Part 15 - Trial By Fire
The overriding emotion that Arnav felt after Shyam hung up was rage - Anger, the likes of which no one had ever seen before or experienced. He wanted to personally tear Shyam's limbs apart just for kidnapping his di...If something were to happen to her in this state, he did not know what he would do to Shyam! Something akin to horror passed through Karan's face as the creep hung up. Fear and something else, a reminder of the helplessness when his wife was taken away from him prematurely, touched him. He blamed himself for this breakdown in security. He should have had his personnel investigate alternate entrances - Since it was related to women and babies, his team had not wanted to enter and disturb the privacy of the patients and Anjali. It looked like Shyam had already been waiting for Anjali to arrive and had dealt with the doctor and her assistant before sedating Anjali - Karan guessed the latter as Anjali would have put up a struggle and would not have gone with him willingly. He pulled Arnav over to look at the security cameras. In the last half hour, there hadnt been any pregnant ladies who left the building. Rewinding the tape again, Karan paused at a point where they saw a bearded guy wheel a purdah-clad woman in a wheelchair. "Thats him. Strip off that long beard and you will see it is him.", Arnav exclaimed. They immediately printed out a copy of Shyam in disguise and handed it off to the team to talk to the people outside to see what his mode of transport had been.
"Arnav - I am very sorry that this happened on my watch. I know this is extremely worrying for you. But remember, for Shyam, your di is his insurance ticket out of this mess he has created for himself. He will not let anything happen to her. I promise you that I will recover your di for you safe and sound.", Karan consoled Arnav. "You have to take care that Khushi and the rest of your family dont find out what Shyam wants. Especially Khushi. Given how precipitatious your wife is and how much she cares for Anjali, we dont want her taking any decisions on her own. We will get Anjali back, without trading Khushi. I promise. "
"Why dont you get Naani ji and Khushi home and come over to my office. I will be reaching there in another 20 minutes after I drop Suraj off at home. In the meanwhile, I am going to have my team work with the cellphone company to find out the owner behind this private number so we can triangulate the position of this cell phone . And, if I have learnt anything about Shyam , I am pretty sure he is not going to call at 7 PM. He needs to feel in control so he will either have us scrambling earlier or play a waiting game by calling much later.", Karan said. "We will find him before tonight.", Karan vowed to himself privately - He could not bear the thought that the beautiful and vulnerable Anjali was back in the hands of that monster when she might deliver any time. He definitely did not want a repeat Mythili-Suraj scenario on his watch.
***
"Yes, Shyam has taken Anjali and we are leaving no stone unturned in getting di back - I vow that I will get Di back safe and sound and she will be back amidst us very soon.", Arnav concluded after sharing this horrifying news with the family assembled in the living room at Shantivan. "But what does Shyam want?", Khushi and Akash echoed together. "He has not said. I have to go to Karan's office so I can wait for his next call and we can monitor it. I will call you with updates as soon as I have it. In the meanwhile, I want you all to stay strong and brave and pray for Anjali Di's safe return."
***
NK had arrived a couple of days ago and was in the office at AR industries on that fateful day. He discovered he had a new love for the business and the marketing aspects of his job and a new respect for Nanav who had built up all this from scratch. It helped that he had lots of eye candy (in the form of the beautiful models) to distract him when he wanted to be. He was sitting on what was previously Khushi's table, surrounded by 4 of these beauties when in walked the most breath-taking, slender-limbed, doe-eyed creature that he had seen in his life. Yeah - Khushi was beautiful and he had had a mild crush on her ...But it was nothing compared to the full-blown lust he experienced when he saw the dusky-skinned beauty walking towards him dressed in a dark blue pant suit with a cream-colored shirt. She casually dismissed the models and held out her hand.."You must be NK. I am Lavanya, ASR's former executive assistant - I have come back at his request to help out during this difficult time, when he takes a break and a backseat from work for a few weeks."
Edited by vishkhush - 13 years ago
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