The day needed to end now. It had to.
It had elongated more than required and he was done for. He could feel the fatigue creeping into his bones, a long marathon of hours that have morphed away to feel lengthier than that of a decade nowhere seemed to end.
He needed to blink and look away.
He needed to sit back and take a calming sigh.
He needed to sleep and call the day off but nothing he needed was coming to him.
Uttara Chauhan included.
Vidyut threw the gates open for the hospital terrace, sniffing into the thick evening air and letting his throbbing headache calm for a while, only for it to intensify as the pungent smell of smoke reached him. Glancing behind his shoulder, he watched her take a deep inhale and lean against the wall exhaling rings of smoke one could choke on.
His deadly stare met a set of wandering eyes that dipped in recognition. A foreign veil covering her brown eyes often frowned in critical thinking inside the four walls of the hospital.
"Would you mind me smoking, Dr. Vidyut?" She asked politely, yet no trace of humility would make her throw the lit stick away.
"You can carry on, Dr. Jiya." His crisp tone earned a nod and another shot before she threw it down, crushing the burning end and joining him near the railings. "You should have continued."
"Not when you have joined me here." Her simple eyes said a lot more than he could read while her words were loud and clear. "You look like you could use some company and I wouldn't shy away from that offer."
"This is your first misjudgment, Doctor." He assessed. The woman was one of the best doctors in his hospital and a successful batchmate.
"Not first." She glared at the sky pensively. Fingers tapping on the steel top clutched it as she turned to him. "I heard what went down with Mrs. Chauhan."
The bite and discomfort were clear as daylight in the address.
"I came looking for solitude, Dr. Jiya which I don't think is left here." He gritted his molars and turned to walk out of this upcoming pity.
"And, I am glad that she took a step toward her favorite man." She ignored his glare. "Not every woman could make decisions like that. If she chose to be with the man she once liked or may still hold feelings for. She should go back to him if that is what she wants."
"Enough, Jiya!"
"Why? I was just stating the facts, Vidyut." She was unbothered by his rage. "I wish I could have done the same. I should have chosen to follow my heart instead of keeping everything bottled up for years."
"What are you getting at?" Vidyut fisted his fingers stopping himself back from yanking her arm and forcing answers out from this woman he had known for a better part of his career.
"You. I am getting to my feelings for you." Her declaration made him recoil back. "I have liked you from the day of our orientation. Did you not realize how many times I made up situations to be near you? In one project group, the same circle, a similar row too. I used to look for chances to know you better but when you went to work at a different hospital than the university, I kept cajoling myself that it was just an attraction when you took over this hospital and we got to work together, I realized that it was much stronger than an attraction. I was coming to tell you how I felt that day, before you left signing the ownership deed, I came to you to tell you about how I felt but you left. The next time I saw you, you were a married man."
She scoffed self-depreciable.
"Look, Dr. Jiya..." He blinked, letting his brain search and pick the suitable words.
"Don't worry. I had made up my mind that you couldn't be mine now. I saw you with your wife and I was happy that she was what made you happy. I loved you enough to let you be with whom you love. I am no crazy bitch who would have ever created situations for you to notice me again. I had dropped you out of my life but see, destiny is a fascinating phenomenon. It is giving me another chance and I am now inspired by your wife. She was brave to search for her happiness irrespective of the fact that she cheated on you before marriage. I could at least let you know what I think about you, Vidyut."
"It is Dr. Chauhan for you." He cut her off, harshly than he had ever talked to anyone but Avantika Sahay. "I do not. I do not feel a thing for you. I will never feel anything." For another woman again.
Uttara would be the last one if it ever came to that.
"And, my wife is still mine. She is not leaving me. There is no destiny here for you, Dr. Jiya. You are wasting your work hours."
"You still love her." She concluded with a shaky smile. "Right? But does she love you?"
"I love you," Uttara whispered against his chest, holding tightly onto him, and smiling at his butterfly kisses on her crown. "I love you the most, Dr. Vidyut Chauhan."
Now? He didn't know that. He didn't know if she still meant that or what exactly love was. It could be anything that his brain failed to interpret.
