Same day,
1pm

"Ms.Murthy, you need to sit one day with the Director of the upcoming biopic and ensure the progress of the project once. If a single project eats up so much of time and budget, I don't think one can be patient enough with the design." I nodded at my boss who stood up from his revolving chair to wear the denim jacket previously hanging on the headrest. He was leaving for a renowned calendar shoot.

"I had a talk last day and he said there's some compliance issue with the safety measures, still I'd try to sit and talk afresh." I informed standing on his opposite across the table.

"Do I personally have to negotiate? I'll be tremendously jacked up with outdoors and all so I don't think...."

"No Sir, I'll take care of it." I assured and he glanced over me.

"Cool" He mouthed.

He got busy checking his phone whilst rubbing his chin with his index finger and I bought the time to admire him for a little. My mind travelled to the moment in the morning when he asked me out over a dinner and I also recalled when he cleared like a crystal the junky dreams in my head divulging that it was merely a dinner and not a date. Not a date, Nandini.

Sighing lowly, I looked down at the floor pondering how dinner with Manik would be to visualise.

Come what may, I knew the date.... no scratch it. Dinner. The dinner was going to be awkward with maybe formal yes Sir, no Sir or with weird silence that the knives on our plates won't be able to cut in. More than the silence, I knew our conversations were going to be more awkward. He'd be busy being all bossy or laughing at my expense. Damn, I realised I didn't have a constructive topic to have with him except those stars and moon and poetical artefacts which I was sure would bore anybody if done on a daily basis, specially anybody like Manik Malhotra. My cheeks turned the darkest shade of red as my mind contemplated the night and the flashes of his lips staying inches away and his body hovering over mine. A weird rush in my stomach tickled me. What would've happened had I not brought Maddy's topic that night? Would he still be the same grumpy man from the next day or.... Of course, he would've been the same, Nandini. Why was anything happening that night going to effect him in any way at all! Was he having mercy on me because of that night when he saw me cry like a little girl? I sighed.

"Anything else?" He took a quick look at me and I shook my head.

"I'll...take your leave, Sir" Whilst I was about to reach the door, Julie stepped inside receiving a nod from Manik.

She placed a classy steel coloured envelope on his table which gave me the feeling to be an invite and bouquet of Juliet Roses. Everything about the invite screamed sophistication and affluence with a sheeny royal blue ribbon covering it forming a flower at the corner. After Julie took her leave shortly, Manik found me gaping him.

"I-I was leaving only." Edgy, I was.

"No, wait. Read it for me." He was the boss after all, dwelling on lap of luxury every moment.

He again settled down delaying his schedule despite the possibility that Abhimanyu awaited him outside the door. As I ended up near the table, he eyed me the envelope indicating to speed up as he repeatedly kept watching the clock. I pulled one end of the ribbon letting the satin unfold smoothly and I knew my snail's speed was pricking him. I lingered my fingers on the silkiness a little and slipped the card out clearing my throat.

"Life should be measured not by the number of years but rather by the love shared, the memories made, the joy given and the blessings received. Please join us at the 28th Black Tie Birthday Party honouring the superstar Aryaman Mal"

"Stop" I looked up frozen at Manik whose eyes turned stoney and jaw which took the sharpness of a knife.

It gave me momentary gladness hearing about Aryaman and that he was doing fine but seeing the furious man before my eyes, my blitheness didn't last long.

"Throw these two outside my office premises. Now." he pointed at the flower and then at the card in my hand.

"But Sir, there's a note inside t-"

"Ms.Murthy didn't you hear me the first time? Hurl them. Right now" He clicked his fingers at me and then dragged it to the door.

"Sir, at least have a look at them?" I noticed him pinch the bridge of his nose closing his eyes.

"You wouldn't like to offend me now, Murthy." He kept his eyes closed resting his head back.

"Anything else, Sir?" Gritting at him, I picked up the flower and scornfully gazed him.

