A/N: Hello, my lovely readers! I am back this weekend as promised, with a new chapter, and I have to tell you this one is a gun of an update! ;)

A LOT happens and I truly hope, you can digest it all, because if you can't I don't know how you will down the next chapter! :O

On that note, happy reading! See you on the other side, and I have a lot of questions today! Btw, don't for get to leave my favourite in-line comments while you read!

***

As Manik barged into Nandini's room, he was breathing fire. Ranbir had already informed him that Aryamann had found out that Nandini had leaked the video herself, and was there to berate her and knock some sense into her head; for once in life he felt gratitude towards Aryamann; then again he had put himself through hell, going through the HD version of the sex tape an alarming number of times, to be fully sure, it was a fake. It was a fake indeed, and apparently Nandini had confessed that too to Aryamann; the question was why did she spread such a wildfire about herself when professionally everything was going well for herself! What was the need? He was here today with just one agenda, that was to ask Nandini to publicly acknowledge it's a fake and put a petition for it to be taken down, and then he'd leave no stones unturned to get it removed. Once the immediate fire would be doused, he'd get to the why part of the discussion with Nandini.

"What were you thinking, Nandini? Wait, were you even thinking? Why'd you do this?" boomed, Manik's voice as he gravitated towards Nandini, pulling her to himself, by her shoulder.

"Manik, it's none of your business, it is a publicity stunt." Nandini managed to utter, as she felt his finger dig into her shoulder, deeper.

"Publicity stunt, my foot! Do you know how many ways this can go against you? Wait a minute. Did someone force you to leak this? Is it Zain? Tell me Nandini, I swear I will butcher the person who forced you to do this!" bellowed Manik, losing his plot.

Nandini was stupefied for a moment seeing the raw anger emanating through him. She had indeed hit the nail on the head. "Manik, no one forced me. It was my choice." she managed to reply, hearing a gasp of shock, escaping Manik.

"To what end, Nandini?" Manik whispered, hoarsely this time, as he messily managed to push a lock of her hair that was falling on her eyes, to the back of her ears.

Nandini mustered the courage she was gathering from days now. She looked directly into Manik's eyes and challenged him. "To use it as leverage against you." she replied, bravely.

Manik stared back at her in blank incomprehension.

Leverage?

Against him?

As Manik kept staring at her determined eyes for another few seconds, still nothing made sense. Why on earth would Nandini need a leverage against him of all people? She now knew his truth right, then?

"Nandini, why did you need leverage against me? And how on earth is vilifying your character before the world, a leverage in your eyes against me?" Manik asked in a low distracted voice. He had known Nandini for long enough to know she was up to something, but what?

"I didn't need to do any of this, Manik, if you had agreed to help me out in the first place." replied Nandini with stellar confident eyes.

Manik kept staring at her with incoherent thoughts, as he asked her again. "Nandini, what help do you need from me?" His words came out as a snap, and truth be told, he was exhausted and was trying hard to keep it together at this point, and Nandini wasn't helping.

"I need dirt on your family, Manik. I want evidence against your criminal father and grandfather." Nandini replied, smoothly, while observing her brightly polished nails.

Manik stood there appalled. It felt like he had a brain freeze. He remembered of course that he had refused to help her point blank when he had revealed to her about two months back, about the real face of his family. In fact he had kept a tap on her prying activities too, just to ensure she didn't bump on to any bit of information that could be potentially dangerous for her. He didn't need to do much anyway, because all she was hitting was walls, and eventually, her attempts slackened too. He knew she was meeting dead ends and was probably getting frustrated too; but why would she think, her vilifying her character would push him to help her? It was outrageous!

"..and you think, I am somehow going to listen to you and get convinced of putting you in danger, because you are on a self sabotage mission?" Manik asked, looking at her blankly, while she smiled darkly, as if secretly relishing a joke.

