Chapter 3

 

 

 

Chapter 3

The man who had come to give Khushi her food came into the room to find Khushi unconscious. He quickly got hold of some water and sprinkled it on her face to wake her up.

Khushi feeling water on her face squirmed before opening her eyes slowly to look at the man staring back at her. She tried to move further away from him but realised she was up against a wall.

The man looked at her. "Have your food" he bellowed. "No" Khushi retorted. This made the man mad. He took out a knife from his back pocket and placed it against her neck. "If you don't eat I will kill you right here right now" he said in a dangerous voice. Khushi had her eyes wide open and fear was evident in her eyes. "Now eat" he yelled as he took the knife away and pointed towards the food. Khushi reluctantly and carefully pulled the tray towards herself and started slowly eating. The man went and sat on a chair not far from where Khushi was and watched her eat as he had been instructed to do.

Once Khushi was finished he grabbed the plate and left from there only to return back with some water so she can have a drink. This done he left her alone in the room where once again thinking about the dire situation she was in Khushi pulled her knees towards herself and cried.

After Arnav had left Raj got to work. He first had to phone Arnav up to get as much information as he could about Shyam. Once Raj had the answers he put the phone down and headed straight to work.

First part of the plan was to follow Shyam.

He phoned up his team to put Shyam under surveillance. Shyam was from then on being tailed and as Raj had his mobile number this gave him a gps location on Shyam at all time or when he had his phone on him.

All day the Raizada's had stayed while Arnav had gone back to work to busy himself so he wouldn't be thinking about Khushi being somewhere where he couldn't reach her or about Shyam who he wanted to kill at this moment but had to stop himself from doing so.

He came home very late but he couldn't sleep during the night. All night his mind was on Khushi and where she maybe and whether or not she is alright.

A whole day and a half had gone by since the sangeet and there had been no sign of where Khushi had been.

Raj's team had been tailing Shyam and keeping their eye on him but Shyam who was a cunning lawyer knew that if he went away now suspicion would fall on him instantly.

So instead Shyam had become the perfect son-in-law again.

He had taken time out from work to help at home. The Raizada's would go every day to the gupta's and stay late. Shyam had taken it upon himself to go shopping for food for both families, come back and even cook. Nobody in the gupta household liked this but as he was part of Payal's would be in-laws they had no choice.

Three days had gone by now and there had still been no sign of Khushi.

At the gupta's everyone was still depressed.

Garima had come out of Shashi's room. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god" she carried on repeating as she quickly found her bag and started looking in it. Payal had seen her mother being frantic and walked up to her. "Amma, what's wrong?" Payal asked as she placed her hand on her mother's shoulder. Garima turned to look at her daughter and said "Payal bitiya your bauji's medicine has finished I need to go get some more." Garima carried on looking her bag for something. "Amma I will go" Payal said as she tried to stop her mother.

Anjali stood up and walked up to her. "Aunty please, you don't have to do this. Payalji is right. You need to calm down. You are not well yourself" Anjali said trying to reason with Garima. "No I need to go. I can't lose him as well" Garima said as she started shaking. Payal grabbed hold of her and Akash was beside her in a jiffy helping Garima to sit back down.

Garima started to cry as her head went onto Payal's shoulder. Payal felt dejected. Akash sat next to Payal to try and give her some strength. Anjali just couldn't believe what was happening.

Shyam walked in at that time and walked up to Anjali as he had bags of groceries in his hands. "What's happened ranisahiba?" Shyam asked Anjali. "Aunty has forgotten to buy uncle's medicines. She is just very worried that she could lose him" Anjali said to Shyam. "Why don't I get the medicines?" Shyam said. "That's a good idea" Anjali exclaimed looking from Shyam to Garima and Payal. Garima was startled. She was going to say no when Payal caught her hand indicating for her to be quiet. Payal looked at Garima while Garima looked back. Both knew that they couldn't say a word.

"Ummm. What kind of medicines does he take?" Shyam asked to avoid any suspicion. Garima was about to look for them in her bag when Payal took her bag, found them and handed them to Shyam. Shyam took them and headed out again with an evil smile.

