The Bond of..? (Chapter 22)

Heyy guys!!
Sorry for the delay! I will not rant but let the story rant on my behalf!
Link to the previous part: https://www.tellyupdates.com/bond-chapter-21/

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Sana glanced with irritation at the broken glass, dough on the floor, soup licking the marble table and her apron drenched with spices. She let out a tense gasp when she dazed at the clock, 10 past 12, it read which means that she got exactly 2 more hours to get something done and so far whatever she did didn’t seem edible. When she heard she has to cook something, her mind buzzed at one word: Italian, but all her dreams crashed when reality of making continental food ringed in her ears. She hated continental food and never even ate a spoon of it in her freaking 21 years of life.

Aarav set up the entire act with utmost perfection, updating the facebook post, sending Arpi Di for a tour, Arhaan to the office with some ‘work’ and bringing the entire family here overnight saying that they are here for ‘family time’ or in other words to torture Sana so that Dadu won’t suspect. She hated to admit but he was a brilliant genius and she was an idiot which is why he was painting in their bedroom while she was destroying the kitchen.

“Saanvi,” she called her younger sister out of desperation and hope.

“Sana, do you have any idea what is going on in the outside world?” she heard Saanvi yell at her evasively.

“The end of the Sen empire?” Sana guessed sheepishly with hints of sarcasm in her voice.

“And the preparation of your funeral,” Saanvi added a dry mock.

“Oh My God! Great, why do all the problems have to run into me?” Sana whined with displeasure and panic.

“Well, maybe because you keep getting worried for everything, even when there is nothing to worry, you worry that there is no problem at your doorstep,”

“Geez, thanks for the encouragement Saanvi,” Sana sarcastically stated with modesty as she cursed her luck.

“Anytime!”

Sana sighed at her sister’s attitude and quickly ranted the main point, “Forget all that, where are you now?”

“I am here on a private date with my fiance,” Saanvi exclaimed with confusion.

Saanvi’s fiance=Food, Sana thought as a 1000 watt bulb lit her face and washing away her sulky frown as she asked hurriedly, “Which restaurant?”

“Marriott, why?” Saanvi answered with extreme bewilderment.

“Can you please give the phone to your fiance’s creator?” Sana said elevated as she danced around the kitchen with her new found happiness.

“Ughh, I knew that coming here was a bad idea,” she heard Saanvi mutter with vexation, “Sorry my dear pasta, you will have to wait,”

Within the next 5 minutes, Sana heard her favourite chef on the line, “Mr. Hughes!”

A benevolent laugh from the other end relieved Sana from her worry as she heard the chef’s content voice, “Hello Sana, nice to hear from you again! What can I do for you?”

“Can you please give me the detailed instructions on how to make the best continental food?” she asked him with desperation as if her life depended on this one question. Well, alteast her dignity did.

“Uh, well I have a-” the chef started to reason in a calm voice while she interrupted and begged.

“Pretty please, I have 1000 people to feed in less than 2 hours and you are my last hope,”

She heard an audible gasp of shock and an immediate order which beamed her face with a pleasant and peaceful smile, “Turn the video on then,”

“Thanks Mr.Hughes, you are the best!” she exclaimed in an amiable tone and switched her video on. Drunk with her sudden hope, she immediately got the game going!

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Aarav gaze glimmered brightly at the masterpiece before him, a landscape potrait of the mighty hills of London. A tranquil atmosphere dawdled in the room, sending waves of positivity into his soul and he put on a tight smile, finally gaining peace and silence. Nothing bet a relaxing day at the workshop, painting his heart out but for some reason he felt that something was missing. A kind of spark, a charm was missing but what? He felt a weird yearning for something, more like someone. But who?

Then the realization struck him like a jolt of lightning: Sana. He had left her in the kitchen for 4 hours to make food for 1000 people. Ofcourse he was missing the charm and spark of witnessing her struggle and mess around the kitchen. A smirk plastered his face as he dragged his lazy feet to the kitchen, awaiting to observe a messy kitchen and a frustrated Sana but instead different smells of familiar flavours lingered in the air. As he got closer, wafting aromas of continental food flared his nostrils.

