Vic watches both of us with his eyes narrow and mind calculating.
‘Guys,’ he says after a moment, pinching his nose. ‘Don’t let him ruin your day…see we just left him miles behind, still you two are carrying his words on your heads.’
He parks the car in front of the office and looks at SK,
‘It was you who told me once that you have left them behind, with the part of you that cares for them. So live by that word mate, that’s it.’
‘We’re being watched,’ SK states after a moment. Vic steps outside the car, his hand freezes in the mid movement of shutting the door. ‘Yes,’ SK continues watching him. ‘Didn’t you wonder how Lakshya knew Miss Gadodia was with us? We don’t usually roam around with our clients in the backseat right? He knows, means his father knows, his father knows because his spies does.’
He hops to the driver seat and turns to look at me.
‘Come to the front Casper, we have plans remember?’
I do not seriously understand how he can jump from one conversation to another pole apart. It seems one of his qualities. SK continues his discussion with Vic as I step out and take the front seat, so there was someone watching. That means something could go terribly wrong any moment.
‘Talk to him okay, ask him about the microchip I mentioned and yes, check the invitation card as well. I have a contact with a photographer who might just have the answer we need. Vic…’ He calls after as Vic turns to leave. ‘Try to make things work from phone conversations as far as possible, we don’t need them following us to our clues right?’
‘Phones can be tapped.’ Vic points out.
‘Nah,’ SK shakes his head. ‘That’s the only thing Durga Prasad can’t do, tapping phones, I have personal experience on that.’
Vic nods and leaves for office as we pull out from the parking.
‘What does it mean?’ I ask him. ‘Why is he following us?’
‘Me being your attorney has become both your blessing and your curse Casper,’ he says casually. ‘I can fight Durga Prasad better, because I just know what goes inside his bald head, but he would do everything to put you behind bars because I would try otherwise.’
‘Does he hate you?’
‘Hate? He loathes me! I’m not far behind though.’
‘What did he do, that made you…’
He pulls the car over, bringing it to a standstill on the roadside.
‘His words are eating you away right? You’re doubting what my intentions are?’ His voice is completely void of emotions, I can’t judge whether he is hurt or angry or simply as casual about it as he sounded. ‘You said I crawl away from light because I fear displaying my ugliness…and now you want to see that ugliness revealed right?’
‘I didn’t mean…’
‘If you know the truth, either you’d be very stunned, or you’d be very disappointed.’
‘I don’t want to know anything.’ I tell him, a little firmly.
‘Oh, so you’re worried it might change your new found resolve?’
‘Why do you always think so negative of people?’
‘He is my father.’
Silence, which I can no longer remember how to break and which he seems to be using as his shield fills the next moment.
‘What?’
‘Durga Prasad Maheshwari is my father.’ His voice is clear, diplomatic and pleasant, but that does not make his words anymore understandable. ‘I am Sanskar Maheshwari, eldest son of the Maheshwaris and your ex fiance’s brother.’
He looks at me, his eyes sparkling in a blinding shimmer.
‘By choosing my side you had just entered an arena of war Miss Gadodia, here either you’d be my sword or his shield, either way you will bleed. My father hates me, thus, he would do anything to destroy you, I want to defeat him, that’s why I chose to help you on the first place, you were supposed to be my pawn against him, my methods of reaching my goal, so if you had any picture of me being your knight in shining armor, you can delete them from your mind right now.’
‘Why do you talk in past tense?’ I ask him slowly and catch, for a split second how his features reflected a surprise.
‘Because you’re neither my sword nor my pawn any longer... I don’t enjoy placing you between us anymore. Now, by hurting you he can destroy me and I fear that… Miss Gadodia, you managed to make me believe in us for a one golden moment. It does not exist anymore. ‘Us’, can’t happen.’
I hear myself taking a large gulp of air, I do not feel it reaching my lungs as his words suffocate me. For my entire life I have never hated a man with passion, but now I do. That hatred has no reason other than what he has done to the only thing I hold dear. My hope of flying away. I hate Durga Prasad Maheshwari…for whatever he has done to SK.
‘So you’re protecting me by pushing me away?’ I ask him mildly.
‘Please,’ he says in a soft tone. ‘Don’t make it harder than it already is.’
Then tears come, in big, wet drops of burning agony, they chase each other down my cheeks and he stares straight ahead blankly. I can see how his knuckles gripping the steering wheel had whitened with the pressure he applied on them and the vein throbbing at his throat, his rigid jaw, they all tell me how much effort he was putting in to keeping his mask on and how less hope I have of breaking his wall again.
SK would neither listen to me nor his heart. He has taken his decision.
*
‘And you said we are done?’ Vic sounds frustrated. He shakes his head, watching me and pours himself a glass of water. ‘I really thought you were one smart guy SK, now you just proved me again that you’re Sanskar, another son of the mental Maheshwaris.’
‘She’s already in danger,’ I point out, trying to ignore the blazing insult he threw at me. ‘Without Durga Prasad knowing what she means to me.’
‘Huh,’ Vic snorts. ‘Keep telling yourself that! And what did you do now? Dropped her home and came here? Are you seriously out of your mind SK?’
‘She needs time to get a grip on herself, the further she is from me the better.’
‘And how can you guarantee her safety?’
‘Vic, leave it.’
‘Lakshya already knows she is there, what if they plan something?’
‘Leave it,’ I say a little shaken up. Seriously when I had dropped her home; that little detail slipped from my mind. Then again, no one would dare entering that house. She was safe there. As long as she was inside that is.
‘Do you think she would leave home for any reason?’
‘You tell me,’ Vic says sarcastically. ‘You did this alone, now you tell me!’
I dial the landline number, it rings, but no response, maybe she is still sulking, maybe she didn’t hear, I think as I keep trying, or maybe, my mind chills, she is not at home.
‘Damn it Casper,’ I mutter as I redial for the third time. No one was answering the phone. Vic’s mobile buzzes the same moment.
‘Yep,’ He barks at it, still annoyed from our previous conversation. ‘Very well, we’re coming.’ He says calmly as he disconnects the call, but his expression is darker now. ‘You’ve done it SK,’ he says glaring at me.
‘No,’ I mutter, standing up. ‘Don’t tell me…’
‘Mrs. Ragini Maheshwari complained that her life is in danger from Miss Gadodia, she says she was attacked today.’ He watches me, enjoying my stunned expression. ‘They have already arrested her, a fine opening for the trial in two days.’
‘How did this happen?’
‘Apparently she went to see her mother, no surprise after your stunt,’ he says venomously. ‘And Mrs. Maheshwari was also there. The rest I guess as usual is a brilliant fabrication by the young lady perhaps with occasional spice thrown in by her father in law.’
Vic grabs his things from the table and turns to me.
‘What are you waiting for?’
I watch him, taking a deep breath and finding my words.
‘Go on.’
‘You’re not coming?’
‘Nope.’
‘SK, what would she think? She would think you gave up, she would die of despair!’
‘She doesn’t know me very well then,’ I say determinedly as I pull on my jacket.
‘Will you tell me where you are going?’
‘Home.’
‘Ah, like there would be anything to…wait,’ he eyes me suspiciously. ‘What home are you talking about?’
I give him a faint smile.
‘I think it’s time to meet Mrs. Ragini Maheshwari personally.’
*