"Out." God, this man.

Tramping out of the goddamn cabin, I reached the corridor to dump the flowers in the dustbin. Pitifully, I stared at the innocent flowers running my fingers over them. Which human being on earth could do that to flowers? I decided not to dump either the flower or the note in the envelope because surely those belonged to certain sentiments of the sender. Gaiting inside my cabin, I placed the flowers near the little window and pulled the written message out. It was a small paper with writing on both sides of it. Tucking my strand behind the ear, I pulled a chair reading its content.

Dearest Manik,

I may not have given birth to you like your mother but you should know that I already loved you before I saw you; before you came to this earth. I know I made some mistakes and for that I am sorry but I was doing the best for you with what I knew. You're my child, my life, my dreams for tomorrow. I will always love you and there's nothing that can destroy my love and affection for you. We all have a past but we must see through it and you should know my intentions were never to make your eyes hurt with tears. We both have caused each other terrible pains but the truth remains that we're for each other in this world. Don't think that your father is getting old and thus nagging you being all emotional because I know they hardly affect you. My vulnerability affects you the least. I know when you needed a father in your life I was busy with mine and mostly I'm responsible for the rude man I've made you but my son, your father needs you. Don't be like me and show up tonight as with whole of heart your father will be looking at the door through out. 

Love you always
Your father

I didn't know how could Manik even ask to scrap it because reading the same made me miss my Appa already. I decided to do the impossible, talk to Manik about the party and I found my feet already heading to his cabin. I was scared but I was commiserating the old man. Aryaman and Manik both were different sides of the same coin and deep down somewhere they must be loving each other.

Manik was tsunami whereas Aryaman was a gentle raise on the waves. If Manik was anger then Aryaman was empathy. One was the sea and the other was the land but then I guess simplicity and complexity needed each other. Manik was much better being alone, like being alone came naturally to him. Although crowded with fans around, he led a life of deliberate solitude and if occasional loneliness crept in, he knew to work his way out or rather sink deeper in it. Manik was a paradox, detached, one who didn't believe in commitments, cruel and yet stayed relaxed. He loved no one, he was sociable yet a loner; platonic, tough and unpredictable in his predictability. While Aryaman, he was faithful, gentle, passionate, forgiving, one who can be a beautiful time in anyone's life and everything positive that Manik wasn't.

I knocked on his cabin's door but came no reply; after waiting for few milliseconds, I prodded the door open but to my luck the room was empty. Crap! I ran the fastest I could shoving and thrusting people making their files or articles drop but I needed to catch before he was far gone. I thumbed the button of the elevator but the wait seemed forever and the time was precious; I availed the stairs just making sure I don't plummet.

At the ground floor, I was able to see that tall frame walking out of the office building approaching the parking lot with people greeting him and he nodding at them. It felt necessary to catch my breath and so I did resting arms on my waist before dashing after him.

"Sir Sir Sir Sir Sir!" I waved my hand at him. He turned back at me with frowns on that face.

"Sir I just..ouch!" My leg swatted a box which my button like eyes couldn't see and there I was on the ground rubbing my knee.

"Oh God" Manik irritatedly rubbed his hand on his face "Just go and see if she's still functioning." Manik directed Abhimanyu who wasted no second in rushing to me.

"Are you okay?" Abhimanyu knelt down before me.

"I'm fine" Dusting off my teared knee, I stood up holding Abhimanyu's extended hand and noticed Manik approaching us dipping hands inside his pockets and sighed.

"Get my car" He ordered his assistant who after nodding at me vanished in a jiffy.

"I think today you should tell me, Ms.Murthy."

"Tell you what?" I was clueless.

"That what's always with you and why only you? No, seriously? Either you fall or make others drop down. I hope you realise by doing such silly act of yours, you waste both your and my time. I can't say about you but my time is very very precious." He spoke calmly keeping hands across his chest and I realised he was back to being cruel murdering my idea of a perfect dreamland with him. I breathed heavily.

