It's here! The day we have all been eagerlyyyyy awaiting has come! :")

Please let me know all (and I mean ALL) your thoughts as you read this update, I really hope it's worth your time!

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Wiping a weeping layer of sweat off his forehead, Manik rejoiced at the fact that he was wearing a thin white T-shirt and some jeans. Springs afternoons in Mumbai were morbidly humid and at 3 pm, it was sticky and uncomfortable to wear anything heavier than his attire. He casually wondered how Mangalore must be around this time of the year.

Usually, when he made a statement about Mumbai weather, Mukti would comment on his overgrown beard and how the humidity and sun would feel a lot more bearable if he just shaved. Those remarks always reached a deaf ear.

Mukti's toddler, wearing a lavender cotton frock and white leggings underneath, bounced by his side, shaking the lollipops in her hands as if they were maracas. In the morning, when she asked for candy, Cabir teased her about losing all her teeth before the age of five if she kept up with her addiction, but she had taken all that banter in good spirits. She had elaborately explained why she deserved some candy: she did not trouble her Mumma at all the previous day.

She deserved two.

"Adira, hold my hand," Mukti commanded from the other side of the kid, clapping her fist on itself in a calling motion. They were in the middle of a market and if Adira gallivanted away like she usually did, finding her amidst the crowd would be nearly impossible.

Outrightly refusing to obey her mother's words, she bravely hopped ahead but was distracted by a rainbow cloud, floating on a long bamboo stick. Mukti seized the opportunity and grasped her little wrist, ignorant of her tantrums. "I want that rainbow, Mumma!" She whined, still in awe at the sight.

"You already have two candies, no more for you. Come,"

At the word 'no', the little one stomped her feet, "I WANT RAINBOW CANDY!" Mukti's haul on her tiny frame released a lollipop from her hands. Adira was deprived of the little joy left in her life when it grazed mud and possibly shattered, and all hell broke loose then. Her Maama watched as she was yanked to a side and away from the crowd.

Before anyone else could step on the wrapped lollipop, Manik swooped down to grab the treat, heard rushed steps behind him, and purely out of instinct, he swung an elbow at the assailant without looking in his direction. Breeze from the perfectly aimed blow fanned him.

The surrounding crowd shrieked and dispersed at the first attack, causing a commotion. Mukti turned at the screams and sharply inhaled, dropping to her knees to pull her child into her arms. Her friend was sitting there with a lollipop in his hands, not a care in the world, as a goon stood less than half a metre away from him, ready to lunge in his direction.

Whatever would she do if anything happened to him?

"MANIK!" came a loud, helpless cry from the distressed mother, who was palming her child's face and shielding her baby from the sight.

A leg that was flying towards Manik's face paused mid-air at her calling, just when, with brute prepared force, Manik smacked the incoming shin with his sole, cracking bone.

The puzzled man roared ferociously and restlessly jolted backward. His leg might as well have ripped apart because that would have hurt far less. A botched fresh pink bruise slowly expanded in area, forcing him to hop on one foot.

When Manik rose to his feet and pranced in his direction, the goon disregarded the soul-numbing wound that landed on his body and sprinted away for his life, blending into the crowd and disappearing moments after.

Heaving deeply and calming the rush of adrenaline that struck him, Manik rushed towards Mukti and the inconsolable child. They had fortunately been surrounded by some kind women and taken aside to rest.

One of the baby's thumbs was in her mouth, a self-soothing strategy she often used to calm her relentless sobs. From experience, he knew she was just on the verge of falling asleep, exhausted from her crying.

The ladies dispersed as soon as Manik approached them.

He put a gentle yet reassuring hand over Adira's tiny head, grateful to a superior power above for her safety. The child had seen far more in the three years she had been in their world than many adults did in a lifetime, but he found peace in the fact that she had been untouched, unharmed. He could guess Mukti felt similarly relieved by the whole fiasco.

Adira hiccuped at his familiar touch, fearfully studied his whole frame for any traces of blood and once she was certain, she leaned back on her Mumma's shoulder, gazing at her Maama quietly.

