MMZ: Broken (Chapter 2)

Hello friends! First of all ‘Shubh Rath Yatra’ and ‘Eid Mubarak’

Here is the next chapter…Happy reading:)

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Samaira groaned and buried her face in the pillow. It was one of those lazy days where she didn’t want to do anything except lying on the bed, wrapping herself in her comfy blanket like a cocoon. And it didn’t help her case as today she was off work. But the beautiful Friday morning was beckoning her and no matter how hard she wanted to stay put in her place, she probably can’t do that for Heaven’s sake! Hence slowly but surely she dragged herself towards the washroom, only to get the biggest shock of her life, or better to say meet the biggest shock of her life!

She stared at her reflection in the mirror with her mouth wide-open. Her hair can perfectly pass as a safe haven for the cuckoos’ and her eyes resembled a soccer ball which was yearning to be kicked towards the goal post. She looked like the twin sister of a zombie-from-one-of-those-Hollywood-fantasies, HELL! She looked precisely one of those lecherous blood –sucking, brain-eating zombies and if she didn’t mend herself at the earliest then Radhika would shove her into a super-sonic jet and send her off to Neverland! She wasn’t at home though but still you can’t trust your BFF when she happens to harbour the habit of going quirky at times!

After making herself look like a Homo sapien, she plopped down on the bed again. Samaira was about to hold the soft pillows, when her earlier zombie-image horrified the daylights out of her. No No No…Scrunching up her nose,she made a mental note to herself for stuffing away these pillows in the darkest corner of the closet as soon as possible. Of course later, as for now she was too languid.

She stared at the ceiling impassively. It has been four days since her last interaction with Neil. He was his usual cold and cranky self. But she had managed to stay her ground- that is not paying attention to him. She had perfectly dodged him but on the second day, it felt as if her stars are not in her favour. Neil’s intimidating gaze on her was creating a burning sensation in her and she just wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole! But why!? He always ignored her and now why… She decided to drop the matter for now as it was clearly a dead-end topic which’ll lead her to just bang her head on the wall.

She pondered what should she do now to break away from the creepy boredom. Obviously Stories! Neil had lots of books comprising classics, new age, thought provoking and different genres stacked away in the shelves in his study. Also he wasn’t at home so it was a green signal for her. She ran down the stairs, across the hall like a fireball and was finally at her destination. She scrutinised the books thoughtfully.
You see, stories were her best companion…after all if you’re an orphan you can relate to that feeling. Through her entire journey of life, they have been able to provide her solace and bliss. Samaira forgot herself in their world. It was as if she lived the characters’ life, endured their pain, sorrow, joy and everything. It was the only place she felt she belonged to. She had herself weaved imaginary tales about her life-one more of her favourite hobbies. She suddenly laughed at one such tale that she had created about her parents- they both were undercover agents and fearing for their daughter’s safety they had handed her over to the custody of the warden of her orphanage. Then when she’ll be of the right age then her parents will call her back and BAM! She would also be included in their team and break the bones of the enemies.

She was brought out of her hilarious memories when some books fell from the shelf accidentally. She bent down to pick them up and reprimanded herself for being such a klutz. As she picked up the last book, a small piece of paper came into her view. It wasn’t a paper but a tattered piece of black and white photograph. Samaira looked at it intently trying to make out a clear picture of the people in it. There was a man wearing round glasses. He had jet-black hair, was well built but the most appealing feature was his smile…a warm reassuring smile. Sitting next to him was an equally beautiful lady. She had an aura that exuded sophistication and elegance. Her curly locks and strikingly intense eyes were worth mentioning. There was also a little person, a little baby in the arms of the pretty lady wrapped up in a tiny white blanket. The face of the baby wasn’t clearly visible but Samaira could understand that the baby was sleeping when the picture was captured. Unknown to her, she felt a tug at her heart, a sense of attachment to the picture. She couldn’t point her finger on the emotions that she felt on seeing those two strangers.

She was brought out of her trance due to the loud screeching of the horn in the driveway of the mansion. It was Neil. She could recognise the horn of his car even in a loud over-crowded traffic jam. Clearly it wasn’t the right moment of patting herself on her special power, it was the time to dash out of his study before he eats her alive. She hurriedly kept the book in its place and scurried away to her room along with the photo. She didn’t have the heart to part away with it or she didn’t want to…

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Radhika was tapping her feet impatiently. One look at her face and it wouldn’t require a genius to understand that she was on a mission to kill a particular someone. The waiter came to give her the fifth coffee and looked at her weirdly before going away. Obviously anyone would when you seem to be waiting for someone but all you do is fill your stomach with loads of caffeine. Adding to her woes, there was still no sign of the said person. She glanced at her phone for the Nth time for any calls or messages. NOTHING. This was way too much! She banged her hand on the table muttering a few curses “Go to hell! You duffer, gadhe, idiot good-for-nothing scumbag. Dare you come in front of me, I’ll kick your a*s and make sure to strangle you to death.”

She promised herself that she would surely take revenge from him for standing her up at the cafe.