But, what he knew was that he didn't feel alive without her. She took his hope, his senses, and his worth with her.
"I would take your silence as an answer." Jiya brushed a lone tear away from her eyes, smiling facing him. "I am happy for you, a little jealous of her but happy. I really wish it to be me but it is fine if it isn't. She must deserve you."
He blinked hard and turned to walk away from her.
"Vidyut."
His steps halted begrudgingly.
"If she still loves you. I will let you go. But if she doesn't, can you think about me?"
"No." He answered.
The silence made him start walking again.
"Okay. Then if she doesn't love you, you should keep loving her." Jiya's words froze him again. "I would do the same for you. It will keep me alive."
"Don't waste your time, Dr. Jiya." He bit on his gums, fist clenched.
"You are right." She crossed the distance and glanced at him, the veil was gone and he could see the same doctor again. "Wasting time is for fools and we are doctors aren't that."
"Wasting time is for fools and we are doctors aren't that."
Her words kept ringing in his brain. He shouldn't be wasting time waiting.
Uttara had enough time if she needed one, no more.
He parked his car outside Nitya's apartment. He couldn't wait for her to come back to him. He needs to see her and this time he will make sure he gets what he desires.
Dialing her number for the first time in the last 18 hours, his brain stilled to hear her voice. The dial tone connected and dropped unanswered raising his desperation to see her, hear her, and breathe in her.
Slamming the door shut, he stepped out uncaring of any media that may have traced him hear. Before he had ditched them using the back gate, now he didn't care standing outside her Manager's apartment complex.
Not looking around but running towards the entrance, his footfalls were heavy against the tiled floor, and his thumb punched for the elevator call button.
Fat number 621 was on the 6th floor as per the chart he had checked in a go.
Tapping on the metal floor, he let out pumps of breath in anticipation of seeing her.
Why he wanted to come back to her after everything was beyond his thinking spree. It could be the silence she left for him or the lack of answer to his hope, or it could be just her.
Now, he may doubt her declaration of love for him but when he said that he lived for her, he meant them.
Knocking in a set pattern, he stopped breathing until the door clicked open.
"Mr. Chauhan." Nitya swallowed in bewilderment.
"Where is she?" He let her address go down the drain, he wasn't important. She was. "Where is Uttara?"
"Uttara?" She blinked in surprise. "She didn't come here."
"What do you mean? She was here. I was told she was here." He thundered taking intimidating steps towards the girl who stayed around his wife more than him. "Where is Uttara, Miss Yadav?"
"I-I don't know, sir." She stuttered under his glare. "I have been trying to reach her. Everything is a mess and only she can clear it. Please believe me. She is not here."
"How is that possible?" He snapped throwing his palm on her door frame. "She left in a car to come here then how is she not here?"
She jumped in fright.
"Please do not lie to me, Nitya." He stepped back. "Just tell me the truth."
"This is truth." She pleaded. "Not once Uttara have tried reaching me. I tried looking for her but the news is keeping me leashed. I have tried calling her a million times now, but she is not answering."
"She is not lying to us."
Vidyut whirled to find Anirudh standing at the other end of the hallway.
He walked towards him impeccably dressed yet the eye bags were visible to Vidyut along with dents in his composure.
"You shouldn't have come here." He assessed him shooting an acknowledgement towards Nitya. "She isn't lying. Uttara never came here last night. She did not take a taxi but a town car picked her up. We had tried tracing it and it says she was dropped here but she never met Nitya. Your wife is not here, Vidyut."
"Then where is she?" He demanded.
"We do not have the location yet," Anirudh answered and turned towards Nitya. "Thank you for agreeing to meet us, Ms. Yadav. Mind if we come in and have a chat?"
"That is not possible." Vidyut refuted his claims and his hint of stepping inside. "Shreya got the update. Uttara was with Nitya. She was safe."
"She is safe." Anirudh reiterated dragging him inside. "But she isn't here."
Vidyut yanked out of his hold and exhaled harshly. "Then what are you doing? Shouldn't you be searching for her?"
