Epiphany

Summery: Sanskar finds out a loose end in Swara's story by accident.
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As the world reels from the shock of Gautam Oberoi's sudden death and the dark dealings of the business world it has dropped the veil from on the other side across the oceans, Sanskar Maheshwari takes up the reins of the Maheshwari group.

The change happens so overnight that the doubts rising regarding Adarsh Maheshwari's involvement in the dirty scandal are swept up in a tide of exclamations and congratulations.

The estranged son has returned home that too at such a crucial time.

The board and the shareholders meet over the next two days in a series of consecutive meetings and Adarsh Maheshwari is erased from the halls of Maheshwari empire. Not even his mother rises a word in objection.

New chairman of the Maheshwari group stands alone in his office, catching his breath after the whirl wind of activities the day before.

It was a relatively dull day, now that the authority has truly changed hands and all the formalities were in order. Maheshwari group had returned to its routine run.

All Sanskar had to do was wait for the probe into terrorist funding to begin, then again they would have long nights and making pretty with the press.

He ran a hand over his face and thought, despite himself of all the people who had to die for him to get here.

It is then, that his mobile begins to ring. He has been expecting a call from Swara anytime now.

These days she has been acting as the bridge between him and Durga Prasad who was still closeted at Maheshwari manor away from the public eye.

But a man of that magnitude never truly retired. He would only continue his reign through hands of those he had made.

Sanskar wondered, half with bitterness and half unwilling amusement that for decades he had planned this man's ruination he himself has ended up playing only an extension of Durga Prasad's power - a knight at his round table.

It is with that weary amusement that he picks up Swara's call.

"Kahiye, aaj kya hukum hai aap ke Papaji ka?"

For a moment he gets no reply.

"Swara - kya Hua?"

"Sanskar..." Swara speaks after a spell of silence. He hears the whirl of the heavy breath that she dispels. "Is your blood group O negative?"

Unconsciously Sanskar reaches for his keys.

"What happened? Who is hurt?"

All he gets in reply is more heavy breathing.

He wonders if she's crying, if the hitch that he hears is her swallowing a sob. His head begins to throb at the thought and his fist clenches around the key of his car.

"Bathaiye kuch? Swara - are you there?"

"Woh Sunny, Sunny fell down the stairs," she says in the end. "His head is hurt, bohut khoon behe raha hai - Sanskar, main - main kya karoo? People at the hospital aren't telling me anything. They just want me to find matching blood. Sanskar main -"

"Hum aate hai," Sanskar is already on his way out of his office by the time he says this.

He throws the keys to the driver and continues his conversation with Swara.

"In which hospital are you? Hmm. It'll take only a few minutes. Wait for me. Are you sitting? Sit down Swara, sit. Take a deep breath, I'm coming - okay? Hold on until then. Sunny ko kuch nahi honga. Kuch nahi."

The driver takes him there in record time. Sanskar spots her from far. There is something rather draining about her drooping shoulders.

Swara had listened to his advice and was sitting now, her chin resting on her clasped hands and her eyes closed. She looked pale, a little shrunken. Unable to help himself Sanskar brushes a hand over her head as he approaches her. Swara's eyes snaps open and she looks at him pleadingly, hands still clasped, her lips trembling.

"What is all this happening Sanskar?" She says.

Of all the questions she could have asked, she asks the one he has no answers to.

Sanskar folds her into his embrace instead. She is rather small, that he could tuck her against him and rest his chin on the top of her head. She returns the embrace, arms encircling his middle.

"Why me? Why does it always happen to me?"

She mumbles, her voice muffled against him.

"Where are the others Swara? Nobody came with you?"

Swara pulls back, shakes her head and wiles her eyes hastily.

"Maji aur papaji are meeting Vivek with Uttara. Hum dono bhi jaane wale the...par woh, woh ...Maji doesn't think it's a good idea for me to - you know, woh..."

"I don't-" Sanskar frowns. "Don't tell me she fed you some crap about widows being bad omens in marriages. Come on Swara you don't live in her age do you? You are educated, you've seen the world - are you going to listen to that old crony?"

"I appreciate your fury," she nodded. "But I'd rather not fight with her. Least, she agreed to go and meet Vivek. Wohi bohut hai, and she lost her son. Both sons if Adarsh Bhayya doesn't come out of this scandal without a prison sentence. I pity her -"

"She alone hasn't lost her son. You lost your husband too. Sunny lost his father. Yeh kaha ki insaafi hai ke - you know what - leave it. This isn't a conversation for now." Sanskar sighs pinching the bridge of his nose. "Where is Sunny?"