With this she paid her bill and made her way out of the cafe towards her car oblivious to the fact that someone was watching her every move since the past one hour. The prying eyes had clicked a dozen of her pictures and had sent them to the ‘TARGET’ now. Throwing the sim-card out of his phone and inserting a new one, he called someone and said “Boss, your work is done!”

There was a sudden outburst of a slimy and vicious laughter at the other end on hearing the news of the success of their first move.

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Arun Khanna frowned staring at his mobile screen. With each passing second, his frown was getting deeper interpreting the accurate implication behind sending the pictures of his darling daughter from the cafe. Neil was already hollering at the security staff for their lack of focus on following Radhika and guarding her safely from the hungry eyes of the enemy. Their only answer was that madam had prevented them from doing their work.

It wasn’t their fault too when Radhika had the prowess of having her way just by show-casing her irresistible puppy eyes. Arun had himself fell in her trap and had given up many times before. But this time the matter was serious and if they don’t pay heed, then they would lose everything just like they did 22 years ago.

Neil entered his father’s room and said calmly “We tried contacting the number but as expected the sim-card is not in use now. The number was only used for sending the photographs and its last location was at the cafe only. I have sent few of the guards to question some people around there but I don’t think so that we’ll be getting any lead.”

Arun said in a grave voice “I have a strong feeling it’s their work. They have returned to destroy what was left…And this time we can’t ignore them. They’re keeping a hawk’s eye on our each move. So we need to be very careful.”

“But Papa it can be the work of a business rival too…”

“No. It can’t be. I could have believed you but right now the moment is apt for their retaliation. They must have known the well-guarded secret that we have hidden till now. And then Samaira-“

“Samaira…No one can harm My Sam not until I’m alive. I won’t let them succeed this time.” Neil said in a determined voice.

Arun gave him a warm smile “You really love her very much”

Neil schooled his expression all of a sudden “Love? I would be the last person on this planet that you should be talking about love, Papa. Samaira was my responsibility, is and will always remain so. Nothing less than that and nothing more. And if you are so sure that they have returned, then we should be more alert because clearly their target isn’t only limited till Samaira this time, but we all are also involved. I’ll call Arjun and ask him to return from Germany as soon as possible” and with this he literally ran out of the room before his father can ask him any further questions.

Arun sank back into his arm-chair. He hadn’t missed the sparkle in his son’s eyes when he talked about Samaira. But Neil was stubborn. He would never accept his feelings for her. It was all related to that horrific incident that occurred 22 years back when his wife, Prerna was snatched away from the 5-year old Neil and 3 months old Radhika. From that day onwards, Neil had built a shield around himself. He knew his son couldn’t move past that day as he deeply loved his mother. Neil couldn’t overcome the loss no matter how hard Arun tried. But Arun was sure if anyone could bring Neil out of his self-imposed darkness and become the sun shine of his life, it was only Samaira. Neil had tried his best to evade her but then the heart doesn’t listen to the brain right. It follows its own course of action until it gets what it wants and the day wasn’t far when he would finally get back the innocent, lively and happy Neil back.

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“Look Ra-Ra my mood is clearly very very bad and only Kangana Ranaut can help me de-stress. So it would be better if you just follow my command” Radhika said childishly.

Samaira had been trying her level best from the last two hours to spill the beans from Radhika about her “bad mood” but she was tight lipped about it. And had also demanded that if she wanted to cheer her up then she had to dance with her which was so not happening.

“Radhu, you know I’m a horrible dancer and besides that you aren’t even telling the matter” Samaira whined

“What matter!? I’m upset about nothing because clearly I have the right to be upset about nothing” Radhika replied dramatically raising her hands in the air.

“Seriously Radhu you’re not making any sense” Samaira said shaking her head.

“And I don’t want to” pat came the reply from Radhika “And if you really want to see your BFF happy then you have to dance with me” Samaira opened her mouth to say something but she beat her to it “No more arguements. I’m not asking you I’m telling you Samaira Neil Khanna”

“Jaisi apki marzi Radhu Maa” Samaira said surrendering herself as evidently all her energy has been completely drained out.

And with that they both started to do some weird and funky steps swaying to the tunes of the crazy songs picturised on Radhika’s Kangana Ranaut. They were laughing, giggling and teasing each other throughout the routine ignorant of the danger slowly creeping into their lives sooner than anticipated…

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A/N:

This is a little bit long but please hear me out…

First of all thank you so much for the warm encouraging and lovely comments that you all have showered on me for the last two chapters. But there is a problem. My exams are just around the corner and hence I won’t be able to give any update till 26th July. Also m suffering from chronic back and neck pain for the last few days which is also the reason for a late update.

I know it’s completely unprofessional on my part but circumstances are clearly not in my hand. Hence friends can you all wait till 26th July or
should I post the complete summary of the story so that you don’t have to wait. Do tell me about ur decision…

P.S. Is there anyone from Odisha or happen to know Odia?

Till then bye-bye, keep smiling and tkcr