AN: Hello Forumwasis...Niki here. I just had this sudden urge to write and could not help myself.
My Previous Works:
Coming Home (OS) : http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4664289
Darker Moralities (OS) : http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4665685
The Revenge Chronicles (SS) [Ongoing] :
http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4668481
A MEETING
She nodded at the security personnel as they stamped a sticker on it and lifted her bag to the electronic luggage belt that promptly took it away for boarding. Straightening her purse, she swerved into the thickening crowd near the escalator and promptly bypassed it walking towards the waiting area for the scheduled boarding.
She entered into the security check. Her ticket was carefully scanned and marked after which she stepped into the waiting room.
Heaving a sigh, she settled into a chair in the left-hand corner of the room which promised a silent atmosphere with all the nearby seats empty.
Airport, she mused, was not that a fantastic thing that everyone made it out to be. With all the security checks and separate luggage checks, it was determined to present anyone a headache gift-wrapped.
All of a sudden thoughts of her brother took hold of her and immediately she fished into her purse for her mobile. Taking out the phone, she switched it on and the glittering smile of her brother welcomed her.
She smiled. Her brother was her world and anytime she had to go away from him, she would put his picture as her wallpaper. One smile of his could easily siphon off any of her worries and troubles.
And that was when the smell of coffee overwhelmed her as a cup of the steaming liquid was held inches away from her, blocking her sight.
Her eyes followed the hand holding it and fell on the person.
She froze.
"Coffee?"
How does one feel when the things we try to forget about somehow make an appearance right in front of us?
An appearance like that can make us feel shaken, unstable and curiously indecisive for that moment of time. It was perhaps the shock of that very second that she accepted the cup wordlessly.
"Surprised to see me here?" the man asked as he flopped into the seat next to her.
She immediately stiffened and looked her surroundings only to find several young girls eyeing her uninvited companion. She shook her head and turned to look at him. He too eyed the girls and blew them a flying kiss.
Seeing her looking at him, he threw her a rakish grin.
"You haven't changed. Not lost your charm yet, I see."
"What is Rudra Singh Oberoi without his handsome charm?"
She felt a feeling of familiarity descending up on her and she chuckled at the hilarity of Fate.
"What are you doing here, Rudra?"
Rudra smiled. "Waiting to board a flight. Same as you. And the best question is, when did you start to travel in planes. The Anika Bhabi I knew hated any transportation that cut off contact to the firm ground."
Anika took a sip of her coffee. "People change with time Rudra."
"You definitely did Bhabi!"
She threw him a sharp look. "I am not your Bhabi. Not anymore."
Rudra gave her a pointed look. "You never really divorced Bhai. Legally, you are undeniably Anika Shivaay Singh Oberoi."
A startling fissure of sharp pain prodded into her as that identity of hers faced her like her own personal nightmares. There was a time her having no surname used to hurt her. Today having one did most of the damage to the simple life she had remade from broken fragments.
"D-Don't!"
It was perhaps her tone that made Rudra change his mind instead of pushing the matter like he always did. Instead he backtracked and softly addressed her as Di.
"O always says, that running from the past is of no use," he began. "Look where it got him. Out of all of us he ran the hardest and fell into the pit even harder. It destroyed him but he came out and faced himself, his own past. He is a king today Anika."
Anika took a deep breath. "That he is. I have been following him. He has managed to become something none of us could have imagined."
"Except Shivaay Bhai," Rudra injected.
Anika gave it to him. "Yeah, except him."
"You owe him a lot, you know?"
Anika raised her eyebrows. "Who?"
"O," Rudra gave her a meaningful look. "He never believed on those accusations."
Anika stiffened. Her hand burned as she clutched the hot coffee cup tightly.
"Let us not talk about it."
"But at least let me apologize."
Anika faced him. "You did nothing."
Rudra gave a bitter smile. "Exactly, I did nothing. And that's where I went wrong."
A heavy silence fell between them. The airport buzzed in its own fervour and descended on them like a curious case of disjointed realities.
"It was Bhai's mother who did it. The Kapoor's were in it too."
She raised a startled glance at him. He gave her a soft look.
