CHAPTER 39
Next Day
Avni sat in her room, surrounded by VK, Rajat, and Mishti.
Preparations for the upcoming wedding rituals were in full swing.
Trays lay open on the bed, lists were being cross-checked, and boxes of gifts were being arranged—things meant for close relatives ahead of the mehndi and other pre-wedding ceremonies scheduled to begin in the next couple of days.
Mishti sat beside VK, helping him sort and pack the gifts.
Rajat, however, noticed some tension in Avni’s posture. The faint gloom that hadn’t left her face all day.
He nudged her lightly. “What happened?” he teased with a grin. “Already getting nervous about the wedding?”
Avni didn’t answer. She merely looked away and continued helping VK pack the gifts, her movements a little too brisk.
“I noticed it too,” Mishti said, frowning slightly. “You’ve been like this since morning. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Avni replied at once. “I’m fine.”
Mishti was unconvinced.
“Listen,” she said calmly, trying to ease the moment. “This is normal, okay? Brides feel all kinds of nervousness and confusion as the big day gets closer. It happens.”
Avni stayed silent.
VK chuckled, attempting to lighten the atmosphere. “If you ask me,” he said, smiling, “Rajat should be the one worried, not Avni. We all know how strong she is.”
He turned to Rajat, wagging a finger playfully. “You’d better be prepared, my boy. Handling a wife like Avni won’t be easy. She’s going to keep you on your toes.”
Everyone laughed, except Avni.
Just then, Karan and Abhimanyu walked in, carrying a large, beautifully decorated thali of shagun. It was a ritual, gifts given by the bride’s side to the bride. As Avni’s brothers, this responsibility fell on Karan and Abhimanyu, and together they brought the heavy tray inside.
Avni’s gaze snapped up instantly, and her eyes hardened as they landed on Karan.
Carrying the thali filled with sarees, jewellery, dry fruits, envelopes of cash, and other bridal essentials, Karan walked toward VK and Avni. “This is the shagun from the bride’s side,” he said.
VK’s face lit up. “Oh, Karan,” he said warmly. “This is absolutely beautiful. You both have really outdone yourselves.”
Then he turned to Avni. “You know,” he added gently, “both your brothers prepared this together. They decorated the thali themselves and selected every item with so much care. All for you.”
Avni’s eyes flicked to the tray. Then anger simmered, and instead of taking the thali from Karan, she pushed it away.
The tray tipped, its contents spilling across the bed she was sitting on—sarees sliding, jewellery boxes clattering, dry fruits scattering everywhere.
Everyone gasped. Even Mishti was stunned by Avni’s rage. Avni slid off the bed and walked straight up to Karan.
“Why all these formalities?” she demanded. “I told you I don’t want you doing anything for me.”
Karan didn’t say a word. But Avni wasn’t done.
“All these years,” she continued, her voice shaking with pent-up anger, “you never cared how I was. What I was doing. What made me happy or sad? You didn’t even care when I needed my brother the most. When I missed you. When I yearned to talk to you, and you never called.”
Her voice rose. “You sent me to London and thought your responsibility was over. And when I finally accepted that reality… why now?” She laughed bitterly. “Why are you doing all this now?”
Karan still didn’t say a word, although he felt her pain. Her outburst was justified.
VK tried to step forward. “Avni—”
“No, Papa,” she cut him off angrily. “Not today. Today, no one is coming between us.”
She moved even closer to Karan. “You wanted the Wadhwa inheritance. You got it. So why are you spending on me now? On this shagun? Why so many ornaments, cash, gifts?”
Then her voice dropped. “And the most important question…why are you doing this at all? This thali. These rituals. Technically, your wife should be doing all this.”
Karan swallowed, holding her gaze.
“Where is she?” Avni asked. “In fact, why isn’t she with you here or anywhere? Rajat once told me that for the past eleven months, she was abroad, taking care of her sick aunt.” She scoffed. “Really? Whom are you fooling?”
She looked straight at Karan. “We all know the kind of man you are. Ruthless. Heartless. No woman could ever live with someone like you.” Her words turned venomous. “She must have run away from a monster like you.”
That was it. The moment those words left her mouth, Karan’s eyes welled up with tears. And Mishti couldn’t stay silent anymore.
She strode straight to Avni, grabbed her arm, and forcefully turned her around to face her. “Shut your mouth. Right now,” Mishti snapped. “You’ve said enough. Apologise to your brother. Now.”
Avni clenched her jaw. “No, I won’t. And you don’t come between us.”
“I will,” Mishti shot back without hesitation. “I will not tolerate you saying such things to him, without knowing anything about. Apologise to him, Avni.”
