Chapter 2"Why didn't you think of something, say something to convince him?"
"What was I supposed to say, Naintara? Bro just showed up at the mandap and found out everything," complained Dev as he watched his wife hurriedly throwing things in the suitcase.
"Well, what was Veerji doing in a place like this anyway? He should have been in Delhi, celebrating his victory over kicking us out."
"I don't know why he was here. He said something about searching for Vicky, which makes no sense to me. Last I knew Vicky was planning a trip to Thailand with his friends."
"I knew that boy would cause trouble," Naintara muttered.
Before Dev could ask Naintara what she was saying, they both heard Maan shout, "Dev, Naintara, get out here now!"
Glaring at her stupid husband, Naintara demanded, "What are we going to do now?"
"I don't know! Bro knows everything, so I don't know what to do. I guess we will just have to bare his anger and hope everything works out."
Naintara shook her head angrily as her foolish and weak husband walked out of the door. It was obvious that he was going to do nothing against his brother, or to improve their situation. Once again, everything was left to her. She would have to think very carefully this time, if she was to succeed against Maan Veerji. Her best option would be to try and get Dadima on her side.
"What is all this?" Maan demanded as Dev brought out Naintara's bag, with her right behind him. Maan was pointing to the bags that were already stowed inside the trunk of the car.
When no one else answered, Kamya blurted out that they were all Geet's belongings. Maan's face hardened momentarily before he called Munshiji over. Requesting a piece of paper from the Khuranas' longtime retainer, Maan wrote a quick note, before giving him some quiet and terse directions. Then he saw to it that Padma and Kamya were seated inside the vehicle.
When Naintara made a move to join them, Maan yelled loudly, "Ek minute! What do you think you are doing? You and Dev will be riding with me."
Naintara looked towards the vehicle that Maan had indicated and exclaimed, "You expect me to ride in this jeep? Never!"
"I don't trust you or Dev and I don't want either of you out of my sight. There isn't enough room for us all to travel together, so both of you will be coming with me."
"But we could travel in a car, Veerji," she whined, looking like a petulant child.
"Chup! You're fortunate that I'm not making you walk all the way back to Delhi. Now stop your naatak and get in!"
Naintara found Maan too frightening to try to oppose him any more at the moment. She knew he was ruthless and perfectly capable of leaving her there. Feeling extremely insulted, but unable to say anything, she carefully picked up the edge of her saree and tried to climb into the vehicle. Before she even had a chance to put on a seatbelt, Maan had revved the engine and hit the gas, propelling them on to the road and out of Hoshiarpur.
The Handas arrived home very dismal and disturbed. It was bad enough that they had been cheated and deceived by a family they had trusted, but they also had faced a humiliating experience on the journey. A local woman had stopped the car Geet was in, claiming that the would be bride was her daughter Channi. They all knew the woman was mad, and had been from the time when her daughter ran away mysteriously.
The elders were also not too thrilled to get a visit from one of Maan Singh Khurana's employees, when all they wanted was to distance themselves from the whole incident. Brij was all for thrashing the man and throwing him out, but the man stood firm, declaring that "Chote Saab" had given him instructions and a message for Daarji. They could do what they liked, but he would see his task through. Preferring to get the man on his way, Daarji accepted the message, read it quickly, then told Brij and Mohinder to take out Geet's suitcases from the man's car.
Geet was unaware of any of it. She was totally numb to her surroundings, not even realizing when they came home and the women took her quietly to her room. All she could think about was the moments she had spent with Dev. The gentle way he spoke to her, how he seemed to sense all her concerns, his charming ways, all these memories swam before her eyes, stealing her belief. She could neither eat, nor sleep, and no amount of coaxing by her mother or Rajji was able to bring her out of the shock. A new day dawned, yet still no change could be seen in Geet's behavior.
Dev walked down the large main staircase of the Khurana mansion, wondering if he was going to have to account for his behavior to his brother. They had arrived back early that morning, after a journey that Naintara had found very unpleasant. She let him know just how unpleasant, before falling to sleep as if she had no cares in the world. He was not so fortunate, being unable to sleep and now waiting for the bomb from his brother to drop.
"Dev Beta?" came a soft woman's voice, then, "Dev Beta you are back home? When did this happen?"
"Dadima," replied Dev as the woman rushed over to hug him, "we got back early this morning."
"We? You mean both you and Naintara have come home?" Savitri Devi questioned her younger grandson. "So, Maan had a change of heart then?"
"Actually, Dadima..."
"Dev!" broke in Maan's harsh voice from the main door as he stepped into the mansion. "My study office. Now!"
From Maan's attitude, it was clear to Savitri that something was still wrong between her grandsons. She tried to question Dev, but he evaded her, following after his older brother. Savitri knew Maan well, knew that what ever the disagreement had been, that it would take time for him to sort it out with Dev. But now that Dev and Naintara were both back in the house, she was sure that things would return to normal soon.
"Sit down," Maan order, leaving Dev little opportunity to do anything else.
"I don't want any explanations and I don't want any excuses. Just take a piece of paper, write down the names of everyone you owe money to and how much you owe them. Don't manipulate the amounts just to avoid making me angry, because I'm already angrier than I've ever been. Just tell the truth."
Dev felt like he was back in his school boy days, sitting in the principal's office waiting to be punished. It was extremely unpleasant, and he resented Maan's attitude, but did the task quietly. When he was done, he gave the paper to his brother and waited for the verdict. Maan looked over the information, no expression visible on his hard face.
The silence was so heavy that Dev soon burst out with, "So, what happens now?"
Maan glared at Dev, before replying, "What happens now is that I pay off these debts, and things around here change drastically. It is obvious that you can't be trusted with money. For this reason all of your credit and debit cards have been cancelled. You will have access to one bank account which will be credited with 5,000 rupees a week allowance, available in cash withdrawal direct from the bank only. I am no longer interested in cleaning up your messes for free, therefore my paying off these debts is a loan, not a gift. To pay me back, you will start working in a junior manager's position at our Guragon office, with a beginning salary of 30,000 rupees a month. You will have the opportunity to advance just like any other employee, but any salary increase will go towards paying of this loan."
"Bro, you can't be serious! You can't actually expect me to live like this. Do you know how long it would take to pay you back at 30,000 a month? It's ridiculous!"
Maan slammed his fist on the desk and shouted, "I'll tell you what's ridiculous! Agreeing to your wife's stupid plan to marry a twenty something girl for her dowery to pay off your gambling debts is ridiculous, no it's just so imbecilic that I don't even have words to describe it!"
"Geet was eighteen, not twenty," Dev mumbled, looking down with anger and shame.
"And that just makes everything alright, doesn't it? Dev, I'm not giving you this chance out of any sort of brotherly love, but for Dadima's sake only. Understand this! And yes, also understand that just because the Handas didn't want to deal with the police, doesn't mean that I won't take the first opportunity to send you to jail if you screw up again. I've given in long enough Dev. You wanted to marry Naintara, I agreed. You wanted to have a six month exotic travel honeymoon, I agreed. You didn't want to work in the family company, instead wanting to look for your own job, I agreed. I supported both yours and Naintara's lavish lifestyle for six months without saying a word. I didn't hand you over to the police when you attempted to steal company funds by forging my signature on a company check. Enough, Dev, enough! Either you get your act together and start accepting responsibility for yourself or we are through."
Precap"Oye! Where do you think you are going, girl?"
Geet turned towards the voice and said softly, with little energy, "I'm going to college, Veerji."
Edited by laxmi2010 - 13 years ago
Cricket
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