||ManYa FF - Against all odds|| Epilogue Pg 45 Updated-12.10.15 - Page 27

Lots and lots and lots of drama awaits!

Chapter 26

"Stop! Stop right now!"

Rudra and Neeti turned away from each other to see Amaya and Mantu hurrying up the steps of the temple. Amaya was limping on her wounded foot as Mantu helped her. Sasura how the hell did these two get here? Rudra thought. Unmindful of Amaya's protest, Rudra quickly placed the flower garland around Neeti's neck. "Quick! Quick! Come on!" Rudra tried to urge Neeti to do the same but she stood there part shocked and part relieved. At least someone from her family would be here for her wedding. But why had Amaya asked them to stop?

Just as Rudra held Neeti's hands to try to make her garland him, Amaya caught hold of Neeti's hand. She snatched the flower garland from Neeti's hands and threw it away. "Amaya!" Neeti exclaimed, horrified at what Amaya had done. "Neeti stop! Don't do this. I couldn't tell you this over the phone last night but.. Rudra doesn't love you. This is all a huge conspiracy and he is only using you as his bait. Trust me!" Amaya said, grasping onto Neeti's shoulder and trying to make her see sense.

"What nonsense are you saying?" Rudra asked, getting annoyed at the disruption in his master plan. He had barely taken a step towards Amaya when Mantu appeared in front of him, blocking his access to both Amaya and Neeti. "Neeti! Please don't believe anything that she says. I love you. You know I do!" Rudra changed tactics. "And if Neeti wants to marry me, neither of you can do anything about it. We are both adults." "There is a lot we can and we will do about it. I am sure once we are done revealing your truth, Neeti won't want to have anything to do with you," Mantu replied with icy sharp coolness.

"Amaya, what is this? I told you everything because I thought I could trust you. I thought at least you would understand me. Rudra loves me Amaya. Why don't you understand? There is no conspiracy. We fell in love. You know how it is na?" Neeti pleaded with Amaya. "Trust me Neeti, if Rudra genuinely loved you, I would have done everything I can to support to you. I would have fought the world for you. Because you are just like Jazz to me. Just like I would never want any harm to befall Jazz ever, I wouldn't want anything wrong to happen to you either. Trust me. Rudra does not love you! He is only doing this so he can get entry into the Chaubey family. So that Nanaji will be forced to protect him, for your sake, whenever all his misdeeds come out in the open," Amaya tried desperately to explain to Neeti.

"No Amaya. You have him all wrong. I know.. I know that before he started working for Nanaji, he did a lot of petty wrong things. But all of that was out of helplessness. He never had his dad around to guide him in the right direction. But when he got a chance, he changed Amaya, and I love him for that," Neeti replied. The utter naivity and innocence with which Neeti trusted Rudra broke Amaya's heart. "Have you heard and said enough? Now stop this drama and let us get married. Come on Neeti," Rudra tried to get past Mantu to hold Neeti's hand but Mantu stopped him. Amaya knew without a doubt that within seconds the situation could escalate into a full blown fight between the two men.

"Mantu jiju no! You will not lay a hand on Rudra!" Neeti said gathering all the courage she could muster. "I've been listening to all that Amaya has been saying out of respect for the fact that we are family. But I trust Rudra more than I trust you, so now please," she stepped away from Amaya and came to stand between Rudra and Mantu as she folded her hands in front of Amaya and Mantu, "Now please just leave. For once, I've made a decision for myself in my life and I intend to abide by it. Please leave!"

With that, Neeti bent to pick up the garland Amaya had earlier tossed away and started to put it around Rudra's neck.

"Neeti!!!"

The thunderous roar could have been from no one else other than her Nanaji and Neeti felt life drain out of her veins. The garland slipped from her fingers in cold shock.

"What is going on here?" Dinesh stepped forward angrily and pushed Rudra away from Neeti. "What is going on here? What did you think you were doing?" Dinesh slapped Rudra angrily before he started hitting him. Dimple Bua came up to Neeti and slapped her angrily, "What were you about to do? What were you about to do?" she asked shaking Neeti as if she were a rag doll.

