Chapter 1
The corporator's mansion.
Neel is sitting on a couch in his hall and is slowly sipping on his whiskey. He is reminiscing of the past few hours, imaging how Abhi bashed him up so bad and the last taunts that Bulbul directed at him. His insides burned in rage.."who ladki, uski itni himmat..usne mujhe? Neel ko na mard bola? Ab chahe kuch bhi ho jaye, unse toh main badla lekar rahunga".
His doorbell rang and in came Aaliya.
N - Aap kaun aur is vakt yahan kya kar rahein hain?
A - Main Aaliya, rockstar Abhi ki behen. Aap se urgently milna tha.
N - Main tumhara koi madad nahi karunga. Tum kitna bhi koshish kar lo, Abhi ko jail se aaj raat nai nikalwa paoge (with a smirk)
A - Kisne aapko keh diya ki main bhai ko nikalwane ke liye aap ke paas aayi hu? For your information main batadu, mere paas aise bohaut sources hain jo mere liye yeh kaam kar sakte hai. So stop assuming and listen to me.
Aaliya makes a plan with Neel.
N - Par isme mera fayda kahan? According to your plan, Abhi and Bulbul remain untouched. Only Pragya will suffer. Mere uske saath koi personal dushmani nahin hain. Toh isse mera badla kaise pura hoga?
A - Can't you see it? It is so simple. Tum agar yeh kar dogey, toh Pragya bechari phas jaegi. Bhai bahar a jaenge and will hate her, gharwalo ke samne yeh khulasa hoga toh they will hate her too and Pragya will be tortured and thrown out of the house. This way you will make Abhi pay by making him throw the love of his life - his Pragya - out of his life. Jiske liye bhai ne tumhara yeh haal kiya, kal usiko bhai apne haatho se ghar se nikal degnge. Aur jab Bulbul yeh dekhegi ki uski behen aise tadap rahi hain, who bhi toot jaegi. Ek teer do nishana. Aur koi soch bhi nahin payega ki tum in sab ke peeche ho.
N - Par isse tumhara kya fayda hoga? Tum apne hi bhai ko dhoka kyun dena chahti ho?
A - That is none of your business. Tum sirf apna matlab dekho.
Aaliya leaves the house gloating that she managed to save her brother from any physical harm, teach him a lesson for helping Pragya and also make sure that Pragya will be finally thrown out unanimously by all..
Mehra Mansion
It is past midnight and Pragya is leaning by her bedside, there are traces of dried tears on her cheek, she has dozed off there by the bedside itself. Suddenly Pragya's phone rings. She wakes up startled and hurriedly receives the call. There is a man talking from the other end. He is bulling her; he is telling her that her Abhi's life is in danger. She is terrified, and tries enquiring more, but words fail her. The man continues to tell her that Abhi is in his target list. If she wants to see her husband alive then she will need to give a sum of fifty lacs as ransom to this man. Else he will shoot Abhi the moment he comes out of jail. Pragya was shaking by now. Fear made her numb. She has many a times heard about celebrities getting extortion calls, but did she imagine she will get one for her rockstar hubby Abhi?
She wasn't sure what to do, to involve the police or not. She sat by her bedside bolt upright all night and thought of all the possibilities open to her of saving Abhi. She couldn't tell anyone at home, because it would be difficult to hide from daadi, who still didn't know Abhi is in jail. With dawn, an idea dawned upon her, she could confide in Aakash. She went to Aakash's room to find it empty. She called him but his phone was unreachable. She realized that Akash must be busy trying to bail Abhi out from the jail. The mere thought of Abhi coming out of jail shot pangs of panic up her chest. She needed to do something.
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She thought of leaving the house early before people woke up and asked her questions. On her way out her phone rang again. Trembling she picked it up. It was the man again. To her surprise, he had every knowledge of Abhi's activity even inside the jail. He told her she has been prudent to not tell anybody about the call, because if she did, instead of the other inmate, Abhi would have been injured today in the jail and he would have needed to come out for medical attention. Pragya almost dropped her phone in fear. She quickly left home and took brisk paces to reach the police station. On reaching she enquired and found out that indeed Abhi's in-mate was injured.
Ideas failed her. All she could come up with was paying the man making the extortion call, the ransom and getting her Abhi out of jail safely. After that she can tell him all this and her Abhi can take care of all this. But fifty lacs wasn't an easy sum to manage, and over that everyone is trying to bail out Abhi as fast as possible. If Akash manages to bail him out in the first half, how will she manage to get the money before that? She tries Akash's number and he is still not reachable. She decides to leave him a text message - "Akash please Abhi ko jail se mat chudana at least agle do teen din tak".
But what if Akash reaches the police station with the bail papers before the message reaches him? Then another idea struck her...
As she walked towards the inspectors desk, her feet felt heavy, her head was swimming with visuals of the blaspheme yesterday evening when Abhi did all he could to save her and her family's reputation and their only source of subsistence - Kumkum Bhagya Marriage Hall. And today she was doing this to him. May be it was for his own sake, but still...this?
The inspector looks up at her from his papers - She talks to him and leaves. She just assured it that Abhi cannot come out of jail before she arranges for the money. Pragya can't decide if she is more relived or guilty for doing this to Abhi.
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Having failed through all other means of managing the money, Pragya decided to withdraw the money from Abhi's bank account and pay the ransom. The earlier this is cleared, the faster she can get Abhi out of jail. But to withdraw money out of Abhi's account, she needed either Abhi's signature of the other signatories - Aaliya. She immediately called her and asked her for the money.
A - Fiftly lacs? Par bhabi aapko itni badi rakam ki achanak zarurat kyun padh gayi? Bail ke liye bhi itni baadi rakam nahin chaiye, waise bhi bail ke documents and charges toh Akash handle kar raha hai.
P - Aaliya abhi insaab explanation ki vakt nahin hain, main ghar aati hu, tum please tabtak arrange karke rakhna. Aur ghar mein daadi ko Abhi ke barein mein abhi tak pata chal gaya hoga nah?
A - Relax bhabi, kisiko pata nai chala hain abhi tak, aap bhas sabse nazrein bachake ana aur nikal jana phir
Pragya does as planned, and for once Aaliya wasn't stopping her path with taunts or sneers. Pragya assumed that may be she understood this was in some way going to benefit her brother. She hurriedly takes the money and reaches the place where the man had instructed her to leave the bag.
Tears of joy escaped her eyes when a man came to spot and collected the back in another half an hour and sometime after that she got a call confirming the receipt and ensuring her Abhi will be untouched. Now there was no worry. She only has to go to the police station and change her statement that she gave in the morning, "Inspector saab, woh corporator toh apna kaam kar raha tha, kisi se beizzati se pesh nahin aye, pata nahin kyun Abhi achanak naraz hokar aise kyun behave karne lage". They may charge her with a fine for altering her statement, they may even put her behind the bars for it, but her Abhi will take care of all that. Like a traveller lost in the hot dunes in a desert, running towards a mirage of water, she ran for Abhi. Breathlessly she asked for the police officer, she said she needs to give a statement, which will relive Abhi.
Inspector - Kaisi statement? Case close ho gaya hai. Aap jao yahan se.
P - Matlab? Abhi kahan hain?
I - Usko release kar diya gaya hain
Once again Pragya was dumbfounded. How was Abhi released? How was he realized after the statement she gave? She remembered the inspector saying the case was closed. How was it closed? How did the corporator agree to change his mind? Did Akash convince him? Overwhelmed by thoughts Pragya found herself trudging home in the darkness. Listless and unsure but happy at the same time that Abhi has gone home.
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Chapter 2 coming up if you think I should continue! 😳
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