In the Name of Love – Chapter 32

Those of you who missed the previous update, here is the link :

https://www.tellyupdates.com/in-the-name-of-love-chapter-31/

@Mary Thank you so much. Of course, when I first started out, I didn’t expect I’d make it to 31 chapters. All thanks to the love, appreciation and motivation from readers like you!
Don’t worry Riddhima is a smart girl, she’ll figure a way out of Aryan’s evil plans.
@Priyanka Thakur Thank you so much. Yes, but she won’t agree to his cheap condition.
@Unnamed Thank you so much. Yes, since the three of them are blood related, they have such cheap mentalities. Riddhima being Riddhima, won’t discuss this with Vansh. Firstly, because she wants to do it all on her own, and also because now she knows that he is keeping somethings from her. As for Aryan, you’ll see in this chapter how she tackles it. Also I’m really glad that you liked it.
@Yashi Thank you dear
@Ayesha Misunderstandings are bound to happen, but Aryan won’t be the cause of that, I can ensure you that.
@Akirti Thank you dear
@Niyati12 Thanks a lot. Yes, go and kill him. You have full permission, lol.
@Prapti0809 Thanks a lot. Yeh Riddhima kabhi nahi sudhregi. Ab main kya hi bolun uska. (hehe)
@Samara There will be misunderstanding coming up, but it depends upon them if they’ll be able to solve them or not.
@Deepa Thank you so much! Yes, now the mystery about her parents is going to open. Tbh, I stretched it for too long.
@1234Aayu Thank you dear. Glad that you liked it.
@RiansHLoveR Thanks a lot. Yes, the same thing happens to me too, so I understand how you feel. They feel that being a good student academically is very easy, when it is not.
@Ravneet Thanks a lot
@Parul The next few chapters will be coming regularly because they are already completed
@Jayashree Thanks a lot
@Priyadharshini Thank you dear
@Vkjhp Thank you dear
@AarushiSoni Thank you so much. Aww, that song is one of my favourites too.
@Aisha08 Thanks a lot. So glad to know that!
@Samistha Choudhary Here is the update
@Priyanshi_13 Thanks a lot
@Priyanka Don’t worry, she won’t agree to him.
@Neetu Thank you dear
@Scarlet Flower Thanks a lot. Ikr, he has been behaving in a very cheap manner lately.
@Priya Singh Thank you dear
@Frozen Hidden Thank you so much! Happy to see you liking it.
@Qt Thank you so much. Don’t worry, Riddhima is not that dumb to listen to his stupid demands. Yeah, even she herself understood that she loves Vansh much lesser than how much he loves her.
@Pomu Thanks a lot. Yeah, now let’s see how they manage to overcome these problems in their relation.
@Riaa Thank you so much. Yeah, I prefer slow and steady romance, because that way it gets attached to your heart. That’s why I like your stories because everything is gradual, not sudden.
Haha, I know right! Especially I’m the one to be blamed for that, because I made him the villain in not one but both the stories! Bechara, I feel guilty sometimes (hehe). And you are right. There’s so much scope to his character that can be utilized.
No, my exams will be held most probably after July I guess. We don’t have a date yet. That is why I intend to wrap up both the FFs as soon as possible.
@Parita Thank you so much. Yeah, Riddhima finally confessed her love , but only to her friend and to herself. If only Vansh knew that, he’d be on cloud nine I guess (hehe) Tbh, Vansh is madly in love with her, that is why he has got so daring.
That’s the whole problem with Riddhima. She is very impulsive and impatient. That’s definitely one factor going to bring in problems for them.
@Milee Thank you so much. She might misunderstand Vansh, but she won’t take any wrong step in case of Aryan. That’s for sure.

xxxx

Aryan banged his fist on the wall. “Damn you Riddhima!”

She had spoiled the whole drink that he had spiked. He had poured the entire packet of drug into the drink, and now, he had no spare drug left. His carefully thought of plan had gone to the drains.

He thought, “Don’t worry Aryan. You still have that ‘deal’ with Riddhima going. If not this way, then surely I’ll use another way to separate Bhai and Riddhima. I’ll make sure that Bhai catches both of us in bed red-handed.
Sorry baby, but when your dearest fiance will come to know that you slept with his younger brother instead of him, he will go mad and throw you out of the house.
This is called killing two birds with one stone. On one hand I get to have my share of fun with you, and on the other, your relationship with Bhai also gets ruined.”
________________

The next morning, Riddhima woke up early, with her eyes looking all saggy. To be honest, she couldn’t sleep properly the entire night, as her mind kept wandering around about the ACP’s secret message to her earlier, and about her mother’s ring being found in Vansh’s safe.

