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“What do you think you are Nandini huh? I was totally taken aback when I came to know you are Manik’s choice. How could he even think of you? I would have been happy if it was someone from the industry...someone who belonged to his class...but look at you. No class. No style. No background. And what is your father? A college principal? What about your mother? What does she do? May be she teaches A B C D in some local school, right?” Alya kept on cursing Nandini, for lame reasons.

Nandini’s pain was getting doubled with every word she uttered. But she couldn’t do anything, but cry.

“Manik is in his trip to America right? I will see your end before he comes back. Get it straight in your mind, he is mine. Only mine. I have my own ways to get him. So you better keep your head out of his life. Get that?” she asked. Nandini nodded her head in a no.

“No? Really? Huh” she said.

They reached a building, an old creepy one.

“Take her inside” Alya ordered Shivam.

Nandini looked at him with pleading eyes, still nodding in a no. Along with the night, her hope of being saved was also getting darker.

----------------------------------

Manik

“Vikas? Kya hua? Kuch pata chala?” I called up Vikas, hoping they found some clue.

“Manik, i found Nandini’s badge near her car. We are currently looking at the cctv footage. I doubt she has been abducted by someone. Her house keys i believe were also laying there along with the ID card.

“Aisa nai ho sakta yaar. Check the footage soon, and find out who it is” I said.

Tears rolling down my eyes. My friend who came to pick me up was all confused. I asked him to check for the flights that i can board right now, right from here.

“Agle paanch ghante tak ek bhi flight nai hain Manik” he said after checking.

“Sunn Vikas mein toh abhi nai aa sakta, you are my only hope” i told him.

“Manik, tu chinta mat kar. Mein sab sambhaal loonga” he said.

Appa also left from Chennai already.

I booked the ticket for the other flight and moved to the waiting area.

Vikas called me back after 5 minutes and i was totally shocked to see the video he sent.

First the image of the guy was not clear but i figured out it was Shivam, Nandini’s colleague and the idiot. I sensed troubled from him, but not to this level. Just because she rejected his proposal for a date, he could do such a terrible thing?

I called up Vikas.

“I know the guy. He is Shivam, Nandini’s colleague” I told him.

“Yeah, we found that out. But none of Nandini’s colleagues have any information about him and Nandini. Do you know if they are friends outside work?” he asked.

I told him the entire date story.

“Ho sakta hain isi liye us ne kiya hoga, but Manik don’t you think uss ke liye utna risk uthaana logical nai hain. Anything else? Does Nandini have any personal grudges with him other than that?” he asked.

“She doesn’t have any friends here. Personal grudge ki toh baat hi nai hain. She is such a nice person Vikas” I told him.

“Theek hain, i will look into it. Tu fikar mat kar. Agle 5 ghanton mein Nandini ko dhoond lenge. Yeh waada hain” he said.

“Thanks Vikas. Meine return flight book karliye. I will fly in the next 5 hours” I told him.

“Nandini’s dad? Unn ko bataana padega” he said.

“Meine already bataa diya. Woh nikal gaye Chennai se. Dho teen ghante mein pohonch jayenge. Unhe sambhaal lena. He is very sensitive toward Nandini” I told him.

“Theek hain. Unn ka number dedo, i will contact him directly” he said and i forwarded him the number.

“I will call you later then. Tu fikr mat kar Manik. Everything will be fine, we will find her” he said. I had to trust in his word, i had no other choice.

—————-

Appa

How could someone think of causing danger to my daughter? What mistake has she done? She never harmed anyone, not even had good friends there and where could this enemy pop up from? Kanna I just hope you’re safe, I cannot tolerate a single scratch on you.

The moment Manik called me up, I couldn’t feel myself breathing anymore. Someone kidnapped Nandini. That one statement broke me apart.

I booked the tickets for the next flight and started to Mumbai. I wonder what Manik must be going through. For the love he has for her, it is impossible for him to hold back his emotions and on top of that he is so far away from her at the moment. He must be feeling very helpless.

After three hours I finally reached Mumbai.

The moment I stepped out of the plane and turned my phone on I had missed calls and texts from an unknown number.

One of the texts read, ‘Inspector Vikas. Manik’s friend. I am at the airport to pick you up, please call once you reach Mumbai’

I called up on the number he gave and he guided to his location. He was right at the arrivals. I couldn’t hold up my tears anymore.

“Sir please relax. She will be fine, we even found out clues about her location. It shouldn’t take us too long to find her. Please trust us” he said trying to console me. But my misery was way far from his words.

“Have you traced the location? Who did this? Is it Shivam?” I asked him.

