***part 17-ii***
note: Please ignore the practical aspects of this update. I tried to explain everything as realistically as I could but this is no routine day situation or story. Hope you like it!
He is so frustrating. I am looking around to find something to do and the wallpaper on his laptop catches my attention. It has me and the kids from resort while we were taking a tour. I go all Awww!! and grab it to see it more clearly. I close the window that is open to see the complete picture but before I could do that, I see a folder named StarCom agency. There are other folders beside it - Karan, Dr.Shephard, Meredith, Ishan Patel, Swetha, Mrs. Tuner, Tim, Randy, Blanco and some other names probably from his work that I don't recognize. I click on Ishan Patel. There are a series of documents including his social security number. My jaw drops. This is wrong on so many levels. If he has so much information on this poor soul whom he met once; forget about me. I am now curious, I click on his summary page.
"Mr. Patel is a 35 years old bussinessman, a serial philanderer, two time divorcee with three kids-two girls from his first marriage and a boy from his second marriage. He had lost almost all his wealth in settling child support and alimony with his two ex-wives. Social circles think that he is on lookout for a wealthy catch..."
The summary continues, in exhaustive detail - about his family, his businesses, his stock market value, his mortgage payments, his credit and bank account details, his ex-girl friends. Damn! Does Swetha know all this? Oh my god! I need to talk to her. I don't think she would date him if she knew all this. Oh poor girl!! My heart went out for her. She has to endure another bad break-up. The profile fits though, Swetha is filthy rich, her father is one of the top class cosmetic surgeons in California and he has a huge trust fund for her. And she is always going around the world doing charity work.
I remember Virat saying something about him not liking Ishan. He went out all this way to find information about him? Is this even legal?
Next, I open StarCom. He couldn't have known much about it; it was only today that he came to know of its existence.
I was so wrong!
There were a lot of names I didn't recognize - employees, clients, associations. The only name I know is that of Mr.Basil. He was the one whom I contacted from India and been in touch with. He has a file on me that Starcom have in their database. Unbelievable! I could see that this folder is not as full but then it will be, if I manage to join them. Virat knows so much more about my work place than I do!!!!!!!
And to think how in the evening, I wanted to mention my work to him, tell him all about it.
I am so out of my depth here!!!!
"What are you doing?" I hear him from behind me. Before I turn to him, he swoops down over me and grabs his laptop. He looks at me like I am a child and he caught me with my hands in a cookie jar.
"I should ask you that." I reply. My face suddenly becomes pale. Whom am I living with??
"Damn, don't you get any privacy around here?" he mimicks me from earlier.
"PRIVACY!!!!" I yell. Doesn't he even realize how many people's privacy he has invaded and on how many different maniacal levels?
He is putting his laptop on his desk inside his shoulder bag. I look at him acting indifferent about the whole thing. This is the limit!!
"Do you have a folder on me?" I ask him.
"Manvi please!"
"Don't 'Manvi please' me Virat. Do you know how wrong having all that information is?"
"Can you let this go?" he snaps.
I so what to burst out of him but I control - I close my eyes and count numbers to cool myself down. "Jaan!" I go upto him and hold his hand. He is cold. He doesn't move. He is staring down at me giving nothing away. I squeeze his hand to get enough strength to face him. "You.are.out.of.control." I break the news.
"You don't know what you are talking about." He hisses through his teeth.
"Enlighten me." I snap.
He is silent. He looks away.
"Ok fine. I am going to sleep in the guest room. I think in the last three years you have completely forgotten the meaning of marriage. I am not some precious jewel you protect and hide from the world. I am your wife and your friend. If you cannot share your problems and frustrations with me, there is no point of our relationship."
"Maanvi..." He held my hand stopping me from leaving. His voice is softer.
"Yes?" I turn back. I was trying to put my most indifferent face forward.
"You said you would trust me, I don't want you involved in anything. That is the only reason I don't tell you."
