My first free weekend in this new year. I hope you enjoy this part.
He could wager all his wealth for this one moment. All his riches, his achievements, and his dreams even for this one woman who shredded his layers and peaked inside the man he was.
It was their first hug.
In all these years that he had known this girl, this was the first time his skin knew her touch. His arms snaked around her waist and refused to get back to his side. It was outrageous how perfect she felt in his arms. Her head to his chest, his chin placed against her crown. Their heartbeats in sync. Calm. Melodious. Beautiful.
It was a shame he did not take her in his arms the first time he saw her. How over the years had he gone without her in his life was out of his thinking horizon? He couldn't have been without her.
He shouldn't ever.
"It has been more than a minute." His personal reminder chimed.
How did he wish it could last years, ages, or eons?
Dhwani could run for her life if she ever heard his wishes for her.
He wished nonsensical, unusual, and unworldly things when it came to her. His wishes were not the issue, his will to bring them to reality for her, with her was what scared him.
He wasn't this person before.
She made him this person and he wouldn't change, not even when the entire universe was presented to him as leverage.
"I am holding my wife, you got some problem with that, lady?" His eyes narrowed at her, the mischief he had come to notice in her eyes was bright.
"Right." She stretched the word with a self-satisfactory smirk. "Hold her. Who am I to intervene?"
While she stared into the endless sky, admiring the morning sunrays, his eyes refused to leave their shadows reflecting on the other side. The black silhouettes together portrayed them as one. There was no identifying who was who. They were together and that was what warmed his insides. He absentmindedly inhaled her, an earthy fragrance with a hint of lavender from her moisturizer buzzed his senses. "I like people who mind their own business."
"Does that mean you like me?" Her grin pulled one from him, although the reply his brain formulated demanded he pull his back.
"I like you." He admitted watching her eyes daze hearing him. "Like I like a lot of people."
He wanted to smack himself for comparing her with anyone but the satisfaction to watch her brown eyes turn into narrow slits and her way to revolt out of his hold was endearing.
Dhwani's reactions to his teasing always topped the highlights of his day.
"You are incorrigible. I should have never talked to you." She sulked, trying to push her way out of his hold.
He did not need to pull her back, their marriage did.
With a sudden yelp, she fell back in his waiting arms, courtesy of her nuptial chain and his unruly button. They were entangled like they were.
Her frown made him grin. Delicate hair strands covered her face which he was quick to push back.
"You cannot get away from me, Petal. Even if you try, our fate will keep pushing you back to me." He slapped her fingers away when they reached the connection between them. "Why are you always so stubborn to walk away from me?"
"Then, should I keep following you wherever you go?" Dhwani raised her eyebrows, daring him to admit.
"Yes." He demanded "For once I want to know how it feels to be followed around. I can such demands on my wife, can I not?"
"No, you cannot." She shot his words back and sneakily detangled her chain from him.
He gaped at her reply, pouting like a wounded man. "Heartless creature. You hurt my feelings."
"I rejoice doing that, Mr. Anirudh Chauhan." She teased him, ruffling his hair. She laughed at his scowl.
"And I want everything that makes you happy, Mrs. Chauhan." His words stilled her smile and those unprotected brown eyes met his. "You may or may not come for me but I will come to you. I would follow you around. Everywhere you choose to go. Cities, countries, planets, or entirely another universe. I will cross everything to come to you. You will always find me near you. Beside you, behind you, in the shadows. Everywhere."
Her ephemeral touch rested on his heart. He was confident that she could feel his heart beating under her touch. It was erratic. Running miles, a minute yet contented to have her in front of him.
"You won't ask me if I mean it or not?" The words left before he could hold them back.
Her small shake of head made him wait with a bated breath. Watching her stand with him, eyes laced with unshed tears, he was on the verge of going berserk to know if he had pushed her away again.
"Petal..."