What the hell? He thought confused at the delicious smell, driving him madly to the kitchen to see several dishes of continental cuisine placed on the countertop, neatly designed in a restaurant style and looking…edible.

He thought she couldn’t make food which is why he invited 1000 people, sent all his siblings out and planned the whole facebook idea. But this girl seems to be a step ahead of him. He felt a rush of rising anger circulating his body as he watched Sana’s back towards him, cautiously stirring something in a big bowl.

He was not going to let her win. He couldn’t let her win. And she won’t win at all.

A smirk widened in his face as he looked at all the dishes placed side by side on the tabletop, an idea struck in his dangerous mind and slowly evolving into a vicious plan. He was an evil genius, alright. His poor wife had no idea about that at all. How sad.

“Oops,” he said in a loud snicker as he jerked the dishes which resulted in them crashing violently down the floor, one after the other and all the content splattering with intense force on the kitchen tiles.

Aarav saw Sana yank with the loud noise and instantly flip around to meet with the shock of her life, spilled food. Amusement ran through his body when he saw her freeze with fright, her face immediately leeched out color, her back started to stiffen and her mouth dropped for a good minute.

As soon as she came out of her frozen sculpture mode, she glared at him with flame burning through her eyes and barked brutally, “What did you do?”

Woah, he never saw her this angry before. Not even when he took her popcorn, so she did put loads of effort on this. He shook his train of thought and lamely blurted out, “It was an accident,”

“Are you out of your mind? Or did you lose your marbles? It took me 2 hours to make that food, how can you?” Sana seethed with extreme curiosity as she eyed all her food on the ground.

“Well, it was your mistake,” he bluntly stated as he sagged back into the wall and pretended as if it was not a big deal.

“Mine? I was not the one who dropped it by ‘accident’,” Sana accused him in a bitter tone and her eyes drilling holes into his with her intense glare.

Boy, she was very mad, Aarav thought as he shrugged carelessly and bickered, “Well, it is your mistake to crowd everything at one place which resulted in me dropping them.”

“You bastard, jerk, idiot. What am I going to do now?” she spat lethal venom at his face.

“As I committed the accident, I could buy you another hour, see what you can do by then,” Aarav pretended to care about the incident, drawled an apologetic reply and left the place with an emotionless face.

She could start everything all over again, but the ingredients were done. Her blo*dy luck. Her self control went flying out of the window and right down the drain as she narrowed her gaze and got ready to pounce on him when she heard her phone ring.

“How’s everything going?” Saanvi chirped with enthusiasm while Sana groaned at her reminder.

“Terrible, the arrogant jerk ‘accidently’ dropped all my food,” she narrated her the incident briefly as she swiftly slammed her hand on the countertop in indignation.

“Arhaan did that? I am coming and will throttle his head infront of you,”

Sana frowned at her assumptions and halted Saanvi’s sudden movement,“No, not him. Why would you think it is him?”

“He is the only stupid one to accidently jerk into a kitchen island,” Saanvi stated matter of factly while Sana rolled her eyes, calming down her growing rage.

“Well, there is one more person who would do that. His brother,” Sana gritted her teeth as her mind played Aarav’s lame excuses all over again.

“Jiju did that?” Saanvi asked her in surprise while Sana fumed.

“Will you quit calling him that?”

“Hey, don’t throw all your anger at me,”

“What should I do?” Sana finally gave up with her ideas and pleaded for help, indirectly of course.

“I am ordering food from Marriot, it will deliver to your house in an hour,” Saanvi directed a full proof plan while Sana recovered from her misery.

“But what am I supposed to tell them?” she enquired boggled as she indicated the maids to clean up the food mess.

“Do I have to think about everything?” Saanvi whined in a high pitched girly voice which blew a smile to Sana’s face.

“Just order the regular continental food you guys get,” Sana instructed in a provocative voice as she took a sip of her boiling soup. Delicious.

“Your welcome,” Saanvi trailed out in a fake offended tone while Sana shook her head at her childish personality.