“What should I do now? There must be some way to dig deep into this matter?” she thought in despair.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she wasn’t even looking where she was going, and collided straight into Vansh.
He helped her to steady herself.

“I’m sorry,” Riddhima mumbled.

“Are you okay? Is there something bothering you?” he asked looking genuinely worried. “Since we came back from the garden yesterday evening, you’ve been acting weird.”

“I’m fine, thank you.”

Vansh sighed. “Riddhima, I know you’re a strong, independent woman who can solve her problems on her own, and that you don’t like anybody’s uncalled interference. But, but, how do I explain all of this to my heart which breaks into a million pieces whenever I see you upset like this?”

Riddhima thought, “Vansh, if you really cared so much about me getting upset, you wouldn’t have hidden all this from me in the first place.”

She stammered, “Uhm…well…actually….I realized that I had wrongly answered some of the questions in my exams, so…”

Vansh patted her shoulder. “It’s not marks that makes a man successful, but rather his will power, ability to learn new things, and hardwork that works in the end. And you, have all these qualities in you. I’m sure, you’ll become a very good doctor in the future. Besides, no hospital or patient will look at your marks before approaching you.”

Riddhima remained quiet.

Vansh continued, “Also, we have our dinner date tomorrow, right? I’ve booked a resort for us, and I want you to become all cheered up before that.”

Saying this, he left from there.

Riddhima had barely walked two-three steps ahead, when suddenly out of nowhere, she was pulled behind a pillar.

“What kind of misbehaviour this is?” she asked angrily.

Aryan grinned, pinning her down. “Come on, sweetheart. Did you forget about our deal yesterday night? It’s time to fulfill it.”

She pushed him away. “Firstly, no one else can call me sweetheart except for Vansh. And secondly, which deal are you talking about? I don’t remember anything of such kind.”

Aryan glared at her. “Don’t try to act smart with me! You blo*dy promised me, you just cannot back away from it. That’s not fair!”

“I don’t care,” she snapped.

“Don’t challenge me like that, Riddhima. You have no idea that you are messing up with the wrong man,” threatened Aryan.

“Go and give your good-for-nothing threats to someone else, not me. I’m not afraid of anyone,” snarled Riddhima.

“Oh no, babe. You might seem all courageous for the world, but there is one person whom you actually fear,” said Aryan. “And that is, Bhai.”

He continued, “Just imagine how will he react, when I tell him about your adventure into his study last night. He won’t leave you…”
He was cut off midway by the notification on his phone.

Riddhima said, “You want to spill everything out to Vansh, right. Go ahead and be my guest. But before that, just check your phone.”

Aryan was surprised at how unfazed she acted despite his threats. He took out his phone and was shocked to see a video showing him, Ahana and Chanchal making plans to overthrow Vansh.

Riddhima stood akimbo and said, “Yesterday I had witnessed all of this. That is why, I purposely collided with Ahana to spill the drink over in order to foil your so-called master plan.
Now you start imagining about what will happen when Vansh watches this video? Your cards are still blocked and Chachi’s jewellery is still under confiscation. So…what will the next punishment be? Simple, kick the mother-son duo out of the house!”

Aryan stared at her open-mouthed. This girl was smart, way too smart than he had imagined.

Riddhima smirked, “So, will you still go and blurt out my truth to Vansh? Nah! I don’t think you are that dumb.” She lightly tapped his cheek before leaving. “You messed with the wrong girl, dude. Better luck next time!”

Aryan grumbled to himself, “If not this time, but next time, I’ll surely teach you such a lesson that you’ll remember it throughout your life, Riddhima.”
_____________________________________

When Riddhima entered the living room, she found Sia unwrapping a small package.

“What’s that?”

“Oh nothing, it’s just a CD containing the video footage of yesterday’s party,” said Sia. “This is my most favourite part about parties, watching their recorded highlights the next morning.”

“Was yesterday’s entire party video recorded?” Riddhima asked.

“Not only yesterday’s party. But all parties hosted by the Raisinghanias, either at our house, or at the hotel, have always been video recorded,” explained Sia.

Riddhima recalled how on the day of her mother’s death, the Raisinghanias had coincidentally held a party at Golden Tulip Hotel. In fact, she and her entire family had also been invited to the party, but because of prior commitments, they had to head to Waves Mall instead for a supposed family reunion with her paternal relatives.