“Yes sir, it is Shivam, but we suspect someone else as well” he said and we started driving. The farther we went the darker it was getting.

“Is my daughter safe? This place looks like so deserted” I said as we kept driving.

“Sir, she is safe. I assure you that. We found Shivam’s car around the corner. So we guess they are somewhere close” he said.

And we kept on driving until we stopped at a car parked at the center of the road.

“Is that his car?” I asked him.

“Sir please stay inside we need to go check the car” he said. I called up Manik in TN meanwhile.

“Appa” he said picking up.

“Kuchh pata chala?” He asked. He must have been crying all the while. His ever so enthusiastic voice was so low.

“We just found Shivam’s car. The police is trying to search for some clues” I said.

I saw Vikas walking back to us.

“Sir, we just located Shivam’s phone” he said with a smile of victory in his eyes.

“Manik, I think we found her” I told him.

“Uncle the moment you see her please give her a tight hug, from my side too. For now, I have to go out of contact since i already boarded the flight. Give me a call the moment you see her. I may pick it up. If I don’t, then tell her that I love her. And I am going to send you a text right now, please ask her to read that” he said.

He was so sure of finding her back.

“I will. You don’t worry. She has me, until you come back” I said and disconnected the call.

The way to where Nandini’s location was identified looked even more dangerous, my poor baby would have been so scared.

It took us fifteen minutes to reach there. There we found another car. Vikas took down the number and asked for his team to identify whose car that was.

Alya saxena. They found it out. I have no clue who she is, I called up Manik to check if he’s still available. Luckily he was.

“Manik, glad you’re there. We spotted another car under Alya Saxena’s name. Do you know who she is? Is she from Nandini’s work place as well?” I asked him.

——————-

Manik

How dare you alya? How dare you!!!!!!! How could you even think of harming her? I really didn’t know why you were so excited about me leaving the country, had I known your plans I would never have left her alone.

You chose the wrong person to pick on me and I will make you sure you suffer every bit of it.

“Uncle, she’s my friend. It’s a misunderstanding. I will explain everything once I come back. For now I need to go off” I said.

“What misunderstanding Manik?” He asked.

How could I tell him she was jealous of Nandini and unable to do anything to me she chose Nandini as her pawn. He would never spare me for that.

“Uncle I gotta go, and yes please ask Nandini to check my messages” I said and hung up, this one incident is going to erase all the positives he could see in our budding relationship.

—————————-

Vikas walked in slowly followed by four other cons tables and Appa was standing behind everyone.

Vikas signalled them to get ready. Appa took a step back to let them do their job.

“Okay! Stop right there. Shivam and Alya. We have you now” Vikas said pointing his pistol toward them.

They were shocked to see them all.

Shivam tried taking steps to escape but soon was trapped by a constable.

And so was alya. Appa then stepped inside, and was broken seeing Nandini in such a terrible state.

Her mouth was taped and so were her arms and feet. She was tied to a chair.

“Kanna” Appa said with tears unstoppably rolling down his eyes.

Her eyes lit after seeing the person she most wanted to see.

He ran upto her and untaped her mouth, then her hands and feet.

“Appa” she said and hugged him crying badly.

“You’re okay. I got you. Kuchh nai hua kanna stop crying please” he said while on the other hand he was crying too.

“Appa manik” she asked for him.

“He’s on his way back, he will be there soon” he said and they both started walking out.

“Sir you need to report everything, please wait outside” Vikas said. Nandini and appa got into the police vehicle and sat in the back seat. Alya and Shivam were made Sir in the front with the police guarding them.

Meanwhile another set of police reached the location to take alya and Shivam.

Vikas drove Nandini and appa to her house.

Nandini was silent all along. Appa knew Manik sent the messages already but something didn’t seem right to him. He didn’t let Nandini know anything about those messages.

It took them an hour to reach home. Vikas field the FIR from her house, left to the police station.

Appa went to nandini’s room, took the bag from inside her cupboard and packed all he could find in her closet.

He called for a cab and without saying a word, they both left the house, Nandini didn’t know where he was taking her to. They got downstairs and waited for a couple minutes when the cab arrived.

He gave her a bottle of water and she drank some.

“You’re okay?” He asked her. She nodded in yes, but she wasn’t paying any attention to what was happening.

He took a towel, and wiped the sweat off her face.

In thirty minutes the cab stopped and she was surprised to see that they were at the airport.

He paid for the cab, they got down. He held her hand and walked her inside.

They directly went to the boarding area and she was still silent. She was so crazy to think they were here to see Manik. She was out of her senses when things finally started to catch her attention. They were in the queue for the flight to Chennai.

“Where are we going?” She asked.

