Originally posted by: AnushkhaA
Part two
Sunny felt the air leave his strained lungs in a single whoosh as his feet left the ground. He wheezed scratching at the insanely mighty death grip around his throat and he saw purple spots dancing in front if his bleary eyes. When he thought he might pass out due to the lack of oxygen in his lungs the grip suddenly went off and he was thrown unceremoniously like a ragdoll on the staircase behind.
"Farhad!"
Raghav Rao's booming voice resounded like a thunder strike across the mansion. Like the roar of a lion on the hunt, practically salivating at the smell of his prey. Sunny had a bad feeling that maybe he was being made that prey tonight. As if on cue the lights exploded on blinding him. He quickly scrambled up from his position backtracking hastily. He saw Raghav standing at a distance, his handsome face devoid of any emotion, his arms across his chest and his feet apart to remain parallel to his squared shoulders. Anyone who didn't know him could mistake him easily for a military man. He was practically pulsating with a viguor which screamed bloody murder.
Sunny swallowed dryly coughing at the sudden release of pressure from his throat.
"How did you escape prison?"
He asked finally as Raghav made no move to hit him or catch him again. Sunny could try to escape but he somehow knew it would be futile. He had screamed for his diligent secretary and right hand man a few seconds ago. That means his men had the place surrounded. Raghav gave a mysterious smirk again which looked creepy without the ensuing emotion in his eyes.
"You seem awefully convinced that I went to prison."
"You..."
"Did you seriously think, even for a second that it might have been that you.. you, a petty two timer conman have the chance against me? I knew you were delusional Sunny, but this... this is for the lack of a better word madness."
He started prowling around the place like a caged panther, his hawk like gaze taking in probably every minute change Sunny might have made in his lair. He grimaced seeing the half filled alcohol decanter and leftovers from the afterparty on the bar.. his bar.
"So you weren't in jail then?"
Sunny had started regaining his lost voice. And though he knew that he had lost, somehow he had a sudden morbid curiosity to know how he was so grossly outwitted. Raghav stopped prowling and picked up a knife from the fruit salad on the center table near the couch and fingered the blade thoughtfully.
Sunny knew it was a very common intimidation technique but the worst part was that itvwas working. Any sharp or even blunt object in the hands of Raghav Rao was a deadly weapon capable of mass destruction.
"The game you think you have been playing jacka** is the one I had mastered long before you had grown a beard. I run an empire here Sunny. You coming out of the blue and trying to make a scratch on the surface of the curtain can't topple it. I am frankly impressed though how you manipulated my sister into following through with your idiotic plans. Keerti was always too headstrong for her own good. But I can't blame her... she gets it from me.
Anyways. Point is, you snooping around my den, listening in to my conversations and trying to piece together information from the police on the pretext of helping them... was to be brutally honest a bit immature, even for you. How could you have thought that I wouldn't have noticed you at the doorway? Eavesdropping like a five year old..? Seen you behind my desk that day when you heard Farhad and my conversation?"
How indeed...
Sunny thought. Raghav had a look of almost a pitiful amusement at his massive delusions regarding his own capabilities. Sunny saw his men had started filtering in from all the sides without his knowledge as all his attention was concentrated on the man in front. A Devil manifest. He was looking bored. Sunny wanted to gnash his teeth in anger. Anger at his own stupidity and at Raghav Rao for looking so disinterestedly at him like he was nothing but an insect under his boots.
Raghav seemed to have caught on to his mental musings as he flashed him a wicked grin which seemed to be saying..
Oh but you are Sunny Ahuja! You are nothing but dirt under my soles.
Sunny looked around and spotted Jaya and Keerti standing at one corner, shielded behind that scoundrel Farhad. Jaya Rao looked vindicated. Her eyes mirroring the hatred and vile amusement like that of her son. His face darkened as he realised how the old hag had never wanted him to marry her daughter, insulting him at every opportunity available. Keerti on the other hand looked blank. Her dark eyes boring into his body like lazers yet lacking of any emotion. It made him feel uneasy to be honest. The entire lack of action was unnerving him now. Raghav was not the one who would stay quiet when he has an opportunity to punch and kick.
But somehow he didn't look like he bothered lifting even his pinky for the sake of even hitting him. The sudden change in his disposition was scary.
"But the police had... how.."
"Oh! You are still stuck there, are you? Inspector Singh please grace us with your gratifying presence will you? Mr. Ahuja seems a lot perplexed. Explain everything to him will you madam..?"
