New Ariya FF: Serendipity - Page 13

Originally posted by: rosamale

Yes. Just need to polish some of the parts I have written already. Will be up in a couple of days

Will be waiting eagerly ... As I really loved this strong Riya ❤️

Still waiting for the update 😞

Do update soon 🤗

When you are going to update this Rose?

Waiting for the updates dear

Wishing you a very happy Holi 💕 🎊

Hopefully we will get the updates soon

Hi Everyone,

Its been more than an year that I last updated. Many things happened during that period, but the most pertinent thing happened was that my laptop stopped working. I live outside India and it is very hard to find a place to fix my laptop where I live. So, I had to wait a while to get it fixed and the only way to fix it was to format the disk. Thus, I ended up with a clean slate and had to write from scratch. I hope this chapter is up to the mark.

Chapter 8 - The Crossroads

As the sunrays filtered through the room and fell on him, Arjun slowly opened his eyes. Blinking away the sleep, he slowly took stock of his surroundings and what he saw brought a smile to his face. He was in his living room nestled between blankets and pillows. On his right hand side was Mimi, who was cuddling close to his face. His left hand side was occupied by Aryan. On the other side of Aryan, Nila was sleeping peacefully half-hugging Sameer. To complete this blissful picture, Choco was sleeping on Arjun’s chest. Speaking of Choco, he slowly opened his eyes and looked at Arjun as if to ask him why he disturbed him from his nap. Holding Choco tightly so as to not to drop him, Arjun slowly extricated himself from the blankets and stood up. Mimi lifted her head but then decided that she was not ready to get up and went back to sleep. Arjun tried to put Choco back with the others, but Choco was having none of it as he followed after Arjun.

After freshening up. Arjun headed to the kitchen to make coffee for adults and boost for kids. As he waited for the water and milk to boil, he looked at Choco who was actioning him to pick him up. With a contented smile, he picked him up like a baby and held him close and set out to make the drinks. He was so lost in the moment that he didn’t realize Sameer’s presence sooner.

“If anyone else sees the Great Arjun Suryakanth Rawte likes this, they would have died of shock!”, teased Sameer.

Arjun whirled around to face Sameer with Choco. Chuckling, Arjun cuddled Choco closer and peppered kisses all over his face. Sameer couldn’t help but to laugh at this childish side of Arjun.

“You know Sam, I was really happy waking up today. In fact the last few days were happiest time in my life in a long while. Having you here with the kids, Choco and Mimi brought me great joy.”

“I know Juno. That is exactly what I feel. However, I am a bit sad. They have to go back to their house today as Riya and others are back. That would mean that I don’t have any more excuses to openly visit here and stay the night. On one hand, I am happy for Riya to be back, but on the other hand, I would miss this…”, Sameer trailed off.

Arjun could understand Sameer completely. Afterall, that was his feelings as well. How he wished, they could all stay together, forever… Maybe, just may be, the fate would be tired off throwing all bad things at them and instead grant them with happiness… Only time will tell…

The next day

It was a relatively calm morning. Arjun sat closer to Riya, engaged in what others presumed to be a nonsensical banter. Shree and Tasha were having a lively discussion about some sort of new surveillance equipment. Karan was demonstrating a new hand to hand combat technique he learned to Aaisha, while Chotu was looking at this demonstration with interest. Sakshi looked like she was typing some report in her laptop, but her hostile glare at everyone around her would question what she was really doing. Liza was thankfully in her lab, thus having one less negative emotion in the conference room.

To this atmosphere, Sameer came looking all grim. It was Chotu who noticed him first.

“Sameer sir, what happened?”

Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and looked towards Chotu and then Sameer. Seeing the expression on the chief’s place, they couldn’t help but to involuntarily straighten up.

“An hour ago, SCP Bhatia sir’s daughter was abducted. Raghu sir called me and told me that ETF need to take over this case.”, explained Sameer.

A flurry of activities filled the space as the ETF members moved around. Within 10 minutes, they had more details about the case. 16 year old Ahana Bhatia, daughter of SCP Vikram Bhatia was abducted on the way to school. People saw a teen being pulled into a van and alerted the police about it. Upon reviewing the CCTV footage from a nearby shop, it was concluded that it was indeed Ahana. The question was who kidnapped her and for what reason?

