CONTACT-THREAD3/UPDATED/CH-29/PG-89/22-11-11/ - Page 8

CHAPTER 23(C) A BLEEDING HEART

"... See there's this place in me where your fingerprints still rest, your kisses still linger, and your whispers softly echo. It's the place where a part of you will forever be a part of me."

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11.00am

MSK was back in his cabin and he couldn't wait for the day to end when he would present the ring to Geet and she would say 'yes' to him. His eyes were going again and again towards her cabin, but she hadn't yet arrived. Maan couldn't remember last when he had been so excited about something. He took out the bill of purchase stamped on with the D'Damas logo, from his pocket and looked at it yet again.

"Tonight Geet________ and after that you will be mine."

A knock sounded on his door and Adi peeked in-----------

"Maan sir, I have something very important to tell you."

"yes Adi, come in, what is it?"

Adi saw that his boss was smiling and he hated the fact that as soon as he delivered the news, MSk will again start frowning. He hated to be the person to be delivering such bad news to MSK.

Seeing Adi hesitate, MSK frowned. What was it that was making Adi hesitate so.

"what is it Adi? Tell me."

"Sir, I have some bad news------ we didn't get the contract."

Maan first frowned and then when the words sunk in he stared at Adi-----

"But that is impossible Adi, what do u mean we didn't get the contract? have you checked properly?"

"Yes Sir, twice".

"Call Sasha."

A little while later Sasha, their PR personnel, their finance deptt people and technical staff, were all gathered in MSK's cabin.

"What do you mean, we didn't get the contract?" Sasha and all the people present were all very confused.

"But MK, how is that possible?" Sasha asked coming forward, "Ours was the best quotation and we had all checked and cross checked again and again the market pulse."

There was a general murmur of "Yes" all around.

"Who got the project?" MSK asked.

"The Mitthal Group and they got it very easily with a very narrow margin." Adi said.

"What I don't get is that after so much research and market analysis, something that has never failed us before this, how did we not get this project this year?" Sasha wondered aloud.

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11.30am

Geet entered the office and went straight to her cabin, she glanced towards Maan's cabin and saw that he and Adi were deep in conversation, poring over something, many files were spread out in front of them and both were talking fast. She stopped and saw the calm and controlled way in which Maan was talking, gone was the man who had started to smile and talk almost as fast as she did------ it seemed that Maan was again withdrawing into his shell of MSK. Geet frowned but she didn't think it would be appropriate to go and ask what was the matter. Just then Neha again gave her a missed call. The girl was clearly worried about something. Geet decided to go and meet her first. As she came out of her cabin she collided with Tasha.

"Look where you are going Geet!"

"So sorry Tasha, I didn't see you coming."

"Hey Geet will you come into my cabin iam having a little difficulty with a file, can u help me PLEASE!!!"

"Can I come after a few minutes?"

"Please Geet Sasha had given me a file and iam so confused where I had stored it in my computer, u r so good with computers can u help me, u know how Sasha gets when her work is not done, plz Geet it won't take too long, come with me."

Geet couldn't say no, so she went along with Tasha and then spent a fruitless hour searching for the file, that Tasha said she had stored in her computer. After much confusion which ranged from the file's name to what it held, any of which Tasha couldn't actually tell her in absolute certainty------- Geet had to conclude that she just couldn't locate the file and she said sorry and excused herself and then headed towards Neha's cabin.

Neha was not there in her cabin. Geet asked a junior staff whose work station was located just outside Neha's cabin and she told Geet that Neha had rushed out of her cabin almost half an hour before and that she was looking very worried.

Geet tried calling on Neha's cell, but it was coming unreachable''...Geet started getting worried about the girl and hoped that everything was ok with her.

She went back towards her cabin and saw that Adi and MSK both were not in Maan's cabin. An ominous feeling settled in her heart, but she brushed it aside chalking it out to be just her disappointment that she hadn't been able to meet him all morning. Geet shrugged and gave herself a mental shake and then prepared to go to a meeting that she had with their engineers, on site of their Faridabad project.

5.00pm

The whole day, Geet hadn't seen Maan. Her mood was very low. On top of that she could feel that there was an environment of suppressed tension in the office. She had just come back from her onsite meeting with the engineers of the Faridabad project. She grabbed a glass of water and then strolled out to meet Pinky to ask her what was the matter and then just then she saw Adi going into Sasha's cabin with an armful of files. Pinky told her the bad news and also that Maan sir was taking this very badly as the Mitthal group was a very old business rival of his. And Pinky also told her that she didn't know exactly what but there was some personal enmity between R.K.Mtthal and MSK.

