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Superb update, U didn't expect this too early, I was like will get in May midweek or end. So damn happy while reading.
Thanks
Superb update, U didn't expect this too early, I was like will get in May midweek or end. So damn happy while reading.
Thanks
Congrats on your new thread.. pls update soon.. I wanna know what arnav is up to.. something is cooking in his mind
when will u update... its been soooooooooooo longgggggggggggg
i am desperately for their romantic moments..
Originally posted by: surrazdanwhen will u update... its been soooooooooooo longgggggggggggg
i am desperately for their romantic moments..
This month's update quota is over right? 🤪
P.S. Will update soon dear.
hmm.. i guess i have to reread the whole story..
its been so long..
i also wanted all family to be together under one roof.. i miss NK.. i miss Akash Payal too..
and i wanted atleast one kiss between Arnav Khushi..
Guess.. i am getting too greedy.. right??
From the author's desk: Hey peeps, Hope this update finds you all in good health. I read from some of you about how this story gives you relief and joy during these tough times and I am really glad that I could help you with some relief.
We are all hoping for a better tomorrow, praying for the earth to heal her children.
Coming to the story, thanks for the continuous support and lovely comments, I am really thrilled to read every one of your comments.
I know some of you have been expecting the lovey dovey moments to continue into this chapter, but that was a small distraction for the story to move on. As you must have guessed, this chapter is a game changer and so here it is, the next part, Do let me know what you think
Happy reading !
_________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 19: Games with no rules
part 2: Spirited away
Arnav found Khushi in the kitchen sorting the groceries.
“Busy already?”
She smiled. “Thought I’ll start doing it, if I am moving in tomorrow.”
He nodded
“So, what are we doing for lunch? He asked, his eyes steady on her.
“Perhaps, we can head back to Abhi’s place.” Khushi said continuing with her work, well aware of his unfaltering glance on her. “There is food waiting there on the kitchen counter”
“Or we could go somewhere and have lunch” he suggested
She looked back at him
“Just the two of us?”
He nodded, wondering what she was going to say. He knew she had backed off every time he had asked her in the past for an outing.
“You know what, I can whip something up quickly for lunch and we can have it here, if you like it. It will still be just the two of us”
Arnav was surprised but pleased at the offer. She still backed off from going out - but not from his company for a meal together. That was definitely a good progress.
“I would like that very much!”
“you sound surprised”
“That’s perhaps because you always back off from lunching together”
“That’s not true, we have had a lot of meals together”
“The only time you agreed to have a meal together – just the two of us- was at Parantha Galli at almost 10 pm in the night, because you had no other options”
“We had one a couple of days back” she reminded him “A chocolate snack at 1pm in the night”
He stood smiling at her “Do you want me to help you with anything here?”
“That’s alright, I am not going to plate up a wide range of menu – thinking of just a simple meal with Mooli paranthas and curd”
“Sounds good to me”
“Fine then, it should be ready in 20 mins max”
“I will be upstairs; thought I will sort out the bookshelf for you”
“Ok, can you please call up Anjali and let her know not to expect us for lunch?”
“yup” he said moving away from there
“and do something to control her excitement along the way” she called out behind his back as he chuckled.
“I will”
***
“Hello, Whats up? Where are you guys?” Anjali said as she picked up her brother’s call
“Still at Mama’s place”
“So, what happened?”
“Nothing”
“Nothing? Why?”
“What did you expect to happen?”
“Have you already asked her out?
“No, I told you to keep quiet about yesterday”
“Oh, you don’t know how persistent she can get”
“Believe me, I know- but you should have kept quiet”
“What went wrong with that disclosure? It could have been a good excuse for you to use”
“that’s exactly what I didn’t want to do” he muttered.
“Oh! I didn’t see that angle… I am sorry bhai”
“That’s ok…Hey look, don’t wait for us, you and others go ahead and have your lunch”
“Alrighty! You both going out?”
“No, she said she is cooking something”
“Oh, smells like you have signed up for a lovely home cooked weekend Bhai”
“Smells very much like that”
“You could get used to it; you know!”
“Oh Shutup”
“I know you like hearing this…I can hear you smile from here”
“Ok, Gotta go, bye”
“Have fun bhai!”
Anjali was all smiles when she closed the call and put her phone on the carpet where she was currently sitting along with the girls playing business.
“Ok girls, time to eat”
“We will finish this game Jiji”
“this game is going to take a long time and we have the whole day, come lets finish food” she said getting up to set the table.
