~~[CHAPTER NINE- F E A R & F O R T U N E]~~
Enough.
Tej Singh Oberoi had bloody had enough. He knew where his son... or he supposed sons and daughter were. He was Tej Singh f**king Oberoi. Of course he bloody well knew.
He knew when Omkara married Anika. He knew when they adopted Sahil. He knew when they applied for a passport for Anika and Sahil. He knew when they bought a house in London. He knew when Sahil started at a new school. He knew when Rudra discovered the truth and went to find him with Soumya. He knew which hotel the two of them were staying at. He knew Priyanka had followed Rudra after logging into his computer and discovering the same photos of Omkara and Anika which had sent Rudra to London in the first place.
He knew he had raised two idiot sons and whether his daughter would follow suit was yet to be seen, but things weren't looking hopeful
Tej Singh Oberoi knew all of these things, and as he looked down at the fevered, unconscious form of his nephew he also knew that enough was finally enough.
As Shivaay moaned, caught in the throes of yet another fever-dream, Tej turned on his heel and marched out of the room, leaving Pinky and Shakti to tend alone to their son's physical state while Tej took it upon himself to deal with the psychological.
His first stop was his bedroom. Inside he found his wife on the bed, not so much sleeping as just out cold. He loved Jhanvi, he really did, and he took full responsibility for her initial problems with alcohol. But the two of them had been healing once, finding their love for each other again... Omkara leaving had put a sudden and complete end to that.
Jhanvi stopped speaking to him, stopped speaking to anyone really. All day she drank and all night she cried and Tej was too weak to deal with it, finding meaningless and temporary comfort in the arms and beds of other women. Each time it left him feeling emptier and more disgusted with himself. But he couldn't stop.
Jhanvi wouldn't let him touch her. Nights he spent at home, she either huddled as far away from him on the bed as was possible without her falling out completely, or she drank herself into such a stupor that she passed out on the divan in their room. Of course, Tej would always attempt to carry her back to the bed, but if she wasn't completely knocked out and retained even slight consciousness, his attempts were met by a violent punch or kick from his wife.
Tej cautiously shook Jhanvi's shoulder, relieved by the soft groans that meant she was almost conscious. Hangovers were a rare occurrence, Jhanvi having built up quite the tolerance, but she frequently needed an eye-opener just to get her functioning first thing. Tej picked up the unmarked crystal decanter into which she poured her drink of choice and poured some of the amber liquid into a glass. "Jhanvi. Jhanvi please honey, I need you to wake up."
"Go away."
"No. I need you to listen to me. Wake up, here." He proffered her the glass and she sat up slowly, taking it from him and downing it in one gulp before reaching for the decanter to pour herself another. Tej took it from her trembling hands and poured it himself. He needed her to pay attention and he knew she would not be able to while she was craving the poison.
"We are going to fix the mess our family has become." He told her as she took a slower sip. "I cannot do this by myself, I need you by my side. I need my wife to support me and to help me with this."
"What can I do? I'm a drunk." She managed to sound simultaneously resigned and angry. He didn't know who either emotion was directed at, him or herself?
Tej sat down on the bed and took her hand, the shakes finally gone. He looked into her eyes and saw the same sadness that felt like a kick in the teeth every time he saw it. "We need to bring Omkara home."
"What about Anika?" because of course Tej had told Jhanvi about Anika. He had half-expected the accelerated spiralling in her drinking habit when he did, but he had still been trying to hold onto the fragile bonds they had started to reform at that time, so he had told her the truth, had hoped he'd be able to hold her to stability. He had been wrong about the consequences, but he was still certain telling her had been the right thing to do.
"Her too."
"And you think that'll fix Shivaay?"
"No," Tej shook his head, his heart heavy as he thought about the broken state of every person he held dear and wondered if any of it could be repaired. "But we can't try to glue something back together if we don't have all the bloody pieces."
A startled giggle from Jhanvi. Tej smiled and rubbed her shoulder fondly.
She always had enjoyed his crassness. He remembered the first time he had realised that, back when she was still the seemingly run-of-the-mill, blue-blooded heiress girlfriend of his best friend, Vikram, and Tej had been maintaining the pretence of being a civil, polite young man on the rare occasions when he had been forced to interact with her. And then one morning, Tej had gone over to Vikram's house to debrief him on the wild night out he had passed on in favour of going on a date with Jhanvi. Tej had been using some of the rather more colourful words in his vocabulary, ignoring Vikram's incessant attempts to interrupt.
And that was when he heard it. The warm laughter coming from somewhere behind him. "Shit, Vikram, why didn't you tell me she was here."
Vikram had thrown him a look of disbelief. "What do you think I have been trying to do since you got here?"