Geet strolled back to her cabin and understood why she had felt Maan so controlled and closed when she had earlier witnessed him talking with Adi. She also understood that the project loss wasn't that big, rather that Maan's ego has been hurt with this which he was taking as a defeat against that Mitthal winning the bid. She desperately wanted to meet him and sooth over his feelings. She didn't want him to withdraw into himself as he tended to do whenever his feelings were involved.

5.30pm (Sasha's cabin)

"However much you ignore and try to look for faults in my findings Adi, you have to agree that the evidence is very strong."

"No Sasha, there must be something here, which we are overlooking, this can't be right!! I just can't believe it!"

"I too was shocked when I saw all this at first ad that's why I called you. Tell you what lets go and meet that person, who Tasha talked with and see what he is saying, we will then tell MK, OK?"

Adi sat down on the chair from where he had sprung up like a spring only fifteen minutes earlier. His heart said it wasn't right, but his eyes and brain could see and analyse what was there in plain black and white. His heart kept on niggling that there must be something that he had overlooked, or not understood, but with Sasha's considerable insistence, he agreed to accompany her to meet that man.

7.00pm

Geet left for her home along with Pinky. She felt very sad that she hadn't been able to meet Maan or talk with him the whole day. But she was sure that he would either call her or ask her to come out as he now knew that her parents and Uncle had arrived. All though the evening she was distracted and a very poor dinner companion to everybody. She just couldn't believe it that he hadn't once called her. She decided that after dinner she wouldn't wait but will call him herself. But try as she might, first his cell was not reachable and then after much time went by when she did get the connection, he didn't answer. Geet again felt the ominous feeling that she had felt in the office. She then tried Neha's cell but she was also out of reach.

7.00pm (MSK's house)

Maan was staring at Adi and Sasha _______ he just couldn't get what they were saying to him, showing him.

Maan looked at his head finance as if he had grown two heads------- as if he was all at once spouting a language he didn't understand.

Maan felt his head start to buzz------

He shook his head and rasped out, "Both of u are wrong."

Sasha came forward and asked him, "When have you ever known me to be wrong MK? Have I ever told you or informed you about anything before first checking and then again cross checking facts?"

Maan took an involuntary step back. He stared at Sasha. He hated the sight of her at that moment. He couldn't bear to look at her or Adi who was standing at Sasha's back staring at him with sad eyes. Maan wanted to roar, for them to start saying they were wrong, for them to just get the hell out of there.

They were wrong. Insane.

This was Geet. His Geet. His safe haven. His one and only------

"Run the facts by me again and how you two reached this conclusion."

Maan looked at Adi, but Adi seemed reluctant to say anything. Sighing Sasha came forward.

"Remember MK, almost a month back when we had started the market analysis and research which we do every time before any such big projects? Geet came to see me and specifically asked to work alongside me to aid me in the research. I had started to like her and so I agreed to do so. Then one day before our final estimation was done and the envelop was to be sealed, she herself went to the records deptt. and signed in and took the envelop with her and she deposited the bid envelop to the clerk in the offices there in the morning of 27th. I have the signed copy where she had signed while taking the official envelop and see the planning of the girl, she had some time in the past obtained your signatures to authorize her in doing so. You had lately started to sign whatever she had ever asked you to sign without even reading the contents and she had taken THAT advantage.

After you had asked us to look into the matter I had asked Tasha to go to the their offices and she came back and told me that a girl of Geet's description had gone to submit the papers after you and ur team had gone to the project meeting. Neha discovered that Geet was hacking into all company's private and confidential files and she informed me, unfortunately Neha had to leave for her home town as she received news that her mother was seriously ill. This is how Geet had accessed all the information necessary to sell your bid amount to the Mitthal group and prepare a fresh one with the information that she had collected."

MSk stood as if curved of stone, not a flicker of emotion crossed his face. Adi looked at him and saw the visual confirmation that he had guessed a long time back------ his boss, his Maan Sir, loved Geet and the way he was taking in this news was evidence enough how much of a shock it was to him.

Adi still couldn't believe Geet was capable of such deceit, such greed. And with that thought he again glanced at MSK remembering one another incident when MSK had to face the destruction heaved due to the love of money and greed for possession of a single woman who had created this MSk the image of total self control and ruthlessness, unapproachable and emotionless.