"I do not doubt you anymore. I cannot." She patted his chest and her fingers glided to his face; warm fingertips a soothing ailment to his cold cheeks. "Not when I know you mean them, Anirudh. I know."
How did he wish to record these words and keep playing them on a loop? He could live with those words. Content filled his heart and he breathed into her scent for the millionth time.
"I know a lot of things but still I fail to understand some," Dhwani said in his embrace.
"Enlighten me then, Petal." He pulled back curious. Seeing her bit her lips back, he nudged her further. "What is it?"
"The most I have come to know is that Anirudh Chauhan keeps his family close. He hovers them like a protective shield." Her words build up a fort of confusion in his head. Where was she getting at? "If you protect all, how could you blame one family for shielding another one?"
"What do you mean, Dhwani?"
She sighed. "Why would you turn your back on Uttara?"
The warm blanket around them snapped into two.
He stepped back from her, offended. "Are you seriously siding with her? In the middle of our time, you are bringing this up again?"
"If not now? Then when?" Dhwani hugged her shawl closer to her chest. "Once you are out of this room, you will just do anything and everything to clean our family name, you will pull Vidyut out of this mess by hook or crook and I know you will but not once you will try and get in touch with Uttara. I know you have resources to track her. Like right now. You will make a call and you will have every single thing on her in minutes."
"You are accusing me now. I am not partial towards anyone." He gritted., looking away from her as the accusation in the same eyes that portrayed warmth towards her were now shielded, icy, and meant business.
"You are partial towards your family." She snapped almost immediately. "I know. No one would if I don't."
The words that sounded like an elixir of life before were deadliest this second.
"Why are you doing this now? We were happy." Together.
"We are happy now too." She said almost immediately, gesturing between themselves. "But this 'we' can include others too. You said that somewhere downstairs, Vidyut is heartbroken and God knows where that girl is. She is equally a victim. Her entire career is on the verge of uncurable damage along with her relationship, and knowing your thoughts, her family too. You said you were responsible for bringing them home back, safe. Uttara is not here. She is out somewhere and you can get her back, Anirudh. Please think about it."
He sneered angrily. "If before I disliked her because of my brother's state, now I abhor her for getting between us."
"She is not getting between us," Dhwani yelled but lowered her voice realizing the quietness in their surroundings and how it could be deduced. She crossed the distance and kept her palm on his bicep to explain it better. "No one is getting between us. She needs our help. She is our family."
"No." He declared yanking out of her hold. "She is not my family. My brother is."
Dhwani recoiled back at his hiss which he ruthlessly ignored.
"She was a part of us because of Vidyut and now that she stranded him, she lost that title. If she is the reason for bringing this crisis upon us, I will do everything in my power to punish her. I have promised that to my brother and I will make sure it is fulfilled." At this point, he was the cold-shrouded businessman the world faced at every step.
The night came back to him and the sleepless hours he spent watching his brother break. It was all back and with a greater force.
"Are you saying this family was hers only because Vidyut was with her? They are apart so she is nothing here. She doesn't matter?"
"You were always smart." He scoffed.
"So," She contemplated the next words, shivering in the cold morning winds. "The moment you push me out of your life, I will lose everything?"
"What?" He frowned. "Are you comparing them and us?"
"No. I am comparing her and me." She shook her head. "Like you are ignoring her and thinking only about your brother in a crisis that affected them, you will disregard me too. If you ever leave me. You wouldn't turn back to me if somehow, I did something to your family name, your reputation."
"Are you out of your senses, Dhwani?" He blanched "I am not leaving you."
"But if I leave you?" She blinked the hurt back, drawing her own conclusions. "I will lose everything."
"You are overthinking now." He tried touching her and ended up grabbing her lost form. "No such thing will happen with us. Do you hear me?"
"You are no god." Her words trembled. "You cannot assure that."
"What the hell are you trying to insinuate here? You want to leave me." He gritted, the knot in his chest tightening with even a minute trace of the thoughts.
