
Chapter 5
The wedding had started off in a manner that indicated ample excitement through out the day. Laksh's horse had been hell bent on throwing him off. Sanskar had wondered why he couldn't have been sensible enough to just use a car, but then this was Laksh. They had finally reached Swara's house, Baadi, only to find out that the bride had gone missing. She had run away leaving behind a video stating she wasn't ready for the wedding and was leaving Laksh. Ragini had tried to console a heartbroken Laksh, but some of her comments had rankled Shomi to the extent that she had announced Ragini had somehow been behind Swara's disappearance and all wasn't as it appeared.
Sanskar had been standing away from the drama, watching everything minutely. At different times all through this, he had felt more than one pair of eyes watching him. He had messaged his assistant Kunal, about 45 minutes back when this drama first began. His instruction was clear; he had wanted Swara located. Sanskar suspected some sly game was underway and the 'innocent looking' Ragini seemed to be at the center of this. He liked to be top of anything that could even remotely impact his plans. That wasn't the only reason for his recent instruction to Kunal, but it was still the main one. His phone beeped, it was Kunal messaging him. Sanskar had always been impressed by his efficiency. It was a hospital address. Sanskar sneaked out from there and made his way to the hospital.
At the hospital he was directed to her room. On entering the room, he saw her lying on the bed. Baring some scratches she seemed fine, exhausted, but otherwise fine. He was told she apparently walked into the Ganges. She was about to completely drown when some of fishermen saw her and pulled her into their boat. She had already inhaled lot of water. While they got it all out, she had fallen unconscious after that. Unsure of the seriousness of the issue and looking at her well-to-do clothes, they had brought her to this hospital. The doctor who examined her thought that she might have been drugged, rather than trying to hurt herself. She had just regained consciousness when he had entered the room. She looked at him, surprised to find him there.
"Miss BGM, for a moment there I thought you had become wiser and decided to wash your hands off my cousin, but your dear sister seems more keen to take him off your hands" he told her, seeing her stare at him.
"What are you doing here? Come to gloat?" she asked softly
"Why would I gloat over your narrow miss from the disaster of marrying my dear cousin, Miss BGM?"
"Why are you here? Look I am not in the right frame of mind to fight with you right now" she pleaded
"I am here you give you a lift back to Baadi, that is in case you want stop your sister and stick to my cousin after all"
"Why this generosity all of a sudden?" she asked, surprised by his offer
"Don't concern yourself with the why's Miss BGM. Do you want the lift back home or not?"
"There are questions that I need to ask my sister. I need to ask her why she did this to me" Swara looked at Sanskar, her eyes welling up at the memories of what transpired just a few hours between her sister and herself "Yes, I need a lift"
"Lets be quick then. We don't have any time to loss. Your sister is quite the actress by the way."
Swara tried to stand up from the hospital bed, but almost fell down. Sanskar quickly grabbed her hand, to prevent the fall. Beyond exhaustion, she seemed to still be in some mental shock, it was clear to him that she wouldn't be able to make the journey on her own feet right now. He lifted her in his arms, giving her a quick glance, before making his way to the lift.
They drove in silence for a while. At one point, Sanskar handed her his handkerchief seeing her cry, but there was no conversation. He sped through the roads. Swara wasn't sure why he had done what he had, but right now Ragini was plaguing her mind too much for her to give this any additional thought.
She remembered going to the temple with Ragini for some pre wedding rituals. She remembered sitting on the temple steps as Ragini got them both some kolohal. She remembered Ragini dragging her for a quick walk along the ganges. She could never forget those last words Ragini had spoken "I am really sorry I am doing this Swara, but I cannot part with my Laksh." Swara had been shocked by this. She had tried to speak but nothing came out of her mouth. And then, everything went blank. She woke up in the hospital to realize she would have died, had someone not intervened.
When Swara reached home, with Sanskar, she saw Ragini sitting in the mandap with Laksh, getting married. It was the same mandap she, Swara, was supposed to get married to Laksh in. The rituals weren't over and she tried to explain the truth to everyone, but Laksh was in no mood to listen and Ragini was behaving too innocent to raise any doubts. Laksh had gone ahead and tied the mangalsutra around Ragini neck and filled her maang in front of Swara, looking at her, daring her to stop him, to counter him.
