FF:Forbidden Attractions-(Update Pg. 33)

She smiles as she looks at her bag because that had been a gift from Sanju. Vidya herself was not too proud of her taste when it came to shopping. But Sanju was the girl who always came to Vidya's rescue in every situation, which was what Vidya loved about her. Their friendship traced back to elementary school. Vidya always thought that it was unfair that Chinu, Vidya's brother, forced her to start school while he himself stayed away from it. But by finding Sanju she realized that it was for the best. Sanju and Vidya ended up becoming not only best friends but also Chinu's teachers. Honestly, no teacher could handle Chinu and it was very brave of Sanju to come up with the idea of teaching Chinu herself. Sanju was unsuccessful at first in even communicating with Chinu but then she realized that he had a weakness and it was called Vidya. For her, he would do anything. Sanju used that against him and made Vidya join her in teaching Chinu. They taught him everything they knew. But his talent which he now uses to earn a living came very naturally to him. He is a computer genius; there isn't a code that he cannot crack or a computer problem that he cannot fix. Vidya didn't know how to thank God for Chinu. She always had trouble deciding what to consider him. Not only was he her brother, he was also a friend and a parent at the same time. Without Sanju and Chinu in her life Vidya knew that she would be lost.

Vidya reaches outside of the building and puts her pallu on her head to protect herself from the rain as she calls for a cab. She rushes to the cab that stopped and immediately gets in it. She wipes the rain off of herself as she tells the driver her address. After wiping the rain off she looks outside of the window of the moving car smiling to herself as so many memories come back to her. Then her eyes pass a bungalow, which was more like a castle. Her smile slowly fades away as her eyes get teary, because she remembered too much too fast. It wasn't that she was seeing that house after ages. She passed that house everyday and every time the same response would leap into her. It was this house that changed her life. She wipes her tears and looks towards her hands as she squeezes her one hand with the other. She closes her eyes and rests her head against the glass window as she sighs remembering that night.

Four Years Ago

It was midnight and Chinu was pacing in the living room of their house dressed in black. Black pants and long sleeved black shirt all the way up to his neck and in his hand he was holding a black mask. He looks at the clock and calls out to Vidya and tells her to hurry up. He waits for few minutes and then hears her running down the stairs and looks towards her and says "It's about time!" Vidya rushes down the stairs dressed just like Chinu as she has her hair put together tightly in a bun. She smiles as she looks at Chinu and says "It's our last job so I wanted to take my time. After this, there is no more theft for us and we can finally put together that foster home." Chinu as he hands her the mask and walks towards the other side to grab his says "Don't count your chickens before they hatch'I know I said that this man is loaded with paintings but I don't know how many we can get our hands on." Vidya laughs and says "Oh please, you just do your job by breaking the security system and then we will worry about how many we can grab!" Chinu also laughs and says "You remember your part, right?" A stupid question to ask, he thought because her memory was one of her biggest strengths. Vidya smiles and says "Of course, I looked at the blueprints of this house all day today. I know it by heart now."

They both sneak into the house from the backside as all the lights are turned off and according to Chinu's research the man who owns this house is out for couple of days. Vidya watches in amazement as she holds a tiny torch for Chinu as he gets ready to disable the security alarm system. He stretches his fingers and gets to work. Vidya always thought that it was fascinating watching him crack these systems. In the countless homes that they had broken into, there was never a system that gave him trouble. The concentration on his face always said it all. That he absolutely loved breaking into these systems. Her thoughts are interrupted when Chinu smiles after looking at his watch and says "Done. One minute and twenty seconds. My best time yet!" Vidya pats him on his back as he now opens the back doors of the house. They both enter the house making the least noise possible with their tiny torches. Chinu starts walking towards the left side of the house and Vidya starts walking towards the right side. They both nod their heads in an indication to meet each other at the same spot in fifteen minutes.