"I am." He confessed. "My men are checking every single possible place for her. We will have an update soon."
"They aren't doing their job well." He snapped back. "Tell them to find her now."
Anirudh nodded towards the couch. "Why don't you sit down for a while? I have certain questions for Miss. Yadav whose answers would surely not bore you."
He glared and followed begrudgingly.
Nitya served them water to which Anirudh politely declined.
"What do you want to know?" She sat infront of them, intimidated by two powerful men yet doing her best to not show.
"Rocky Makhija." Anirudh took the name and Nitya grimaced in disgust.
Vidyut felt his insides twisting in disdain, the bile rising to his throat at the mention of the man who was the reason behind this chaos.
"When did Uttara meet him and anything you know about them?"
"2018" Nitya stated. "Uttara was called to work under Pearl studio banner for the first time. This is where she met Rocky for the first time. They were co-actors but paired with different people on screen. By the time the movie was over, he had charmed her in a way that now feels pathetic to me. They secretly started dating and he coaxed Uttara into keeping the relationship under wraps, for, the media would make it difficult for them. As the time lapsed, he got into rumors with many other actresses and this started frustrating her. She demanded him to make it public and Rocky tricked her into believing that he has agreed."
"When was this?" Anirudh asked.
"A month before the Redstart show." She bit her gums with a tight smile. "He wanted to sign his next big film but with Uttara on his back to make their relationship official, it would have all gone into trash. This industry does not want committed actors. They need names that could be linked to anyone at anytime for fame. He was selfish but more importantly, he was following what other actors did. He wasn't wrong in being ambitious."
"What happened in Panchgani?"
Vidyut clenched his fist at the mention of that very place that was a bane as well as a boon for them.
"Uttara received her first Best Actress award that day. Her name was quite popular and the after-party seemed highly successful. We were supposed to leave an hour before the party was over but Rocky sent her a message to meet her in the hotel upstairs." Nitya scowled at the memory. "Like a fool, Uttara left at his first command and asked me to drive back without her. I don't know the exact details about what went wrong but then," She glanced at Vidyut. "She told me that she was marrying Mr. Chauhan."
He felt two pairs of eyes on him, making him glare at the wooden center table.
"She gave me no further details but that they have mutually decided to marry and she cared less of its impact on anything but her career. She said she was taking it as a step for stability. True to her words, she gained quite a network by getting suddenly married and then her career took off. Rocky's chapter was done for I believed. He had left her alone for the entirety of this year until we heard about him being signed for a project Uttara was a part of. He was just acting like an entitled asshole anytime they met. Nothing out of the ordinary but suddenly, their pictures are out. The only people who could have access to these pictures are them both. If they were released, there is a 90% chance that it was Rocky's doings."
"Thank you." Anirudh glanced his way but addressed her. "Did Uttara ever mention any details that you remember from that day?"
"Why do you want to know?" He demanded rising from his seat. "Whatever it was, Uttara and I got married. It isn't important what happened but what is necessary is that you find her. That too, now."
"She had gone secretive all of a sudden but nothing out of the ordinary. She was always reserved and kept herself to work and work alone." Nitya frowned. "There was nothing out of the ordinary in her except that she looked rather happier than she was ever with Rocky. I thought it was something close to love at first sight for her. Seeing Rocky keep their relationship like an ugly secret, Uttara flexed her marriage with Mr. Chauhan every chance she got. She kept posting snippets of her married life."
"That would be all." Anirudh stood up buttoning up his coat. "Please contact me if you remember anything else."
"Drop the information hunt and focus on looking for Uttara." Vidyut gritted sharply.
"It will be faster if you tell me your version of that day, Vidyut?" Anirudh baited, "Do you remember what happened that day?"
"Yes." He glanced at Nitya who was trying to not react to this face-off. "But you don't have to know. It is all in the past. We met, we felt like we should get married and we did it. End of discussion."
Anirudh glared at him but sighed. Turning towards Nitya, he passed her the polished polite smile. "Thank you for your time, Ms. Yadav."