Sunny didn't know just how many shocks had this person planned for him. Inspector Lakshmi Singh was standing, leaning against a pillar right at his left side, so still and silent that he hadn't even noticed her till her voice came making him almost jump out of his skin.
"Finally! Frankly speaking I was getting tired of all the theatrics now Mr. Rao."
She huffed in her no nonsense voice, just an edge of a blink it and you miss it humour laced her otherwise emotionless voice. Sunny looked at her more betrayed than surprised. She rolled her eyes like she had been told to explain a difficult Calculus problem to a two year old.
"Mr. Ahuja, you live under some serious illusion if you think arresting a man like Raghav Rao is as easy as that. He is the proverbial snake in the garden. Hidden yet everyone is aware of his presence, could strike you dead with a single bite unannounced and unnoticed yet necessary to be housed to eat the insects threatening to kill the crops."
"What the hell do you mean? You are the police! He is a criminal!!! You are supposed to arrest him... I even gave the proofs."
"You gave me a bloody register Mr. Ahuja where a number of accounts and their phone numbers, calculation of custom deviations were handwritten! What the actual hell was I suppose to do with it? How did you even think that a few handwritten notes could testify against him. Anyone could have written those. Do you think, any of those accounts had any trace on the network? Any of those numbers would work? Any of the listed contacts could be tracked down? It was all a complete hoax and a waste of time.
Business giants always play around with taxes and custom duties. Heck! Most of them have thousands of illegal businesses going under the table. These are open secrets Mr. Ahuja. You cannot survive the corporate world with a white shroud around yourself."
Sunny was literally sweating by then. He could feel the fingers tightening around his throat, holding him in a chokehold. The Inspector herself didn't look very comfortable siding with Raghav herself, a permanent scowl on her face matched the sardonic tone of her voice but she made it quite clear that she had nothing on her hands. Still Sunny tried. A drowning man clutching at a straw.
"But Inspector madam, I thought you were better than this. You could stop this Devil trust me.. just.."
Lakshmi Singh laughed sarcastically making him jump again. Raghav's hard smile melted into something softer for a second. Or maybe he imagined it.
"Come out of your dreamland Mr. Ahuja. This is the real world we are talking about, living in. This is how it works. I didn't know Mr. Rao personally as I was transferred recently but he has quite a reputation in the department. They call him the hidden ace. I was surprised myself. He is a smart Devil I have to say. Mr. Rao has helped the police time and again with some... lets say all of the things we have to do isn't transparent. Where we couldn't get inside, Mr. Rao's thousand and one contacts could.
He is what you call, a necessary evil. There's what has been called a trade off. We keep our noses off his business, turn a blind eye to his evasions and he gets our too dangerous missions get underway. I will admit... begrudgingly so... his men are good."
Sunny looked shell shocked. So thats how the man has been operating so freely for all these years right under the Police's noses. Its a bargain. Raghav Rao has successfully shielded himself from the law by working for it staying largely at the opposite side. A fair game in defence businesses nowadays.
Set a thief to catch a thief.
This bloody ba*tard!
Raghav had his hands stuffed in his pockets, enjoying the show lazily it seemed. Sunny suddenly remembered about the missing piece in this elaborately drawn puzzle.
Pallavi! But, why did he let him do all this? His wife left him because of this mess? Is that what he wanted all along? But he wouldn't take on the added humiliation because of that would he? No... Raghav loved Pallavi. Sunny was sure of that. Then...
"But.. but you didn't say anything? You could have stopped me.. get me killed or tortured or anything. You let me take the register. You let me show all that to Pallavi? Why would you..."
Raghav's answering smile was too glaring. Slamming the obvious truth staring at him on the face and it hit him square on the gut like a freight train crashing against him, knocking the air out of him. His horror might have shown on his face as he saw Raghav's grin widen and eyes darken, a lethal contrast of victory and vengeance mixed with fury.
Sunny stammered yet couldn't form words. So shocked was he of the revelation of a truth which was hidden so perfectly in plain sight.
Suddenly he heard the voice. That irritating voice which sounded strangely light hearted and dangerous at the same time.
"Come to my parlour sayeth the spider to the fly..."
Pallavi Raghav Rao looked resplendant as she sauntered in the lights of the hall from the shadows like a chief actor walking into the theatre where the drama of his death was being played. She was always bold, this woman. Unafraid to show her confidence and vibrating with her beauty. She strode powerfully to stand beside her husband, her raven hair open till her waist, wrapped alluringly in a maroon saree. The red colour in the partition of her hair and the golden mangalsutra nestled in the arch of her bossom seemed to be mocking Sunny.
