Part 4

After the nerve-wracking showdown with a certain Jyotsna Khanna, Arjun Ranawat was in no mood to go to work and spoil his mood further. He knew that if he did go to the AR office in a foul mood as he possessed at the moment, he would surely blow up some people if not the whole office with his anger.

"The nerve of that girl! People don't dare to speak out of turn in front of me and here, a fragile lady, who herself got into a situation she oh-so-nicely-puts as 'obligatory', shoots sarcastic remarks at me. And to top it all, she doesn't get the hearing of her life. What has my life come to?" thought Arjun as he angrily drove over to Ranawat Mansion, his palatial mansion, unknown to the fact that his mood was going to be fouler, if possible, after reaching his haven.

He felt the signs of the impending severe headache due to frustration when he saw his maternal grandmother and elder sister in a deep discussion and within no time, it dawned upon him that the discussion was about him and the woman who was the radix of his frustration - Jyotsna Khanna.

"There he is. We were just talking about you and.."

"Jyotsna. I figured out so much, Di. Now, if there is nothing you have to say, I would like to take some rest. Can I?" he asked his formal phrasing hinting at his low levels of patience, which Namita and Indumati took as a hint of a dangerous Arjun Ranawat.

"We do have something to say, Golu. Maybe you would want to take the seat," said Indumati with a nonchalant stance that could rival her grandson. Knowing better than to argue at a moment where neither he was in a mood to be messed with and his Nani had decided to talk, Arjun made his way to the couch, dumping his blazer beside him.

"What exactly is this about?" he asked impatiently. He wondered if his family was trying to get him married in front of everyone, even if it was a marriage on papers only, for the sake of fulfilling their wishes of seeing him get married. He sighed, hoping that the agenda of their discussion was not as the one on his mind.

"Well, we received a call from Dr. I had previously asked her to keep us posted throughout the term of pregnancy and before that. She informed us that Jyotsna Bitiya is a virgin and on questioning, she explained that it could cause several complications in the future if we continue this as we had intended to," said Indumati, with an almost professional expressionless face and a tone which revealed nothing about her thoughts.

"And what did she, or rather you suggest as a line of action, Nani? Di?" prompted Arjun, his brain giving him all the wrong signals about his family's thoughts.

"Golu, we think. I think," Namita stuttered, unable to complete her sentence under her brother's scrutinizing and hardly encouraging gaze.

"You think?" Arjun prompted, cocking his eyebrow, almost daring her to continue her statement as if he had read her mind.

"I think you and Jyotsna should spend a night together. If she is a virgin, then normal delivery would prove to be very risky and the cesarean section will only put her life and your child's life in danger and I don't want that. Moreover, the hormonal overdrive will drive her mad," Namita pleaded, praying internally that her brother would accept her request.

"As of now, you are driving me mad, Di! Have you gone insane by any chance? How can you suggest I sleep with her?" shouted Arjun, rising to his feet and glaring down at Di and Nani for daring to suggest something as outrageous as they did.

"Calm down, Golu. Try to understand why we are saying this," requested Indumati, her voice still calm and stance still composed.

"Nani, what has gone wrong with the two of you? How could you suggest something like this? If you feel that it would bring in complications in future, then we will go for some other girl who would fit the bill better but opting this route is completely unacceptable by any standard," he argued. He might not have a soft corner for Jyotsna Khanna, but he knew how to respect those around him.

His arguments with the woman in question had proved that self-respect mattered to her more than any other treasure and she would never compromise on it. She would never tolerate a blow on her self-respect and why should she?

"Golu, believe me, we tried to think of all the possible alternatives. The latest amendment to the surrogacy act prevents surrogacy from an outsider and we cannot provide monetary privileges to a surrogate. Since we signed this contract before the enactment of the amendment, it is still legal but now if we annul it and try to find someone else, it would be illegal and hence, not possible. We gave a lot of thought and zeroed upon this, Golu," said Namita, her eyes pleading with him to understand their predicament and listen to them.

Namita's warmth toned down Arjun's anger but it did not mean that he was ready to accept what they had suggested. The urge to argue on her behalf unlike usual when he wanted to argue against her flooded in him and he made sure that he acted on it.

"Di, we cannot suggest this to Jyotsna. We wanted a surrogate and Jyotsna accepted that position but suggesting something like this is an insult to the position she had accepted and a blow to her most prized possession - her dignity. She would never accept this," he argued on her behalf.

"How do you know, Golu? Is it that you know it or that you care for her?" asked Indumati, reading her grandson's mind.

Fury flooded in place of his initial urge to protect her from his family who was exploiting her to fulfill their wishes as it was using him. How could a mere wish matter so much to them that they were ready to forget the basic courtesy, wondered Arjun as he planned to leave the case.

"You don't need to care for someone to argue for them, Nani. You just need a mind which analyses their personality to know what someone would do and what someone would not. If you are so hell-bent on making this happen and feel that I am the one who is trying to stop it, then by all means go ahead with it. But mark my words, she would not accept it," he announced, walking out on the discussion without bothering to listen to the reply of his sister or grandmother.

How would Jyotsna react to the latest development?