The Bond of..? (Chapter 27)

Hello guys!
So good to be back! Why did I disappear for so long? Read the end note to know!
Link to the previous update: Chapter 26
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The next words shocked her to the core, “Yeah, I mean I don’t want to miss the gem standing in front of me while I continue to fly high towards victory searching for it.”

“Where did you get this quote?” Sana asked him bewildered as she recognized the exact words in her dad’s diary.

“Oh! It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Arhaan boasted as his face lurked with a huge grin.

“Absolutely but tell me where did you get it from?” Sana enquired with her patience running low.

“This was my dad’s favourite line from his most favorite novel,” Arhaan told her, causing her to beam with excitement.

This might be her chance to gain all the information, Sana took advantage of the opportunity and questioned, “Can you by any chance tell me the the name of the novel?”

“Why?”

“My dad wrote this in his diary too, so I was just wondering.”

“Really?! I always thought my dad was absurd but guess he found a buddy.”

“Arhaan,”she warned him in a low, dangerous voice making him shut his rants.

“I don’t remember the name of the book.”

“Did he have a copy of the book?

“In his room,” as the words left the mouth of Arhaan, Sana grabbed his hand and dashed through the hallway to Arhaan’s dad’s room.

The interior of the room was exactly the same as Aarav’s room except a little more lively with more family pictures, books and show pieces filling the room. Arhaan led her to the cupboard next to the closet which was nothing more than dusty. He punched in some numbers which Sana couldn’t register before he opened the cupboard. Sana gasped as she saw different wooden boxes of all sizes situated in the cupboard, the wooden boxes had specific carvings, each box had different designs carved on them.

“It is somewhere in all these boxes,” Arhaan broke her out of her amusement as he pointed to over fifty boxes in the cupboard.

“Somewhere? You don’t know where it is,” Sana exclaimed in shock as she eyed the mountain of boxes before her.

“Hey! After his death, we tried to open the boxes but the keys were missing. So we managed to open one book with his will and diary and the other remained untouched. Dadu said that there was nothing important in these boxes as they only included a few of his personal belongings so we didn’t take the time to find the keys.”

“Why would your dad have boxes which don’t have any keys?” Sana asked completely confused as to what was going on.

“I don’t know! We never really found the need to look into this matter,” Arhaan answered nonchalantly and shrugged.

“Thanks Arhaan. I want to take a few pictures and see if I can get some locksmith to open them for me,” she instantly formed a plan as she pulled out her phone and took pictures of the first few boxes.

“We tried that but if you’ll look carefully, you’ll see that the know that it is not similar to any of the normal locks. It has bumps at either sides and is extremely thinner than normal keys. We talked to many locksmiths but all of them say that it is not possible to have a key so thin. You can still try if you know any other locksmiths,” Arhaan explained with a sad face while Sana glanced at the holes.

He was right. The holes were abnormal but if they were made, then they could be opened. She just needed to find the right locksmith and then the entire mystery will be out.

“I’ll see,” she assured him as she continued to take pictures and forwarding them to the best locksmith in London.

She needed to find that novel at any cost.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“He did what?” Aarav howled with shock anchoring his face at the wild news.

“Sir, he deposited ten million in his account,” his detective informed in a mere whisper earning a gasp from Aarav’s end.

What was going on? His detective contacted him informing him that Neeraj just deposited ten million pounds in his account. As far as Aarav knew, he never had such a well paying job and always was pleasantly happy with his average house.

“Right now? Infront of you?” Aarav confirmed with extreme suspicion lacing his voice.

“Yes sir, he had this huge briefcase which had one million and the rest was in cheque,” she murmured meekly which made Aarav frown.

“Cheque? Who signed the cheque?”

“It was from the Cultural Secretary he met the other day.”

“Find out what his job is.”

“Yes sir.”

“Also, try to find out about all his previous jobs,” Aarav ordered passively as he tossed the phone on the chair.

Ten million dollars was no joke and he was going to figure the end of it. After all his sister and his nephew were involved in this huge game of webs.
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“Another package for Arhaan,” the mail man dropped in another brown box at the Ross mansion which made Sana sigh in complete frustration.

This was almost the two hundredth package of the day, this mail man was dropping by every other minute, restricting Sana from doing any work. The minute she got to look at her emails, the bell would ring loudly in her ears, either causing Arhaan to run towards the door, dropping a few items in the process or causing Sana to take the mail.

“I’ll sign it on his behalf,” she instructed as she took the pen and signed for what seemed to her as the millionth time.