"Of course not Manik, I am not the naive, stupid Nandini anymore! Although, I know you love me, and would do anything to clean my name from this mess..tch tch..isn't that why you're here, in the first place? Let's just say, I won't let you clear my name from this mess, until and unless you comply with me and help me gather evidence against your folks." Nandini replied silkily. Judging by Manik's flabbergasted face, she knew he realised that she indeed had leverage over him now.

Manik was seething in anger, seeing her playful audacity of self sabotaging nature. She was ready to ruin herself for punishing Abhimanyu's culprits, even though the chances were she'd ruin herself and also get herself killed before the said criminals were even close to being punished! Was she that stupid?! "How the fuck will you stop me from clearing this mess for you, Nandini? I have sources that will snub this content from every system, with or without your consent!" shot back Manik, in deep vexation.

"Yeah sure, you do that, Manik; but beware, if you do that, I will use my social media to own up that this sex tape is real! Right now it's ambiguous, then it won't be. Just asking, do you have the kind of power to overrule that, Manik?" Nandini asked calmly and Manik softly crashed onto her bed, not knowing what to do anymore.

Nandini looked at the man in front of her. She had no doubt of his love for her, over the last couple of months, but even if there was, that'd get obliterated today, seeing the broken form of Manik Malhotra sitting before her in devastation. He was devastated pre-empting her fall; it had nothing to do with him, he'd stay untouched; yet it looked to her, like it she had spelled before him, his inevitable doom!

"Nandini..please" Manik's whisper-plead brought her out of her thoughts. "Nandini, I beg you, please don't do this." his voice quivered. In that moment, Nandini almost pitied his state, but she knew she had to be strong.

"Then help me, Manik. Between me & your family, you can only save one." she whispered back, gently patting his arms.

Manik's head shot up at her, as he murmured, "I will always save you, Nandini. You know that."

"Then you have to give me evidence against your family, Manik" Nandini, whispered back like she was explaining a difficult riddle to a child.

"I was saving you by not helping you, you fool." Manik uttered in anguish, and Nandini smiled hearing him.

"It is for you to decide how you want to help me, Manik. No pressure at all." murmured Nandini, hiding her smirk. She knew she had him cornered.

Manik stared at her beautiful yet manipulative face and for a moment wondered, if all worked out in the end, and the baddies were punished, and Nandini agreed to give them a chance, would she ever be the Nandini he fell in love with? This remorseless face scared him, her hawklike eyes haunted him, could Nandini be saved anymore?

"I take your silence as a no, Manik?" asked Nandini, breaking through his thoughts. "Fine then, I will just have to self vilify myself, till you reali..." Nandini was abruptly interrupted by Manik.

"Fine. I am in. Just put a complaint to the cybercrime cell calling it a fake, rest I will handle." Manik gave in; his immediate instinct was to stop Nandini with this, then he'd see how to save her from his folks.

Nandini smiled. She had won. Again.

"Not so fast, Manik. You will have to handover the evidence to me first." Nandini replied sharply, with a stealthy smile.

Manik rolled his eyes in exasperation. "It's not like I am carrying a bucketful of evidence against them, Nandini. If I had any, I wouldn't be sitting with them and ruining us like this, I'd present it to the court and have them behind bars! I can only help you in gathering evidence, that's all". Manik clarified his stake. It was true he didn't have evidence, but he wasn't actually going to help Nandini get any either, he was only going to pretend to help her, so that he could know what she was up to and thereby protect her if she went too close to evidence. Honestly, Manik thought it was too late to gather evidence anyway; even if there was evidence, nothing would survive after so long anyway.

"Oh for God sakes, Manik. You confronted them & they owned up! You are evidence! You need to tell the police that; you are their son, the police would believe you of course, why would a son defame his family for nothing?" snapped Nandini.

Manik sighed. "Nandini, if I did such a thing, my own mother would vouch against me to save them; she'd say after all the drama in our life, my mental health is compromised & I shouldn't be taken seriously". Replied Manik, looking down, to a stumped Nandini.

"What rubbish! Why would mom do that Manik?" Nandini sounded demented, and then she was quiet for a moment. "Wait, are you trying to tell me mom is involved in this too? She was a part of the killing? No, it can't be, Manik, mom wouldn't ever..." Nandini couldn't make sense of what Manik was hinting at anymore. It shook her very core.