Payal got up, went to the kitchen and a glass of water for her mother. Garima took it but she was still shaking. Her world seemed to be crashing right around her.

What didn't she have before. Her life back in Lucknow was very good. Her husband and daughter Khushi were always at their sweet shop, making delicious sweets and selling them to their friends and neighbours. Payal was at home giving extra tuition to kids whose parents wanted them to succeed. Khushi would come home after they would close the shop and her constant blabber and infectious laughter would light up the whole house. Every event around the whole colony would be incomplete without Khushi being there.

Now they were in Delhi and everything had gone wrong. Payal again was engaged to be married after the disaster that had happened in Lucknow but this time to a very wonderful boy. Khushi was engaged to a married man. Garima was thanking the gods that that wedding didn't happen but things were still really bad. Her husband had had a stroke and this had made him weak. Now Khushi had been kidnapped and they had no idea where she was. Garima started crying again thinking about the dire situation her whole family were in. Payal was next to her mother trying to calm her down.

Shyam had come back after a while bringing the medicines. He saw that the whole family were still very distraught. He went over to the kitchen, got some water and headed towards Shashi's room.

Once inside he placed the tray on the side table, took the medicine and was about to place the tablet in Shashi's mouth but Shashi moved his head slightly away indicating that he didn't want anything from Shyam.

"Now now uncle, I am sure you wouldn't want to disappoint your family that you are not taking your medicines now would you" Shyam pointed out to Shashi as he was smiling evilly. Shashi had no choice. He took the tablet and Shyam helped lift Shashi's head as Shashi took a sip of water.

Shashi hated himself for accepting help from Shyam. He knew Shyam had his daughter Khushi but he was very helpless being where he was.

Once Shyam had placed the glass of water back on the side he looked at Shashi. "You know uncle I will look after Khushiji with utmost care you don't have to worry your daughter. I love her with all my heart and she will be taken care off as my wife" Shyam said.

Shashi's eyes opened wide looking at Shyam who was smiling right back at Shashi. Shashi had become teary knowing he couldn't do anything. Shyam wiped his tears away. "Oh my would be father-in-law, don't waste your tears right now. You will need them when Khushiji and I get married. She will be mine father-in-law, sooner than I had hoped for. Oh well I guess I will need to go shopping for everything. First I will need to get a saree for Khushiji, a sherwani for me, oh yes a mangalsutra, sindoor and also a priest to conduct the marriage" he said smirking making Shashi cry even more. "Father-in-law not again, I said don't cry. You will be there at the wedding I mean after all who else is going to do the kanyadaan" Shyam said.

"Right now I will need to go shopping for these things before I will see Khushiji" said Shyam as he got up to leave and walked out of the door leaving a devastated father.

Shyam walked up to Anjali and told her he was going to work as he had an important client to see.

Shyam walked out not knowing he was still being followed by Raj's team.

Shyam had gone shopping that afternoon and he got exactly what he said he was going to get.

Raj's team member had called his boss and told him what Shyam was doing.

Raj was very confused as to what was going on. He got onto the phone to Arnav.

Arnav at that time had been in a meeting when he got the call. He told his team to carry on without him. He went to his cabin to continue with his call from raj. Raj explained to him what his team member had told him. Arnav heard that Shyam had bought a red saree, a sherwani plus he got to know that Shyam had gotten a mangalsutra and sindoor. This shocked Arnav. At first he couldn't think what was going on but suddenly his mind thought of something which shocks him to the core. NO his mind thought. Shyam cannot do this to my sister as he cursed Shyam. Arnav was mad. He threw his phone across the room smashing it to pieces. For the first time in his life Arnav did something he doesn't normally do at work his temper had taken over and as he was already up he had grabbed his table. All his staff stood still in shock as they heard a crash coming from their boss's cabin. Arnav had turned the table upside down crashing it to pieces. He was mad really mad. He walked out of his cabin, headed to his car, got in and drove.

He drove his car to his farmhouse where he had spent a lot of time as a kid with his mother. At that moment he needed to be somewhere he was close to his mother. Only there would he be able to calm down and he knew he needed to as this was a question of his sister's life.

Chapter 2