She crossed her arms across her chest and looked at him, her red lips arched slightly in a mocking tilt. The literal queen in her own rights. Pallavi Rao was veritably glowing like the burning embers of triumph, her grey eyes awashed in mirth. Mirth at the expense of his classic stupidity.
How could he have ever thought that Pallavi would fall for his tricks? How could he have ever expected that she would have left her husband? The man for whom she has burned in the fires of Hell and will walk unhesistently to its doors and beyond if required.
"You... you b*tch!"
Sunny whispered, as fury at his own failure overcame his shock. He leapt towards her ready to throttle her to death completely berserk in his anger, forgetting that he could be shot to smithereens even before he made contact with her. But to his shock not a single bullet hit him. Instead a resounding slap knocked him out of his feet to tumble backwards.
His left cheek exploded in pain as he tasted blood. He looked at Pallavi heaving in a potent anger so massive that it looked like she would explode.
"That was for trapping Keerti for money, absing her trust, trying to drug her, manipulating her into siding with a criminal two times, manipulating her to marry you, hitting her."
"You!"
Slap! Her hand connected with his face, on the same assaulted cheek again, with the same force as before making him stumble again. Then came a eye blearing barrage of slaps raining on his cheek which made his head spin quite a bit interspersed with Pallavi's cool voice listing out his litany of crimes.
"IPC section 185 of driving under influence of alcohol."
Slap!
"IPC section 107, abetment to conspiracy."
Slap!
"IPC section 328, administering to or causes to be taken by any person any poison or any stupefying, intoxicating or unwholesome drug, or other thing with intent to cause hurt to such person."
Slap!
"IPC section 498A for domestic violence against women."
Slap!
Sunny was sure he had bitten off his cheek by the time her incessant slaps stopped mercifully. Pallavi wasn't done yet it seemed. She was fuming like an angry lioness. Ready to gorge his eyes out it seemed. She caught his collar again and landed her last slap which made him tumble into the hands of the officers standing behind who gripped him tightly.
"And that, was for harassing my husband's and my mental peace. Seriously! If you weren't already neck deep in charges I would've allowed Raghav to literally bury you six feet under. It was so tempting! And if you hadn't had Keerti in your spell then I would've done this the day you decided to challenge me at the kitchen. You are incredibly and overbearingly stupid Sunny, if you had thought that you could separate me from Raghav or create differences between us with your cheap tricks. I am not a blind fool. I have entered this marriage knowing fully well what Raghav does and how he handles his business.
Well, the only reason we had to go along, playing dumb and weak in accordance with this charade was because you had Keerti under your sway. We needed to handle this with care and we were waiting for you to make a mistake. And you made it quite fast I must say. You didn't take much time showing your disgusting colours to her. Congratulations Mr. Sunny Ahuja! You are officially finished."
Sunny was openly gawking at them. He couldn't wrap his damn head around this awefully elaborate game they have played with him. Everything from the beginning itself was a carefully thought out move. He saw Raghav coming to stand beside his wife as she tucked her arm in with his probably, just another power move, making Sunny feel more of a fool than he already was.
"So.. you all were just acting all this while?"
He asked dejectedly feeling being dragged out of their house by the police officers behind him. He knew very well that he wasn't coming out of this one. Previously he had gotten a bail but now it seemed like an impossibility. Raghav's eyes sharpened at his question and bore into his very soul it seemed. The man definitely knew black magic.
"Not completely. But enough to trap you. If only Pallavi wasn't so adamant about avoiding bloodshed I would have crushed you into a pulp just for the mess you created in my life and the mental harrasment my wife had to face because of that. The only reason I let Pallavi take center stage today was because if I was left to my devices then that would've been the end of you Mr. Sunny Ahuja. You are in the endgame now.
Remember very carefully. However much the jackel dances, the strings he his held by are in the claws of the lion."
He snarled betraying the temper he was controlling for his wife's sake.
The last thing Sunny saw before being thrown into the van like a sack of potatoes, the last sight of the outside world before he is completely confined within a five by five cage of darkness for life was them... Raghav and Pallavi.
She had her head against his shoulder leaning into him it seemed. His arm was wrapped protectively around her waist supporting her against his chest as they opened their free arms towards Keerti who walked into their embrace.
He shouldn't have underestimated the Devil...
Do you all want another bonus part for Raghav and Pallavi ? If not, then this is the end. Something I would like to see on the show but... sigh.. if only wishes were horses... not that I know how to ride a horse 😂😂😂
Don’t mind 😆 but I want the other two as well which you were supposed to write 🤣
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Cricket