"Dimple bua, please," Amaya tried to save Neeti from Dimple Bua's wrath. "Shut up! Just shut up! You will not say a word! I told you to stay away from my daughter didn't I? Its all because of you. You and your city bred culture. I am sure! I am sure you must be the one who encouraged Neeti to do this. Otherwise, my daughter could never even dream of doing something like this!" Dimple charged at Amaya. "That's not true Dimple Bua," Amaya tried to reason with her but was cut off midway when Neeti freed her hand from Dimple Bua's grasp and ran to a now bleeding Rudra. She crouched in front of Rudra and held him as she pleaded with her father, "Babuji please! Please don't hit Rudra anymore! I love him! We want to get married. Please Babuji!" she said.

The shock that ran through every member of the Chaubey family gathered was almost tangible. Gajanan Chaubey took one step back and then another till his back hit one of the pillars before slipping to the ground. Dinesh pulled Neeti up from where she was crouching next to Rudra and thundered, "What did you just say? How dare you!" "No! No! My daughter can never even think something like this! Its all this Amaya's fault. I am sure she was the one who put these wrong thoughts in my daughter's head about love and what not," Dimple bit out in anger.

Just then, Sneha, Jazz and Kaushalya reached the temple. Kaushalya immediately ran to Rudra's aide, "Aye haye! Who beat my poor son up so mercilessly?" "If you don't take him away from here right now and the two of you don't leave Banaras forever by nightfall, you will not get to see your son alive again!" Dinesh threatened Kaushalya and Rudra. Rudra eyed Gajanan Chaubey cautiously. The old man hadn't spoken a single word. He seemed shaken and broken, a state in which he could easily be manipulated. No, he would not give up on his game plan just yet, Rudra decided. He stood up and folded his hands in front of Dinesh Chaubey, "You can hit me as much as you want but I will not leave Neeti and go. I love Neeti, truly and deeply. I won't be able to live without her." All the while, Rudra's eyes kept darting towards Gajanan Chaubey. Honestly, he could have cared less what anyone else in the Chaubey family did or thought. His one and only target was Gajanan Chaubey.

Mantu wanted to rip Rudra's tongue out for lying so. He glanced at Neeti and saw her cry as she fell right into Rudra's trap. "Babuji please! Rudra and I love each other. Please.. Please.. If he leaves Banaras I will go with him. We'll go far away but please don't separate us," Neeti pleaded. What nonsense was this girl saying? Rudra thought. Leave Banaras and go where? Instead of getting her family to accept them, she was saying they would leave her family and go away. And what would they survive on? Her childish fantasies? Rudra gritted his teeth.

"Neeti.. Please.. Don't do this. Rudra is not the right guy for you," Amaya spoke up. Dimple turned towards her and was about to unleash another round of her fury on Amaya when Neeti spoke up, "Stop it Amaya! Please! You keep saying Rudra is not the right guy for me but how do you know that for sure. I can give you proof that Rudra has changed. Do you have proof that he hasn't? Do you have any proof that all of this is a conspiracy like you said?"

"Yes!"

Everyone gathered turned to find Rama at the foot of the steps leading to the temple. Behind him was a police jeep and a group of badly beaten and bruised men. As soon as Rudra saw who they were, he tried to make a hasty escape but Mantu had been expecting him to do something like that and stopped him before he could.

Rama and the police brought the men to the temple. "Who are these people? And why have you brought them here?" Dinesh asked. "These, Mamaji, are Rudra's goons. They were the ones who kidnapped Rachitaji, brought her to the hospital where I was admitted and took our pictures while I was unconscious because of medication. I also have the people who were hired to beat Mantu up the night of the Fashion Show but mistakenly hit me thinking I was Mantu. Am I right?" Rama turned to the men. "Rudra Bhaiyya! Save us!" the men pleaded. Rudra felt all eyes turn towards him, especially and most importantly, Neeti's. "Who.. Who.. Who are you people? I don't any of you. Don't believe them Neeti. They are all lying. I don't know who they are!" Rudra said.