"I wish I had more details for you, Mr. Chauhan." Nitya shook his hand and followed them towards the gate. "Are you certain Uttara is safe?"
"Yes. She is safe." Anirudh nodded. "Please do not get in any comments with the media. Chauhan incorporation will be handling them and once Uttara is home and rested, she will get in touch with you."
The gate bolted behind them and he stomped towards the elevator, Anirudh following closely behind him.
"Why are you so worked up? If it is nothing, why not tell me?" He asked and Vidyut hurriedly punched the call button.
"There is nothing for..."
"Mr. Chauhan."
The two men turned towards Nitya who ran towards them.
"There is something you should know." She heaved to catch up on her lost oxygen.
"What is it?"
She nodded and quickly scrolled through her emails. "This."
Thrusting the phone in their direction, Vidyut was quick to take it.
His gaze flickered through the contents of the emails dropped on Uttara's management mail ID.
"This is from..."
"Avantika Sahay wanted to meet Uttara?" Anirudh snatched the device and flipped through the four unseen emails that were all sent in a stretch of a week.
"Yes," Nitya answered. "She even called me so that I could get her through Uttara but I kept diverging her. I tried asking her what it was about but she never told me why she wanted to talk to her?"
"I am your mother, Vidyut. Not her."
"How can you treat me like this? I am your mother. Your family." Avantika screeched as he called the security to kiss this woman out of his workplace.
"Don't." Vidyut snapped, taking a thundering step towards her, he leaned as if not wanting the world to ever know what this woman was to him. "Leave until I ask you nicely. Leave and never come back here."
"Vidyut, hear me, son." She was begging but he could care less.
"I am not. your. Son." He stated with finality. "Get up of here."
His words enraged her.
"If you cannot be my son, I will let you be nothing, Vidyut. I mean it." She announced but he paid no heed to her baseless threats.
The security entered the lobby.
"Escort her out of the premises." He commanded and glanced at the receptionist. "Even if she dies, she is prohibited in this building. Understand?"
The girl nodded.
"You are insulting me." She thrashed against the hold of security guards. "You cannot treat me like this, Vidyut. I am your..."
"Vidyut."
He zoned Avantika's threats out and turned to see Uttara who was walking towards him, he crossed the steps towards her and took her in his arms. Finding the peace in her scent amidst the tsunami of unpleasant memories his birth mother brought with her.
"Aren't you working, sir?" Uttara mocked, chuckling.
He smiled tugging her hair strands behind her ears. "I am." He glanced behind her where the guards kept an enraged Avantika hostage. "Wait for me in the cabin, I will be there in a minute."
Uttara had sighed and followed, she was awake the entire night for a shoot and in need of rest. Soon she was out of earshot leaving him again in charge of facing these memories alone. But better he did it without her, she didn't need to see his ugly truth of existence.
"You treat me like trash and her like your everything." She had lost her sense of place and poise, the sneer proved it to be true.
"She is my everything." He claimed glaring at her. "She is much more to me than you would ever know. She is my wife, the only woman I need in my life apart from my Mumma. Not you, Mrs. Sahay. Never you."
He looked at the security. "Throw her out and don't be gentle with it."
The guards dragged Avantika Sahay out of his sight but her words stayed.
"You will regret this Vidyut." She yelled. "I will make you regret this. I will."
Vidyut blinked as the words from their last interaction came to her. "What if it is her? She threatened me. It could be her."
"Who are you talking about?" Anirudh demanded him to repeat.
"She has her." Vidyut looked up. His unfocused eyes met Anirudh's. "What if Avantika Sahay has Uttara, bhai? What if it is her?"
â â â â
The dribbles of the hard ball echoed in the packed stadium, each second a dribble was made and anticipation oozed out of the attendees. Eyes following the movements, each time Anirudh neared the goalpost, he missed the basket and dashed back. He could have got closer and aimed for it.
He should have.
A little attempt, a jump, a raise of hands, and a straight throw and he would be able to see the ball go down the basket. A score. A basket.
But he wouldn't.
"Mr. Chauhan, can you stop playing and tell me why I was brought here?"
