Swara was sitting on the bed, nervous, anxious, twisting her fingers waiting for him to enter their room. When she saw him, she jumped up and rushed towards him "Did you find out anything?"

Sanskar shook his head adding "Kunal is still searching. He wont let me down. Don't worry, we will find her" he said squeezing her shoulder

"Why don't we tell Ragini that what she is asking for is...."

"It wont help"

"But.." she tried to counter

"Trust me on this"

"What are we going to do?"

"Agree to do what she wants" seeing Swara trying to cut in, he quickly added "for now. Kunal will come through in meantime"

Swara's current plight was thanks to Ragini who had thrown a curve ball at her. Leveraging an upcoming pooja, she had convinced the Maheshwari family to get Swara and Sanskar to do the pooja and precede it with a small marriage ceremony in front of just the family. Taking advantage of the fact that her father was away on business, she had improved her stakes on the day of the function, by hiding their Maa as an incentive to help Swara and Sanskar come clean about their fake marriage in front of the family.

As they made their way downstairs, Ragini caught hold of them "I want to talk to you Swara" glancing at Sanskar she added "Alone"

"What ever you say isn't going to remain hidden from me. Why don't you save us all some time and blurt out what you want to say?" Sanskar retorted. He had grown tired of Ragini's antics.

"Swara" Ragini added in a warning tone. Swara sighed and agreed to go with her, nodding at Sanskar once.

She returned a few minutes later. Sanskar was by the railing, looking down at the small mandap that had been set up for them. "What does she want now?" he asked as she came over and stood next to him

"She wants us to get married now, instead of talking to the family"

"You didn't reveal...." He started asking, but she shook her head before he finished

"I still don't understand why you ......"

"I have my reasons. I will explain later"

She nodded "Anything from Kunal?" she asked

"He had shortlisted it down to three locations. He was also working out a mobile trace. It wont be long"

"What do we do in meantime?"

"We play along with what she wants" Sanskar said looking at her. She met his glance, before slowly nodding.

They were in the mandap, when Laksh walked in there. He had been missing most part of the last two days since Ragini had made this suggestion.

"I guess now we know why Ragini wanted us to go through with the marriage" Sanskar whispered to Swara, nodding towards Laksh. That was when he noticed she was shaking "Swara" he called out to her, taking her hands in his. They had gone cold. "You are shaking. What is wrong?"

"I am worried about Maa. Is she going to be alright?"

"She is going to be alright. We will find her; I promise"

"I don't trust Ragini with this. She tried to kill me once. She could really hurt Maa"

"You are right in not trusting Ragini, but don't give her too much credit. She is more opportunistic rather than sinister, immoral rather than murderer. Have faith. I wont let anything happen to your Maa" he said squeezing her now cold hand with his warm one. She nodded quietly, as the panditji started the rituals.

Sanskar's phone had beeped in the middle of the rituals. It was a message from Kunal, but before he could read what it was, Badi Maa had forced him to put the phone away until the rituals were done. They had gone through all the rituals binding them together as husband and wife, before Sanskar got a chance to get away and speak to Kunal.

"Sanskar?" Swara asked after her returned.

"Kunal located her. She was in Baadi the whole time, drugged and sleeping it off, under the watchful eye of your Dadi" Sanskar explained quickly, trying to avoid more anxiety for her. They hadn't been able to talk more as they were dragged over to finish the pooja. By the time they were done, Shomi had turned up there, ready to stop the marriage and stop Ragini's plans. Sanskar had diverted her and calmed her down, before volunteering to drop Shomi home.

Swara had returned back to their room, after Sanskar had left with her Maa. As she sat down on her bed, her thoughts went back to the conversation she had with Sanskar when she had gone to ask him for help.

"And why did you think I would help you with this, Miss Bose?" He had asked her.

"I know about the incident" She had tried to bluff

"What do you know about this incident?" he had asked narrowing his eyes

"That you had a fight with Laksh and Bade Papa" she added hoping against hope that it was enough

"You don't know anything do you" he stated more than asked as he relaxed back in his chair

"I know that you hate Laksh. Well this is your chance to get back at him. I know you wont miss out on this opportunity" She snapped back at him, angry at his attitude. She knew she was wrong to propose becoming his pawn in return for his help, but she was desperate for her parent's happiness.