“Thanks a ton Saanvi. You are up for a treat very soon,” she hastily offered and cut the call to come up with an excuse.

Or? How about she throws all the blame on Aarav? Sounds like a plan to me, Sana thought, smirking as she eyed the maid vigorously cleaning the mountain of mess.

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Sana swung the door to her room open and threw herself on the heavenly bed. Anger was stinging her in every place possible, after she told everyone that all her food dropped and she made only 1 dish and ordered the rest from Marriot, everyone was fine with it except the arrogant jerk, Aarav Ross. To make her overly complicated life even more difficult, he had to say that she should try once again for dinner. Why? Why did fate hate her so much?

Before she started her preparations for the evening again, she needed to do something about the merge. There was only one option to distract the people from that news and clear it: Business Gala Awards.

She picked her phone up and dialed the number, “Hello, Mr.Morris,”

“Mrs.Ross, what a pleasant surprise! Do you need any information about the Gala?” a deep persistent voice greeted her, sending her warm and affectionate vibes.

“Uh, I was just wondering if we could prepone the Gala to the day after tomorrow,” she asked hesitantly, shutting her eyes so that she could instantly digest the bad news, if any.

“And may I know why?” he questioned quizzically with disapproval evident in his voice.

“It is a personal reason which stands in the way of both the Ross and Sens attending the Gala,” she attempted to reason in an emotional and dramatic style.

When the biggest business empire like Sen cannot attend the event, then what’s the point in organizing when the people receiving half the awards are not even present?

“That is a huge problem, well how about you and Mr.Ross come to the building and we go from there,” he negotiated in a tensed tone and immediately disconnected without bothering to listen to her counter argument.

How could she bring Aarav? He would never listen to her and neither will she stay calm while talking to him. Sana felt like a magnet, attracting problems every other minute.

“Arhaan, I need a favor,”Sana begged for the 100th time of the day. First, problems come her way almost every hour and then she needs to literally beg people to help her. Can this day get any worse?

“Shoot,”

Sana took a deep breath before ranting everything to Aarav in rapid speed, “I need to take your brother to the building of the organizers of the Annual Business Gala in an hour,=.”

“What? You know bro will never agree to that right?” Aarav hissed with panic.

“I know which is why I need your help,” Sana pleaded with an innocent and desperate voice.

“Ughh, fine, I will get him there,” Aarav mumbled in heavy, displeased tone but agreeing to Sana’s demands.

“Really? OMG! Thank you soo much!” Sana exclaimed in joy as she fell back into her bed with a dramatic sigh.

“Pleasure is all mine!” Aarav replied in an overly generous voice while Sana laughed at his cute antics.

Everything was finally set!

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“That is not a nice way to speak to strangers,” Arhaan tried to calm himself down before his temper got the best out of him.

What was he doing? Trying to convince a 13 year old to tell him where she got her popcorn but the little traitor wouldn’t bulge. Standing outside of the tall skyscraper right in the middle of the busy streets of downtown, in the middle of the day with the sun burning right overhead was a bad idea. The trees swayed to the tunes of a light breeze zipping past them while Arhaan’s bantering earned several stares and few curses from people walking by. Great, he just made a fool out of himself for trying to calm Sana di’s anxiety down. Was being good willed a crime now?

“It is not right to speak with strangers anyway,” the girl said in a bossy and curt way which irritated Arhaan to the core.

“You crazy little girl, all I want to know is where you got that popcorn from,” Arhaan spat out in an overly frustrated voice lingering in the air with the aroma of butter.

“Nice to meet you,” the girl countered with another rhetorical question as she popped another handful of popcorn in her mouth, chewing with audible noise just to jitter Arhaan even more.

Arhaan sucked in a sharp breath and put on a friendly smile which immediately fainted into thin air when he saw the girl make weird faces at him. He stared at her with disbelief before breaking with temper, “That’s it! You little stupid brat, what the fu-”

“Stop the swearing Arhaan,” he heard Sana’s stern voice order him from behind, stop him for venting out his deep irkness at the girl who was giving him a creepy smile.