The incessant complaint made him glance back at his guest.
This man who was trapped with him inside the empty stadium that could seat a few thousand spectators was getting hawked by the media 24*7 yet none could find him if ever, ever, Anirudh decided his fate for him which he should. For, the amount of irritation this man had bestowed in his wake from his constant whining was hard to forego.
Rocky Makhija was a pathetic excuse for a moron. Not a man, he could never be a man, for, a man would never do deeds as him.
"Hyde, have you got some trick to shut Superstar's mouth?" Anirudh shot a question to his head of security. The Italian man nodded without missing a beat and walked towards a wide-eyed Rocky.
Hyde was a trained assassin and retired military personnel hired by Anirudh some 7 years back. The man was an unforgiving beast who would never hesitate to kill if it ever came to that.
Whenever he said men, Anirudh referred to the hand-picked guards who were trained relentlessly by Hyde. A man of fewer words and zero empathy.
Hyde assessed his target like prey and knocked a gut-wrenching punch to his stomach, bringing the impudent man to his knees and clenching his hair in a tight grip, daring him to speak, nope, complain again.
Anirudh snorted in amusement watching the man crumpling, crouching in pain that was clear as daylight on his face. He dribbled the ball and glanced back at him who now was at his mercy, quite literally.
"You see, Rocky." He started with a sly smirk. "I am a businessman and a very busy man at that. I don't have time to play little games with you."
"Then what have you been doing for the past hour?" He groaned at another kick to his abdomen.
"He is a guest, Hyde. Be gentle with him." Anirudh clicked his tongue in mock disappointment and chastised his man who smirked in return before nodding at his command. "Are you okay, Mr. Makhija?"
Rocky's failure to answer Anirudh earned him another harsh kick.
"Yes," Rocky grunted, glaring somewhere behind him which made him bit back his urge to snort again.
"Glad you understand the drill now." He turned towards the basket and aimed for another shot. It missed the basket again. He shook his head laughing. "Another miss."
Rocky scowled but kept his words to himself other than the one that left him. "Why am I here, Mr. Chauhan?"
"Are you that clueless?" Anirudh raised a brow but shrugged. "I don't mind enlightening you."
He gestured towards Hyde and the man was quick to push Rocky out of his grip, taking two steps back as Anirudh crossed the distance between them. A man brought in a chair and placed it in front of Rocky who sat kneeled infront of it.
"I have only one simple question for you, Rocky." Anirudh took the chair like a royal and spread his legs like his pawns ready to tear his prey apart. His basket-ball twirling on his finger "Where is Uttara?"
"I don't know." He was lying straight through his teeth. An actor had his benefits.
"Wrong answer." Anirudh quipped and within seconds the stadium was filled with Rocky's painful whimper. He yanked his face towards him, fingers pinching his chin harshly. "Lie again and you will be a news headline within the next 30 seconds. Again, where is Uttara?"
"I have no idea." His declaration was met with a kick on his back, knocking his breath and making him hug the cold floor mat.
Anirudh gritted seeing the pathetic man yelping in painful moans while he glanced at his watch.
It was 4:00 in the morning.
For more than 30 hours the Uttara Chauhan was out of sight. The time was ticking, leaving a relentless Vidyut behind.
His brother had demanded he search for his missing wife and Anirudh could not go back home until he had solid proof or better, Uttara Chauhan with him.
He couldn't face him empty-handed.
He needs to find her to bring a little peace back to his family, before facing them.
But more than them, there was another person he couldn't face without proving her allegations wrong.
Dhwani's words were still fresh and painfully stabbing his heart.
"I know you were conspiring with Avantika Sahay." He yanked his head back. "Tell me everything or you better be ready to stand back after the fall I will give you."
"I have no business with her anymore." He started.
"So, you did have business with her before?" Anirudh concluded.
"That woman is a fucking leech." Rocky hissed. "She somehow got to know about my link with Uttara and contacted me playing bluff that she wanted to talk ambassadorship with me for her husband's firm. When we met, she opened her cards and told me her plans to destroy Uttara because she was her biggest roadblock in getting her son back. She told me that bastard was her son."