She smiled with sympathy at the mail man as he left back to his truck in a grumpy state as Sana juggled the box and her phone in both her hands. Carefully lifting the box, she strided towards Arhaan’s room and she was greeted with similar boxes outside the door. She pouted in confusion before twisting the door open making her gasp seeing all the papers, toys and random stuff lying on the floor.

“Arhaan, here is the two hundredth parcel for you,” she yelled at him in the room as she scanned for his image but found none.

“Can you please come and give it to me?” she heard him yell from the other side of the bed.

She sighed inwardly before making her way to the other side of the bed, tumbling over a few teddy bears in the process. What were they doing there? She had no idea.

“What is going on? Oh my god! What the hell is all this?” Sana snapped as she saw Arhaan snatch the box from her hand and fish through the box, tearing open all the wrapping paper, tossing them on his bed while he pushed some cards to the floor of his overly messy room irritating Sana even more.

“You don’t know?” he finally looked up, his face radiating in complete excitement.
“Is it your b’day? I am so sorry, Happy Birth-” she started to sing in a cheery tone hiding her guilt of not knowing it before.

“No!” Arhaan yelled at her which made her stop with perplexment.

“Did you win something?” she tried once again as she examined his room filled with presents, cards, paper and boxes.

“No!”

“I give up, tell me what all this is.”

“Today is celebrate Arhaan day.”

“Today is celebrate what day?” she asked in extreme disbelief at what she was hearing.

“Celebrate Arhaan day,” Arhaan repeated with his chest swelling in pride.

“What the heck is that?”

“It is the day where the entire word appreciates me and sends me gifts saying so awesome I am.”

“English please,” Sana mumbled, not comprehending anything he was saying.

“I get gifts, letters, posters from all my friends who tell me how much they appreciate having me as their friend.”

Sana glared at him with her mouth open wide, unable to digest those words. She didn’t want to be rude but who the heck does that? “Why don’t they just do that on your b’day?”

“Because one day is not enough for their appreciation so I added the extra day and I have friends from all over world. It is hard to manage all that in one day.”

“Okay,” Sana muttered, stretching the word as she her mind worked its way through this entire philosophy of ‘Celebrate Arhaan Day’.

“But this is nothing compared to my Flirt Day,” he boasted as he stuck another poster of Arhaan and another guy to his wall.

“Now what is that?” Sana could swear that her head was on the edge of bursting open with so much information at one time. First the mystery, then her dad’s diary, then the locked up boxes and then Arhaan’s craziness.

“That is the day where I get love letters, gifts from all the girls I flirted with. Like my own valentine’s day and I pick one girl from all that to go on a date with.”

“So, it’s a contest?”

“Sort of but I do get all the fan mail!” Arhaan swanked and continued, “You know what? You should have all these days too!”

“I’m good celebrating them like ‘normal’ people.”

“Well, sucks for you then. Look what I got?”

“Keys, you got keys,” Sana answered lamely. This whole celebration thing might be really getting onto him.

“They are not ordinary keys. They are keys to the latest edition chopper,” Arhaan informed as he shrugged a jacket on.

“Say what?” Sana hissed with amusement. What kind of friend does this guy have? Sana thought that this was only for fun but this was quite serious business.

“My friend, the son of the president of France sent me this for Celebrate Arhaan day!”

“That is insane!” Sana commented with her mouth hung open as they heard the sound of the chopper landing.

“I know! Let’s go on a ride,” Arhaan grabbed her hand and let her out of the house, Sana still gawking with extreme shock.

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“You know about that?” Sana gaped at Aarav, who just told her that he was quite familiar with Arhaan’s idea of crazy days.

“Yep, I am the first person to get him something for all those days,” Aarav shrugged as he helped Sana out of the chopper.

After flying in the air for so long and hearing that Aarav was allowing all this, Sana couldn’t help but freeze completely.

“What do you mean all those days? He has more than two?”

“He has twelve, one for each month, so that he doesn’t ‘bored’,” he said air quoting the word ‘bored’.

“He is quite spoilt.”

“I blame my dad. He made him the centre of attention in a very young age,.

“Speaking of your dad, do you know why he had so many boxes without keys?”

“How do you know?”

“Arhaan and I were strolling around the house before his gifts got here. He said that he needed a distraction before he got all crazy.”

“Really?” Aarav asked her suspiciously, knowing that Arhaan wouldn’t randomly spill so much information to Sana.

“Yeah,” Snaa trailed off with her face showing as much as innocence as possible to hide the curiosity almosting leaping out her chest.