"Virat, I appreciate the concern and your overwhelming need to protect me but all this is so hard to do alone. Isn't that what we have been doing since the last three years? I am not that carefree girl jaan. I have experienced so many up and downs in life. I am constantly worrying about my family - and it will not stop. I agree you need to look out for our family but at the same time - I need to look out for you too. I need to know what you are dealing with, what is making you this way."
Virat cups his face with his hands and takes a deep exasperated sigh and runs his fingers through his hair. "You are not going to keep quiet, are you?"
I continue to maintain my not-backing-off stance.
He holds me by my shoulders and makes me sit on the bed. He sits beside me, facing me. "If you must know, I better tell you the whole thing. This is what I think happened. I have solid proof of some of the things and some of the things are just my assumptions based on what I saw or remember from the past."
Jeez, a disclaimer. This must be heavy stuff. I signal him to continue.
"Well, all this started around the time we just got married. I was done with my studies but I didn't want to take a job - I wanted to start my own business. I had a lot of ideas but I didn't have enough money, my dad wanted me to get some experience before I jumped in with all his money. I didn't have patience for that, so I couldn't ask him for help. I wanted to prove to my dad that I was capable enough to do my own thing. Sadly, my business proposal was grand and I needed a really bulky investment to get things rolling - something I didn't have at that time.
Karan told me about this group of venture capitalists, they invest in start-up firms, so me and Karan went to talk with them. They turned out to be these very religious guys who had firm convictions about their ideals, something like a secret underground sorority, they didn't trust everyone and only if they found the person reliable and upto their standards, they trusted him and worked with him. It was all extreme with them.
When I pitched my plans and projects, they believed in me, but they didn't trust Karan all that much. I never understood why. I didn't worry about the particulars then. I was just happy they were ready to invest in me and that was all I cared about.
You remember Mr. David Burns from before?" he asked me.
"Yeah. You said he was your mentor. You used to bring him home sometimes. I remember he always asked how you treated me, like he was my father or something." I laughed.
"Yep exactly. He was main guy I was in touch with. He belonged to that group - it was called The Triad, a very powerful, well connected group of intellectuals from all over the country. The agreement was that until we paid him back his full money with interest, he would hold all the power in the board which comprised of him and a couple of other guys from the Triad.
But, surprisingly, he made me the CEO of the company and gave me full autonomy to run it. However, he had the power to over-ride me or even throw me out. Karan was never satisfied with me getting so much priority over him and frankly I didn't understand Mr.Burn's preference of me over Karan either.
I had asked him about it casually on one particular occasion, Mr. Burns said it was because the project was my idea, and that I was smarter and could foresee the future better - I had what it takes - he said. I was 23, young, very arrogant and it got into my head. I looked upto him like a father figure and never really questioned his motives.
Things were going on well - we had earned back almost most of the investment money that we had to pay back, that too in less than an year. After we paid back the money, I would become the major shareholder and the controlling person of the firm indefinitely."
"Wow. I knew none of this." I confessed
"I never liked talking about all this, baby, before or even now. It is work and I like to keep my work and family lives separate."
"Where do I picture in?" I asked eagerly.
"Well, until recently, I didn't know what the core principals of the Triad were. Once I came to know of them, it started making a little sense. 'Old-school' wouldn't begin to describe their religious ideals. They thought that the now generation's casual attitudes and lack of respect for religious and family beliefs was the lead cause of anarchy in the world. There were things they believed to be right and there were things they believed to be wrong. If someone associated with them did a thing which they considered to be wrong, they were punished and thrown out. They didn't respect or expect anything from the country's legal system."
"What do mean right things and wrong things??"
"Oh a lot of things - they had firm convictions about politics, economics, family system.
"Family system?"
"Yep, they believed in marriage - as in between a man and woman - in a traditional sort of way - man earns, woman takes care of the house kind of way. They abhorred pre-marital sex, abortion, adultery, same sex marriages and other crap like that. All this is not a big deal for me, but the big deal is how strongly they felt about these things."
"Is that why he used to ask me how you treated me?? To check if you were a good husband?" I laughed.
"Yep!!" Virat rolled his eyes.
"Oh my god! He was seriously looking out for me?"
"Yes!"