"You don't know anything, Miss Bose" He had stated "Not about who I am, what I want or why I am doing this. Don't pretend to"

She didn't have another option to fall back on. She was getting anxious. Sanskar looked at her critically for a minute before asking "What is it that you plan to do, Miss Bose? That is if I agree to help you"

She had been surprised by this after his previous response. "I want to stay close to Ragini and force her to admit the truth about everything. Accept what she did to me, so that my Baba can realize that my Maa wasn't lying to him or mistreating Ragini. They can then get back together again"

"And how do you plan to force Ragini to admit it? What happens when the truth is out? You marry Laksh?"

"Laksh is a closed chapter for me. All I want is my Maa Baba together. Once the truth is out, I will end the fake marriage drama and leave the Maheshwari house and Maheshwari family altogether"

"You don't think through your plans, do you?" he commented, shaking his head, looking at her as though she was a child

"What do you mean?" she questioned angrily

"Let me see if I can explain this in a way that you can understand" He said, irking her "You want to announce to the entire world that we are married, so that you can enter the Maheshwari House and execute your plan. Then you want to force your sister, who is obsessed with my cousin to the extent of harming her own sister, to admit all that she has done to obtain Lucky, so that you can get your parents together. As of now, you do not have the first idea of how you are going to force her to reveal this though, but let us assume for argument sake that you get her to accept it. Then you want to get your Maa Baba together, and announce to the entire world, including your conservative family, that our marriage was actually fake. They are, of course, then going to welcome you back with open arms, for getting them together"

Her reaction made it clear to him that she hadn't thought through any of this

"Miss Bose, you are assuming that once you think about the goal, the universe is going to make it happen for you. That happens in films, not in real life. In real life, you have to be willing to do what it takes to make something like this happen. That means having patience, planning well, being willing to be tough, even harsh, when needed, doing things you may not be comfortable doing and most importantly, willing to make some tough sacrifices"

"I am willing to go everything that it takes, if it means my Maa Baba can get back together" she said meeting his eye. She was serious about her intention.

"It is easy to make such claims Miss Bose, but it is quite a different thing to actually follow through with it. For example, I am sure when you thought about this fake marriage, you didn't realize that you wouldn't be able to get out of it by just announcing to the world that it is fake. That is not how it works. You would need to go through equivalent of a divorce, to do this while maintaining your family's reputation, even if you are ignorant about your own reputation"

"I am not going to back out from my plan. My intention is firm"

"I will tell you what Miss Bose, prove to me you are willing to do what it takes, and I will think about helping you"

"How can I prove it?"

"There wont be any fake marriage, there will be a real one" Swara's eyes widened at this comment, she was ready to object "only in terms of rituals and its legalities, Miss Bose. Let me make one thing clear, I do not intend to be stuck with you for real"

"I don't understand"

"I have no intention of going into my own plans, with you, Miss Bose, but I am sure you understand I do have some. I have no intention what-so-ever of putting my plans in jeopardy for anyone. I am not willing to expose my plans to risk, for the sake of your goals, if the truth of the fake marriage comes out, should there be an investigation into it. If I agree to help someone out, for them to carry out their own plans, I need to know that the other person is serious about their plan too and wont back out half way through, impacting my plan"

"I ..." Swara tried to respond

"Think about this Miss Bose. Think about it thoroughly. Once you decide to get on with this plan, there is no exit midway; I wont let there be an exit. Take your time to ponder on this. Call me tomorrow morning if you still wish to go through with this" He walked up to the door, opening it up, indicating to her that the discussion was over. She glanced at him once, before exiting his office.

Swara's thoughts were interrupted as Sanskar returned back to their room.

"Maa is fine now. I have calmed her down, provided some information to her" before adding "not all of it, of course"

"How did you know?" Swara asked, seeing his confused expression she explained "That the marriage would come under scrutiny and that we would be in trouble if it was fake"

"Because that is what I would have done. Leaving aside Laksh's doubts, you must admit we were an unlikely pair to get married, without there being some untoward intentions. There were bound to be questions"

"Why didn't you let me tell Ragini and everyone that our marriage was never fake? To show her that official marriage registration paper as proof?" she had always wondered about it

"Because then she would have struck us worse. This way she can live under the delusion that she has won a big victory" seeing Swara trying to interrupt he added "You do know that she wouldn't have stopped until she felt she had made a big strike against you, right?"

"Why?"

"Swara, for you she is your sister first, then the person who has separated your parents and then the person who has hurt you. For her, you are her enemy first - the one who is out to snatch her love, then the daughter in law of her new family - who she wont fight openly with for the sake of her own image, and then probably towards the end, also her sister. You expect her to react to you thinking of you first as her sister, when all she sees you as, is her enemy"

Swara was surprised by his insight, all she could do was nod at him, seeing things in a different light for the first time.