**

Sunny blinks drowsily, coming around a couple of hours later. The first thing that he notices is the pinching pain in his forehead.

"Ou!" He says, reaching for and feeling the bandage around his head gingerly with his fingertips. Then he notices Sanskar.

"Bade papa!" He beams at Sanskar who is sitting beside his bed, absentmindedly stroking his hair. Sunny reflexively moves to sit up but is thwarted by Sanskar.

"No," he says and helps the boy to sit slowly. "Aaram se. Now, what is this I'm hearing about a spiderman landing stunt?"

Sunny winces. He wasn't particularly pleased with that failed mission or with his mother who had betrayed that ugly secret to bade papa.

"Mama told you? Where is she?"
Sanskar nods, and silently points a finger at Swara who had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for him to come around. Sanskar had placed a pillow under her head and adjusted her neck to a better angle.

"Woh ro rahi thi?" Sunny sniffs. "I didn't mean to Bade papa - woh my hand slipped." He hangs his head. "Dadu always says don't make mama cry. I'm such a bad boy." He pouts. "Hain na bade papa?"

"Oh you are awake beta?" A nurse walks in with a tray of medicine.
"Chaliye, let's change your wound's dressing."

"Errr - no?" Sunny looks at Sanskar hopefully. "Can we not? I'm fine, thank you nurse aunty."
The nurse raises her brows and looks at Sanskar.

"Why don't you hold your papa's hand while I do a quick job on that bandage? I'll put in a good word with the doc and you might even get an hour on the TV?"

"He's not my papa, he's my bade papa," Sunny shakes his head, if possible his pout becomes more pronounced. "My papa is no more... and if you want to get me an hour on TV it's mama that you want to put a word to." Sanskar chuckles at his sober tone and pulls Sunny closer to him.

"Why don't we do this? If you go through your treatment properly, I will take you on another outing like the one before? How is that?"

"Pakka? Aap le jaaonge?"

"Promise."

Sunny squares his jaw, but still blinks when he eyes the surgical instruments in the nurse's tray.

"Can I hold your hand bade papa - just for a little while?"

Sanskar feels his throat tightening. He offers his hand wordlessly and the boy takes it, wincing again at the first sting of antiseptic against his freshly made stitches. His grip on Sanskar's hand tightens.

That is the sight Swara waks up to, Sunny holding Sanskar's hand while he bends down and mutters something in the boy's ear. Through his teary eyes and pained expression Sunny laughs.

"Phir?" He asks.

"Phir he started to cry. He did not know how to climb down na? He got the cat, but now both cat and him were stuck on the roof."

"Silly papa, unko kissi bade ke madat lena tha na," Sunny shakes his head wisely. "Phir did you save him?"

"No. Phir your Uttara bua went to get both of them down." Sanskar chuckled. Sunny slapped his forehead with one tiny hand dramatically.

"Phir toh firemen bhi aagaye honge," he says. "Uttara bua is the last person to save anyone let alone herself. Aaj bhi I had asked her to tie my spiderman net properly. Dekhiye where that landed me!"

"Next time don't go doing such stunts," Swara tells him. The dressing done, the nurse bids them goid night and leaves.

"Sorry mama," Sunny says. Swara kisses him in reply. Those heads tilted so like one another, and staring at each other with matching smiles they make quite a picture.

"So jaaiye," Swara tells him. "Mera Bachcha," she kisses him soundly. "See even your eyes are drooping."

Sunny obeys and sinks back into his pillows.

"Aren't we going home?" He asks drowsily.

"Tomorrow," Sanskar tells both him and Swara. "First thing tomorrow morning."

Swara hums and strokes Sunny's hair. In a minute or two he is fast asleep.

"Thank you for today, Sanskar." Swara says softly. Her eyes remaining on Sunny as she strokes his hair. "Aap nahi hote toh main patha nahi kya karti-"

"What is your blood group Swara?" Sanskar asks suddenly.

"B+ why?"

He looks at her the same moment she lifts her eyes to look at him. Swara shifts failing to read the strange look that crosses his face.

"Nahi. Kuch nahi." He says, still holding her gaze. "Nothing at all."

In the silence that follows his mobile begins to ring. Sanskar answers it rather absentmindedly. It is Raghav who speaks.

"Kabir sir just landed Mr Chairman sir."

**
This is an interlude sort of chapter. First half of the story finishes here. We are heading for the much darker, more intense second half next.
Thanks for reading!