As the golden time for rescue passed by, ETF team scrambled around to find a clue. There was neither any ransom demand nor anyone came forward to take responsibility for such a high-profile kidnapping. All the leads led them to a dead end, which frustrated the team.

Suddenly, Riya got a phone call. Leaving the conference room where she was in, she went to her office. Making sure that her office is locked, she activated a handheld anti-eves-dropping device so that no one can accidently hear her conversation.

“Any news Cap?”, enquired Riya.

“This was not done by any known criminal elements.”, replied the voice from other side.

Riya knew better than not to ask if that is confirmed 100%. She took a deep breath.

“We have gathered from what information we have that the abduction was planned and not a spur of the moment thing. If this is not done by known criminals, then it may not be a revenge kidnapping. What about human trafficking, do you think it is possible?”, asked Riya.

“Normally, I would be inclined to say yes, but in this case, I don’t think so. First of all, this girl is too high profile for the traffickers to meticulously plan the kidnapping. They would have followed her previously and would have found her connection to force. Any intelligent human trafficker wouldn’t bring such attention to themselves. My guess would be it is something else…”, said the other person.

Riya was also of the same opinion. She bid her goodbyes to the person on the phone and went back to conference room. Everyone turned to look at her as she walked to the evidence board. She went through all the evidence pinned there. There was information about her school and her extracurricular activities, information about SCP and his leading cases, information about his wife and her activities, etc. Yet, Riya felt like something was missing. Suddenly it clicked.

“Tasha, get me Ahana’s birth report. I need to know where she was born, who was the attending doctor, nurses as well as whoever else worked there in that hospital during that time”

Tasha nodded and started working on that. Shree also jumped in helping her pulling up the requested information. Within 15 minutes, they had all the information. Riya along with others poured through the information trying to see if there is any clue in there. A sudden gasp broke everyone’s concentration. They all turned to Chotu, who was looking back and forth at documents in both his hands.

“Chotu, what is it?”, asked Arjun.

Chotu looked up at Arjun and answered,

“I… I think, I got a lead.”

Arjun snatched the documents from his hands and went over it with Riya and Sameer reading those documents over his shoulders. The rest of the team waited for the lead with bated breaths. Smile started forming in Arjun, Riya and Sameer’s faces.

“Excellent job, Chotu”, said Riya hugging him.

Arjun nodded at Chotu while Sameer patted his back.

“Can one of you explain to us?”, asked an irritated Karan.

The trio looked at Chotu as if asking him to take the lead in explaining. Gulping, Chotu started talking,

“I noticed that Ahana stops by a tea stall on her way home from school every day. The stall is run by an old lady named Bharati Jadhav, who told us that Ahana loves pav bhaji and she goes there to eat it every day. This was confirmed by SCP sir as well. She confirmed to us that she didn’t notice anyone following her which we believed previously. Now, as per the nurse list Tasha printed, a nurse named Komal Devi was the attending nurse during Ahana’s birth. Upon checking her photo, I realized that she looks like a younger version of the old lady in the tea stall. I cross checked the data base and found that Bharati Jadhav changed her name to Komal Devi 16 years ago. She quit her job at the hospital suddenly a week after Ahana’s birth and went out of touch with everyone. After a month, she changed her name. It is very suspicious.”

“Well, it is not against law to quit her job and change the name. That doesn’t make her a suspect.”, piped in Sakshi which earned her glares from everybody.

Chotu just smiled.

“Normally, you would be right. But there is another strange thing here. Ahana was born in Nainital when SCP was posted there. They moved to Mumbai 4 years ago and guess who else moved here at that time? It was Komal Devi aka Bharati Jadhav. She not only moved to Mumbai, but also set up a tea stall near Ahana’s house. It is too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?”, asked Chotu.

Before Sakhi could refute, Sameer agreed with Chotu.

“Definitely. It feels like a solid lead we should pursue. Let’s go”, ordered Sameer.

The ETF team moved fast after that order. The lead turned outto be the correct one. Upon apprehending Komal Devi and rescuing Ahana, she confessed everything.