If Vansh was in any way involved in all this, then she could find some clue in the footage of that party.

“And what if I wanted to see the recording of an old party? Say something from two months ago?” enquire Riddhima.

“No worries! You’ll find them in VR Mansion’s video library,” said Sia.

“Can you take me there?” asked Riddhima.

“Of course! Come, follow me,” said Sia, propelling her wheelchair, while Riddhima walked behind.

Riddhima was amazed to see the video library. She had never been to this place before. There were at least more than a thousand CDs and videotapes. Movies, dramas, cartoons, animes, gaming – it was really a sight to behold.

Sia led the way towards a large rack that bore the label “PARTIES” over it.
All CDs were arranged in a datewise order.

“Which one do you want to see?” asked Sia.

“21st March 2021,” she replied getting emotional.

Previously, that date always used to remind her of her father’s birthday, but now it was nothing but a symbol of dread for her. That very day, she lost her mother and father too. What was initially supposed to be a happy family outing, turned out a literal nightmare for her. That very day her parents had gone missing out of the blue, right from the middle of a busy mall.
Fifteen days later, her mother’s body was found near an old building close to the mall. Apparently, she had fallen from the terrace of the building down to her death.

But her father, he was still missing. And she didn’t know where and in what condition he was. Was he even alive?

She was broken from her train of thoughts, when Sia said, “I can’t find the CD with that date on. Are you sure about the date though?”

How could Riddhima not be sure of that date that changed her whole life?

“Of course. I guess this party was apparently held at Golden Tulip Hotel in honour of Vansh’s successful hotel business,” said Riddhima.

“Oh yeah that one! I remember it now,” said Sia. “But God knows why that CD is missing from the rack. All the other CDs are there, except that particular one.”

Riddhima grew even more weary. She realized that perhaps Vansh didn’t want anyone to watch the glimpses from that night’s party, and therefore hid it away.

Now she became even more sure that the clue to her mother’s death is there in the video footage of that party. But how’d she manage to get her hands on it?
_____________________________________

There was a lot of commotion in the lecture hall. With their exams over recently, everyone was busy noisily chatting to their friends.

“Guys, attention please,” Rahul, the CR of the batch, tried hard to get them all quiet, but no one was in a mood to listen.

“What the hell is wrong with you all!” he screamed. Everyone turned silent.
“We are not here to chit-chat or gossip. We need to discuss about the farewell party that we will be organising for our seniors. This would be the last year for our seniors, and I want all of us to give them the most memorable night of their life. I want this party to be the best party in the history of JC Medical College!”

The rest of the students hooted and clapped loudly.

Rahul continued, “We’ll be having dances, singing, stand up comedy, short skits and lots of games! Interested students, give your names to me ASAP.
And the most important thing is the money. I want all of you to contribute wholeheartedly.”

At this, the students started booing.

“Come on, don’t act so miserly all of you! Without the money, how will we make sure that everything is top notch?” said Rahul. “Also, we have not decided upon the venue, so if you guys have any ideas on that, please feel free to share.”

Riddhima was keenly listening to all this, when suddenly, an idea struck her.

“Rahul, I’ve an idea for the venue though. Golden Tulip Hotel.”

“What?” he looked surprised.

“Yes. It is the number one hotel in Mumbai,” she added.

“Of course, she will say that. After all, it is her fiance’s hotel,” one of the students spoke.

The whole class started howling at this.

Riddhima felt embarrassed. “Okay, I agree it is Vansh’s hotel. But there’s no denying that it’s the best hotel in town. If we want our party to be best, we should ensure that the venue is also best.”

Rahul backed her up. “You are right. And since you know Vansh Sir on a personal level, will you be able to get the hotel booked for us?”
He murmured, “And try to get us some discount in the price too.”

Riddhima nodded in approval. “Fine. I’ll get that done. Arranging the venue would be my responsibility.”

She thought to herself, “I really have to know what exactly happened on the eve of 21st March at the party. With no further information available in VR Mansion, the next place to investigate would be the Golden Tulip Hotel. Hopefully, I’ll find some clues there.”
______________________________

Vansh was sitting in the personal cabin of his office, studying some files, when his phone started ringing.

His face lit up on seeing who it was.

“Hello Vansh! I hope you weren’t busy.”

“I was busy,” said Vansh. “But not anymore.
Why did you call me by the way? Did you have any work, or were you missing me?” he enunciated on the last few words.