"So, he trusted you more because you were married?"
"Yeah and he liked you a lot, he liked the way you were at home and I don't know - he kinda liked us, the way we were."
"Hmmph..he thought we were old fashioned, biblical sorta husband and wife. How.about.that??" I leaned back staring at the ceiling, placing one leg over the other on the bed, like a royal queen - enjoying the ludicrous assumption.
" - obviously, he didn't know anything about the kind of wild cat you are in our bedroom." Virat brought me back to the ground.
"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??" I demanded.
"Oh nothing baby, you are so docile and you listen to everything you husband asks to do and you definitely do not pursue the exact same things I ask you to stay the f**k out of!" his tone was dripping with satire.
I didn't want him to stop so I ignored his comments.
We were leaning on the opposite posts of the bed stretching our legs out - relaxed - like it was story time. His eyes gleamed of amusement.
"Popcorn chahiye tume?" he asked, looking at my eager-for-more-information face.
"Don't deflect Virat. Ok? And is that the same reason he didn't like Karan?"
"That and I casually mentioned to Mr.Burns that Karan might be gay because he hardly goes out."
"WHAT??" This was funny; I was laughing holding my stomach. Virat was laughing too.
"I mean I was joking. Even if I was serious, it is nothing but I guess it was a very big deal for him!!"
"You don't say!!!!" "Let me guess Karan got sidelined..." I jumped in like it was some puzzle waiting to be solved.
"I think so. I can't think of any other reason why I would be preferred over him." Virat said shaking his head disapprovingly at my reactions.
"Well, it couldn't have been that my husband might actually have had - how did Mr.Burns put it? - What it takes - Does it?" I winked.
He smiled. He likes me complimenting him. Well, I can do it all day, but only if he behaves. "Come here, why are you so far away?" he pouted extending his hand.
There you go. "No thank you. I would like to stay far away from my bossy husband right now. He is capable of some very nasty things." My cheeks flamed remembering our previous make-out session.
"Me? Bossy? Nasty?" he asked innocently. "You were the one going all - don't stop kissing me - a few minutes ago." He winked.
"Shut up Virat." I threw a pillow at him. "Don't stop talking..." I changed his words.
He smiled. "I don't know Manvi. Karan is good at what he does too. But yeah, he is good at some things more than other - very often he doesn't see the big picture.
But, once Karan told me about how Mr.Burns had asked him about his relationships with other men; I went and clarified that I was in fact joking about he being gay. Needless to say, Mr. Burns didn't appreciate my sense of humor."
"So, what are saying, Karan did something to get back at you?"
"Yes. That night, you saw me with Meredith, I think he was taking pictures of me, with her. She was posing for the camera. Maybe he did this to prove that I was dishonest in my marriage - I am guessing here. It is a round-about way for getting me out of his way. I fail to understand why he had to destroy my family life; Only Meredith can confirm my theory, I have been looking for her after that encounter with the both of us. I don't understand why she lied and I cannot figure where she disappeared."
"Karan wanted to prove you are dishonest in your marriage to Mr.Burns?" My heart started sinking, to the bottom of the ocean while grasping the gravity of what all this meant.
"Yes, to the Triad." He was watching me carefully.
"What would that do?" I asked, my voice barely audible.
"For starters, that would greatly displease Mr. Burns. He could throw me out of my own company - Karan or a puppet of him would be throned in. Members of Triad are believed to have a very strong way of punishing the people who committed -sins- if you will. They are known to especially punish the people associated with them closely. Mr.Burns considered me like his own son. They might have beaten me up too, to teach me a lesson. I don't know."
Tears came unbidden from my eyes. All this was a plot against Virat? To take hold of his position and his company? He was telling the truth all this time? He was innocent!!!!! Oh how could I have made such a grave blunder?
"Manvi, don't cry." He came upto me on his knees from across the bed.
"Hey, it's not your fault, any girl would have mistaken that situation - you didn't know better. Who would have thought about such a grand scheme? Don't cry baby." He pulled me into his arms, but I didn't go to him. I felt disgusted with myself. How could I have made such a gross error in judging my own love. Downright repulsive...
