Chapter 27

"What?!" Akash was perplexed as he talked over the phone call. He learnt about Roli's abduction when he returned from his holiday trip two days ago. Soon he started investigating to reach the party behind the incident. However, all of his tries seemed to lead him nowhere. 

No matter what method he would use, all the evidence to lead to the mastermind behind it were disappearing just as he found out. He could not understand what was happening. 

After hanging up the call, Akash dialled Sid's number. 

"Hello," a stern voice replied from the other end of the call. 

"Sid, this is all getting strange now. I could locate the driver of the vehicle that was used to kidnap Roli. But, before I could reach him, he is disappeared. There is no trace of him anywhere. As if the person doesn't even exist" Akash started venting out as soon as Sid answered the call. 

On the other side, Sid just calmly listened but did not respond. While Akash continued "I will keep trying until I find out who did this and I swear I'm not going to leave the person". He was determined to punish the person who tried to harm his little sister. 

"Keep me updated" Sid spoke only a few words. 

"Sure. I will try to find if there are any leads to proceed with the case" Akash replied and disconnected the call. 

Sliding the phone into his pocket, Sid stared ahead, where a person was tied to a chair with a black cloth wrapping his eyes and his mouth taped. There were bruises at some places on his face and hands. 

Sid's eyes turned dark as his gaze travelled down to the person's wrist where a bloody X mark was engraved on it. He then raised his hand that was holding on to a sword with blood on it. 

"This is my game. And I should be the only one to punish my enemies. Neither the law nor the police" he spoke as he pierced the edge of the sword into the person's right thigh. 

With excruciating pain entering his body, the person could only cry in silence as his mouth was tapped. Listening to his silent cries, Sid's lips curled up to form a sinister smile that was appalling to look at.  

Sid slowly moved the sword upward and stopped at the person's neck, making him hold his breath. His whole body was layered with sweat as the coldness of the sword touched his neck.   

"Don't worry" Sid seemed to be satisfied with the effect he had on the person as he said, "Aryan doesn't kill people". 

The person let out a deep breath as he felt the sword taking off of his neck. But before he could be relieved for a moment, he heard "But, yeah, Aryan would make people wish for their death". 

And then the person felt a tickling all over his body that soon converted into an intense pain as if a thousand needles pricked every muscle of his body, creating his body to shake violently.

Sid or more precisely, Aryan watched the person suffering as he played with a small remote in his hand by switching on and off the button that sent electric shocks to the person. 

Not until the person almost fell unconscious did Aryan stopped playing with the button. 

Leaning to take a close look at the person, Aryan said "if this is what I would do to the person for driving the car to kidnap my Roli, just imagine what I'm going to do to the person who planned it". 

~×~×~

"I thought you would be under house arrest for your whole life now" Trisha joked, making Roli roll her eyes. 

"It's not really easy to keep me locked" Roli spoke as they both stepped out of the coffee shop. 

"Yeah, I know how you used to sneak out of the house when Akash bhaiya would lock you at home for fighting with boys in college" Trisha chuckled. 

"I was not fighting but just teaching them how to behave with girls" Roli retorted as an explanation. 

"By literally breaking their bones?" Trisha laughed reminding her of the memories when Roli would act like a Hitler in college. 

"I must appreciate the guts of those people who kidnapped you last week. I can't believe you left them alive just like that" Trisha continued to joke around. 

"Let's not talk about that now" Roli said slowly as it reminded her of the incident. She still had nightmares of the people laying in the pool of blood and the hoodie person, thinking of whom would still give her goosebumps, making her shiver. It was a strange feeling that she could not comprehend. 

It's been almost a week since the incident had happened. But, she was still not able to forget it. She had to act like she was not bothered with it lest Sid and Akash worry about her. But, she just could not stop thinking about the hoodie person. 

Sid did not let her go out after the incident and made arrangements for her to do office works from home to avoid making her feel bored. Even Akash supported Sid's decision when he got to know about the incident after he returned. 

Roli was definitely not okay with the restrictions. And to add to her fury, she learnt that Akash knew about Sid's plan of making her sign the wedding papers beforehand. But, he didn't let her know which made her go mad at him. 