When SCP’s wife was giving birth, a prominent business man in Nainital, Praful Patel’s unwed daughter was secretly giving birth in the same hospital. Praful assigned Komal Devi to get rid of the baby without letting his daughter know. Greedy for money, she agreed. It turned out that during SCP’s wife’s C-section, doctor made a mistake and the baby died. Komal Devi found this as the perfect chance. Pretending to help the doctor cover up the malpractice in fear of retribution from the police force, she put forth the idea of swapping babies. Everyone involved in the c-section agreed to the cover up and thus the dead baby was swapped with Praful Patel’s daughter’s healthy baby, leaving both sets of parents none the wiser. Komal Devi soon left the hospital and changed her identity. From distance, she kept track of Ahana, hoping that a chance would come for her to gain some more money by using Ahana. When SCP’s family moved to Mumbai, she also moved. You shouldn’t let the golden goose go so far away and all that. She set up a tea stall near their house and got acquainted with Ahana. Her time to make use of the golden goose came a month ago. Praful Patel’s daughter died. Wracking with guilt and loneliness, Praful Patel seeked out Komal Devi. Offering her life changing money, he ordered her to get him back his grand-daughter whom he callously threw away years prior. Thus, born the abduction plot. She abducted Ahana with a help of her distant relative and kept her at a rundown house in the outskirts of city. Their plan was to travel to Nainital after a couple of weeks when the search efforts will diminish.

ETF team was astounded hearing this. They didn’t know how to tell to SCP and his wife that the daughter they considered to be theirs is not biologically theirs and their real daughter died 16 years ago. Unfortunately, conveying such bad news also came with their territories. As expected, SCP and wife didn’t take the news well. Their entire world was turned upside down with just one confession. However, love and sense prevailed at the end. They decided not to dwell on the past, but looked forward to the future with their daughter. Ahana may not be theirs biologically, but she was, is and will be their daughter in all the manner that matters. All’s well that ends well.

ETF sat together in the conference room, taking a well-deserved break after the stress filled day. Sakshi was sulking in the corner since commissioner explicitly forbade her from publishing any sort of articles about this case. Sameer was happy as he didn’t have to tell her that.

Riya looked at Arjun who had a somber expression on his face. She nudged him with her shoulders. The muted smile she received from him made her frown. Shocking everyone present there, she dragged him out of the chair and out of the conference room to the terrace.

“Now, spill mister. What made you all dull? I thought you would be happy to see this case closed.”, said Riya.

Arjun turned away from her as if to hide his face. Riya was having none of that as she forcefully dragged him back. She was shocked to see the tears in his eyes, which were threatening to spill.

“Arjun…”, she whispered.

“Riya, how can people be this cruel to their own kids and their grandkids? Doesn’t the kids also deserve happiness?”, enquired Arjun in a broken tone.

Riya realized that she is entering into an unchartered territory with Arjun. She always suspected some kind of trauma bonding between Arjun and Sameer. She could have easily found out about it, but out of respect for both of them, she never snooped around. If they want to share it with her, so be it, but she won’t be the one who goes looking for it, that was her plan all along. She had heard from others that prior to the Pack’s admission to ETF, Arjun was a hot-headed and rude cop. The Arjun she knew acted like a puppy around her and always smiled brightly at her. It was as if her presence lit up his whole world. So, to see that Arjun looking at her all heart broken made her realize that she has underestimated Arjun’s trauma. There was something deeply wrong with both Arjun and Sameer which they hide behind their carefully crafted veneer.

“Some people are really selfish that they never raise above their selfishness and treat others with respect, but that doesn’t mean that others don’t deserve respect or happiness. Everyone deserves happiness Arjun,”, she said softly caressing his cheeks.

He leaned into her hands savoring her touch.

“I want to be happy Riya. I want to see Sameer happy. We are scared to be happy. I am scared even this moment that my happiness will be snatched away from me. Sameer and I lost our happiness before, what guarantee is there that it won’t happen again?”, asked him looking vulnerable like a child.

Riya was dumbfounded at this. She never imagined that two of the top cops in the Mumbai police forces were scared of feeling happy. This spoke volume to her, probably a deep-seated trauma spanning decades.

“It won’t happen again because now you have me and the Pack. We are family and we will protect you both and your happiness”, said Riya with conviction.

Arjun looked at her with hope-filled eyes.

“Really?”, asked him.

“Really.”, said her.

Thus, they reached a crossroad. Past may be filled with loneliness and pain, but the future looked bright. Even if the storm comes their way, a family made out of not blood but love will find their way forward…