Ishqbaaz Imagining the Future part 8

Recap- Anika was rescued and Daksh was caught.

Everybody is waiting in the living room. Rudra enters, everybody stands up. Jhanvi and Priyanka step forward and come to him.
“Where is Om? Shivay? And could you all find Anika”
Jhanvi asks worried, Priyanka standing beside also had tension all over her face. Rudra smiles at them at turns towards the door. Shivay and Om enter with Anika in the middle. They both were helping her walk. “Yes we found Bhabhi!” Om exclaims with a slight smile. Everybody leaves a sigh of relief.
“Why were you even worrying Maa when you knew your son Rudi was there? Solving this was nothing for me… I solved it within minutes…” He did hand gestures in the air to give it a drammatic look.
“This time, he’s not bragging. It was seriously Rudra who solved it first”
Rudra’s proud smile never left his lips. Jhanvi tilted her head and blessed Rudra “I’m proud of you son!”
She moves forward to Anika and caress her face “You need rest…” addressing Priyanka she said…”Prinku you go with her and help her change clothes.”
Prinku nodded and move to obey. Shivaye,Anika and Prinku left while the rest of the family had a lot to ask OmRu.
“What happened to that Daksh?” Shakti asked out of curiosity… “he has been arrested and there was someone else planning with him” Om paused and continued after recieving questioning looks “Mrs. Kapoor. She has been arrested too.” Jhanvi stopped the interrogating session and asked her sons to take rest.
Next day Shivika and OmRu leave for the police station. Anika finds the receptionist of that hotel standing there along with a man who was in all probabilities the manager of the hotel staff.
Anika went to her and said with a smile”Thank You”.

“That’s fine. I can let you leave without signing the records but can not let a girl be in danger!!” She smiled back at Anika.
Shivay asked”But what are you doing here? I mean it’s not that I mind you being here but… but why do they need you?”
She gave him that polite smile of a receptionist “ACP asked me to be here sir. He said he’ll need me to give a statement too!!”
“Yes. We’ll need your statement too…” ACP entered his cabin saying that “… all thanks to Anika.”
“What do you mean?” asked Rudra.
“Unfortunately Anika left with Daksh at her own will. She was not captured. So we can’t really put the blame of kidnapping on Daksh without any proof.”
He paused to look at Anika.
“The first clue from where we understand that she’s being held against her will is when she asked for help in the hotel’s register. Which means we need her”
He pointed at the receptionist. “Moreover we need her to recognise Daksh. Protocol!”
“Baapre!!”
Everybody grinned at Rudra’s remark.

One by one they were writing and signing their statements when ACP took the receptionist and Anika for recognising the criminals. They were still in lock ups yet to be moved.
Anika did not want to stand long infront of Daksh. She moved towards Mrs. Kapoor’s cell instead. She was looking down. Anika spoke to her “I feel bad for Tia. It’s better that I don’t have a mother than have a mother like you.”
Mrs. Kapoor looked up at her angrily. “I’ll never forgive you Oberois. First you killed my husband and now…. now this!!”
“Your daughter is pregnant but more than that your concern has been fouling the lives of Oberois”
“Shut up! Shut up!” She screamed. Anika had never seen her this angry. “I’ll be taken to the court one or the other day…. and my first job will be exposing Shivay. I’ll let his secret out”
That made Anika angry too ” and you think people will believe you? Everybody will simply think that you are saying crap out of michmichi because Shivay got you arrested…”
“What about you Anika? How long will you hide it from Shivay? Leave the world, but when he asks you that why you left with Daksh and when you’ll answer him…”
She gave out a bitter laugh… Anika frowned. She was scared but didn’t want Mrs. Kapoor to know.
“You know Anika it’s going to break him. It’s going to break the family.”
She came close to the bars “You know what’s funny? You know? Shivay already knows the truth!!”
Anika gasped at that… “it’s just that he interpreted it wrong…”
“Say it clearly” Anika demanded “what do you mean?”
“You remember that chip in the wedding day? You know what it was?”
Anika was too confused… Mrs. Kapoor resumed

“It had a statement of daima, their family nurse,in which she says that the elder son of Mr. Oberoi is illegitimate.
He thought she’s talking about Om. Honestly I made him think like that. Henceforth to keep this secret hidden and to protect Om, Shivay was doing exactly the things I had asked him to…he was dancing on my fingers.” She looked straight into Anika’s eyes who was standing there shockstill. “You know what it means Anika? It means till now he has been thinking that Om is the illegitimate son, and you’ll be the one to tell him that it’s not Om but it’s Him. Shivaye himself. Think of the situation Anika.”
Saying that she started laughing. Confessing to Shivay was already hard now it became next to impossible. Tears sprawled up in her eyes but she refused to cry infront of Mrs. Kapoor. She turned around and almost choked herself with tears… she couldn’t stand there and ran to where Shivay and everybody else was. She stopped before getting inside the cabin and calmed herself down. She pulled herself straight and finally got inside the cabin.