It took nearly two hours for Akash to pacify his sister, explain to her why he didn't tell her and how Sid was the only person he could trust for her. Roli, though not whole-heartedly, agreed to stay at home for some days. 

Roli spent her time doing office works and chit-chatting with Sujata, with whom she had formed a special bond. But, when Sujata went back to Delhi, she started feeling alone at home and thought of going out to meet Trisha, though she was sure that Sid would not agree to it.  

However, to her surprise, Sid agreed to let her go when she asked that she wanted to go out. She was not expecting him to agree so easily and felt strange about his response. Nevertheless, she got the opportunity to go out and she would not want to miss it. 

"Are you serious?" Roli was snapped out of her trance as she heard Trisha's cry and found her talking on the phone seriously. 

"What happened?" Roli asked as she found Trisha being restless. 

"Varun got into an accident. His friend called and informed just now" Trisha's voice was trembling with distress.

"How is he now?" Roli inquired, worried. 

"He's in hospital now" Trisha was anxious to receive the news. 

"Relax, he will be fine. Let's go to the hospital" Roli suggested and they both rushed to the hospital.

When they reached the hospital, Varun was resting. The accident was not life-threatening and he was not severely injured, which made Trisha and Roli relaxed. Roli left Trisha to take care of him and quit the room. 

As she walked in the corridor, she found two familiar faces, a middle-aged woman and a guy, whom she would not want to see ever in her life. They were talking to a person and it seemed like they were warning him. Just then they both too noticed Roli and their expressions changed, instantly. 

"Roli, what are you doing in the hospital? Is your health alright?" Asked the woman, making Roli wish to punch at her face for the fake concern she was trying to show off. 

"Why do you care if my health is fine or not?" Roli scorned. 

"My mom is just showing her concern. Can you not be so rude to her?" the guy standing next to the woman, spoke up. 

"Vikram" the woman raised her hand to stop her son from further speaking and turned to Roli.  

"You're like my daughter and why would I not care about you?" The woman answered, sounding as if she really cared. 

"You're just a wife to the person, who once upon a time happened to be my father. That's it. Don't try to be my mother" Roli cleared despised the woman, who stole her mother's place in her father's life. 

"Are you Jamnalal and Meena Dwivedi's daughter?" Inquired the person, with whom the mother and son duo were talking a while ago. Roli glanced at him but she could not recognise him. 

"What if she is their daughter?" Vikram stared at the person, who looked anxious and went silent as if he did not want to disclose anything. 

Not wanting to stay there any longer, Roli was about to leave when she heard Vikram spoke: "Wait, Roli. Dad is in here. Don't you want to see him?". 

Roli looked in the direction that Vikram had pointed and found the ICU room. She wondered what might have happened that her father was in ICU. 

Perhaps, the little girl in her, who used to view her father as her superhero, could not help but ask "what happened to him?". 

"Heart attack" Roli was stunned to hear but didn't respond. 

"And guess who is responsible for this?" Vikram looked at Roli, who was waiting for him to continue. 

"Siddanth Bharadwaj" he said, making her frown.

"What Sid has to do with this?" Roli stared at Vikram, angrily.  

"He took over the Dwivedi enterprises. And you know how hard dad has worked to build his business. He couldn't cope up to see losing everything and suffered a heart attack" Vikram's words shocked Roli. 

"Sid took over Dwivedi enterprises?" Roli couldn't believe it. 

"Don't tell me you don't know about this" Vikram scoffed. 

Roli truly didn't know about it. Sid never mentioned anything about it. But, why he didn't tell her? She was perplexed. 

"If Sid didn't tell you about taking over your father's business then just imagine what else he may be hiding from you" Vikram instigated and finding Roli in a daze, he was sure that his words were hitting the right spot. 

Unable to believe what she just heard, Roli quietly left the place with numerous questions running in her mind. 

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Vikram's mother leaned towards him and asked in a low voice as she watched Roli leaving the ward. 

"Definitely works. As far as I have studied about Roli, she would surely burst at Sid now" Vikram felt like his plan was taking a successful route.

"Jamnalal sir did not suffer a heart attack because of losing the company but_" the person, who witnessed the whole scene, spoke up but quickly shut by Vikram.  

"We know that. And you better shut your mouth regarding this. If not, you know what I could do" Vikram warned the person.