Things hadn't stopped there, Swara's parents had separated over trust issues. Shomi was accused by Dadi of being a true blue stepmom, never really carrying for her stepdaughter all these years – only pretending to, and being out to destroy one daughter over the mistakes of another. Laksh had then gotten himself completely drunk on his wedding night. Adarsh Bhaiyaa had been left to find him and get him back home. He had been mumbling some nonsense in his room, overhearing which Sujata had come barging into Sanskar room late in the night, rousing him from deep sleep.
"What is going on between you and that Swara?" she had asked in full blown panic, disgust evident on her face when she said the name.
"What?" he replied, his hair tousled by sleep. He hadn't bothered to open his eyes yet.
"You are not interested in her are you?"
"I am not interested in any girl, Mom. Please let me go to sleep"
"What! You are not going to get me a son-in-law, right?" She was having a breakdown now
"If you don't let me sleep I might just do that to spite you" Sanskar answered trying to shied his eyes still from the brightness in the room
"Sanskar's Dad!...." Sujata had left him to go talk to her husband and get him to talk some sense into their son.
Sanskar loved his mom a lot. He usually stayed on the safe side when she went into the drama mode, but he was too much sleepy right then to worry about it.
Laksh's wedding had to be the epitome of drama for Maheshwari family because they woke up next day morning to find out that Swara had gone missing, again! Laksh had been suspected to be the cause of the disappearance and arrested. Around mid-day Swara had returned back and informed the police she was fine. Laksh had been released and had now been back home only a couple of hours back.
It was then very surprising for Sanskar when he received a call from Swara to meet her. What was even more surprising when he reached there, was the place that she had chosen for their meeting. It seemed to be some abandoned warehouse.
"Why did you call me here?"
"I needed your help" she answered sincerely "It is about my Maa and Baba"
"You have found a very interesting place to ask for help" he commented, still looking around "I guess you watch too many Hindi movies"
"I didn't want anyone to hear us or know about this meeting"
'Miss BGM..." he started, her head snapped up at this and tears filled her eyes
"I am not Maheshwari. And I am not too sure if I am Gadodia anymore either" she quietly added, looking broken for the first time instead of angry
"Fine. Miss Bose, come with me" Sanskar added quietly. She looked at him, he didn't answer her beyond giving her a quick tilt of his head, asking her to follow him.
She got in his car and he drove them for about half an hour, before reaching a glass building. He stopped the car in front of the entrance, getting out as security personnel opened the door for him and gave him a salute. Sanskar nodded at him before entering the building. Seeing Swara standing still in front of the entrance, he hailed her again and they got into a lift, going to the top floor. Everyone seemed to be wishing him as he entered, he gave a quick smile here, a nod there, but didn't speak much. He took her down a corridor to an office, holding the door open for her to enter. It had his name on it. He closed the door, but not before asking a middle aged lady to arrange some beverages for them.
Sanskar office was big. It had a large mahogany desk at one end, that was fairly modern. It had an iMac on it. A big three-piece abstract painting in hues of blue and yellow adorned the wall behind his desk. There were a couple of chairs in front of the desk, presumably for his meetings. On the other end was a seating area with a sofa and a couple of lounge chairs and a coffee table. His office seemed to open up into a space that was almost a terrace of sorts that had some plants and some wicker seating chairs in it.
When she was done looking around the room, she glanced at him and found him staring at her. She looked away. He asked her to get comfortable in the seating area.
"So you want my help?" he asked, leaning into a chair, sipping his coffee as he started their discussion where they had left it off.
She nodded "Its for my Maa Bada. While they are staying in the same house, to avoid questions being raised on Ragini and on me, but they are beyond separated because of what has happened"
"I am not sure where I come into the picture here?" Sanskar asked his tone neutral
"The only way I can get them truly back together, is to bring out the truth behind everything that Ragini did" she paused a bit here, glancing at Sanskar. Not getting any reaction from him, she continued "I cannot do that when I am so far away from her. I need to be close to her to reveal her true face"
"Miss..." He paused a bit before starting again "Bose, I don't like talking in circles. I am still quite unclear about what help I can provide here. What do you want me to do?" he asked looking her straight in the eye
She took a deep breath and returned his stare, conveying that she meant what she said "I want you to marry me" Sanskar's brows lifted for a second before he sank backwards in his chair "pretend marriage, of course!" Swara quickly added.
"And why did you think I would help you with this, Miss Bose?" He asked calmly, the initial surprise wearing off in mere seconds, as though he had almost expected her to suggest this.
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