"Rudra Bhaiyya! You are washing your hands off of us? Its too late now. They've already made us confess to everything," one of the men spoke up. "Arey I told you na? I don't know who you are! What do you want? Why are you trying to destroy my life? I am a poor man. Spare me! I know these people must have paid you to say all these lies about me, but do you not have an ounce of humanity left? Framing a poor man like me?" Rudra faked innocence and pleaded with his men. He tried to wink at them discreetly to get them to play along with him but since his eye was starting to swell shut, the blink went unnoticed.

"Arey waah Rudra Bhaiyya! You used to always say that you had us covered whenever we needed help and now you are very conveniently washing your hands off of us?" one of the men asked. "Now if we are caught, we won't let you get away either," he said. He turned to Neeti then, "Madam, do you not recognize me? I am the same guy who eve-teased you the first day you met Rudra Bhaiyya. He wanted to get into Chaubey Nivas somehow anyhow and he staged that whole incident so that you would get him into the Chaubey house." Neeti stared at the guy for a minute before recognition set in. It was true! The first time she had met Rudra, when he had saved her from the eve-teasers, this goon had been one among them! She turned to Rudra with accusing eyes.

"And yes, we did kidnap Rachita Mathur and we were also instructed to beat Mantu, but Rama came in place of Mantu and got beat up instead. And we did all of this at Rudra bhaiyya's behest," another of the goons confessed. Neeti was so distraught by the revelation, she slipped to the ground and sat there, holding her head in her hands. Rudra felt desperation clawing his insides. His big master game plan was getting ruined. He had to do something. "Yes. I did all of this. I confess. But I only did this because I was forced to, not because I wanted to. Dev Agnihotri forced me to do all this. Trust me Neeti. I never wanted to do any of this. Dev Agnihotri blackmailed me saying that if I didn't do this, he would expose all of my past sins and get me punished."

Sneha paled at the mention of Dev Agnihotri's name. Amaya had crouched beside Neeti and was hugging her trying to console her. She looked up at Rudra's confession and said, "Dev Babu was not even in Banaras till the day of the Shravan Puja. You staged the eve teasing incident to get into Chaubey Nivas way before that Rudra. The truth is that you have and were planning on always using Neeti to your advantage!" "No. That's not true. I mean, yes. I staged the eve teasing incident to get into Chaubey Nivas but that was only because.. Because.. I.. Haan.. I fell in love with you at first sight and then the rest of it is all after Dev Babu came to Banaras," Rudra stuttered and stumbled and fumbled as he tried to cover one lie with another.

"Is that so? Then what about all these funds you've been embezzling from the Chaubey's accounts?" Rama asked as he tossed papers towards Rudra. Dinesh bent and picked up the papers. Sure enough, in small enough amounts that they would go unnoticed at first pass, every assignment that had been handed to Rudra, there were amounts missing that turned up in his account statement. There were also deposits that Dev Enterprises had made into his account on multiple occasions. One of the dates stood out from the entries and Dinesh remembered that it was the day their company had lost out to Dev Enterprises on a huge tender, and that too by a measly difference of Rs 10. He relayed the information to Gajanan Chaubey who still sat in a state of absolute shock.

Neeti stood up from where she had slumped to the ground and turned towards Rudra, "You were using me! It was all a lie! You were using me all along!" Rudra tried to think of some means of damage control. "Its all because of Dev Agnihotri! I swear! Gajananji.." he skirted past Neeti and went to lie at Gajanan Chuabey's feet. "Chaubeyji! Hit me and beat me all you want but please believe me. I did everything that Dev Agnihotri asked me to do. He has sworn vengeance against you and your family and how can a simpleton like me hold out against someone as powerful as Dev Agnihotri?" Gajanan Chaubey remained strangely silent but Dinesh called out to the Inspector, "Inspector, arrest him! Arrest this scoundrel and for all that he has done, make sure he never sees the light of day again!"

Rudra tried to run and make an escape but it was a futile effort, between Mantu, Rama and the police men gathered, he had no chance. He kept shouting and screaming, even trying to play the "I love you Neeti" card but to no avail. Kaushalya too followed him, begging, pleading and threatening the police to let go of her son but to no avail. "Sneha Bhabhi! How can you let this happen? My husband spent all his years serving your family and spared no time for his own family. My son was bereft of a father's love all through his years growing up all because of you and your family and now.. I should've listened to Rudra long ago and helped him in his plan to destroy you. We are not done yet, Sneha. We are not done yet!" Kaushalya threatened as she ran behind the police jeep.

