SS: A Bend in the Road [Wattpad link-P.126] - Page 81

The touch of turmeric on her cheek lighted up her features with a glow. The glow that emanated from being happy, being in love.

A few of Maan's cousins and Neelima were present in her Haldi, with Dadima in the background hurrying the servants up with one thing or the other.

A day similar yet different had passed as a fleeting memory. It hurt somewhere but she had long ago forgone being bogged down by the series of events of her life.

In the hubbub was a silence, a silence that was so clear, so serene that Geet knew, despite of the uncertain future, she has the courage now to face it.

A cool breeze passed by and she looked to her left and saw Maan leaning against the pillar, observing her.

She remembered one night very similar when they were in Dehradun, sharing adjacent rooms. She could almost taste the nervousness she felt back then when their eyes met.

Looking at him now, although at a different time and space, where one of them was looking at the other covertly, she felt life had come full circle. Her lips upturned into a smile, as a response she received a playful wink.

It was wee hours in the morning. Maan felt his neck, at the exertion.

Amidst the new project work, his usual office work, he had taken an obsession into going through the financials of his brother.

There was something that wasn't adding up. Something that wasn't just clear. If his grandmother saw him working more than ever, she attributed it to him being married to his job.

Maan has always been a bit of a control freak. The mystery of the automatic healing of anybody's debts usually constitute a crime. And he really didn't want his brother to be the part in any.

They couldn't track Dev's credit card beyond a point since he hasn't been using it recently. But a closed opportunity only made Maan even more serious about this entire case. It didn't take him much time to figure out it was Nayanatara, who is the major shareholder in the company now.

The dynamics Dev and Nayanatara shared were very complex. He didn't try to understand it, but he knew there is complexity. He couldn't know the reason behind the transfer of ownership. There could be reasons as varying as possible, knowing them.

He had received a call suddenly and he picked it up in one ring, knowing it's only one person that could call him at this time. It was the detective.

"Yes?"

"I'm sending you an address, please come down"

Maan grunted in response before disconnecting the call.

"Geet?"

"Yes Dadima"

"Have you seen Maan?"

Geet rememered the previous day when Daadima bullied Maan out of the outhouse, asking him to see Geet directly at the mandap and to not have him sneak out like this, and wondered if this was a trick question.

"I haven't Dadi"

"Okay" said the older woman, but the lines in her forehead deepened.

Smiling gently at Geet, she patted her cheek and left wondering what would cause his grandson to switch his phone off and be unreachable hours before the wedding.

The old Delhi street is emanating a charm of the days gone by. Once a humble abode in areas like these sky rocketed in price now, and Maan was aware of the value of the shabby looking house.

He had taken a few steps towards it and the nagging feeling that he had been here before intensified.

Once he pushed the gate and went inside, it hit him what this place was.

This was a Khurana property, where his father had spent most of his days with his second wife, or technically, mistress.

It was where Dev and Vicky were born.

It made as much sense as it had been mindf**king. Shelling out so much money to buy this property, he thought might be a business move. But he was wrong.

When he entered the house, the detective although pretty young was smart enough to stop outside to give him space.

The house wasn't lit in the living room. Although clean, it looked very quiet. Despondent even. He had walked in till he could see the porch, where a mango tree grew.

At the first instant, he didn't see her but then he did. Nayanatara was sketching something, her back to him, bending her knees just a little to be on level with the sketch. She looked like she lost a lot of weight. For some reason, it showed from her body language that she was weak also.

She stood straight and pressed a shaking hand to her neck, tiresome.

She stood there for a moment like that before it all happened very suddenly.

She swayed, and Maan moved right in time to catch her before she could hit the ground.