Link to the previous part- 2
“Mr. Jindal’s will papers? But what do they have to do with Anika?”
Shakti asked out of shock!!
Chopra smirked at that “It has a LOT to do with Anika…”
Anika stepped back from where she stood not remembering the stool behind. Shivay held her before she fell down. Her gaze turned from the papers to Shivay. Standing on her own feet she nodded a vigorous no to him and ran away.
“Anika wait… Anika…”
Shivay followed her to the room. She sobbed as quietly as possible with a pained look.
“Anika… don’t please.”
Shivay literally begged pulling her up from the bed into his arms. He felt helpless when he found an assuring hand on his shoulder.
Om stood there with Rudra. Om pulled out Anika from Shivay’s arms who had started crying wholeheartedly in his embrace. Om wiped off her tears from her swollen face and held her firmly by her shoulders.
“No Anika. No. You can’t fall weak! You are that same bhabhi of mine who went off with a man who had once tried to kill her just for the sake of her love, without caring about the future. You are that same bhabhi of mine who’s not afraid of the future, how can she today fall weak in front of the past? No.
We are here for you. You were alone when you accepted that you’ve no past. Today, when it’s the time to accept that you do have one, you have a whole family beside you Anika. It’s going to be a lot easier. Trust me” She looked up at Om and realized he meant it. His hold confirmed that she indeed has a family to stand beside. She smiled slightly earning one back from Om. Shivay suddenly felt that he has never been that proud to have him as a brother.
They all stepped back to the living room and even though rest of the family had been expecting Anika to be in an emotional state they rather found Rudra’s eyes more wet and Om trying to console him.
Shivay held Anika’s hand and stood in front of Mr. Chopra “Sir, you can start explaining”
For a change there was some seriousness in the lawyer’s face which was more like a concerned look that he had fixed on Anika.
“Sit down my Girl…”
She sat down in front of him refusing to leave Shivay’s hand. Chopra nodded at him in a way after which Shivay took the seat beside his wife.
“My dear, to start with… Ashutosh has divided his property and everything he had, carefully into parts. To be exact, among three of you. Though I won’t say he has divided them equally, but in a good enough way that none of you’ll be having issues.”
Each and every word raised a new question in Anika’s mind. Shivay asked them aloud “Three of them?”
“Yes. One is Anika, and then there are two more ladies, or girls, we don’t know…”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I mean I don’t know anything about the other too, except their probable names.”
“What?” this remark of shock came from Tej.
Chopra’s devil may care smirk was back “That’s not your concern though. Anika right now, according to the will, if I sum it up, you own the max of it”
No matter how much she prepared herself but still, she couldn’t help but get surprised each time. She found a bit of her voice and managed to ask “Why?”
The old lawyer who seemed like kind of reading the papers again, looked up at her “Huh? Why? Why what? Oh! Why do you hold maximum portion? That’s because Ashutosh has given you such portions of his property which costs more than what he has given to the other two. Though one of those other two also has some really serious and major holding, but still according to my knowledge you have got more. One of the big reasons behind is, you got the Jindal mansion”
“What? The Jindal mansion?” This time even Shakti couldn’t hide his shock.
Om decided to focus on Anika’s real question that went unanswered, so he repeated it again. “Why is Anika getting so much of Mr. Jindal’s property? Is she anything to Mr.Ashutosh Jindal?”
The old lawyer stared blankly at Anika for moments and whispered calmly “Maybe!”
Mr. Chopra didn’t bother to give any further explanations. He took a few sips of water, probably dried up due to his last long dialogue, and looked back at the papers.”So Anika, or Mr. Shivay, would you like to see the papers? As much as I remember along with the mansion, your wife is getting a few industries from Jindal group of industries and… mmm… yeah I don’t have much knowledge about the technicalities of industries, which I suppose you’ll have Mr. Shivay, but according to my understanding, in the case of a few industries she’ll be having a few…. Portions?”
“Can I see the papers?” Shivay somehow managed to speak.
“Oh yes please…” the old man turned the papers towards him.
Anika sat there still, leaving his hand for him to check the papers freely and tried to move far from the papers as if it was emitting something unbearably toxic.
The old lawyer continued “Ajay, have you brought the copies of these papers for them? … Great. Anika beta, though it seems you are not much interested, to say the least, but still according to the protocol I have to say that you, Mrs. Oberoi, have free access to check your holdings before signing the papers and the Mansion is open for you. Mmmm… Sir, are you done?”
