Chapter 13

Chapter 12

“Her eyes have

their own

vocabulary.

What a beautiful

language to learn”

When Vansh turned to face her she paused before him, resisting the instinct to deny her hand for a handshake. Vansh boldly looked her up and down his handshake firm and lingering. He met her searching gaze; little frown adorned her face. A flitting smile crossed his lips, it was gone in a split, but his eyes twinkled with mirth. Her nod was hesitant.

No, this can’t be happening, he is the masked man from the party…or not? sure she did not see his face that day but his voice…it’s same. And what if he is the same man? She was scared. She twisted her hands in her lap as she looked at him nervously. She gulped it’s been more than 10 days now she could be wrong… she needed to concentrate on this meeting first, or she will end up embarrassing herself because as far as he was concerned he did not acknowledge her.

Vansh knew somewhere she was trying to connect him to the man she met that night, but now was not the right time. He settled in his chair and reluctantly looked away from her and focused his attention on Dr Batra.

The man who brought them here, Aangre was sitting to her left side. He subtly nodded at Vansh and passed him the file. Vansh cleared his throat before he started speaking with Dr Batra.

“I trust you already had a word with Mr Yash Kapoor regarding my sister’s case?”

“Yes. I have a request though it would be helpful if we could have a discussion with doctors who were handling your sister’s case previously. It will give us an understanding of what all treatments were followed, what worked and whatnot, so we won’t waste time in the repetitive treatment” Dr Batra suggested him

“I already had a word with Mr Yash about it Aangre will book an appointment, till then you can refer to this file. These are Siya’s previous reports” Vansh forwarded the file to Dr Batra.

“I have a question, even though I have selected Ms Shastri here for treatment I would like to know from you if she is competent enough to handle my sister’s treatment? Afterall she just has what a one and half year experience including 6-month internship?” Vansh looked at Riddhima.

She looked back at him with fiery eyes. Her fear is forgotten. Did he just doubt her competency? She longed to answer him if has any doubts he can choose someone else more ‘competent’ enough for his sister. She did not have any interest to stay here anyway.

Even Dr Batra was perplexed by his question, but he answered “I trust Riddhima completely Mr Singhania, she has handled more complicated cases than any of the juniors included till now. There is a reason why she is directly reporting to the Head of Physiotherapy department. But if you have any doubts, we can always look for another option.”

Riddhima felt like she should give a standing ovation to Dr Batra ‘Ha! take that Mr Mighty Singhania’ and prayed internally ‘please choose someone else.’ But his next words made her smile fade.

Vansh narrowed his eyes “I don’t think I asked for your opinion Mr Batra, it will do you well next time if you stick to just answering my question” Vansh spoke calmly but there was an underlying threat which did not go unnoticed by both of them.

“I didn’t mean to offend you...” Dr Batra started

“Then don’t.” Vansh cut him in between. “So how are we going to go about this?”

Dr Batra took a brief pause before replying “I was thinking Riddhima can start with basic physical activity for twice a week and we can keep a nurse to make sure the exercises are followed for over the week and once a week I will visit to check the progress..”

“This won’t work” Vansh interrupted Dr Batra again. “I expect Dr Riddhima to treat my sister on daily basis. No nurse. We already have a nurse and a maid to take care of her other needs.”

Both were shocked. Riddhima thought ‘what a prick! Doesn’t he have any manners, it is rude to interrupt people while speaking? And why does he want her to visit daily? It’s not like in they will be changing her routine in a week. She just has to give her the exercise routine and they can follow that for a week, that was the usual process for other patients as well. Once the routine is given it will be family member’s and patients responsibility to follow the same till their next visit.

Dr Batra was nonplussed. Dean had told him to tread very carefully around Vansh as he is too unpredictable. Now he can understand why Yash and Dean were on edge regarding their meeting “Daily?” But that is unnecessary” looking at the challenging look on Vansh’s face he continued “Alright she can visit daily for five days, and I will visit once a week. she does not work on weekends.” And then he turned to Riddhima and said, “You can visit daily first thing in the morning, complete your session and report back to the hospital.”

“Second half. I want her to visit in the second half of the day. She should be here at 3 PM sharp. I will send a car to pick her up and drop her back at her home. And not five but six days. She can have an off on Sunday”

Riddhima felt like throwing a pen stand at him with the way he spoke it seem like he already planned out everything then what was the need to ask. And he was speaking as if she was not even present in the room. How dare he? She won’t work on Saturdays. As she was about to say this.

Dr Batra beat her to it and said “it will be better if we leave that choice with Riddhima, officially she does not work on Saturdays’. So, I think it is solely her decision”

Vansh now turned to Riddhima daring her to object him. Finally, she can speak her mind in front of this brute. “I am not comfortable working on...” she started to object

“Aangre call Mr Yash and inform this deal is off and show them the way out.” saying this Vansh got up started to leave.

Both were baffled with the sudden turn of events, just as he reached the door Dr Batra called out to Vansh “Mr Singhania please wait. you are misunderstanding us.”

