LOVE, LIFE, SECRETS: Answers lie within – CHAPTER 11

RECAP: CHAPTER 1 TO 10

Gauri and Soumya’s introduction as the wedding planners for Shivaay and Tia’s wedding…. Tia’s irritating attitude…. Tia’s dreams of being an Oberoi bride…. Tia’s murder…. DCP Ranveer and ACP Abir’s entry…. Start of the investigation…. Gauri’s jhumka is found near the body…. Crime reporter Ishana’s entry…. Oberois do not want to disclose about Tia’s murder…. Gauri tells that she was the first one to find the body…. Shivaay and Tej’s different behavior…. Ranveer’s first suspect is Gauri…. Shivaay is taken for questioning…. Anika Raichand’s entry…. Anika introduces herself as Shivaay’s lawyer…. Ranveer and Abir are called by the commissioner…. Shivaay asks Anika to leave as he needs a better lawyer…. Introducing the Raichand family…. Anika rants about Shivaay to Arjun…. Arjun, Sumitra and Shekhar persuade Anika to take up Shivaay’s case…. A new police officer ACP Mishti to join Ranveer and Abir in the investigation…. Abir and Mishti remember their past seeing each other after years…. Ishana and Omkara talk…. Anika and Arjun visits the Oberois…. Shivaay agrees to let Anika fight the case…. Introduction of Prachi and Ranbir as assistants of Anika and Shivaay respectively…. Shivaay and Anika start their research…. Shivaay is hiding about the Kapoors…. Soumya wants to help Gauri to come out of the suspicions…. Soumya and Gauri become sisters…. Rudra will help Soumya and Gauri…. Romi and Mrs. Kapoor’s talk about Tia’s murder…. Shivaay and Ranbir visit Mrs. Kapoor where Shivaay demands the proofs about something in return of a business deal between Oberois and Kapoors….

At present,

CHAPTER 11: I’ll help you

Soumya was sitting on the couch…. Rudra had brought her here and asked her to take a seat…. She was looking at him not knowing what was going on in his mind…. Why had he dragged her all the way through the corridors of the hotel…. He had been standing near the window since the last fifteen minutes and was showing no signs of initiating a conversation…. There was pin drop silence in the room…. Had he brought her here for this silence she wondered…. Only he knew what was going on in his mind…. She tried to talk a couple of times but seeing the serious expressions on his face she would back off…. She was waiting for him to say something…. He had said that he wanted to talk to her but here he had not said anything…. What did he want to talk about…. Finally having enough of her patience she thought to start the conversation….

Soumya: Sir….

Rudra: It is Rudra, we are the same age, do not call me sir, call me Rudra.

Soumya was looking at him surprised…. He was still looking outside from the window…. He did not see her reaction…. There was still a silence from her side so Rudra turned to look at her…. He could see the surprise in her eyes…. But he did not understand why she was surprised…. They were the same age and he did not like anyone calling him with anything other than Rudra…. “Sir” would definitely suit his Shivaay Bhaiya who wanted professionalism but him, for him it did not make much of a difference….. He is Rudra and preferred to be that only…. Finally making up his mind he took a deep breath and stood in front of her…. Soumya looked at him keenly…. His expressions were a blend of hesitation, worry, confusion and thoughtfulness…. She could not decipher the meanings of them…. What was making him like this was beyond her thinking…. She did not interfere and waited yet again for him to say something…. After a moment or two of self-thinking Rudra finally spoke….

Rudra: I need to talk to you. It is important.

This is what he had said earlier also…. Only if she could read his mind and understand the “important” part of it…. What was it that he was thinking so much before talking…. The Rudra she had known over the past days was not like this…. That Rudra was carefree and always smiling, making others smile with his antics…. This Rudra seemed different, he was worried and hesitating….

Soumya: What has happened Rudra, is there any problem with our work?

Rudra: No, no, there is no problem with the work…. Actually I heard Gauri Di’s and your conversation in the lawn sometime before.

Soumya looked at him surprised….

Soumya: You heard everything? I mean we just talked about clearing Gauri Di’s name and do not want the company to suffer; it is nothing related to your family.

She started explaining not wishing him to get any wrong ideas about their conversation…. She wanted him to understand that their intentions were nowhere near to harming his family reputation…. Well family reputation was something all Oberois were concerned about ever since Tia’s death…. And none had failed to notice this…. Maybe they all had their own reasons to worry about the family name but at the end of the day they all had concerns for it….

Rudra: I want to help you both.

Soumya looked at him shocked…. Did he just say this or did she hear something different…. Why will he help them….

Soumya: Why, why will you help us?

Rudra: That is not your concern. Just think that this is related to my family and I cannot let anyone do anything that harms my family. I’ll help you both so that we get the truth quickly. Already a lot had happened and I do not want anything else to happen.

Soumya: I have heard it right, you all Oberois only care about yourselves. Anyways if you really want to help us, you are welcomed. I’ll do anything to bring my Di’s name out of this mess.

Rudra: Okay then, I’ll help you both in clearing Gauri Di’s name and you both will keep my family out of all this. I do not want my family to know about this. This will be between the three of us.

Soumya: Okay, even we do not want to involve anyone else.

Rudra: You go now; we’ll start the work after you both are done with your works.