Shivaye looked up at her
“How do you manage to do this everytime? Every. Single. Time?” He emphasized on each word.
Anika in a confused state had put both her hands up in a questioning way and shrugged “What? What did I do now?”
“You went with ACP and that… that girl” he pointed towards the receptionist “you could have stayed and returned with them too but no… no… how could you?? After all your Jhansi ki Rani title will be at stake if by chance you choose to stay safe. So you just thought ‘why not go for a lockup sawari Anika?’ “Shivay was clearly pissed of… Anika did not bother to answer but the receptionist felt guilty
“Sorry I left you without informing. Actually I saw you were chatting with that lady and it seemed like a personal conversation so I did not bother you”
“It’s …”
“You were chatting?”
Shivay’s eyes went wide.
“I was just talking to Mrs. Kapoor…”
Shivay replied melodramatically “Oh thank God Anika!!! That feels sooo better”
Right in the next moment he had his arms crossed against his chest and stared angrily at Anika.
“Ufff! Wil you please stop Shivay?”
She turned at Ranveer “Are we done?”
Ranveer looked absolutely non-interested in the happening conversation amid the couple. It took him moments to realise that Anika was talking to him.
“Huh?? Oh yeah! Leave. I mean you can leave” “Thank You!” and with that she left the cabin. The rest soon followed her. Once they were out of the police station Shivay stopped her by her hand and pulled her to come face to face.
“I am angry upon you so I will show you tadi, you will not… yeah you will not!!”
“And you will tell me whether I’ll show tadi or not?” Anika said trying hard to stay serious and suppressing her smile.
“Yes. I will”
“And who are you to tell me that?”
“Who am I??” Shivay asked wide eyed!!
Anika nodded instantly
“Yes. Yes that’s the same question I asked.”
It was becoming hard for her to keep a straight face.
Shivay by then understood what’s going on. She is doing this intentionally. He played along.. he inched closer towards Anika”You really want me to tell you who am I? Like right now?”
He stopped going any further when Rudra started coughing “Public place alert!!!”
“Shut up and get inside the car”
Rudra obeyed and went along with Omkara.
When Shivay looked back at Anika, she had broad smile on her face. Seeing that he smiled too.

BACK IN THEIR ROOM

“What was Mrs. Kapoor saying?”
Anika looked up from the clothes she was folding to check Shivaay’s expression. Not too serious.
She answered in straight tone.
“Nothing as such. A normal conversation.”
Shivaay now looked up from his magazine to check Anika’s expression.
“A normal conversation with Mrs. Kapoor? What was she asking? How’s the weather outside?”
Anika gave him a fake smile and ‘Haha. Very funny’ kind of look. “What is it Anika? What are you hiding?”
“Nothing. Seriously.”
“Was she talking about the same thing for which you left…. ” he breathed and resumed “is it the same thing? You haven’t yet answered my yesterday’s question.”
” Shivaay don’t take so much of stress. You’ll get bald early if you take so much of stress.”
“Stop trying to joke Anika. It’s not helping. It’s not at all helping”
Anika was sitting on the sofa. He went and knelt infront of her ,and kept his hand on her cheek.
“Anika… I can’t let a secret exist if it has the power to take you away from me. You are my strength Anika, in return I don’t want to become your weakness. Please tell me.”
She kept quiet.
The desperation within him started to kindle anger…
“Anika. It’s not going to solve if you think you alone can handle. It’s not going to help if you decide to face it all alone. Why don’t you tell us? Why don’t you tell me?
Do you think I am not strong enough tto handle it? Do you feel I am weak?”
Shivaay’s voice had rose a bit unknowingly…

“Do you feel Omkara is weak? Why didn’t you tell him? Did you feel he won’t be able to handle the truth? Why did you face all of that alone? You felt you’ll be able to handle it all alone?”

Shivaay couldn’t believe what he was hearing from Anika. How did she know?
“Is that the reason Anika? For all that you did yesterday? The secret of an illegitimate son in the Oberoi family? The truth of Omkara?”

Anika’s eyes was wet by now. She had no idea what’s coming next!!

“Yes and No”
Anika’s answer puzzled Shivay.
He asked skeptically
“What do you mean?”

Precap- “Anika please tell me clearly. What do you exactly mean?” Stay tuned to know how Shivay reacts to the truth…