Avni yanked her arm free from Mishti’s grip and snapped, “You don’t need to tell me how I should treat my brother.”
Then her gaze hardened. “And wait a minute. Why are you getting so hyper? The whole family is standing here. Everyone is angry with me. But no one said a word. Not even my brother.” Her voice rose. “So, who the hell are you to ask me to apologise to him?”
That was when Mishti lost her restraint.
“I am his wife,” she said fiercely. “Mrs Mishti Karan Wadhwa.”
The room froze.
“And no one,” Mishti continued, her eyes blazing, “gets to insult my husband like that. Not in front of me. Not behind my back.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Avni went still.
Tears instantly pooled in her eyes. Even Karan exhaled deeply, as if he had been holding something inside all along.
He hadn’t wanted Mishti to reveal this truth yet.
But the way she claimed him… the way she stood up for him without hesitation… it touched his heart.
Silence engulfed the room.
Then Avni let out a hollow smirk. “I know,” she said, nodding. “I know you’re his wife, Mishti. I’m not a fool.”
She knew?
The words shocked everyone present there.
“Ever since we came here… I’ve noticed it,” Avni began.
“The way my brother never once took his eyes off you. The way, whenever the two of you stood in the same frame, it was always… crackling with unresolved tension. My brother, who never bothered to waste time, was suddenly taking us shopping. The way he ate the gajar halwa from your plate and his outburst yesterday when Meena aunty suggested the alliance for you. His possessiveness, madness, and obsession with you were all out there.”
She swallowed. “I had my doubts. And thanks to Kanika, who told me yesterday, that the woman I considered more than a friend… like my sister, is my brother’s wife. My sister-in-law.”
Her voice broke. “I couldn’t believe it. Honestly.”
Mishti swallowed hard, while VK and Rajat exchanged furious looks. How could Kanika do this? They had strictly told her not to say anything. But where Mishti was concerned, Kanika always lost her cool. This wasn’t carelessness. It was spite.
Avni turned to face both Karan and Mishti now, feeling betrayed. “I don’t care how your marriage is. That’s your business. But I do care to know, why did you mess with me again? Why did you come to London, Mishti? Why did you get close to me?”
Her gaze snapped to Karan. “Did my brother send you? To stay around me?”
She shook her head in disbelief. “What was all this? All this time you were with me, testing me, becoming my friend, my sister, while I was foolish enough to believe we were building something real. How could you both make a fool out of me like this?”
“No,” Mishti said firmly. “I didn’t know you were his sister. Not until I came to Jaipur with you, Avni. Believe me.”
Tears rolled down Mishti’s cheeks as she spoke, but Avni shook her head violently.
“Don’t lie now,” Avni snapped. “Just get away from me.” She shoved her away when Mishti tried to reach for her.
Mishti stumbled back, almost losing her balance, but Karan instantly caught her. He gripped her firmly around her waist; his expression darkened as fury surged through him.
“That’s enough,” he snapped, turning to Avni. “Stay within your limits, Avni. That’s my wife you are disrespecting now, and I won’t tolerate it either.”
The possessiveness in his voice, the way he shielded his wife, stunned both Mishti and Avni.
Avni let out a slow, hollow, mocking clap. “Wow,” she said bitterly. “So much affection for a woman you hardly knew and married barely a year and a half ago. And absolutely no concern for your own blood sister. I really don’t understand this.”
She turned as if to walk away.
But Mishti didn’t let her.
She stepped forward, grabbed Avni’s arm, and turned her back around. “You want to know the truth?” she demanded. “Then listen to me.”
“Mishti—” Karan warned sharply.
But she didn’t stop.
“Your brother didn’t send you away because he wanted to get rid of you,” Mishti said through tears. “All these years you believed he didn’t care about you.”
Her voice shook but didn’t falter. “But the truth is, Avni, he was protecting you.”
Avni froze.
“He kept you safe,” Mishti continued. “He watched over you from a distance. He buried his own emotions so you could live safe, secure and grow up in a normal family, have a normal childhood and life.”
She swallowed hard. “He protected you, Avni. Everything he did… he did it for you.”
Avni shook her head in disbelief. “He was protecting me?” she scoffed. “Really? From whom?”
Mishti didn’t hesitate this time.
“From my father…Dilip Goel. The man who killed your mother,” Mishti went on. “The man who destroyed your family. The man who shattered Karan’s life and innocence.”
Her tears fell freely now. “The man whose actions forced Karan to live the last sixteen years burning in revenge, wanting to destroy him and everything he stood for.”