"The truth came out shortly, Di. Actually O brought it out." He wet his lips. "I had never seen O that angry. Truthfully speaking, none of us were aware he could actually get that angry. Dadi said, he had apparently inherited our Dadu's anger. Even Dad was quiet in front of it. Imagine!"
A surprised smile spread on her face. Omkara had always been the picture of serenity. He rarely got angry; he even rarely spoke in a loud tone. Soft and calm, he was the complete opposite of his older brother. He was perhaps one of those people from her past whom she reminisced without any lingering feeling of pain and betrayal. For her best friend and her one time brother-in-law had always taken her side, even against his own brother; her husband.
"Those accusations that were made on you, they were all a conspiracy, a plan to break your marriage to Bhai. Bhai's mother wanted him to get hitched to Lady Baba again. She didn't even wait a week after you left to push for that idea. She successfully did her drama to convince Bhai and O blew his fuse. He closed himself in his studio for four days. Calm before the storm! That was what those four days were and when he came out, it was to the dramatic climax."
There was a sense of awe colouring his tones as he looked at Anika with bright eyes. She stared at his composure and all of a sudden felt hooked to the story.
"O went BOOM! He cut her and the Kapoor's into smithereens with his sharp barbs and twisted the whole matter into a full blown humiliation fest. He spared none. You should have seen Lady Baba's face. It was like no good Karma of hers could save her that day from the storm called Omkara. And then he descended onto Shivaay Bhai."
He took a deep breath. "I would have never believed if I had not witnessed it with my own eyes. O insulting and scolding Shivaay Bhai. Unbelievable, but it occurred." He suddenly smothered a smirk and gave her a pointed look. "O called him a Snobby Cat with a superiority complex. You should have seen his reaction."
Anika felt laughter bubble up and erupted into a series of chuckles. He hated being compared to a cat, despite the fact that even his Dadi and she herself had named him one. Om calling him that in public must have incensed him.
"Then, what happened after that?" she asked eager to know the following events.
Rudra sighed and closed his eyes. "Truth; truth happened Di. Apparently in these four days O had reached to his contacts. Funny thing is that none of us even, Dad didn't know that O too had powerful contacts. He had always been so indifferent to the Oberoi name, that it was as if people had started to underestimate him. That's where the Kapoor's went wrong and fell into O's trap. He caught hold of the whole truth and revealed it with solid proofs in front of the family. He proved you innocent."
It was as if a wide chasm of feelings that erupted in her. She had tried for years to move forward with her life but certain strings of her hurt dignity held her back from forgetting them. Rudra's words soothed her festering wound.
After three years, she finally felt some semblance of peace.
A hand gently lay on her shoulders and it was then she realized the wetness on her cheeks. She hurriedly turned her head and rubbed at her traitorous tears.
She turned to look at Rudra. And this time really looked at him.
The passing time had definitely been good to him; for while he was handsome before, now he was simply devastating. Maturity in his boyish looks had added a manlier charm to his hard aristocratic features and yet she could clearly see the stark lines on his face. His eyes full of mirth and joy that were dulled with a cloak of a forced life he had started to live in.
A pain of utter pity and culmination of guilt and love filled in her. Her emotions were so entwined and twisted that she herself could not untangle them.
She raised a hand and caressed his face. His eyes immediately dipped down as he clutched her hand to his cheek. A small tear slipped down his cheek, wetting her hand.
"What happened to you Rudra?"
He raised his teary eyes still clutching her hand.
"Everything broke Di. Everything finished."
He let go of her hand and swiped at his tears. Leaning back to regain his composure, he began to start from where he left off.
"Things went south from there. Accusations, fights increased. Shivaay Bhai was broken at the betrayal of his mother and it was perhaps his last try to restore his broken illusion that he made a big mistake. He regretted it immediately but the damage was done."
Anika immediately sensed the tone. "What did he do Rudra? Tell me."
Rudra raised a pained gaze to her. "He was angry. You know how he gets in his anger. He loses his sense to decide right and wrong and-----"
"What did he do?" Anika interrupted gritting her teeth.