"No, no Nandini..of course not. Mom is not involved in Abhimanyu's murder..but she'd do it to save my life.." muttered Manik. In his heart he knew, it was time, Nandini needed to know the whole story now; including the part of his grandmother's murder.

"Nandini, there is something you need to know.." Manik began.

***

Nandini was numb, as she stared at Manik, after he finished telling her the riveting murder tale of his grandmother and Nandini's voice had dried up. Manik was right, they were hardened criminals and catching them was almost seeming impossible! Then it hit her hard, and she looked up at Manik in shock.

"Manik.."her lips wobbled, like she was about to cry and Manik came forward to hold her, worrying he freaked her out too much.."Don't worry Nandini, I am here, they can't harm you." he tried reassuring her.

Nandini looked at him with vulnerable eyes before she whispered. "You're willing to let go of not only Abhimanyu's but your beloved grandmother's murderers too, just so you can save me?" her voice was shaking uncontrollably, from an emotion she couldn't quite place. It felt like a quake was on its way and each tremor from her heart was choking her more.

"I will keep you safe, love. I will do whatever it takes to do that." Manik promised before placing a gentle peck on her forehead.

Nandini stared at his determined eyes, and an even stronger determination gripped her heart. "..and I promise you today, Manik Malhotra, I will do whatever it takes to punish those criminals and get justice for both my brother & your grandmother, even if that's the last thing I do."

Then after pushing back her tears with the back of her palms, she sat up straight, "..and as per your promise, you will have to help me in gathering evidence against the crooks! And I promise you, I won't be unnecessarily daring & will keep myself safe." Manik looked at her and merely nodded. He felt guilty lying to her again, but there was no way in hell he was going to let her be bait before the senior Mahotra's again. Ever.

"I am sorry Abhimanyu, I am sorry Daadi, but I know you both would want her safety over your justice.." Manik whispered into the wind.

Just as he was about to move out of the room, the banging of the bedroom door heralded more bad news. "Now what.." he heard Nandini mutter, as she got to the door. An ashened faced Ranbir was looking back at them.

"What's wrong, Ranbir?" Manik asked, coming forward.

"Sir, sir..actually..." Ranbir gulped.

"Out with it now!" Manik snapped, making Nandini jump.

"Manik, before Nandini could release any statement on the video clip, Zain has released a statement confirming the video is real" It was Cabir who spoke, and his voice was hoarse in shock.

"Fuck" whispered Manik and Nandini gasped in shock. Why would Zain do such a thing? Something was amiss, she needed to talk to him.

"Manik, relax. This can be handled. There's some confusion, let me talk to Zain okay?" Nandini tried handling Manik first. She knew a bare possibility of this would unhinge Manik for good. She had seen the devastation in his eyes, when she was playing him at the restaurant a few months back to make him own up to Abhimanyu's murder truth.

"FUCK" Manik screamed in frustration, holding his head, not hearing a word Nandini said.

"Don't worry guys, this is my mess, I will clean it myself!" muttered Nandini, and briskly left the room. It was time to pay Zain Qureshi a visit.

***

A week later:

"Manik, you don't have to do this, you know.." Cabir said, as his stylist was working on the lapels of his shirt. Manik had a lopsided grin as he staggered to remain standing straight.

"Get me an eye drop Cabira, can't have such red eyes while attending an engagement party where the whole press is present, right?" Manik replied dramatically.

Cabir sighed. "Red eyes or not, with one glance at you, anyone can say you're drunk. Please Manik, don't do this." Cabir tried again.

"Uff Cabira, I'm not drunk, I am just intoxicated..by the alluring beauty of my date, Rose, here." Manik drawled, as a drop of tear carelessly escaped his eyes and he clumsily wiped it off.

"Oh Manik, stop it, please" Cabir turned around in irritation and rested his eyes on the miserable excuse of a woman standing before him, Rose Godfrey.