"I... needed to show you this." And disclosed the folded letter in my hand. I was sure by the look on his face that he discerned very well what it was as his features hardened.

"You didn't." He glared with all his detestation.

"I won't take more than five minutes of yours because I know your time is precious." I was hopeful.

"No time." He brought his wristwatch close to my eyes.

"Sir please?" I requested walking, scratch it, jogging after him whilst he lighted up a cigar walking faster than me.

"Sir please, five minutes only? I promise." He kept ignoring and I stopped following him seeing him go.

"So you're not ready to stop and listen to me for five goddamn minutes but are ready to regret till the end of time?" I called out louder and his motion halted.

"Sorry?" He frowned turning back.

"You will be if you ignore me today." I mouthed confidently. Obviously he was breathing heavily at my audacity and looked around maintaining his calm. Exhaling through his lips, he took a step closer still standing at a two hand distance from me.

"My car would be coming exactly in five." I breathed and smiled feebly handing out the letter.

"Kindly have a look." He saw me and then the letter and back at me taking the letter roughly from my grip.

He quickly went through the wordings whilst I prayed silently for some affirmation from his end. Getting done with the letter he observed me carefully but it strung me highly when I found him tearing the letter into pieces. I gasped opening my mouth witnessing his cruelty as he sprinkled the treasured pieces on the ground amidst us dramatically.

"Done" he smirked monstrously raising hands up in the air and I gritted. He rotated his body to leave and his chauffeur stepped out immediately holding the door open for him. There always should be a limit to the monstrousness of a monster; Manik stayed cruel for so long that he lost the touch of earthly emotions.

"There's a friend of mine, Navya. She's the best friend I have in Chandigarh.." Manik gritted rolling his eyes hearing me speak from his behind.

"She always led a happy life with her parents, a life that anyone could be jealous of. Her parents cared for her; they..loved her unconditionally. Her father was a politician and mother, a homemaker. Her..."

"Do I give a fuck?" He yelled not turning at me.

"Her mother used to bring her back from school but for one day.. just for one day her mother requested her father to pick her up from school for a reason unknown to me. It skipped her father's mind and Navya had to spend her night alone in the school, a whole dark night. She was terrified to the core the entire night and the next morning she was found senseless in her school premises. It took her years to get over that trauma, I remember how in the middle of the night she used to wake up from her nightmares trembling and sweating clutching that sheet on her bed. Years passed, her mother expired leaving her alone with her father. Her father couldn't take the death of her mother and thus he drowned himself more into alcohol and whores. Every night, the same story. Nights changed and his father worsened. When she grew a little older, her father started emotionally abusing her, belittled her for no specific reason tearing her self-confidence into pieces. She wouldn't go out, socialise. Nothing. Then from emotional abuse it took the shape of physical violence whenever she restrained her father from drinking. One night, her father did the same thing that she took years to get over with.. what she dreaded; he locked her up for two nights at a stretch... because he was too drunk to remember about his captivated daughter... two days.." I sighed looking at Manik who still stood stubborn not turning at me. It was impossible to know what he was thinking.

"The next day she managed to break open the door and ran to my house and it was the day she decided to never care again for that man who caused her this level of mental pain. She hated her father. Again years passed, and we graduated; her father grew an old man abandoned by women who found nothing new in him. He fell sick and called and screamed for Navya but she never answered his helpless cries. She said whenever she thought about her father, all she could think of was those tortures and mental bruises. She lost her sympathy, became a person no one could recognise. The ailing father died one night in his house without any medicinal care, no one was beside him not even his own blood. How ironic! When the news reached Navya, she still was hard to melt and didn't even pay a last visit to her dead father. Time flew and she applied for higher education until...one day when she was filling up the form of her post graduation course, she was required to write the name of her guardian. She had the pen and paper in her grip but her mind was blank as that'd hit her hard. She didn't know what to write because all she became was an orphan. She ran away from that place and never went back and it was the moment she realised, she had nobody to call her own in this world. She had friends and relatives but not a parent. It feels...the roof over your head slipped out. They say it's never too late, but yea there are times when it is extremely late. Very late. My point to you Sir behind this Mahabharat of mine is... it's always easy to hate a parent, I'm not saying every parent is a saint; mistake can be theirs too. But what I'm trying to say is it's easy to turn around and decide to never look back but it's tough when the regression hits you. Make sure you do anything in life but regret because one life is not enough to deal with it. Don't become the next Navya because a parent is such a thing whose presence is felt only when it's away. Rest... you're a Superstar, you've come all this far by yourself, you know what is best for you and what is not." I breathed in lightly restraining the tears about to fall from my eyes.