"Shhh...It is all past Manvi, no use going about it, over and over again. Let's forget it as a crazy nightmare."
I wasn't done.
"And you came back for me, searching after all those years and I was so rude to you..I insulted you. I..I cant even begin to think of all the times I fought with you..refused to have anything to do with you. And you were always trying to explain to me, even though you did nothing wrong. You had prove yourself to me over and over again. And you..you are still here with me.."
"Manvi..stop torturing yourself. I am still here and I will always be, by your side. That's why I didn't want to tell you all this and I wanted you trust me without all these details, because next time something like this happens, we won't succumb to it."
"You didn't give up on me..." I couldn't believe my luck.
"I would never give up on you baby."
"Anybody else would have. I did - I gave up on you, that day. I did. I ran away."
"Manvi. It's not anybody else. It's me. Your Virat. Manvi's Virat. You are too innocent to think about all these schemes and plots. You saw what you saw and for you, it only meant one thing."
How can you not hate me Virat?
"Stop it Manvi...I can never hate you. I love you, I love you with my heart and soul. You are the only one I have ever loved baby. Don't think about anything else please. I don't want anything to come in between us anymore. You trusted me without me explaining you all these things. That's enough for me. I don't care about anything else."
"But, I do. I don't think I can ever forgive myself. I didn't want to live without you. I was so lost. I didn't know how to support myself, how to take care of the babies. I had to lock myself out of the world. Everything reminded me of you, every single thing. I could have contacted you. My whole body urged me to go back to you. But I didn't. I didn't trust my gut feeling. I didn't trust my own heart. I just don't know where to start. I am so stupid. We were played and I turned out to be the best player in the team, for them, against us. I am sorry Virat. I am so, so sorry I said all those things to you. All my love for you couldn't make me doubt the circumstances even once. I am so f**king stupid."
"Will you stop it? Look at me...Manvi, look at me.." I cannot Virat. He cupped my face and made me face him. We stared into each other's eyes ... he wiped my tears away and kissed my forehead. "Not a word against yourself. You have been through enough. We have been through enough. No more crying. Ok?"
I don't know what to say. What did I do to deserve so much love? He was cradling me in his arms - trying to protect me from myself - my guilt. He is got to be the most loving husband in the history and husbands. And I can't help thinking that I don't deserve him - not even a tiny part of him. I always had his heart and I kept breaking it, repeatedly, over and over.
"I cannot trust anyone anymore Manvi, especially after two deliberate attacks on your life. That is why I have all that information; that is why I don't want you to go and spend your time in unfamiliar surroundings."
"Two?" I looked up to him.
"The car-crash on that night, is not an accident. They tried to kill you. But, the guy whom they sent out died in that truck that night. He lost control after going a little further, tumbled over a rock and went into the water. The cops though he went down with you since they recovered your car a mile away."
"WHAT? But why? Why would they want to kill me?"
"Because, they though you saw them - taking pictures of your unconscious husband with another woman that night. They thought you might spoil their plan by telling everything to Mr.Burns or cops even."
"Who is them?"
"I think Karan and another female. I don't know who the female it. And obviously Meredith is involved -voluntarily or forced upon."
"So these pictures, did they ever reach Mr.Burns?" I ask.
"That's still a mystery baby. Mr.Burns and all other members of Triad suddenly disappeared; I never saw or heard from Mr.Burns again. He was scheduled to come to a board meeting when we were going to pay back all the money we owed him but only a lawyer showed up in his place. I became the owner of Vadhera Global Ent by default. They say, the Triad was under Federal investigation for burning down a few teen abortion clinics leading to the death of innocent pregnant girls and have been underground ever since.
With you gone, Karan didn't really need the official papers. I was crazily searching for you for over an year, I had handed him the reins of the company as I was always out with the detectives or cops, meeting them, discussing leads. I only went in if it was absolutely necessary. I did everything Karan asked me to do without even thinking. I think, he thought I would burn myself out sooner or later especially after an year when the cops declared you indefinitely missing - which is as good as being dead. I could hardly focus on work, but he needed me because all the clients trusted me more than him. I had to be the CEO."