"I want to talk with the clerk personally, bring him to the party tomorrow and leave the file here and go, both of you just leave."

"O.k. MK, I will bring that man to you tomorrow at the party."

And they both left. Maan sat for a long time staring at the file that they had left behind as if it were a time bomb, ticking away the peace ad serenity of his mind and heart.

Time ceased, everything disappeared in a vortex of nothingness.

Only one thing existed now. The file.

Maan sat facing the table, his fingers laced together, still staring at the file, the "evidence" as Sasha had called it. Then taking a deep breath, he sat forward, he couldn't seem to release his fingers as if they would break off the moment he did that.

He neared the table as if nearing the time bomb which might just go off at the slightest false move. He took the file in his hands and opened it.

His eyes lost focus. Lines merged, words jumbled, their meanings unattainable.

Then the streaking incoherence started to lose momentum, until word after word bludgeoned his awareness in slow motion. Page after page.

Inescapable, the evidence, insupportable. The picture it painted. Inexplicable_________ Geet''. His Geet---------

He threw away the file and sat with his head in his hands. If his employees and his family were to have seen him now, they would have witnessed MSK crying silently with tears rushing down one after the other bearing testimony to his pain, his anguish, his heartbreak_________ his love for Geet.

His cell rang insistently, but he ignored it------ knowing full well who it was who was calling him at this time of the night.

It seemed like hours________ when he stirred from where he had been sitting for so long. Maan stood up and retrieved the damning file, holding it carelessly, as he climbed the stairs, looking at the opulence surrounding him, People say he was lucky to have been had the world at his feet since his birth, he is considered successful to have taken the Khurana name to the stars, but at that moment, the wealth, the success proved only one thing in MSk's mind_______________his failure in life.

He understood his was a life to be led alone without the wish or hope for a true companion, someone to truly love and understand him outside his family members and he felt an overwhelming urge to call his Dadima and ask her to come and stay with him for some days.

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The next day was Sunday and it was the day of Mrs. Soni's party. The day had gone very badly for Geet as Maan hadn't yet returned her calls and then she too got angry thinking that as he had by then seen that she had called so many times and yet he hadn't called back so she wouldn't call him again and just see him directly at the party.

Geet was getting dressed for the party, her mother looked at her daughter and went and told her husband that their daughter was in love. When enquired why she thought so, Mrs. Smriti Handa gave a sweet, secret smile to her husband and asked him to go and see their daughter who was almost ready to go to the office party that she had to attend that evening.

Both of them observed their daughter who had worn a white saree, and hanging earrings, she had brushed her curly mass of hair to a shining sheen and attached two combs to keep them out of her face and was looking downright breathtaking. Smriti leaned on to her husband and whispered,

"Be ready to prepare for her bidai soon Mr. Handa, she is surely in love."

Geet noticed her parents looking at her with a smile on their faces and she blushed------------

"What are you two looking at? Mama am I looking OK?"

Geet arrived at the party venue, which was at a famous hotel banquet hall. Almost everyone had arrived and some couples were dancing too. She glanced at the dance floor, sure that by the end of the evening, she will be dancing with Maan, as by now she knew, he loved to dance with her.

Her eyes roamed all around for him and then she saw him enclosed within a group made up of Adi, Sasha, Tasha, another of their finance head and an unknown man she had never seen before. As she walked towards them, she noticed Pinky standing alone watching her with a face reflecting such sadness, that for a second she made to turn towards her to ask her what was the reason for her to be in such a mood, that too in a party!

But as she turned, in her peripheral vision she saw MSK looking straight at her and then he raised his hand and crooked his finger and beckoned her. Geet frowned at the way he had signaled her. She went towards them and the moment she reached his side, Sasha stepped forward and asked the man standing there,

"Now tell us who is the woman who had given you the file?"

The man pointed towards Geet and said , "This woman, came and submitted the file in the name of Khurana Constructions."

Geet looked at the man she had never seen before that moment in her life and turned towards Maan for explanation and found him looking at her unblinkingly, his stare so cold that she gave an involuntary shiver.

"What file? Who is this man Sasha Mam?"

"Oh! Drop the act Geet, we all know by now what you have done, the least you can do now is to tell us how much money the Mitthal group had given you for this leak?"

Geet frowned, had she heard correct, did Sasha just accuse her of corporate espionage?