“We don’t know. He never really mentioned them in his diary not his will and Dadu said that they might be some personal belongings so we just let them be.”

“Okay,” she said with a tiny smile, still pondering over the fact about the boxes but not letting any desperation spill in the process.

“By the way, why are you here at this time?” she questioned as they walked towards the Ross mansion while they could hear Arhaan yell at the pilot to fly him to France to thank his friend.

“There was no work to do and I didn’t know you were here. I didn’t trust Arhaan with boxes of gifts alone in the house. Last year, he forgot to shut the door after receiving some gifts that a few mice, rabbits and other small animals entered the house,” Aarav replied, rolling his eyes.

“Oh,” Sana said in amusement before chuckling at animals chasing Arhaan around the house.

“Why sad that I am home?” he whispered huskily in her ear, pulling her back, his arm securing tightly around her waist.

“Ofcourse not. I like it when you are around,” she responded nonchalantly until she heard Aarav take a sharp intake of breath.

“I..I, I mean, so that I can annoy you and have a person hear out my banter,” her face flushed as she stuttered coming up to cover her big mouth.

“So you are telling me that you in love with me? Arhaan asked her, his voice deep and low, filling a melodious tune in her ear as she closed her eyes to avoid her heart from stopping due to its immense beating.

“Shit,” she cursed when she realized at the direction her words were pointing at.

“Ah, don’t curse your mouth for the slip. I have already known about it, there were a few signs before,” Arhaan trailed out, his words hot in her ears, causing the flush to deepen on Sana.

“What?” she breathed out as his grip went extra tight on her waist while his mouth failed to leave her ear, sending delightful tingles down her body.

“I mean the kiss, defending me, helping me. I thought you had motives but then figured you have feelings,” he hoarsely whispered, causing Sana to close her eyes in regret. Why did she have to open her big mouth?

“I think Arhaan’s craziness got into you,” she retorted as she moved away from his grip to face him directly. Gasping at the intense emotion swirling in his eyes, trapping her to reveal the truth.

“Did it?” he asked her as he took a step forward, his nose gently stroking hers which made her breath hitch in her throat.

“Yeah, I meant, I love you as a person, as a friend.”

“What’s next, brother zoning me?” he mocked, his gaze turning causal again.

“That is so damn cliche?”

“Is it? Or are you? I mean, accidentally slipping and then going into denial mode,” he smirked with rich pleasure while Sana glared at him.

“I am not in denial!”

“You sure?”

“Yes, I am not in denial.”

“Hundred percent?”

“Aarav Ross, I don’t love you!”

“Really?”

“I am not in love with you.”

“Okay.”

“I. Am. Not.”

“I am already convinced. You can stop unless you have somebody else to convince about this,” he trailed out, placing a warm kiss on her cheek before strolling back to the house, leaving her in a puddle of confusion.

“No,” she whispered to herself before wondering. Was there somebody else that needed to be convinced? She was sure about all this right?

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“Sana, where is my phone?” Aarav growled as he plunked the sheets of the bed, desperately trying to find his phone to leave the house but his phone just had to run away.

“I am not a magnet to attract your phone, find it yourself,” he heard her groan from behind.

He turned around with frustration marking itself on his face as he met with Sana’s twinkling eyes, a big grin on her face as she eyed him.

“What?” he asked her as she refused to move out of his way.

“Don’t you have to tell me something?”

“Oh yeah, Arpi Di might be coming to stay for a couple days,” he said in a monotonous voice as he fiddling with the couch to find his phone.

“That’s nice but anything else?” she asked as she came and sat on the couch as he continued to search for the phone.

“Except the fact that you are annoying, no,” Aarav deadpanned as he jerked her off the place.

“No, think about it. Is there anything you are forgetting?”

“Nope.”

“Are you sure?”

“What the hell Sana! Move out of the way,” he yelped as Sana mimicked his action, standing right in his way.

“Not until you say the three magical words,” he froze vividly at the words left her mouth.
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How was that? Especially Arhaan’s Celebrate Arhaan Day and Flirt Day? lol!, I love his character so much!

Now coming to actual topic, I didn’t update because of my b’day which was a few days ago, so I had too many preparations going on for that. And, my university just started today and I am going to have to work extra hard as all my classes are super hard. I really want to update but I don’t think I can be punctual anymore.

Why? Well ask my teacher who decides that we should have a quiz on the second day of the year. This is quite a big year for me, I really like writing but I can’t let it become a distraction so I will continue this but I may be a little irregular with the updates BUT I am going to give it a proper ending. Please support me!

Keep reading and take care!