“It was all her fault,” he blamed childishly on the 13 year old while he huffed with anger as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“All I said was ask the nice girl about her popcorn not snatch it from her,” Sana scolded him in a firm, brisk voice with dismay.

“That would only happen if this annoying girl would co-operate,” Arhaan snapped bluntly, eyeing the teenage girl who now had an innocent smile covering her face.

“She will, if you be nice,”

“I did that,” Arhaan remarked in a dry, bored voice while giving a cold glare to the girl.

Sana shook her head with disbelief and politely asked the brunette infront of her, “Hi there, is there a popcorn stall nearby?”

“I got it from home,” the girl replied in a gentle voice with her eyes fluttering widely. Arhaan’s mouth dropped, she tell Sana but not him?

“See, it was that easy. You should really learn to talk to children,” Sana swanked with pride as she dusted her hands off.

“I know how to talk to children but this one wouldn’t bulge,” Arhaan whined like a 3 year old and pointed curtly with accusation at the girl.

“Come on, let’s not harass a girl who is like 7 years younger than you,” Sana said in an emotionless, persistent tone as she waved back to the girl.

Arhaan puffed with anger and dragged Sana back to the waiting area inside the building while he turned around to shoot death glares to that girl. He stuck his tongue out at her while she gave him a smirk in return and flashed him a ‘call me’ gesture in a mocking way. Arhaan’s jaw dropped as he stared back at her with shock. She just didn’t do that.

“Didn’t you see that? She is a creepy criminal,” Arhaan darkly yelled which earned glances from the entire first floor.

Sana and Arhaan plastered sheepish grins on their faces and shrugged to the people while Sana muttered slowly, “Arhaan! Mind your language, let the little girl live. Gosh, you are worst than Saanvi.”

“I never said I was better,” Arhaan retorted with impatience running through his veins.

Sana rolled her eyes at his boyish behaviour and shook her head in disapproval. Maybe it was a bad idea to bring him to a corporate office. Oh well, she can’t change that now so whatever. She skimmed the place to find Aarav and spotted him talking to Mr. Morris and his team. Oh crap, when did they meet.

“Shit,” she cursed under her breath as she grabbed Arhaan’s hand and raced towards the 4 men with a sheepish grin on her face.

“Mrs. Ross, how are you doing today? And who do we have here?” Mr.Morris warmly greeted with a kind smile as he shook hands with her and awaited introduction of Arhaan.

“I am good, thank you! And what about you? This is Aarav’s brother, Arhaan,” Sana politely introduced in her professional style and averting eye contact from Aarav completely.

“Hello Arhaan,” Mr. Morris greeted Arhaan while Arhaan shook hands with him, still slightly irritated by the past happenings of the day.

“Let’s head inside to talk about the change of the dates then,” a tall, Chinese guy poked into their conversation and stated grimly.

“I will fill you in later,” Sana mouthed to Aarav who was glaring at her with haggard eyed for a proper explanation.

The 3 men lead the Ross’ into a dark, black room at the back of the building. The walls were painted with dark red paint and were decorated with pictures of the past Gala. 3 desks were located at the corner of the room with huge stack of papers on each. There were no windows or any other openings to the room other than the main door with CCTV cameras located at every corner of the room. These people do take their security seriously.

“Tea, coffee, anyone?” Mr.Morris broke Sana’s keen observation of the place as he guided them to the couch at the far end of the spacious room.

“No thanks,” all the 3 of them replied at the exact same time, surprised at their same timing.

“What was the personal reason of preponing the Gala?” the tall, Chinese man enquired in a clipped tone and a cold expression concealing his face.

“It was the merger between the Ross and Sen-” Aarav started to explain but Sana quickly interrupted him and stated otherwise to handle the situation so that more people don’t come to know about rumors of the false merge.

“Families. Due to the merge of the families with our marriage, both the families share all the problems,”

“What is the problem then?” Mr.Morris asked her in a more gentle tone than the other man while Sana chuckled hesitantly.