"Your five minutes got over." My jaw dropped at the stiffness of that man who I was skeptic to call a human by then. I kept looking at his back in disbelief as he walked to his car.

I picked up the pieces from the ground because that barbarism couldn't be its destiny. Wiping my wet cheek, I started to leave.

"It is a black tie party" I froze hearing Manik speak. Quickly, as I revolved I found him resting his hand on the roof of the car and leaning his body thereon.

"Excuse me?"

"It's a black tie party which means I need to get myself a date for the evening." I grinned like an idiot hearing him which made no change in his straight face. For a second, I couldn't even believe what he just said. He agreed. I did it? Yeah. Yes, I d-did. I wanted to scream and dance but I also knew that wasn't the moment to be tribal.

"Do you want me to arrange a date for you?" I raised my brows optimistically.

"I don't want any girl to be there who might've the probability of leaking the information to the outside world what kind of relationship I have with....them." He expressed.

"I... didn't get you... "

"Why not play it safe?" He smirked.

"What exactly do you want, Sir?" I was little pissed and mostly puzzled.

"You"

❃

Coming out of the washroom on my way towards my cabin, I ran my wet hands through my strands to keep the wildness tamed. I was happy which possibly couldn't be measured and whoever passed by me grasped that well because of my constant grin. Taking the entire bunch of my open hair, I flipped and settled it on one side of the shoulder whilst pushing the door to my cabin open when suddenly I lost track of my movement. I found Cabir sitting on my chair dangling his legs with shoes on over my table. Closing the door behind, I walked inside confidently.

"It'll be really nice if you'd kindly take those down, Sir." I pointed at his shoes.

"As you say" he took his feet down stretching his hands dramatically. "I heard you, Nandini and I must admit I'm absolutely smitten by your good little speech. You never fail to impress me." He sniggered.

"Thank you but I'm absolutely sure it wasn't with the motive of impressing anyone. It was cent percent genuine." I voiced without trembling.

"Oh... I see... Today is a lovely day and so I thought why not talk openly with you, ha? No secrets, no pretensions, nothing. So tell me Nandini.... what is on your mind? What purpose are you trying to serve here?" He asked darkly placing his palms widely across the table but close enough to lean on me from the opposite side of the table.

"I didn't know Sir that everyone around Manik Sir needs to have a motive on mind."

He smirked abhorrently "Enough of your sick emotional dramas, Nandini. Blurt it out already." He sounded darker with each passing second and those eyes started piercing me.

"You are right Sir, I have a motive on my mind." He smirked wickedly "And I'm very sorry to say, had you also been having the same motive, I wouldn't have the need to come into the picture."

"Oh... is it so? Why not tell me more about it?" He faked his attention.

"I'm no blind here, Sir. I always see how you manage to keep Manik Sir protected and hidden inside the thick wall he has built himself. You never want him to see the world outside, correct me if I'm wrong.... Sir." I crossed arms across my chest and his smirk disappeared taken over by furious glowering.

"So Ms. Tiny Little Nandini Murthy, you think you can push and break his walls and make him see the beautiful beautiful world outside, hm?" He leaned on closer but I didn't flinch.

