyes, she bit her lips with tears finally rolling down her cheek, "You hurt me a lot NK."

NK cupped her face wiping her tears away with his palms, "I'm sorry.. I'm so so sorry Khushi."

"I will.. forgive you only this time," Khushi pouted.

NK hugged her tightly and Khushi reciprocated the hug. Their hearts relieved that they sorted the matter, and their friendship wasn't affected.