"I may not now but you never know what the future is for us. A single mistake from me and you will throw me out of your life, Anirudh. That is what you are doing to her. I am no different." She didn't try holding back the hurt that morphed into her feature. Hurt laced with disbelief, disdain, and fear.
She was afraid of him at that point and he wished he could comfort her in some ways. He was no monster for her yet Dhwani accused him as one, and it stabbed his insides. Her words were like a sharp knife twisting in his chest as she watched him with disgust and distrust.
"I thought you would understand me but alas, you proved me wrong. It is futile explaining you, Dhwani." He dropped his hold on her, taking steps backward and away from her. "If you have labeled me as evil, I shall stand up proudly on your set standards for me."
"I am not understanding, Anirudh? Did you not say all that?" She demanded, "Tell me you don't mean your words and I will believe you."
"That's the thing, Petal." He smiled mirthlessly. "I wish you had trusted me. You believe me but you don't trust me."
"I want to..."
"Stop." He raised his palm, cutting her off. "Don't. I am done cajoling myself that someday you will be able to see past my actions, past those 2 years. I am living in this constant delusional hope that you will forget my behavior and see me for the man I am trying to be rather than what I showcased. But you proved me wrong. You may forgive me but you will never forget. You will keep comparing me to this person you have formed in your head and I will forever keep trying to erase it when you are holding on to it so firmly."
"I am not holding onto your past self." She shrieked, losing her consciousness regarding the place, people, or time.
"You are." He stated, pocketing his fists in his pockets to hide his bloodless knuckles. He looked away and took a deep exhale. "You are right. I will find Uttara. Ask her why she did this and then make sure the culprit pays. I will stop being partial for once."
"No. No, Anirudh." The panic seeped into her eyes. "You cannot harm her."
He snorted loudly. She still thought the worst of him and no amount of words could make her look past them.
Glancing at the digital clock in their room, he glared everywhere but her. "I should get going. My day has just started."
He turned to walk away but Dhwani was quick to follow him.
"Are you going to hurt her?" She asked following hot on his trail. "Please don't. At least say that you will act rationally. She is my friend. My confidante. Please don't do anything that you will regret. Please."
And he was her husband whom she refused to trust. He wanted to scream at her.
She was begging and every cell in his being urged him to reassure her, correct her.
Holding the doorknob, he came to a standstill and she followed. Watching him with a baiting breath, she opened her mouth to speak another set of words that could be acid to his heart.
"Not. Another. Word." His jaw was painfully clenched and his eyes were hazy with the amount of anger he felt inside him. He twisted the door knob and stepped a foot out of their room, glancing back at her one last time. "You were right, Dhwani. You enjoy hurting my feelings."
â â â â
The incessant ringing of his phone made him groan away inside the blanket, he clutched it harshly towards his chest. Little phosphenes played behind his closed eyes while his head was as good as cracked up. A hard pounding of nerves could be felt behind his temple.
Vidyut grunted, unsettled in the narrow space with choked movements. His eyeballs went free as the light blinked, blinding him for straight 20 seconds before they started revolting and adjusting to the world.
A hellish, empty, and mocking world he had dried to drown yesterday with a large amount of neat scotch.
He had drunk his brains out, the most he had ever in his 28 years of existence. He sat up straight, limps fuzzy due to the unmeasurable sleep he had bestowed himself after a night like that. A night where he watched the last shreds of warmth leaving him.
Now, what was left was the icy corpse of the man she left behind her.
And, he would prove what killing a man meant.
"Hello, Doctor?"
He hummed in a greeting to the frantic staff member.
"I have been trying to reach you for the past hour, sir."
He ignored the disappointment that settled in him. "I am sorry, Nurse Hina."
"No, sir. It was supposed to be your day off." She admitted guiltily. "But, we need your expertise, sir. It is an emergency. Please come to the hospital, the patient is in dire need of surgery."