Riddhima fell silent. Vansh waited for her to to speak, but instead heard the voice of another girl coming from a little far away.

“Riddhima, why are you being so formal with him? Why don’t you act all lovey-dovey with him?”

Riddhima tried to shush Ashima up, but it was too late. Vansh had already heard that.

“Who is that?” he asked.

“Just ignore her Vansh, and concentrate on me,” said Riddhima, glaring at her friend who was giggling beside her.

“My concentration has only been upon you, Riddhima. Always,” said Vansh softly.

Riddhima fumbled with her words. “Actually I needed a favour from you. Our batch wants to throw a farewell party for the seniors, and everyone thinks that Golden Tulip Hotel would be an ideal venue for that.
Since everyone now knows that I am your fiancee, all thanks to you, they wanted me to talk to you about this. So….”

Vansh said, “So done. I’ll inform the hotel manager about the same. He’ll look after the further arrangements. But for that you’d have to meet him personally. Once I get back from work in the evening, I’ll take you there….”

“No! That is not needed,” Riddhima cut him off. “I mean you don’t have to come along. I’ll go along with Rahul now itself. We have only ten more days for the party so we’ve to act as fast as possible. Can’t wait till evening, you see.”

“Who is this RAHUL?” Vansh asked suddenly, not able to hide his envy.

“He is the class representative,” she replied irritatedly. “Anyways, there are a lot of other arrangements also to be looked after, so I need to hang up. Ok, bye!”

“Hello Riddhima, listen to me…..” Vansh tried to say but Riddhima had already disconnected the call by then.

He felt disappointed. What was wrong with her? Why was she trying to act all formal with him and avoiding him like that?
______________________________________

“Wow man, this is so freaking lavish! No wonder, it has been given the title of the best hotel in the city,” said Rahul, totally dumbstruck by the majestic appearance of the hotel.

Just like it’s name, the hotel’s exteriors were done in golden beige colour. Huge date palms and two statues of lions stood in front of it.

Riddhima had to crane her neck to be able to see the topmost floor from the ground – the fortieth floor.

Rahul said, “Looking at it, I can only imagine how high the price must be. Our classmates won’t be ready to pay such a large amount…”

“Good afternoon, Riddhima Ma’am,” the Manager greeted them with a smile. “I hope you like our service over here.”

“I guess Vansh must have spoken to you about this. We need a party hall for a college party next week,” she said.

“Oh yes, he told me everything. We have many party halls that you are free to choose from. Let me show you some of them.”

The Manager took the lead while Riddhima and Rahul followed him.

They soon entered a huge hall. “This is one of the most preferred halls by our customers,” said the Manager.

Rahul was amazed. “Whoa, it’s so damn large! By the way, what would be it’s cost?”

“It’s absolutely free. Vansh Sir has asked us to not charge even a single penny from you.”

Riddhima was taken aback. Vansh wasn’t going to charge them just because of HER? He cared for her so much, and what was she doing?

” Vansh Sir is so kind,” beamed Rahul. “Listen Riddhima, I’ve an idea. Why don’t we invite Vansh Sir to our party, too?”

“What!” Riddhima blurted out. “Why do you want to invite him? What would such a big businessman do at a college party?”

“It’s just our little way of thanking him for doing so much for us. Even though we all know that he’s indirectly doing all this for you,” teased Rahul. “And even if he feels bored, you’d be there to give him company, right?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “We’ll talk about that later.”

All this discussion could wait, because now she had something more important to do.

Turning towards the Manager, she said, “I’ve heard that all the parties held by the Raisinghanias here are video recorded. Is that true?”

“Yes, it is. Vansh Sir has an odd habit of watching the highlights of previous nights’ parties.”

“Like brother, like sister,” Riddhima mumbled to herself.
“Hmm, what if we want to do the same thing with our party too? It would save us the hassles of hiring a videographer, you know.”

“Yes, it’s completely fine with us. We’ll video record this party too,” said the Manager.

Riddhima decided to play her next move. “Actually, before finalising anything, I’d first like to see a demo of how the video recorded footage looks like. If you don’t mind.”

“Of course, Ma’am. Follow me to the security room, I have some footages of previous parties over there.”

Riddhima asked Rahul to wait there itself, while she followed the Manager behind. He turned around the corner and entered a small room with lots of monitors in it.

The Manager sat down at one of the systems and working on it.