He asked this to Shivay, who was checking the papers carefully as if he still wished it to be a misunderstanding.
“Kind of but…”
“Don’t worry; Ajay will be giving you 2 copies of these papers. Now if you’ll allow me…”
They all stood up with him and he started to leave…
“Mr. Chopra? Are you sure, I’m the Anika you are looking for?”
The old lawyer turned looked at her sympathetically. He stepped towards her and kept a blessing hand on her head, “Ashutosh had said this to me once, ‘When you’ll give these papers to her, she won’t know that she deserves it’”
Chopra paused to look at Shivay, “Thank You for helping us to recognize her”
He put back his casual attire and turned to leave when he stopped again “I don’t know about the firms and the industries, but I think you should really go to the mansion once, before calling me to sign the papers” He left.
BACK IN SHIVIKA’S ROOM
“You both usually are always together so I guess one of the copies should be with me and Rudra”
“Hmmm okay” Shivay replied to Om
“But I don’t want this… No. I don’t want all these” Anika mumbled looking down at the floor. Rudra went and sat on the floor in front of the bed where she was sitting. “Bhabhi we know, we know you do not care about these property rights and all” He kept a hand on hers. Om calmly went and kept a hand on her shoulder “Anika, none of us here cares what you are getting, but right now WHAT is not our concern, the question is WHY?”
“Anika, let’s go!!”
Shivay’s sudden remark surprised everyone. Anika looked up at him questioningly, who now was standing right in front pulling her up by her hand.
“But where?”
“Jindal mansion…”
Shivay and Anika stood infront of the Jindal mansion. Her fingers that laced his, suddenly tightened at the view.
The guards instantly opened the gates seeing them approach. They entered the mansion.
ANIKA
I felt like turning around and running away from this place. Somewhere far… but I couldn’t. My feet felt too heavy. There was a fear within me which I had no idea why. Why am I so scared? The thought made me angry. I released Shivay’s hand to prove myself that I can do this. This is just a mansion like any other. All the confidence I had gained started fading away with each step I took inside. It was equally large like that of Oberoi mansion and was designed very beautifully. Long chiffon coloured curtains, polished wood furnitures, the mansion had a very homely feel. I quite liked the surroundings because they were exactly of my… of my taste!!
“What’s wrong Anika?”
I understood, the realization must have made me stop abruptly.
I nodded a no to him. He was already too worried about me.
One thing that I had accepted was this man, Ashutosh Jindal, whoever he was, must have been related to me. Amid all these happenings of the day I realized why he looked familiar to me… because he looked like me!!
We were now standing on the first floor of the mansion. Entering Mr. Jindal’s bedroom, I found almost everything in place except a few books which were casually kept on the bedside table. No pictures or frames were up on the walls. The textured walls stared blankly at as. We stepped out of the room since none of us liked intruding into one’s personal space.
The servant who was guiding us led us to the next room, which according to him was the store room. He opened the door and I went still.
It was too dark. Exactly that much darkness, which I couldn’t tolerate.
I was scared…
SHIVAY
Standing right beside me I found Anika shivering for no reason “Anika, are you fine?”
She didn’t reply, and continued staring wide eyed at the store room.
“Anika!! Anika!!” I jerked her to bring her back into reality…
“Shivay. Shivay. Get me out of here. it’s dark too dark”
Never before in my life had I seen Anika that scared, she went hysteric.
“No Anika, it’s not dark. See, it’s just early afternoon, how can it be dark?”
I ordered the servant to switch on the lights of the store room but that only worsened the things. The sight of the store room scared her more. She denied to look at it and instead clenched to my coat hugging me and looking absolutely at the opposite direction. The rate at which she was shivering now worried me that she might faint. I lifted her up and took her to the bedroom instead,
Anika was crying loudly now, and repeated the same thing again and again which made no sense to Shivay “It was too dark there. Too dark. I don’t want to go back there. Please don’t take me there. Promise me you won’t take me there. Shivay please, I can’t, it’s too dark!!”
With a lot of efforts from Shivay’s side, Anika was finally asleep. Shivay decided to visit the store room himself, before she wakes up.
Standing inside the store room he thought that the room seemed absolutely fine to him. Which he felt was comparatively empty being a store room. He checked the room carefully but found nothing. He started leaving when something caught his sight… something carved on the absolute lower corner of the wall. He kneeled down and looked closely, the carving looked like that of a very young kid which read… ‘Chutki’ !!