Navya hurriedly got ready for leaving to the hospital and packed some food for Cabir.
At the same time, her phone buzzed and she received his message that had the address.
She went to Nandini's room and saw her coming out of the washroom.
"Navya, where you going?" She asked her as she saw her dressed.
"I had a talk with Cabir and he told about Ananya. He's still in hospital so I thought to take his change and some food for him. Don't know whether he had something from the night or not." Navya told Nandini and she smiled seeing her concern towards Cabir.
"Ok. But do one thing. Take my car from the service station. It must be done till now. You won't have problem for the conveyance. And his flat keys are in the cabinet out side." She told Navya as Cabir always left one set of spare keys with Nandini.
Navya smiled at her and hugged her.
"Take care ok. I will try to be back soon. And lunch is prepared. Have it properly and then the medicines. Ok." Navya commanded her and she nodded with smile.
Navya collected the keys and left for the hospital.
...
After she left, Nandini again tried to call Manik but his phone was still switch off.
"He never keeps his phone off, then this time what happened?" She murmured to herself.
She kept on calling him for innumerable times but every time it said switched off. She checked his last seen on what's app which was of last night.
"Lase seen is of last night, right now he's not picking up the call, is he fine?" With the passing time she was getting restless.
She called Mukti but to her bad luck, her phone was on silent mode and she didn't paid attention to it.
She kept on calling him but the result was same. Not able to take anymore of the suspense, she walked out of her house to leave for his apartment.
All this while when they were good with each other, Nandini never had any opportunity to visit his flat as most of the time he and Cabir would land up at her place only.
She took a cab and reached his apartment. The security guard stopped the cab at the entrance and inquired about her visit.
"401, Mr. Manik Malhotra." She gave the details about her visit.
"But Manik sir is not at home. I saw him leaving early morning and till now he is not back." That security guard inform her.
She became more tensed with the information she received.
"Are you sure? I mean may be you must have skipped his return." She tried again.
Guard checked the entries but there was no entry of Manik's return.
"Ma'am I checked. He has not returned." The guard told her and she sadly nodded to him.
She returned home with heavy heart as she was not getting any information about him.
...
Whole day passed like this. Abhi after spending some quality time with Mukti, went to hospital. Navya stayed with Cabir as Ananya was to get discharged. Both of them took Ananya to Cabir's home as she was still weak.
Cabir asked Navya to stay back as Ananya would need anything and Navya agreed to it.
Nandini was alone at her place. After trying for hundreds of time, his phone was still off.
"May be he is stuck with something important. Tomorrow I will talk to him in the office for sure. This time whatever happens, I will tell him everything." She thought to herself and thinking about everything, she slept.
...
NEXT MORNING... AT OFFICE
The next morning Nandini reached office with a determination that she will talk to Manik. She wanted to clear all the misunderstandings between them and make him realize that what she did was good for both of them.
She reached to her desk and settled down to do the required work of the morning, as she noticed earlier that Manik has not arrived.
She continued her work for few hours but stopped in between for a break. She searched for Manik but to her surprise, he was still not present.
Sensing it unusual from what Manik does, she got tensed. Manik was usually late for office but he rarely took leaves. She immediately reached to his desk and what she saw made her numb.
His desk was all empty, his stuff, his usual belongings which he always kept with himself in office, at his desk was all missing.
She in her baffling mode, checked all the drawers and cabinets of his cubicle but nothing was there. She rushed to her desk and reached for her phone to dial his number but it was again switched off.
She was completely blank and tried to register what was happening. Something clicked in her mind and she rushed out of her bay.
She ran towards the manager's bay and reached Vaibhav.
"Vaibhav, where is Manik? His stuff, everything is missing. Where is he?" She was all panicked and her condition shocked him.
"Relax Nandini, and of everyone you are asking about him? I thought you already know. He has resigned." Vaibhav informed her and she was shocked.
"What?? Resigned !! But why? How can he resign like this?" Nandini shouted after she overcame the shocking news of Manik's resignation.
"I don't know Nandini why. Infact I was too shocked when I received his resignation letter. I called him to ask about it but he said that's it's personal. He was not ready to serve the notice period also. I tried to convince him a lot but he wasn't ready. I was also surprised but I don't know the reason." Vaibhav informed her and she bursted into cries.
"Yes, one thing, I got a courier in my name from him and it was written that I should hand over it to you when you ask about him." He continued and gave a small gift packed courier to her.
She took the packet from him and rushed towards her seat. She opened it and found a brown teddy bear with a heart on which "forever in my heart" was written.
She stared at the teddy bear for few seconds and then noticed a letter inside the box.
She took it out and opened it to read.
"First of all stop crying. I am not dead, so please don't cry this much. I know by now you must have come to know about my resignation. Nandini, whatever is happening between us from past few weeks is not right. I know there is something which is stopping you from coming close to me. I tried a lot but now things are slipping from my hand. I just cannot take it anymore and hurt both of us. I behave rudely with you whenever I recall that night and end up hurting you. That's why I decided, to take this step. I can't force you and at the same time can't see you away from me. May be staying away from you would help me fight the battle better. Just want you to know that you will be always in my heart, no matter where I go. This teddy will help you remember that you had a stupid and mad friend like me. Take care of your self. Will always miss you.
Bye."
Nandini broke down as she ended up with the letter. She kept on crying for and cursed herself for turning every thing to worse.
After minutes, she picked up the teddy and her bag, and left the office, without informing Vaibhav.
************
TO BE CONTINUED...
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