He was drunk not 18 hours back and could still feel the lingering daze in his head.
"Please ask the resident surgeon, Dr. Mehra, to be present. I will be there to guide."
"But sir, he is..."
He dropped the call.
He was a boss before he was a doctor, it was time he reminded people who Dr. Vidyut Chauhan was. There were far more people taking him for granted these days, yesterday would be the last they did.
"You are up." Rakshit peeked inside from the door.
"And you forgot to knock." Vidyut pinched his nose, closing his eyes to take another second of relief but not before noting the dipped corners of his brother's lips.
"Sorry."
"What do you want?" He asked brushing the sleep away and dodging a discreet glance at his old room he had escaped from.
"I am here to offer a deal." Rakshit pocketed his palms and maintained a casual eyelock, yet he was nervous and unsure. "You and Bhai were drinking without me. I can go to Mom and report or you can give me compensation."
"Grow up." Vidyut rolled his eyes at his attempts to break the thick tension in the air.
"Is it? I am sure mom would love to hear about your attempt to destroy your liver and will have a gala time feeding your ears with some old honeyed words."
Early morning sarcasm and taunts were not what he was prepared for.
"Ask me." Vidyut gave up.
"You are giving up?" He was stunned or acting his dramatic self, it was really hard to bifurcate.
He leveled him with a death stare. "10 seconds, or you can get the hell out of here."
"Okay, fine!" Rakshit jumped to cover the distance and pushed him back on the couch, surprised, Vidyut fell back and snapped towards him who sat caging him. "I need you to not touch your phone or watch television for the next 24 hours. Give me your phone and I will be changing your number for today. I will set everything up and get your trusted staff on board. Go to work and come back. No unknown number calls and no internet surfing. Can you promise me that?"
Vidyut nodded in resignation.
He wouldn't. Not when he was so raged and afraid at the same time to ever face her again.
"Words." He chided.
"Yes, I understand." Vidyut scowled but worked it out.
"Good." Rakshit nodded satisfied and stood up. "Get ready. Driver uncle will take you to and fro. Also, eat something before you dive into work."
"Don't order me around. I am not hungry. I am fine." He grumbled.
"And, I am Michael Jackson." Rakshit taunted with a sickly-sweet smile which turned in a glare. He stood in front of him and held his shoulders in a commanding stance. "Either you eat like a good boy, or I will go announce how I am elder to you by 2 minutes and 49 seconds, little brother."
"You are not." Vidyut gaped at the audacity of this man, pushing his hands away from him.
"You don't remember that," Rakshit smirked in victory. "But my birthing midwife does."
"Rubbish!" He scoffed. "I am elder to you. Mumma had you after me."
"Ah, that." Rakshit bit back his grin. "The nurse was so irked by your crying that she recorded your birth before me. So, my dear little brother," he trailed hugging him sideways and grinning. "On paper, I am the younger twin but in reality, I am not."
"There is no such thing, you liar." Vidyut denied his claim. All his life, he was the elder one and the middle son of Harshvardhan and Rashi Chauhan.
"And you can confirm this with Mumma too. I cried before you. I am your elder brother."
How much Vidyut wished to crack his skull the way he felt?
"Shut up."
"Is that a way you will talk to your elder brother, Vidyut? Mom would be so disappointed in you." Rakshit's confidence never faltered as he walked backward from him, tutting dramatically. "But, you can always beg me to keep it a secret between us. I am very generous, you see, my dear little brother?"
"Get the hell out of my sight, Rakshit." He chucked the cushion on his face. Pushing him out and slamming the door close behind him, Vidyut silently groaned as a burst of vigorous laughter passed through the slit below.
"Goodbye, lil' one."
One of the reasons why Vidyut left this mansion. Rakshit Chauhan was an annoying bastard, but his younger brother.
Grumbling, he doffed off his clothes and stood under a hot shower. The images of them playing which he pushed back using the scalding water. It transpired on his skin and dropped down to his feet towards the drain like he discarded her thoughts out of his mind.