Soumya nodded and left the room…. Rudra was standing at the same place…. He replayed their conversation in his mind…. He was talking like Shivaay Bhaiya…. He was not like this…. He was always fun loving and carefree…. He was never rude to anyone and especially to a girl…. Then why did he talk to Soumya like that…. He did care about his family…. But when did he start caring like this…. Today for the first time he felt he was being like a typical Oberoi the world talked about…. He had to be like this…. He was doing it for his Bhaiya…. If Soumya was doing it for her Di, he would also do it for his Bhaiya….

*****

Soumya was walking back to the lawn…. The conversation with Rudra was replaying in her mind…. All these days she had seen a different Rudra…. One who was sweet, kind and would joke around…. But today she had seen Rudra Singh Oberoi…. He was only going to help them to keep his family safe…. Soumya stopped suddenly not knowing why she cared about Rudra so much…. She was doing it for her Di, how did it matter what Rudra cared about…. If he wanted to help, let him do it…. What he cared about was not important…. She thought firmly and walked to the lawn…. Gauri saw her and took her to a side…. Gauri was concerned and thinking about Soumya…. The way Rudra had taken her away, she was worried…. She was already in a problem and she did not wish to drag Soumya into matters unnecessarily….

Gauri: Soumya, what has happened? Why did Rudra take you away? What did he say? Is everything okay?

Soumya: Di, will you keep asking questions or will you let me say something?

Gauri: Sorry, actually I was worried. You tell me what happened.

Soumya began narrating to her the conversation in Rudra’s room…. Gauri was shocked hearing the fact that Rudra was going to help them…. But then she understood he was doing it for his family…. He was doing to keep the Oberois away from the unwanted controversies…. She had learnt a lot about Rudra in the past few days…. He was a lot different from his family…. He was cheerful and fun loving…. He was far away from the definition of a typical Oberoi…. But then Gauri thought that how could he be any different…. When it came to his family, he would be an Oberoi only…. Just like his brother Shivaay Singh Oberoi…. But they were not completely wrong…. Anyone would do that for their family…. How anyone could let their family suffer…. Gauri brushed aside her thoughts and looked at Soumya….

Gauri: Whatever may be Rudra’s intentions to help us, we should take his help, and he’ll have many resources that may be helpful for us.

Soumya: You are right Di we should not get involved in other matters and focus on getting you out of this problem.

Gauri: Thank you Soumya I do not know how to tell you how much this help of yours mean to me.

Soumya: Not fair, first you let me call you Di and now you are thanking me. Sisters do not thank each other; they are there for each other selflessly. So, no thank you and no sorry, no formalities between us.

Gauri: Okay baba, you are behaving like a typical little sister.

Soumya: Sorry, wo….

Gauri: You only made a rule and forgot also, no sorry between us.

Gauri smiled at her and she smiled back…. Some relations do no need time to be made strong…. All they need is some caring and kind words….

Soumya: I think we should start the work from tomorrow.

Gauri: Yes, that would be great. We all are tired after the recent events. Let us take some time to settle everything and then start the investigation.

*****

Anika was sitting in the cabin with Prachi…. They had got some information regarding Tia’s personal life…. But nothing in detail…. They were busy with their work when Anika’s phone beeped…. She checked her phone to read the message….

“I have mailed you the information you wanted. I have sent you everything, I could gather.”

Anika quickly typed a thank you and took her laptop…. She opened her mail account and opened the mail…. There were some documents…. Some old photographs…. She checked the photographs…. They were old photos, somewhat like fifteen to twenty years back…. She was surprised to see Oberois, Mrs. Kapoor and some other people in the photo…. She recognized a few as they were famous businessmen…. Prachi looked at her to ask something when she saw her immersed in her laptop….

Prachi: What are you checking that you have this surprised expression on your face?

Anika signed her to come and see the laptop…. Prachi was confused but followed her and sat beside her…. She looked at the photos…. Prachi too recognized some of them as they belonged to rich business families…. Anika then opened the documents folders…. They read the documents carefully…. They were shocked and looked at each other…. They were confused as well as surprised…. Anika now understood why Shivaay did not want her to get into this matter related to the Kapoors….

Prachi: So Kapoors do have enemies, and one of them are the….

Anika: Oberois.

Prachi: But that doesn’t mean that they are involved in Tia’s murder, Shivaay Sir was getting married to her, why would they kill her?

Anika: I don’t know about that, but we have to know more. One thing is clear, the relation between Oberois and Kapoors is not what it seems to be. We need to talk to Shivaay, only he can clear some facts.

Prachi: I still do not understand, why would he be getting married to an enemy’s daughter?

Anika: There can be various reasons, maybe he doesn’t know they are enemies, or maybe for some business related stuff or even for revenge. It can be anything and only the concerned people can give the answers.

Prachi: Then let us go and talk to them.

Anika: Yeah, let us go.

They both packed their stuff and walked out of the cabin…. Anika sat in the car with Prachi and they drove towards the hotel where everyone was staying….

*****

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Hello my dear readers, how are you all and I hope you all are doing well. Here I am back with the nest update and I hope you all will like it.
One important thing, the story will mainly focus on Shivika, Mishbir and Ishkara, while the other couples (Priveer, Rumya and Pranbir) will be in the supporting roles. But not to worry, all couples will have their own parts to play.
Keep reading and smiling!!!
Take care and stay safe!!!