Dimple started to cry hysterically. "The whole of Banaras is going to know. Who will marry my Neeti now? What will become of her? Its all because of you," she turned to Amaya. "Why? What did you get from doing all this? I pleaded with you, didn't I? I begged you to stay away from my daughter and not influence her with your city bred ways.. Now look at what you've done? You've ruined my daughter's life." Before Amaya or Mantu could say anything at all though, Neeti spoke up, "Enough Maa!"

Dimple turned to her. "Enough! Amaya did not do anything. In fact, she was stopping me from getting married to Rudra. Amaya and Mantu jiju were here to stop the wedding. It was my mistake. It was all my mistake. I spent my whole life listening to all of you. You sheltered and protected me, loved me and gave me everything I could ever ask for. But I never had a voice of my own, or even an identity of my own. Rudra made me feel like I was free, or so I thought. I didn't have to think things through a hundred times for the fear of offending him before I spoke to him. I could share my dreams with him, of having a career, and not just being raised to be married off. Even before Amaya and Rachi di came to live here, I had dreamed of having a job for myself, of traveling, going places but never had the guts to say it out loud. How could I? I was scared of even making friends, for the fear that they would never meet your expectations. I've been a loner all my life and then Rudra came into my life.. And I fell in love," Neeti broke down crying. "Amaya tried to tell me all along that I should listen to my family. I didn't listen to her. Its not her fault," Neeti said, over and over again.

"Neeti! Why didn't you ever tell me any of this?" Pushpa asked, just as distraught as Dimple. "I thought you never hid anything from me?" "Would you have been able to stand up to Nanaji for me if I told you?" Neeti asked. "When you couldn't do it for your own daughter, then how could I think you'd be able to stand up for me Nani?" Neeti's question sent Pushpa reeling in shock as if she had received a physical blow.

"Neeti! After all that you have done, you dare to talk to your Nani with so much insolence?" Dinesh raised his hand to hit Neeti but Sneha stopped him. She stood in front of Neeti and said, "Dinesh Bhaiyya, I know that Neeti was about to make a major mistake and thank God that we were able to stop her at the right time before things got any worse. But now that she is trying to tell you what she feels, what she has actually felt all these years, you are asking her to keep quiet? That's not right. You will end up making the same mistake that Babuji made with me all those years ago."

"Sneha.." Gajanan Chaubey finally spoke up but his voice had lost some of the power and arrogance he always infused into his tone. "Forgive me Babuji. But I don't want Neeti to undergo the same fate I did - having to be so confined, voiceless and helpless in one's own family is a horrible feeling. Even worse is to be willing to grab any venue you can to escape from your own family. I know how that feels Babuji and somewhere somehow everything that's happening now is tied to what happened in the past. Its tied to Dev, Babuji. Do you still not see it? Or do you see it and refuse to acknowledge it?" Sneha asked. Gajanan Chaubey turned away without saying anything.

"It doesn't matter Babuji. Because I have decided that I am going to finish all of this, once and for all with Dev Agnihotri." Sneha turned to Rama, "Rama beta, do me a favor and bring Rachita to Dev Agnihotri's house. She needs to be there too," "Maa, you will not go alone to Dev Agnihotri's house. I will come with you," Mantu said. The gleam of determination in his eyes told Sneha that he would not heed any of her arguments. "Yes Mom, Mantu and I will come with you," Amaya said. Maybe it was for the best, Sneha thought, that the past and the present should finally meet.

******

nice chapter. .. Beautiful story. pls make another manya story after this

Another awesome update neet . Cant wait to read Sneha dev manya and rara confrontation. Update soon yr

Uff! Neeti got saved! Mantu was such a darling standing up for his wife's family! Kaash aisa pati har ladki ko mile... ❤️_❤️ Now I cannot wait for the confrontation!!!

Oooh its awesome neet yaar update soon next update will be full of dhamaka

wow...that was awesome, now m waiting for the big confrontation coming up ahead.

UPDATE SOON NEET . EAGERLY WAITING FOR THE UPCOMING DRAMA IN THE STORY

Waiting for the confrontation Excited 😃