“Chennai, I cant let you stay here anymore. Not even for a moment” he said.

“Appa. I am fine, let us wait until Manik comes back. I can’t go away without seeing him” she said.

“I said we’re going to Chennai and that is final Nandini” he said. She was afraid of the look in his eyes.

First, his eyes are swollen and red from crying for so long and second he was confused. He needed an answer from Manik, but before getting one, he started framing the situation and guessed the possibility.

“Appa please” she said, again crying.

He didn’t pay any heed to her cries.

They got their boarding passes and rushed to the security as the boarding already started.

Making their way out of the queue, they finally finished the security check and proceeded toward the boarding, Nandini knew how adamant her dad was when it comes to something he feels strong about, his love and his anger are on the same level. Both are overwhelming.

She couldn’t figure out if it was his anger or pain that was making him do whatever he was doing.

“Appa please. Please listen to me. You told that Manik started back. Let’s wait until he comes and then I will do whatever you say” she was pleading him.

He still didn’t respond. Nandini stopped walking.

“If you don’t come now, then Nandini I will never come back. I won’t ask you another time” he said looking at her.

With a broken heart she followed him. Their entire journey was silent.

He was suffering a sea of pain in his heart for behaving in that way with his daughter but it was his love for her that overtook all the other feelings. She looked at him hopefully, but there wasn’t any response. He held her hand, sat back and closed his eyes. And the rest of their journey continued that way.

They finally landed in Chennai. Nandini couldn’t even find her phone.

There was no chance for her reaching him until appa calms down.

“Appa can I get your phone for once please” she asked.

“It’s dead” he lied.

His car was parked in the airport. He put the luggage in the trunk, and they both drive off to home.

—————————

Fourteen hours later

Manik landed in Abu Dhabi and was continuously trying nandini’s and appa’s phone, neither of them were reachable.

He guessed that nandini’s phone would be missing somewhere but what about appa. He told him to ask Nandini to call back.

“I love you so much. I am so sorry I couldn’t be there when you needed me the most, I am sorry for all the pain you had to go through. I will be there in no time and I will see to it that Alya and Shivam face the wrath of Manik Malhotra for troubling his most valued possession. Cherry, you are my strong girl right? Keep calm until your potterhead comes back and set things right. Just keep counting down until you see me” that was his message to her.

He kept trying and trying but no response. So he finally called his mom.

“Mumma, abhi me abhi Nandini me Bhargav Jai and see if she’s home. Right now. Just run” he said.

“Manik? Kyaa hua? Is everything alright?” She asked.

“Mom Kuchh theek nai Hain, Kuchh Bhi nai, now you go there and see if she’s home” he said.

“Let me call you back” she said.

Vikas already told him that he left them home, and that is why he was more worried.

“Manik it’s locked. Watchman Bata raha tha ki wohh apni dad me saath gayi, Was Mr. Murty here?” She asked.

Dad me saath gayi? Lekin ja kaha sakti hain.

“Mom I will call you back in a while” he said and hung up, he had nandini’s Chennai number so he called up on that number.

It rang for almost ten times and when he was about to disconnect, someone picked it up.

“Hello” he said.

“Manik?” It was nandini’s voice.

“Nandini…. you’re in Chennai? I have been trying to reach you like an idiot. Kaha the tumm donon and why are you there? Appa ne mere messages toh dhikhaaye honge toh why didn’t you call me back?” Hundreds of questions.

“Kaunse messages Manik? Appa ne Kuchh nai bataaya” she said when appa came from behind and pulled the phone from her hand.

“She’s not in a position to talk to you right now, not until I get an explanation from you” he said and hung up.

“Appa what’s wrong with you? Why are you behaving this way? You think Manik is responsible for all this? You know him appa, you can’t do this to us” she said.

“Just shut up Nandini. I told you already. If you still don’t get it then hear it loud and clear, Manik is not the right guy for you. I know he’s a nice person, he makes you happy. But still, he is not the right one. It’s not going to be easy living with him. And its proved today” he said.

She was shocked, she couldn’t believe it it was her appa that was talking all that.

“Appa. You must have lost it totally. I am already broken, please appa don’t do this to me. He is the only one who can help me right now. Please let me talk to him once” she said.

“And you don’t want to think about the pain I went through seeing you in such a condition. No one can erase that off my head. He and the people around him are partly responsible for this, I don’t know how Shivam is involved in this. Had it not been for that girl who is familiar to Manik, I wouldn’t have blamed him, but sadly that’s not the case” he said.

“Appa please” she said, the phone rang again. When she was about to walk upto the phone, he took the phone with him and went to his room.

“Apppaa” she cried in pain falling on her knees.

—————