"Nobody likes to live like he does. He's confined himself and his emotions. I'm not positive to what extent I'll be successful but if I try, I'll reach somewhere definitely because deep down I feel it that this dark life of his suffocates him too. He needs to step out of it and see how his father loves him...his brother loves him and I also know Manik Sir too loves them." And Cabir laughed out loud clapping his hands.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Hold your horses, girl. Before you make me anymore emotional..." he acted as if wiping his tears "..let me give you a shoooort description about the brotherly love of the Malhotras." He straightened himself walking towards the little window "Enmity between the brothers was nothing new. They were always after each other's neck and blood and with each passing year their hatred for one another touched the sky. The funniest thing is that they're twins with a gap of hardly two hours but two lifetimes wouldn't be sufficient enough to end the enmity between them. Manik was thirteen year old when he came back for the summer from his boarding school and Aryaman as usual, hated it, neither Manik loved it. Manik's father was always fond of his horses and so he declared a riding competition between two of his trained sons; the spirit was on. The competition started with the glaring of the brothers to one another and actually Manik was winning but Aryaman plotted and tricked making him fall off the horse and bagged the title of the winner. Winning or losing didn't matter, what mattered was beating one another. That thing sparked the old hatred in Manik's heart and in the evening when his parents were out partying and Aryaman was sleeping peacefully in his bedroom, do you know what Manik did? Ha? You know?" I could feel my heart beating louder.

"He set the entire room on fire. Actual fire." Gasping for some air, I stepped back hitting my back with the wall. "He stood outside the house in the garden watching the glory of the fire with a proud smirk on his face." I was afraid to know what happened next.

"It was fluke that one of the house staffs saved Aryaman but his back got badly burnt. Later on, when investigation took place, Manik casually lied. Years passed and it was that bloody unlucky time when Mr.Malhotra proclaimed his will. According to the will, considering the degrading image and attitude of both the brothers, Mr.Malhotra had put forward the condition that whichever Malhotra brother makes a grave mistake would be disowned from the property. Competition was back again when they tried harder not to keep oneself correct but to find a moment when the other one would do some wrong. Do you know what Manik did?" Please, don't tell me. I gulped hard feeling my throat drying up and my body shaking.

"He failed the brakes of his dear brother's car. The car got out of control and ran over an old pedestrian, luckily that oldie got saved but Aryaman wasn't spared. It was a massacre. A shit, to be precise. Aryaman lost everything before his father; before the world. One night he was wrathful and decided to put the screws on his brother. He reached Manik's friend's house where Manik was wasted to the shit and catching him off guard, Aryaman with a hockey stick repeatedly whacked the shit out Manik causing his nose and a leg to break. Mr.Malhotra immediately revoked his will seeing the dirty shape the game for money was taking......" Cabir was serious and my mind was all blank and void. I lost the power to carry my weight and thudded on a chair. All of my calculations turned upside down as I couldn't understand understand anything more. My head got jammed with serious pain.

"What happened to your idea of brotherly love now, Nandini?" My eyes felt heavy and painful and my head was swimming.

"And don't you at all think that Manik is going tonight because of the heart touching speech that you gave. Nah. Let me tell you that sweetheart..." he leaned over attempting to whisper in my ear.

"Mr.Malhotra would soon declare his new will." And my eyes widened and my hands clutched the chair arms.

"But then these are only two glorious stories." Holding the arms of the chair, he towered over me "You've brought fire and gasoline together, Nandini. Make sure one of them stays alive tonight." Cabir turned to leave... "...and one more thing Nandini, these two are beasts dressed as sobers. Stay away from them for your own good." I looked up at Cabir being terrified by all that he disclosed. "They'll turn you into ashes and get you two feet grounded even before you realise. So. Stay. Away because it'll be too late to run away." Jostling the door open with force, Cabir left while I kept gawking the swinging door feeling my pulses race.

Did I really make any mistake recovering which would be lethal?