I couldn't listen to this anymore. My whole body was shivering, I felt sick and angry - at Karan and Meredith. How can they do this to us? To Virat? He had always trusted them so blindly. And now he doesn't trust anybody - not another living soul. They did this to him. They made him like this.
"It was only in India when I found you that I started noticing what Karan was really doing - he was setting up Vadhera Global for a closure. That was why I wanted to come back as soon as I could. Initially I didn't see his whole plan, I just placed a tracer on the money he was transferring into his new company and forgot about it. But the tracer came back with some disturbing details. Basically, he had set up thousands of accounts that continuously withdrew small amounts of money from my company every day. Over a period of time, he would have transferred all major assets to his new company Shekhawath holdings and bankrupted Vadhera Global. It is actually an ingenious idea. Nobody would have doubted him.
The night he threw the party, he was really celebrating his grand scheme. He almost succeeded, but I discovered everything just in time on that night after I got you home. I froze him out of all company duties and assets and saved my ass, at the very last minute."
"What Karan did was illegal but he was an old friend so I didn't press charges. But soon after, I realized that he might have had something to do with your attacks. So, I kicked his sorry ass to jail. I had enough proof against him to charge him for atleast 20 years."
"How did you realize he was involved in my attacks?" I asked
"It is stupid and lame - but I had a dream."
"In the resort? The nightmare?"
"yes."
"Of what happened that night?"
"Yes. I think I was drugged and drunk and so many other things but mainly, I was betrayed and back-stabbed. That's why I am glad you didn't step into the room that night - otherwise, I was not conscious enough to protect you from them Manvi. I shudder thinking what might have happened. It was a good thing that you went missing from the country. They..even me, didn't know where you were, so you were safe all these years."
Oh no! He was lying there helplessly and I left him? My own husband! How heartless of me!! No!
"All this makes sense but why would someone attack me now. I mean Karan knows I didn't see anything, you yourself asked him to tell me what happened that night. Mr. Burns is AWOL - so no point pressing for adultery, why would they attack me now Virat?"
"I wish I knew baby."
I couldn't face him. "This is all so confusing Virat. But, all I know is, it could have been different - had I made a single phone call to you."
"Let's not go there baby. I think in the end everything worked out, except for both our heart-aches - it's really a miracle we both survived the whole scheme. I am going to take revenge for each and every tear you had to cry. I am going to take revenge for my kids being away from me all these years. It's not over - Karan getting arrested is only the beginning - I am waiting to see who will come to his rescue. Once I know who it is, they will pay - they are so going to regret for messing with Virat Vadhera. They are going to repent horribly for playing with us. I am going to f**king kill them."
I looked up at Virat - his face was stern, his jaw clenched, his whole body stiff scoffing fumes, his eyes raging angry. I shuddered at this animal hidden inside him. I was scared - I was scared at what he is capable of.
"Virat.." I called him softly, caressing his tense face with my shivering hands. He broke his stance and looked down at me with blood red eyes. I moved away from his arms and kneeled in front of him. He was still boiling inside. I leaned over and cupped his face, placing gentle kisses all over it. He screwed his eyes shut. I kissed his eyes one by one while tracing every inch of his face, to soothe him. I ran my fingers through his hair making him drop his head back to. He opened his eyes and looked at me - he was calming down, relaxing his muscles. I kissed on his lips. "Jaaan..please don't do anything rash.." I beg him.
He gently pulled me back into his arms again and squeezed me tightly. He switched the light off and laid back on the bed with me. "Good night baby." He whispered.
~~~
p.s : This update will probably take my ff past 100 pages. Three Cheers to all of you !!!! This is my very first 100 pages ff on IF or anywhere else for that matter. I love you guys for making this happen. Thank you so much, your comments and likes made so many of my days. Love each and every one of my readers but I have some special mentions and I will post them soon. Please like and comment...❤️❤️❤️
Edited by bluebolt - 12 years ago
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