The girls were in the middle of their lunch when they heard the door-bell ring.
“I wonder if they are back so soon” Anjali said “I thought they were going to eat there”
“I will go get it” Tanu said, getting up.
Within a few seconds, Tanu’s voice came back sharp and panicked.
“JIJI”
Alerted by Tanu’s alarm, Tara and Anjali rushed to the door.
But even before they could cross the dining hall, Anjali noticed Tanu being led in by a big, tall and bulky ruffian fellow with her mouth tightly shut with his big hands
The big man was accompanied by a shorter man
Thinking quickly, Anjali pulled Tara back into the dining hall, reaching for her phone and not finding it in her jeans pocket, not remembering where she put it last, she tried to get hold of her phone. Not finding enough time to find it, she quickly grabbed a butter knife from the table.
“Don’t think anything funny, you don’t want to get hurt” the short man called out as he weighed the wrist watch at the shelf nearby and pocket it.
“Put it back- put the watch back, you filthy thief” Anjali called out.
“what will you do if I don’t?” the man cheekily replied as he picked up a small idol of Krishna on the show case “Is this silver?” nevertheless pocketed that too.
“How dare you, put it back”
“Nothing that Kamlesh Khabiri takes is returned back”
“If you don’t put it back, I will throw this knife on you”
“You idiot, stop blabbering and get on to the job” the other man told this guy who called himself Kamlesh Kabiri “and stop nicking things and check if there is anyone else in the house”
“If you keep a step further, I will injure you” Anjali warned the shorter man
“Idiot, that’s a blunt butter knife” the tall man called out “it can hardly injure you”
“who are you all?”Anjali asked “What do you want? Do you know this is the ACPs house?”
“we don’t want to answer any of your questions… which one of you is Tara?” the tall man asked as he looked from Anjali to Tara.
That was when Anjali realized that these men have come in search of Tara. But if they haven’t seen her pic yet, then they don’t know her.
“Tara is not here” Anjali called out. “You think we will keep Tara here where it is easy for you to find?”
“there is no one else in the house” the shorter one came back and reported as they saw him smell the perfume from the dressing table and pocket it too.
“Did you find the girl?” someone called from the door.
“There are too many girls in here, not sure if any of them is the right one”
The man who was at the door walked in. This man was of a leaner stature and medium height and his demeanor with the others showed that he was the boss for this operation
The moment he came in and saw the girls, he looked like he identified Tara.
“It’s her” he said and turned to Anjali, he smiled menacingly
“I think I know you” he said, tapping his phone on his temple “you are the Raizada girl, aren’t you?”
A quick google search later, he confirmed “You are… how sweet!”
“Who are you all?” Anjali asked again, If the ACP or my brother come in here…”
“they will realize they were a little too late” the man said as he turned his eyes from the family picture collage and faced Anjali.
He then called a number in his mobile
“Hello”
“ ….”
“I have got good news, no better than good.- This is 4 birds in one shot…”
“….”
“We found the girls and you won’t believe this… we have the Raizada girl too and the ACP’s daughter- do you want me to bring them along as well?”
“
“No one else in the house- I don’t see any CCTV camera in house”
Anjali took the moment to dash the chair on the leaner fellow in an attempt to make him lose balance. But the man was more shrewd than the other two and he caught her just in time and he swung her easily across the hall.
“jiji”
“Anjali Di”
The girls screamed after her.
As her jaw came in contact with the harder edge of the sofa, she started to see stars as sharp pain shot across her jaw and her lips started to bleed.
Hoping they were raising enough noise to get the attention of the neighbors or the security, Anjali sat up. That was when she saw her mobile on the floor, on the other side. There was no way she could get hold of the mobile without drawing attention to it.
Meanwhile, Tara had started to put up a fight. Tanu tried to free herself as she bit into the big man’s palm and run away from him. Even little Riya tried to throw her toys on the thief guy- who called himself, Kamlesh Khabiri. Using that as a diversion, Anjali started to slowly inch towards her phone. She or the girls will not be able to overpower these men. She had to call Arnav or Abhi. Hopefully, either one of them will be able to come before these guys can take them away.
***
“How come you are not in office today?” Khushi asked as they had their quiet and simple meal together.
“I gave myself a break this morning” Arnav replied.
“Oh wow. Did you get hit in the head or something?”
He laughed.
“We are working tomorrow”
“On a Sunday?”
“Hmm, coming Friday, we are hosting the first AGM after I took up the responsibilities. It’s pretty much getting demanding and tiring in there right now.”