She again turned to look at Maan, "What is going on Maan? What is Sasha Mam saying?"

Sasha forcefully turned her back towards her and gave her a file, "Read this, everything is there in black and white, we all know everything, MK now knows what a lying, greedy, conniving, liar and cheat you are."

Geet still felt as if immune, she opened the file and read the contents. When she came to the end, she went back to the front sheet and again started to read it------- all the time she unconsciously shook her head. A slow buzzing had started in her head, her ears started filling with the noise as if a cluster of bees were lodged in her head.

"Maan? What is this? What does it mean? Tell her this is not right---- someone is very much mistaken, some big mistake somewhere________

And in her agitation, she grabbed hold of Maan's jacket sleeve, and MSK with a slow deliberateness removed her hand ________

"Why did you do it? For money? For what?"

Geet took an involuntary step back and realized that MSK believed the file and Sasha. Her heart gave a big trembling beat and then cracked.

She would not beg------ she stood as if curved of stone and stared back at him. Everything seemed like a very badly written play gone even worse.

"Answer me damnit, don't stare at me as if you are innocent."

Deadness crept up her body like fast-growing vines. She welcomed the suffocation, its inescapability, the stability it infused her to answer him without collapsing in a mass of misery.

"I see no reason for any explanation on my part seeing as everybody has already , made up their minds. So I would rather say nothing."

MSk gave a sardonic lift of his eyebrows like a slash of claws, "you are using reverse psychology to make us wonder whether we are wrong."

Geet took the brunt of his words. Then she slowly closed the file that she had been holding open since and wordlessly handed it to Adi. She drew in a long breath and repeated, "I have nothing to say to you," she then looked at Sasha, noticing the unholy gleam of victory reflected off her eyes, "to any of you. Whatever has been said on this floor, is enough"

It wasn't enough. Not by a long shot. Maan wanted---- needed--- far more. Her sobs, her pleas. Her urgency and mortification. He wanted anything, but this certainty, proof of her betrayal eating at his heart, leaving nothing but an enraged shell bent on destruction. He wanted her to slap him, and act wronged and innocent.

He wanted her to be innocent.

Her hold over him was swaying him, making him doubt facts and logic, presented to him by his most trusted employees, making him erase the record of his won memory.

Sasha came to stand in front of him, "MK, we should call the police."

Geet paled on hearing her and closed her eyes.

Adi stepped forward, " Maan Sir, let us not take a hasty decision and think about it again and reevaluate the situation."

"Adi stay out of this." Sasha gave a very angry look at Adi.

MSk grabbed Geet's arm and dragged her to one of the corner recesses in the hall, shadowed and obscured by a decoration of potted plants.

Geet didn't say a single word to him. Maan stood looking at her for a very long time.

The silence surrounding them was thick with pain, as two hearts bled unknowingly______ aching for each other's comfort.

Maan's heart and senses roared, insisting him to listen to them saying Geet couldn't be wrong, but then he thought that to be his wishful thinking.

Geet's heart cried with the betrayal of trust-------- her Maan, her Maan Sir, didn't believe in her innocence.

"All the time I have been with you, what were you thinking? Were you laughing your head off thinking you had me so fooled, that even if I found out about your treachery, your plan to sell me off in pieces to my rivals, I would have forgiven you?"

Geet released her arm from his grip, "You have already believed Sasha Mam, so then why are we standing here? I loved you, but no amount of love that I felt for you can make me grovel and try to change your mind, for if you don't trust me, know me by now, then I was living in a fool's paradise till now. I have nothing more to say to you, do whatever you want to do, but get it done."

A shutter fell over Maan's eyes. "Go, go very far away from here before I change my mind and bring legal charges against you."

Geet stared at him, his eyes tormented, his pain evident and yet his words, his stance contradicting all that. She turned and started walking away.

At the entrance, Geet turned, for a last time, for a last glimpse of him.

He was still standing where she had left him, staring at her. Their eyes met, their hearts cried in unison, craving each other, and they both turned in two opposite directions, denying what their hearts told them, burning in helpless pain of betrayal.

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Guys is everyone OK? plz dont be sad, coz the bigger their seperation, the sweeter and passionate will their recoincilation be. Trust me.

and for those who have questions regarding the woman who betrayed MSK, all will be revealed in due course of time.

Now, get to work and give me due result with loads of "likes" and comments... iam starved.

LOVE