Riddhima said, “Actually, Vansh had held a party at this very place two months back. Unfortunately, due to some unspoken reasons, I couldn’t make it to the party. But I’d so like to see how that party went and what everyone did.”

“What date was it?” he asked.

“21st March 2021.”

As soon as she had said that, the Manager turned pale. “I’m sorry Madam, but we don’t have that one with us. It had mistakenly got deleted long time ago.”

Riddhima did not know what to make of this. Growing immensely impatient, she blasted the Manager.
“Why is the footage of only that eve’s party missing from everywhere? What is it all about?”

The Manager who was acting polite and sweet until now, suddenly turned stern. “Look, it got deleted, and that’s it. There’s nothing more to it.”

“But it might still be present in the backup at least,” she suggested trying to calm herself down.

“Enough of all this Madam. I won’t be entertaining your interference any longer. I’d prefer, you head back to your friend, right now.” The Manager showed her the door.

Riddhima understood that it was time to leave. But she wasn’t going to give up so soon.
_____________________________________

Riddhima took the lift to the fourth floor. She walked through a long corridor, and knocked at the door of a random room.

“Who is it?” a grumpy voice of a man came from inside.

When the door was opened after sometime, Riddhima smiled slyly to see the Manager and a scantily dressed young girl. The Manager became terrified and started sweating profusely.

Riddhima started off. “So this is what you do? Instead of doing your duty to serve the guests, you go ahead and start using one of these rooms for your own leisure with one of your mistresses? And aren’t you married and have kids? Yet, here you are cheating upon her.
When your dearest wife gets to know about your feat, she’ll divorce you. And when Vansh, who absolutely hates betrayers, gets to know it, do you know what would he do with you?”

She showed him a throat slitting gesture, signaling that he was so dead.

The Manager folded his hands in front of her. “Please don’t put me in such a dilemma. If Vansh Sir comes to know that I helped you, then….”

“He won’t ever know it. That’s my promise,” she assured him.

Giving into her demands to save his respect, he escorted her back to the security room.

“Give me some time,” he said, clicking something here and there.

After a long waiting period of ten minutes, he finally showed the video in front of her.
“Madam, I’ve some important work, so I need to go from here. But please, I beg you not o disclose about this to anyone.”

Saying this, the Manager left her to her own in the security room.

Taking a deep breath, Riddhima clicked the play button.

She gasped when she found that the video was four hours long, therefore she decided to watch it in fast forwarded mode.

Riddhima watched Vansh giving his speech and the crowd applauding for him. Don’t know why, but that made her feel really proud of his achievements.

She started burning in anger when she watched him dancing with five different girls. Again.
“Acts like a committed gentleman in front of me, but is a womanizer and a flirt in real,” she scowled.

Everything seemed normal until she spotted Anupriya leaving the party in a hurry.

“Where did she go all of a sudden?” Riddhima wondered.

Riddhima watched Anupriya return to the party only after an hour. She looked frightened for some unknown reason.

“Where had you been for the past one hour, Mom?” Vansh questioned her. “Everybody was asking about you.”

“Oh nothing. Just got a call from one of my friends. Couldn’t hear anything in this noisy crowd, so went outside to attend the call,” said Anupriya.

Vansh suddenly pointed towards Anupriya’s sari. “Where did these red stains come from?”

Anupriya started panicking again. “Uhm….on my way, I collided with a waiter, and he spilled the ketchup over me.”

Vansh said, “Fine. Clean yourself up, Mom.”

Riddhima paused the video then and there.

Her head started to spin as she started to connect the dots. Anupriya was absent from the party on 21st March for a whole one hour, between 8pm and 9pm. That was the exact time when both her parents had gone missing. Moreover, Waves Mall was quite near and only was a ten-minute drive away from the hotel. Anupriya could have easily gone and come back within that much of time.

Plus she had red stains on her sari. Which meant that those did not come from the ketchup spilling over her dress, but rather…

And of course, the most important clue, her mother’s ring in Vansh’s study.

“That means….Anupriya Aunty killed my m-m-mother? And Vansh is helping to hide her crime?” she thought in shudder.

Riddhima stumbled down to the floor and started crying.

Before she could know it, she felt a hard blow on her head from behind. She screamed, not able to bear the excruciating pain, and soon everything blacked out.

Precap:
Vansh starts panicking when he finds Riddhima missing.

Riddhima confronts Anupriya for her crime.

Hello everyone! That is it for today guys. Do vote and comment below.

Peace out!