Vidya as she is taking down the paintings and folding them thinks to herself "this rich murgha has really good taste in art" She folds the last painting and looks at her watch and realizes that it is time for her to head out. She quickly grabs all the painting and puts them in the bag that she has on her back and runs to meet Chinu at the same spot. She catches her breath as she reaches there and sees him standing there already. Chinu starts walking towards the door but Vidya stops as she sees a painting in the direction that Chinu just came from. She stops Chinu and asks him why he didn't take that painting. Chinu looks at the painting and says "because I didn't see it. Let's go now." Vidya takes her bag off and hands it to Chinu and says "You go home. I will be there in half an hour" Chinu as he grabs the bag from her says "No Vidya! I am not leaving you here" Vidya smiles and says "Nobody is here! You take all of these back home and I will get this one, because I love it!" Chinu rolls his eyes because he knows that he cannot win from Vidya and says "Fine, You have half an hour here and fifteen minutes to get home. If you are not home by then, I'll come looking for you" She jumps in joy hearing that as she hugs him and says "I love you!" He shakes his head as he leaves the house and Vidya turns and looks towards that painting again as she smiles. She didn't know what it was about that painting that she loved so much. She saw the same painting at an art exhibition few days ago but it was too expensive for her. Before she could get her hands on it in other ways, she found out that it had been sold. She steps closer to the painting as she takes her mask off and runs her hand over the painting slowly. It was a painting of a woman holding her newborn child close to her heart as both the mother and the child had their eyes closed. She gets teary looking at the painting and wonders if her mother at one time held her like this. She wondered if her mother was as beautiful as the woman painted in the painting.

She was busy admiring the painting when one of the small lamps from behind lights up. She gets shocked as she snaps out of her thoughts and turns around and sees this man sitting on the couch comfortably near the lamp. She looks scared as she sees this man smiling and wonders which way she should run. But she stops as she hears the man speak and say "I was expecting you." Vidya looks confused as she now sees him getting up and walking towards her. She now gets a good look at him and thinks which movie or story book had he stepped out of. Because he was just as dreamy as the heroes she had seen in movies or read about in books. When he is only few steps away from her she says "Excuse me? What did you say?" He walks by her and runs his index finger over the painting and says "You fell right into my trap." Vidya as she is having trouble figuring anything out says "Look, I don't know who you are or what you are trying'" He cuts her off and says "I am the owner of this painting and of the house you and your brother just robbed" Vidya hearing that gets scared as she realizes how much trouble she might have landed Chinu and herself into. Seeing the look on her face he smiles and says "I am Sagar and you are Vidya, right?" She looks confused and says "You know my name?" He laughs and says "I know a lot of things about you. Few days ago you saw this painting and wanted it, right?" Vidya keeps looking at him in confusion as he keeps talking. "I bought this painting because you wanted it and I knew that you and your brother were planning on robbing me. And the reason your brother didn't see this painting here was because it was not here fifteen minutes ago. It was put here few minutes ago so you would look at it"

Sagar walks back towards the couch and sits down as he keeps looking at her as he now grabs the glass that was on the table in front of him. Vidya also keeps looking at him and when she sees him drinking from the glass she asks "You caught me, you are not calling the cops, so it is obvious you want something. What is it?" He laughs as he sets his glass down and brushes his hair back and says "I love intelligent women." Vidya raises a brow as he again gets up and walks towards her and says "I have a business proposition for you. I have seen your work and I am quite impressed." Vidya seems interested but keeps quiet. He walks around her creating a circle and says "I want something which money can't buy. And I will do anything to get it, even if it means stealing it." Vidya turns her head towards him as he now stops towards her left side. She smiles and says "So you want me and my brother to steal it for you" Sagar laughs and says "No, I just want you and your skills." She raises a brow again and says "And if I am not interested."

"Then you will lose an opportunity to make a lot of money" he says as he sees that she is considering his offer. She clears her throat and says "I'll think about it" as she looks at her watch and says "I have to get back home before my brother comes back looking for me" He smiles and says "Oh yes, we wouldn't want him to find out about this little proposition, now would we?" He grabs the painting she was looking at and folds it and pointing it towards her says "For you." Vidya smiles as she grabs the painting and hugs it and then looks at Sagar. He standing at the same spot crosses his arms and says "when you make up you your mind, you know where to find me" She starts walking away and takes only two steps and feels Sagar grabbing her right arm. She turns around in surprise and finds him standing just few inches behind her. He smiles and says "My watch. I would like it back." Vidya's jaw drops as realizes that she has been caught. She thought she was very clever in grabbing his watch from him just now without him noticing. She sighs as she hands him his watch back and he smiles and says "Not bad. For a girl" Vidya gets offended and gets ready to kick him between his legs with her knee but he was quick and bends down to stop her but she sees his face close to her and elbows him on his face. Sagar backs away in pain as he grabs his face. Vidya seeing him smiles and says "Not good enough. For a guy"