“Am I?” Vansh turned to him sharply. “Look Mr Batra I can invest in any hospital I want, but I chose your hospital. Because I have received good reviews about Lifebeat, now is it too much to ask for one of your doctors to look after my sister? It seems Doctor’s at your hospital are more interested in their holidays.” Vansh sneered looking at them

“I apologise for this mishap. Dr Riddhima will attend to your sister six days a week as suggested by you” Dr Batra wheedled him

“Don’t you want to ask Ms Shastri first?” he taunted in return

“I am ready to work on Saturdays” Riddhima replied dejectedly. There was a full minute silence where no one said anything before Vansh started again “Alright then. Come. I will introduce you to Sia then you can start tomorrow.”

He took them to through a different set of corridors before they entered a room, this room was smaller than his office. It was a room with just the seating arrangements. A servant entered the room and placed a variety of snacks on the table.

” Please help yourself” Aangre motioned towards food but they refused politely.

 It was a while before a maid knocked on the door and pushed a wheelchair forward. Riddhima saw a frail-looking girl sitting on a wheelchair. Maid left her there closing the door behind her.

Vansh introduces them. “This is my sister Sia.” And Sia “He is Dr Batra, and She is Dr Riddhima. She is going to look after your treatment from now on” Riddhima gave her a small smile which she returned with a smile and waving her hand slightly.

Dr Batra spoke with her introducing himself and asked her question related to her health, which she answered calmly. At last, it was time to leave and Riddhima could not wait to get out of this place. Riddhima waved at the girl saying, “see you tomorrow” and followed Dr Batra out.

*****

“What do you think?” Vansh asked Aangre

“Everything went according to plan, but I think the girl Riddhima was angry.”

“She was. Wasn’t she?” He leaned back in his chair as he stared at the computer screen. The car went out of the gates. Soon he told himself. He was quite surprised himself, he thought of her as a meek girl who he can control easily, evidently, that is not the case. He recalled the look on her face as he questioned her capabilities. The fire in her eyes. This is going to be fun...

*****

“What the.. really?” “How can he behave like that?” both her friends were speaking simultaneously. As soon as they left VR Mansion. Dr Batra dropped her home and told her to take the remaining day off.

 After reaching home immediately she phoned her friends in a conference call and told them what all happened. It felt nice to speak with someone and bad mouth that devil. If nothing else she could do that. At least that way she could ignore the burning question of the masked man and Vansh RaiSinghania being the same person.

*****

Riddhima decided to inform Sejal today at any cost. So as soon as Sejal finished her dinner Riddhima snatched her phone and told her about her visit to VR Mansion. At first Sejal thought, it was a joke but after looking at her serious face she knew Riddhima was telling the truth.

“How could you hide something like that from me?” Sejal criticized her. She suddenly felt a spark of jealousy. She tried to catch Vansh’s attention whole dinner yesterday, but he did not even look at her and Riddhima not only visited his mansion, but she also spoke with him and was going to visit his house daily? How did this happen?

Riddhima rolled her eyes “Well I was trying to tell you yesterday only you were very busy with your phone, remember?”

But Sejal was not in the mood to listen to anything she went inside her room and slammed the door shut. Riddhima tried calling her but after not receiving any response, she thought it was best to let her cool off.

As she tried to sleep, she could not help but remember the day’s events. Something was familiar about his voice she could not pinpoint what? Unbidden to her the image of a masked man crossed her mind. She shuddered and shook her head in denial. No, it can’t be but what if he is? She sat up in her bed. So, there can be two possibilities she tried to analyse the situation. Either her mind is playing tricks on her and the masked man and Vansh were really two different persons or Vansh is the masked man, but he was so drunk that night that he did not remember her. Yes, that is the possibility. If so then she did not see any reason to worry. She finally felt at ease now sleep will be peaceful.

*****

“Agrawal’s are ready to sell the land to us” Aangre informed Vansh

“Now drop the price from what we offered last time, tell him he wasted my time and time is money”

“Already did”. Aangre replied and then continued “Dr Riddhima’s introduction with family is pending. Do you think I should do it?”

“No, I will introduce her to the family. They should know not to cross her.” his mood suddenly turned dark.

“Okay” he nodded and then hesitated, he wanted to say something.

“Go on…”

“I think Riddhima recognised you or at least she has doubts...”

“She has doubts alright, but she won’t link that man to me just yet”

“How can you be so sure?” Aangre questioned

“She is in denial and she fears the masked man. She will never want to face him again and moreover, she fears the consequences she will have to face if that person does turn out to be me. Her peace will be lost. And hence she will prefer to keep the person she met that night as a secret from everyone” he grinned

Let her do that, Vansh thought he was in no hurry to reveal his identity himself. He wanted to settle somethings before. By the time she will connect dots, she will have nowhere to go but him.

Aangre looked at his boss Vansh was happy he can see that. He just hoped it will work out alright because the way he looked at it after looking at the girl today he was not sure if she will accept his boss like a quiet lamb.

"Any progress with officials? Did they find anything illegal with that property?" Vansh turned to Aangre

"Yes, there is. We will receive concrete information in the next 2 days, then we can take the action"

Vansh smirked let the game begin.....

*****

Note:

I don't usually get time to revert on each and every comment because of workload. Today it was possible due to Diwali vacation. I start working again from tomorrow But you guys give really nice comments and likes. Thanks a lot