Hyde kicked him harshly breaking a rip, Anirudh held back the fury to thrash his goddamn face with the ball. He cannot harm his face, for, that could be another problem.
"What more?"
"I helped her," Rocky admitted. "Uttara was supposed to stay behind me, acting like my own puppet but she grew balls. She fucking hit me that night and left to hide in your brother's arms. She fucking didn't let me touch her that night but when I found her, she was sobbing in Vidyut's arms. I thought she would sit back and her career would go down the drain when she announced her marriage. I was unbothered about her but then, she had to try and leave the project. My dream project. She had the audacity to decline the offer when she knew how much it would cost the production to cast another female lead. I felt insulted."
"So, you decided to avenge her?" Anirudh's jaw clenched, a nerve throbbing on his forehead.
"I didn't plan to. Not until she got selected for the National Award and not me. I introduced her to big producers, I gave her the fame she was enjoying and I, I was getting nothing. My dream project was going to an unplanned halt and she was having the moment of her career. It was unfair."
"Unfair? I will teach you what unfair is, Rocky Makhija. You would remember the lesson for life." Anirudh sneered, "Tell me where is she."
"I don't fucking know where the bitch is!" Rocky jested painfully. "My part was to give Avantika Sahay material that could destroy her. We offered Uttara a contract. She could have signed a statement that my PR team would have published and divorced Vidyut. She was supposed to leave Mumbai for the time being and Avantika Sahay would have got her son back in any way that old geezer planned to. I didn't care asking but I knew that woman was delusional."
"When did you last see Uttara?" How Anirudh wished to thrash Rocky's head and castrate Avantika Sahay for once and all.
"She haughtily refused to sign the statement and tried leaving. Her ex-employee, Farhan somehow was part of the plan and working with that lady. He drugged Uttara and Avantika took her with her. I didn't care where until I was getting that ambassador program. Last I saw her was at the gate, dizzy and falling due to drugs in her coffee."
"So, now you don't know where she is?" Anirudh asked again.
"Do you want me to sign a stamp paper?" Rocky scowled. "I don't fucking know. That bitch could die for all I care."
Anirudh glared at his, shaking his head he sighed in good riddance. This man was done for.
"Great then. You were a little helpful, Rocky." He clapped and stood up.
"If I was, then let me go." He yelled as Hyde captured the man and tied him to the same chair that once belonged to Anirudh.
"About that," Anirudh smirked in amusement, dribbling the ball at the slowest speed, he stopped facing Rocky keeping his back to the basket. "Do think it was unfair that I couldn't basket a single time?"
"You fucking suck in the game, Chauhan." Rocky spat, wiggling in his seat making his smirk turn into a snort.
"You are right. I do." Anirudh met his eyes. Throwing the ball backward, the ball landed inside the basket. "That is why, playtime's over."
"Are you leaving me? Don't forget I am a public figure, you will have tons of lawsuits coming your way the minute I am out. I will fucking destroy you, Anirudh Chauhan" Rocky threatened, halting him near the entrance.
"Right. You can easily destroy me" Anirudh glanced behind him. "Therefore, you are never getting out of here. You will stay locked up for a very, very long time. Your playtime is over, Rocky the superstar."
He said 30 seconds, well bad for Rocky that a single tap on his screen and the new outlets combusted into flames as promised. His phone rang and he received the call sitting inside the backseat.
"It is out and done." He heard a mumble in the receiver, yawning.
"So is your debt, Vandita." Anirudh dropped the call. He pinched his temple and leaned back to see the city coming back to life. He tapped on his phone screen and checked the notifications.
There were many but one popped out.
Petal: Will you not come back home?
He chuckled mirthlessly, it was her home now, but what about his home?
He slid the message and tapped on the partition.
"Boss." Hyde rolled the glass down.
"Bungalow number 58, Malad hills, east." He iterated the address and earned a nod in reply. The partition rolled back and he stared outside the car.
Rocky Makhija was done and over.
Now, it was Avantika Sahay's turn.
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