Uttara was his weakness. The only thought that held the power to distract him from his duty.
He had held onto his brain, reigning his sanity, and using surgical instruments unbashful for years now, but never his nerves betrayed him. Until today. Entering the operation theatre and not participating in surgery was an alien thought to him, a day he lived today. He watched the other resident surgeon taking over the space and following the procedure on this patient whose chance of survival was around 30 percent noting the recent deterioration in his health.
Flipping through the pages of his medical history, he watched the surgery being conducted through the glass mirror and jotted notes on a chit for the nurse who stuck the paper on the glass for the doctors inside to read clearly.
He received occasional distracted nods from them and he watched the monitors to keep a careful eye on the operation. Nearly after 5 hours, he walked out of the room and strode straight to his cabin uncaring of the world around him. His hangover headache was negligible but the constant nagging in the back of his mind to know about her made him reckless.
A string of ways to murder Rakshit crossed his mind in a span of a few seconds when he fetched the keypad phone his dearest brother handed over to him this afternoon before he left for work.
He had met a grumbling drowsy Shreya and contrastingly flamboyant and cheerful Rakshit on his way to the hospital, both stuffing their mouth with food which made him gag at the very instance. The hangover was bad, he knew but never realized how it could be the worst of all.
It was nearly evening yet he couldn't stomach a single morsel but strong coffees. 4 glasses of coffee from the cafeteria to be exact.
The pager-sized phone rang in his palm and he glared at the micro metal box.
"Where are you?" Rakshit enquired without missing a beat.
"Jahanum me. Want to join me?" (In Hell) He spat.
"Geez. You are still grumpy." His comment seemed to pull back his subsiding headache.
"What do you want now?"
"I have news." Rakshit pipped but winced the next moment. Vidyut had no power to focus on the background noises. "I mean Shreya has news."
"About?" He knew about what yet he demanded to hear it from them.
"The scandal. What else?" Rakshit scowled. "That and a location. Uttara Bhabhi's location to be exact."
His mind froze at her mention, not that it had stopped thinking about her for once.
"She is safe. At her manager's house. What is her name?" He asked someone.
"Nitya," Vidyut answered.
"Yes, Nitya." Rakshit shuffled around. "If you want her address, it is Florence Apartments, Dombivli West. Flat number 621 but don't go there. The media is following you. We don't want them to find out about her location or they will hoard outside this place too like they are at yours. Come straight home. I will ask a driver to pick Bhabhi up and you too can talk about it."
Did she want to talk to him? If yes, she could have tried once to contact him in the last 18 hours.
"Also, Bhai did some digging and we have some new names on who could have leaked the information out. Come home and we can go through them. Till then, I will go take a nap. It has been a long night." He yawned between the words.
His family had not slept. He knew none of them had a moment of peace from the time the news broke out. They were constantly working and looking for a solution to lessen the damage while he decided to drink himself to oblivion. Shame crawled his skin.
"I am sorry, Rakshit." He mumbled, feeling the guilt eating him.
The line went dead for a solid 30 seconds before Rakshit replied. "You are what? I didn't hear you properly."
Vidyut rolled his eyes at the audacity of this man. "I said I have confirmed an appointment for you with an ENT. Be there without a miss."
He could hear the snickers of Shreya from the other end.
"Asshole." He grumbled sulking. "I don't need a doctor. Especially not a friend of yours, Dr. Vidyut Chauhan."
"I never said he was a friend." Vidyut snorted, shaking his head.
"As if you have friends. I am the only one who bears you and your grumpy tantrums." He complained.
He was the only one. From the very day he started seeing this world, Rakshit was there with him.
Vidyut leaned back on his chair feeling some calm in his raging mind. "Thank you."
He heard a smile in his words. "Mention not, brother."
Keep voting and commenting so I'm inspired to write and end this story quickly.