“It is personal,” she blurted bluntly which caused all of them to stare at her confused.

“Mrs. Ross, you know about our confidentiality policies right?” the Chinese guy stated firmly, implying about their high secure confidentiality agreements.

“Yes,” Sana mumbled in a stuttering tone. She forgot to come up with a proper excuse. Crap!

“It is her parent’s death anniversary next Thursday,” she heard Arhaan cover for her with the most lamest excuse possible.

Okay, that was a lie. Her parent’s death anniversary was known to the entire world. She glared at Arhaan and signalled him to either change his words or shut up.

“What?” the Chinese man questioned with shock and anger at his careless choice of excuses.

Sana sagged back with horror as Arhaan changed his words with a fake laugh,“Okay, that’s a lie. That was not the actual reason,”

“Can we please know the real reason then,” Mr. Morris demanded in a mannerly tone while Sana struggled to find an answer.

“But it is our parent’s death anniversary that day,” Arhaan saved the day with his idea.

“And as both the families are now related, we cannot celebrate our success on such a tragic day,” Sana continued and added more to his idea, using an emotional appeal.

“What?” Aarav said with anger fuming though his eyes while Sana gulped hard, he will spill all the beans now.

She narrowed her eyes towards Arhaan and signalled him to say something to his brother before the situation runs out of hand and everyone gets embarrassed.

“Bro, did you forgot again? Don’t worry, this time Arpi Di said she will make the arrangements,” Arhaan managed the situation as he assured Aarav about the fake arrangements.

“Didn’t you know that when you got the invitation a month ago?” the Chinese man interrogated while Sana wanted to tape his mouth shut.

“Well,” Sana started to answer and halfway through came up with a better excuse, “As you see Aarav forgets all the dates while as I am the new addition to the family, I didn’t know about it until Arhaan told me about it y’day.”

Sana sensed Aarav’s body transmit lethargical heat which alerted her about his intense anger. She nudged him and mumbled in a cough,“Don’t talk or else you will make a fool of yourself.”

“Well, I am very sorry for that. I understand that emotions and rituals need to be given full attention on that day but there will be a huge loss in moving the Gala,” Mr.Morris finally stated in an extremely sad and apoletic tone which passed a huge smile on Sana’s face which she immediately changed into a sorrow one.

“And we cannot possibly get all the other guests to vacate their schedules for this Thursday instead of the next,” the Chinese man added in disgruntled tone.

Sana sighed inwardly at all the obstacles coming her way and persuaded, “We will take full responsibility of that,”

“We will?” Aarav questioned her with surprise and indirectly asking her to shut up but Sana paid no particular heed to his words.

“I will get Saman bro to talk to all the other guests, Nisha Di will do all the other arrangements and me and Aarav will take care of the money,” Sana convinced them with all the details of her 2 minute plan.

“Very well done, if everything is sorted then there is no reason why we shouldn’t prepone it,” Mr.Morris answered in an impressed tone while Sana shot up with indescribable amusement.

“Thanks so much for understanding. I will send you all the last minute planning details tomorrow,” she thanked them with a huge grin twitching her lips as she shook their hands and could see Aarav glare at her darkly from the corner of her eye.

“No problem,” Mr.Morris said courteously while she saw the Chinese man murmur something in disapproval.

She smiled at them once more before walking out of the room with both the brothers on her either side. A hollow feeling rose in her chest and her stomach went taut seeing the grim and dark expression of Aarav who was staring at her with predatory eyes. Oh oh, he was so going to kill her now.
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Sorry for the typos./mistakes if any!

I wanted to update earlier but my internship is way lot more work and tiring than regular day. All I am thinking about all day is sleep. I did want to update a few days back but then they put mehendi on my hands and due to the cone being bad or something, I had to put it on for 7 hours -_- Anyone else had that experience? Im sure all of you do!

Anyways, drop in to say a hi! tell me what will Aarav do with Sana now that she embarrassed him. How was Arhaan’s little bickering with that girl? And Aarav’s rude way of throwing things?

Do read my other story, In Control Lies Freedom too! Bye!, tc!