"99% of what you say is complete bollocks, Vik, excuse me for not wanting it to ruin my flow."
Jhanvi had laughed again, and it had been the first time Tej had looked at her. Really looked at her. And so had started an obsession that had destroyed his relationship with a man so dear to him he may as well have been his brother.
"What do you need me to do?"
"While I'm in London, I need you to hold down the fort here. Really hold it down. Make sure Shivaay doesn't do anything crazy while he recovers and make sure Pinky and Shakti don't do anything crazy in the meantime."
"What's wrong with him, Tej?"
"He saw Rudra's computer."
"Of course he did." A heavy exhale. "Why are our children so stupid, Tej?"
"I don't know, Jhanvi. But if it makes you feel any better, it can't possibly be our fault. We've barely expended any effort into raising them."
Jhanvi laughed again and Tej fought the urge to pull her to him and hug her so tightly she became a part of him. "I don't think that's something we should be celebrating, love."
And the affectionate little endearment almost broke his heart.
"""""""""""""
ACP Randhawa was having an odd morning.
He had woken to find Priyanka Singh Oberoi leaning perilously out of the window, arms outstretched. His heart slamming into his throat, he had leapt out of the bed and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back in before she could jump.
The move had unbalanced him and he had landed on his back on the bed, the young Miss Oberoi on top of him. She had wriggled on top of him until she was facing him, her chest heaving against his, her hips pressed to his, her legs trapped between his. His arms still wrapped around her waist, her hands pressing into the bed either side of his.
Her eyes widened and she pulled back. Ranveer did not release her and so this only succeeded in having her wriggle her warm, slender body further into his.
He might despise everything Priyanka stood for, but his body was still reacting as it would to any female he was as physically attracted to as he was to her.
Her skin flaring bright red with humiliation, she started panicking in his arms and trying to extract herself from his hold. He released her suddenly, causing her to go tumbling backwards and land on her butt on the floor.
He stood up, sneered down at her and then reluctantly reached out a hand to help her up. Swatting it away, she scrambled to her feet and then quickly backed away from him. Her entire body was trembling and her gaze was darting around the room, looking for an escape. He was blocking her path to the door which, now that he thought about it, why hadn't she just left through there instead of trying to jump out the window?
"What were you doing?"
"T-t-t-trying t-t-to get some si-si-signal."
He looked around, spotted her phone lying untouched on the desk. "No you weren't. Your phone's right there."
"Th-th-there was n-n-no battery so I was u-using y-yours."
"For the love of all that is holy, if I have to listen to you stumble over every other f**king word I'm going to go insane. Look, Priyanka, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a police officer. I exist to protect." He gave a mock bow to Her Highness. "Now give me back my phone."
"I-I-I-I-"
"Don't cry, I don't care that you were using my phone. Just give it to me."
"I d-dropped it."
Her eyes flitted to the open window. They were on the 12th floor.
"You what?"
"When you g-grabbed me. I was so sh-sh-sh-shocked I l-let go."
He stared.
Then he glared.
Then he took a step towards her, inciting a small yelp of panic.
"Don't leave." He had managed to growl at her before heading into the bathroom. Ranveer was unpleasant at the best of times, and when he was in as bad a mood as he was right then, he could become downright menacing. Menacing would not work on Priyanka Singh Oberoi. On either persona. The offline 'Prinku' or the online 'Prink Lady'.
So he would take a shower and he would cool his head and then he would do whatever it took to get both Priyankas to accept him into their life.
He wasn't really sure how that particular sequence of events had ended up with him sitting in the kitchen of Omkara and Anika Singh Oberoi with a cup of strong black coffee and a piece of plain buttered toast in front of him... but it had. And he intended to take full advantage of this bizarre bit of gift-wrapped fortune.
They were waiting for the return of Anika and Soumya, all of them sitting in tense silence as they waited, a mutual decision having been made to remain silent and save all questions for when everyone was there so that nobody would have to repeat themselves.
Priyanka reached for some water but ended up knocking it over, the cup capsizing its contents all over Ranveer's lap.
"For the love of God, Priyanka."
"Hey! Don't talk to my sister like that you piece of-"
"Rudra Bhaiya! I'm s-s-sorry C-c-c-commissioner."
"What did I say about stuttering all the time, jeez. Are you going to offer me tissues or not?" The question to his host.
"Not." Omkara folded his arms and leaned back in the chair as Ranveer rose to his feet and brushed what he could off himself and then looked around for the kitchen roll.
That was when they all heard the key turn in the lock.
Chapter Ten- Devar & Bhabhi
Edited by fallingpieces - 9 years ago
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