Rudra took a deep breath. "H-He accused O," he swallowed carefully not meeting her eyes, "that O had feelings for you."
Something broke inside her and a stunned gulf of melancholy and vibrant rage weaved a furrow inside her. She leaned back into the chair, face closed off; eyes stony and yet could not mask the hurt and humiliation that radiated of her at that very moment.
Her mind whirred in a collaborated plethora of emotions and all she could make sense of was that Shivaay had in a way accused her and Omkara, the man who was her best friend and brother of infidelity.
And when she thought he couldn't hurt her any more, she thought miserably, he managed to surprise her again.
"I know you are angry," Rudra began in soft tones.
Anika shook her head and dragged her eyes to meet his. "I am not angry. Don't have the strength to maintain that kind of emotion."
"Di----"
"I-I am h-hurt," she took a staggered breath. "I-It hurts."
She covered her face with her hands trying to regain her semblance of control. She could not break down here, although she could feel a harsh bout of crying readying to come out if she faltered. But not here! She would go home and lock herself in her bedroom.
The darkness of the night will cloak her pain and misery as it had always done these past years and in the morning; she would be fine again.
Her hands stopped trembling and she lifted her head.
"Shivaay Bhaiya regretted, almost immediately," Rudra spoke with a sigh. "But words, as O says are the sharpest weapons; once released, cannot be taken back. And then the unimaginable happened."
She turned to look at him and he smirked.
"Dadi slapped her Billu," he spoke humour clouding his tones. "Bhai is Dadi's favourite grandson and for her to slap him, it surprised Bhai and all of us out of our wits."
"And then," Rudra's tones lost the humour immediately, "O left."
"Left? What left? Where?" Anika questioned.
Rudra bit his lip. "You know him. He is way stuck to his morals and he could not apparently stay in the Mansion where his own brother can pose those accusations at him. So he packed his bag and left."
Anika gritted her teeth. That man had a way of spoiling lives of people who loved him dearly.
"Don't blame Bhai much," he said eyeing her, "I feel O was already waiting for an opportunity like this to leave the mansion."
She glared at him.
"Let's face it, O never liked the glitter and aura our name brought with it. He had always been right in sensing the demons of innocence that were slaughtered to make that name. And he had always wanted to leave it behind. He never did because of Bhai but when that last strand broke; he simply left."
"And in a way," Rudra straightened up, "I am glad he did."
Anika gave him a sharp glance and he answered with a smile.
"Look at him today. He won't be this if he had lived hidden in the shadow of the Oberoi name. I think his self-exile was already destined. At least Mom says so."
A silence again glimmered between them and Anika took a look around. It was funny how the world continued its own race when her life had hit such a sudden standpoint.
A thought rose in her and she squashed it. She didn't want to know about him. If she could, she would delete each and every memory of that bug-eyed Bagad Billa from her life. She would then adopt Om and Rudra as her brothers and they would stay happy. That obsolete stubborn blind and idiot of a man and she still loved him.
Her tastes had really gone down the gutter!
"Ahem!"
Startled she looked around and blinked. For a moment, she had forgotten that she had a companion.
"Sorry, I just--------"
"Thinking about Bhai?" he queried his eyes bright.
She glared.
"I mean," he hastily backtracked, "I am sure you were cursing him."
Biting back a smile, he began, "So shall I continue?"
At her nod, he settled himself and started. "The family was in disarray. O left the house, Bhai in shock and Dadi crying endlessly, everything was high on emotions. It felt weird, like I was in charge for the first time in my life. Then there was an incident and it literally shocked everyone out of their states."
"What happened?" Anika asked concerned. Was Shivaay fine? Her heart thudded.
Rudra spoke in a stage whisper, his eyes bright. "Dad took Mom on a vacation."
Anika's mouth fell open and shock sheared through her. Tej Oberoi took his wife for a vacation. Wait a minute---
"Mom is fine," Rudra replied reading her face. "We all thought the same and so carefully checked and re-checked to make sure that all these weren't some kind of ruse by Dad to hurt Mom."
"Wow," Anika breathed.