"Darling, there you are! Come, let's go! We can't get late, after all it's Nandini Murthy's engagement with Zain Qureshi, today!" quipped Manik, before hurriedly walking over and clutching Rose's wrist for support.

As they left, Cabir followed in the car behind, texting Ranbir of the state in which Manik was coming and to ensure they let him enter from the back entrance where there was no press.

***

Nandini was standing & blankly staring at the myriad of happy faces coming to her and Zain and greeting them for a happy conjugal. Occasionally she met a grumpy face, one such face was Alia's. As she greeted her with a small smile and hugged her, she whispered, "I hope you've thought this through, girl."

Another disappointed face was her ex-mother-in-law Nyonica's who looked very disappointed, but wished her politely and didn't make any further conversation at all. Nandini almost felt guilty, but what could she do? A particularly jovial set of faces were of the Senior Malhotra's who were also in attendance, as they joyfully blessed the couple and especially blessed Nandini for choosing Zain.

Nandini was anxious now, if Ranbir's constipated face from a far distance was any proof, Manik Malhotra was on his way and was most likely to enter the venue in a few minutes. She looked at Zain and he read her expression and asked her to calm down. She smiled ruefully. What did he know about Manik? He had no idea what that man was capable of inflicting on himself, when it came to Nandini. She had seen it in the last one week, leading to the engagement. Her thoughts were soon broken by an eruption of hoots from their venue entry. The press outside was hooting and clapping and suddenly calling out Manik's name. He was here.

"Get ready, Nandini" Zain whispered to her ears as she nodded and shut her eyes tightly to concentrate and put up the show. She knew Manik was a force that couldn't be slowed down tonight. It was her engagement with someone other than Manik, and that meant the end of the world for that man.

"Zain, what the hell is wrong with you? Why would you acknowledge this fake video to be real? You and I both know it's fake?!" Nandini screamed, as she entered Zain's apartment and he stood up as if on cue, like he was expecting her.

"I checked with my sources, Nandini. You leaked it. I thought you wanted this scandal for the movie PR. I felt it was bold too, but then I thought it is you; and you are Nandini, you are capable of doing anything. You are that bold. So I accepted it." Zain replied calmly, looking at her.

Nandini stared at him, trying to understand if what he said was genuine, or he just wanted to take advantage of her over the top image before the media to fan this scandal and benefit from it. His expression gave away nothing and that enraged Nandini. She had left a devastated Manik back at her place, promising him she'd fix this. She had to fix it.

"It was done for a different motive, Zain. I was going to refute it. I am about to refute it. Please take your statement back" Nandini tried curtly first.

"Different motives? I must say, I feel very used, Nandini." responded Zain, but he wasn't perturbed at all.

"Zain, listen I am sorry. I know I should have kept you on loop, but honestly I didn't think you'd agree so I thought let's just get on, I'd refute in a couple of hours anyway. In fact, I would have refuted by now, had you not made such a statement in the press! What's wrong with you? Please recall your statement and let me fix this." Nandini tried again.

"Recall and say what? That I lied? What about my image, Nandini? Sorry I'm not doing that. Let's do a small dating PR and then let it die out after our movie releases?" Zain suggested. Something in his tone made Nandini feel like he was playing her. He wasn't suggesting a sensible playout, but digging her in deeper soup.

"Zain, I am not going to do a fake dating PR activity with you for our movie. It's not required. Let's just cook up something like, you accepted it to save my image, but it was a fake so you're recalling it. Works?" Nandini tried in a business-like tone this time.

"Nope. Doesn't put me in a good light." Zain simply negated.

"Or I could go and tell the press it was a publicity stunt you know? For the movie? Then your image stays" Nandini argued, churning out-ways fast in her head.

"You do that, then I will provide proof that you released the video without my knowledge and I will sue you for defamation. Err..do you have a few hundred crores to spare?" Zain asked her humorously and Nandini gaped at him. He was dealing on face, no deliberation at all.

"What do you want, Zain? Why are you doing this?" Nandini came straight to the point.