“when is Akaash back?”
“Tomorrow midnight”
“That’s some relief, The last few weeks have been very exhausting for you”
“I know, I have not had a break for almost 3 weeks straight. Just wanted some time off to wrap my head around things”
“and one of those things is to find me a house”
“I didn’t have to find the house for you, it was already there”
“Sorry, I added to your troubles”
“Khushi, its no problem. Coming here is kind of therapeutic for me”
“I can see why”
It was a nice lunch date and it felt so normal though it was the first time they both were doing something like this.
“Thanks, it was a delicious meal”
“Anytime”
***
Just as Anjali reached her phone, her luck ran out. The boss guy had gotten hold of Riya and was holding a knife to her neck.
“Stop making this difficult and I will be easy” The man called out menacingly.
Riya was terrified in that man’s hands. The other girls stopped fighting. They didn’t want to risk Riya’s life. That man meant business.
A wild Idea stuck Anjali. She quickly managed to grab Riya’s magnetic slate and scribbled something and pushed her phone under the sofa. Kamlesh was pocketing literally anything that he felt was worth some bucks. If he found the phone, her only chance to leave a clue to Arnav to find her and others would be gone.
Once she did this, she took a deep breath and made herself ready for what she was going to do.
“Ok, we will come quietly, but please, put her down and take that knife away from her, she is petrified” Anjali said.
The man stared at her
“Please, we will co-operate” she stressed again. “All of us”
The man let the girl down who ran across the room to Anjali. Anjali quickly took a toy that was thrown across the floor by Riya and pushed it into the little girl’s hands.
“Don’t lose it” she said specifically, hoping her back up plan worked.
“Does that toy cost much?” Kamlesh asked Anjali
“Its her favorite toy, its to calm her. You can take the other toys on the floor”
As Kamlesh started to stuff the bag with some toys, the taller man screamed at him.
“You incompetent nincompoop, drop those toys and do what is required of you”
“What is required of me now?” Kamlesh asked “I thought they are going to co-operate”
“calm down” The boss told the tall man and turned to Kamlesh “go down and check if the path is clear”
“I told you that this fool is not yet ready to come on such an important operation”
As soon as the signal came, the boss asked the girls to walk out of the house into the lift and then to the parking lot.
Anjali could sense that Tara was feeling panicked at the moment, walking next to her. Tanu was crying. Riya stuck very close to Anjali, hoping she will be safer with her. Feeling helpless and devastated, Anjali wished that some miracle happened, and they got saved out of this abduction as she walked down.
***
A bike whizzed past, very close to her
“Careful” Arnav called out as she side stepped into the platform.
“I am careful, that idiot didn’t see where he was going” Khushi told him.
As the road was clear enough to cross, he took her hands in his and crossed the road
“You know what? I am capable of crossing the road myself”
He didn’t respond to that, but merely smiled at her. He continued to hold her hand after they crossed the road too.
“We have crossed the road already buddy, I know how to walk” she told him, trying to tug her hand away, but his grip only tightened securely around his hands as he smirked at her.
“So, we are playing the holding hands game now is it? For how long?”
He didn’t let her go even when they took the escalator to the tenth floor
“You know what, the moment you walk in there, your sister is going to get super worked up seeing us holding hands”
“you don’t mind otherwise?”
Khushi stared at him open mouthed as the elevator doors opened.
“You know what, this is kind of getting cheesy to be frank”
“mmhmmm..” he said with a smirk as he let her go “Get used to it then”
With that he stepped out of the elevator, a bit taken aback with surprise, she followed him
It took them only moments to realize that something was not right.
The door was ajar and the things inside was strewn around. Abhi’s house was normally well organized, but this was not even normal chaos. It looked like it was rampaged. The Lunch on the table was unfinished.
“What the hell happened here?” Khushi asked as Arnav quickly opened all the doors to check if the girls were there.
“They are gone” he said as he dialed his sister’s number. Her phone started to ring from somewhere in the hall. They took a few minutes to retrieve it from under the sofa.
Khushi got scared as she looked at Arnav. There was utter devastation written on his face.
“Do you think…Were they kidnapped?” she asked, but she knew somewhere down below, that it was the truth.
To be continued.
____________________________________________________
Alright, it was rather an abrupt and unkind way to end their beautiful moment! Anjali and the girls have been kidnapped, stay tuned to see what happens next.
And do leave me your comments, hopefully, I will return very soon with the next update
Cheers and stay safe!
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