"I know right," Rudra quipped. "But it made things more or less normal. Dadi got over her crying fit, Bhai got shocked into handling the business again after Dad left with Mom and things became stable. Oh well should give you the good news, Mom and Dad are all good again."
"Really?" she asked both happy and curious. "Svetlana?"
Rudra smirked. "O took care of her too."
"What?" her startled tones erupted loudly.
People turned their heads to look at them and Anika blushed.
He started to laugh.
"Rudra!" she bit out hastily.
"Anyway Shivaay Bhai left the Mansion too."
Anika looked at him shocked. "H-He left the Oberoi Mansion?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yep," he said popping the p. "Bhai took a flat near the office. Stays there, alone. Just imagine Shivaay Singh Oberoi living alone in a small flat without any servant. He cooks his own food, washes his own clothes, wow."
She stiffened and memories rushed past her. He had always been a hard maintenance. He would need his suits washed, pressed and arranged colour-coded. His shoes polished and arranged in the rack symmetrically. His ties ought to match his undershirt and his night-suits would alternate; one day black the other day white.
"Missing him?" Rudra prodded
"No," she sniffed.
"Good for you," he smiled. "But he does miss you a lot."
She swallowed and her eyes welled up again.
"He even bought a Scooty, that too of an atrocious pink colour. He keeps it in the garage of the flat and refuses to part with it."
She clutched at her purse tightly and her chest heaved with unknown emotion.
A loud announcement broke the moment.
Rudra sighed. "It is time for your flight."
It was as if someone had poured a pail of icy cold water on her that she immediately fell back into the routine she had been living in. After all these years, one glimpse of the past had made her feel as if she had never left the place, or the people.
She felt the traitorous tears trying to make a comeback but she steeled herself. She looked at him and gave him a tremulous smile.
"It was nice to meet you Rudra."
There were few moments in the world that had witnessed Rudra Singh Oberoi cry but that day, that seemingly ordinary airport held witness to that event.
He leaned forward and enveloped his sister in all but blood within his arms. She hugged him back tightly like she had done numerous times before when he would settle in her lap complaining about his brothers.
The announcement rang loud and clear.
All of a sudden the lingering crowd seemingly started to move as if imbibed with a sudden adrenalin rush.
Anika broke the hug. She gently caressed his face and mussed up his dark locks.
"Bye Di!"
"Bye."
He stood there a long time after she had left. He settled into the chair and seemingly stared at nothing.
A loud blaring noise broke his ponderings. Sighing he took out his phone.
"Hello!"
"Are you done?" the hassled tones of his brother filled his ears.
"Of course I am," Rudra smirked. "I got all the details. From the destination to her residence."
"How did you do that?"
Rudra's mind drifted to the beautiful officer. "I have my ways O. I am a genius."
"Women, no doubt," Omkara retorted.
"By the way guess what, I sensed her feelings. She definitely loves Bhai."
"You managed to sense?" Om repeated incredulously. "And how did you do this?"
"Umm," Rudra hesitated, "I may have upped the tragedy quota a bit."
There was silence from the other side.
"What did you do? Did you lie to her?"
"No," Rudra immediately responded. "I just made her think that you and Shivaay Bhai are still not on good terms. And poor Shivaay Bhai is suffering a lot."
"What? Rudra have you gone mad! We both reconciled."
Rudra smothered a laugh as the image of Shivaay and Om falling into the swimming pool while spying at Dad and Mom in their vacation flashed through his mind.
"You definitely did reconcile," he snickered.
"Idiot."
"Me, Rudra Singh Oberoi an idiot," his voice rose dramatically.
Omkara sighed. "Stuff your melodrama Rudra. Get on with it."
"Fine," he sniffed elaborately. "No rest for the innocent."
"Innocent? From which angle?"
"Uff!!! I am sending you the details."
"Good," Om replied and chuckled.
"What?" Rudra asked.
"I was just thinking, won't she be surprised to see Shivaay there?"
Rudra gave a devilish smirk. "Won't Shivaay Bhai be surprised that his 100 crores meeting deal is actually a fluke to get him to meet Di?"
They both remained silent as possibilities whirred up.
And then they laughed.
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