"Now we're talking. Good. Come to my study, let's keep the staff out of this?" Zain asked, eyeing Ranbir. Nandini nodded.

In the study, Zain looked at Nandini like she was his prey and it made her uncomfortable. "What's your deal, Zain?" she asked sharply.

"Marry me." he commanded and Nandini stood there rooted in shock.

"Excuse me?" she asked, after a moment.

"That's right. Marry me, and let the video be. There's no other deal to this. You cannot undo your actions here." Zain replied, confidently.

"You're joking!" Nandini snapped.

"Nope" came his reply.

Nandini stared at him in disbelief. "Zain, I know for a fact that you don't love me, then why this sudden intention?" she asked after a minute.

"I have my reasons." he replied vaguely.

"Fine. Do the fuck you want. I won't comply. I am telling the press this video was a fake & will provide evidence for that." swore Nandini, loudly.

"Okay, then I will go and tell Abhimanyu's Thakkar's murderer that you're after him and you're looking for clues." replied Zain silkily, stealing all of Nandini's breath away. What the actual fuck?

"What the hell?" shouted Nandini defensively.

"Well, a little birdie tells me you're asking a lot of questions but you haven't got any evidence yet. I can either give you evidence or tell on you. The choice is yours, darling." replied Zain, with a smooth ease in his voice. He had trapped her.

"I am doing no such thing Zain." Nandini tried, but even she knew, her voice was giving her away. She couldn't handle this unexpected turn of events.

"Oh please, call me when you're out of denial and ready to talk. I don't have time to waste.." drawled Zain's voice, as he started walking out of the study with a triumphant smile.

"Wait" Nandini called involuntarily. At that moment, they both knew he had won.

"Yes?" he asked lazily, turning back.

"How do I know you're not bluffing?" Nandini asked and Zain turned around to answer.

"The Nandini Murthy!" Manik's loud voice broke her reverie, as Nandini jumped in her place seeing Manik right in front of her nose, looking down at her. He was too close. He was so close, that she could see the deep brown freckles in his otherwise dark orbs. He could see the mole above his lip, right up close...and she could smell the stench of alcohol in his breath.

"Oh dear Lord" Nandini thought to herself, as she geared up for this confrontation.

***
Word Count : 3,685

A/N: Well, need a glass of water anyone? ;)

Now, now, don't start yelling at me! I didn't make you read 43 chapters to end you with Nandini marrying Zain :D - Have patience, MaNan is end goal :D

So, I know a lot has happened and very suddenly, so I will help you process with a few of my questions like always! I hope you engage in them with as much gusto, as you show every other week :)

1. MaNan conversation and Nandini taking the upper hand and forcing Manik to do things against his will. How times have changed..remember the initial chapters? How do you feel about things coming to a full circle? What are your thoughts on their bond/situation?

2. Wait, Zain accepted the fake video leak?! Did you see that coming? What are your thoughts? Why do you think he did this?

3. And Nandini is getting engaged to Zain? What the hell! Did you see this coming by any far chances? Do you support it? How many of you want Nandini to move on with Zain? :P

4. Manik Drunk Malhotra at Zain and Nandini's engagement. What are you expecting? Any thoughts on what you want him to do? (Other than butchering Zain of course!)

5. Do you think Zain has disclosed all his card while explaining to Nandini about his decision to marry her? How do you think Zain knows that Abhimanyu was murdered? Do you think he really knows the murderers, or is it a trap?

6. Do you think Nandini did the right thing by accepting the weeding offer? Do you think she should tell Manik why she is marrying Zain?

7. Anyone interested in a Zain-Nandini love track? I mean, when compared to the hideous stuff Manik had subjected Nandini to, this guy seems like an angel :P

8. Anything else that you'd like to call out in this chapter, story?

Well, I just have one thing to say, that the next chapter is a bigger DHAMAKA and I cannot wait to update that next weekend! Until then, please do like, share, vote, comment and show this book some MaNan love! <3

Next update will be on Sunday (3rd Mar'24)

Until then,

Stay safe, peeps.

Lots of love,

Your writer,

A.