On the other hand, Mukti blankly looked at him, meeting his flickering gaze as it alternated between the girls. While it was true that the world they lived in meant danger any day, any time, Mukti had always thought she could keep her child out of it. After all, everything she was doing in her life was to ensure her daughter would not lead a similar life to hers... Adira would not be anyone's pawn and beyond it all, she would have the opportunity to choose her life to be the way she wants it to be.

Always.

Today, the space where her steel-cut heart and fairy-like dreams existed was hollow, as if someone had dug out a piece of her flesh, unearthed her internal organs, and abandoned the butchered piece of work as damaged goods. Her daughter had become a witness to danger, who else was to blame except her? Who else could take responsibility for the safety of her child, when she had made the utterly stupid decision to do this all alone?

"Who the hell are these people?" Mukti cried while steering her child away from him.

It diffused the focus Manik held on the traumatised baby. Blinking, Manik looked at her. "I have no idea... but they didn't hurt me." He murmured breathlessly, aching from the inside at emotions so raw, he had not felt in a long, long time.

The little angel in Mukti's arms had somehow been the silver lining in his life, an irreplaceable part of it, and to think that... if Mukti hadn't pulled her ahead even if it was just to scold her, there was a strong possibility she could have been deeply injured... it shattered his soul.

The same thought had crossed Mukti's head as maternal instinct, that Manik had lacked, in wanting to protect her child... after all, Adira was her child, not his. She was all alone in this journey of parenting a little girl, that was the undeniable truth. Nobody else was responsible for her child except her, not even the man she considered akin to a sibling.

At present, that maternal instinct was on overdrive, bursting with fright.

He kept his trembling voice at bay and softly uttered, "Don't be scared, baby. I'm there na... nothing will happen to you... both of you." It was difficult to judge whether he was comforting her or himself, but he imbibed incredible strength in every affirmation that the little one was okay.

Passers-by watched them as they walked, trying to piece together what just happened, but not wanting to make themselves a target or threat to some gang war.

As Manik scooped Adira's head again, Mukti flinched, clutching her child to her chest as tears brimmed along her waterline.

"Why are you giving her false hopes, Manik?" She hit him with words made of bricks, and he stared at her, stunned. Her brutal honesty was cutting through the bubble they had agreed they would paint for Adira, the barrier that kept her living a normal childhood, away from the darkness and cruelty of their ugly world. Everything they diligently worked towards was coming undone in fractions of a minute.

"Aisa pehle bhi hua hai, aur aage bhi hota rahega!" Mukti added, releasing the imprisoned tears that tragically recounted the remains of her child's glamorous life. It ended today, the moment her brother was attacked in broad daylight.

Manik could vividly empathise with the heartbreak Mukti was going through. "I –" He tried to explain and sighed, while she shook her head, half-chuckling to herself.

"And who am I even saying this to? You don't even think about yourself, tu kahan humaare baare mein sochega."

Those words pricked like a million needles. Adira meant more to him than a biological child of his own. He would give up his own life if it meant so much as protecting her from a scratch. How could Mukti think he would let anything happen to her baby, their baby, the group's baby?

"What do you mean by that?" He said agitatedly, taking a step closer, and she backed off, covering her baby with an arm as if Manik was the source of danger in their lives.

"You think you can protect us, Manik, but you can't! You can't even handle your addiction, you can't face your battles yourself. How did I – oh, what kind of a mother am I to put my baby through this?!" She sunk to her knees, clutching her anxious little one, who wrapped her tiny arms tightly around her mother's neck.

Her mother was feeling all kinds of big emotions, many of which she did not understand, but Adira did what she could, and that was to comfort her mother.

Mukti wept in hiccuping silence, hiding her tears and her broken voice from her baby as Manik bridged the gap, knelt in front of Mukti, and pressed her shoulders. "Listen, it's alright Mukti... shh, who doesn't make mistakes yaar? Just look at me..." When she did, she decided with stark clarity that as a mother, she had to trust her instinct now.

"I can't trust you with my child. I can't!" She declared, steeling her eyes on his, meaning every word.

Manik rapidly blinked. No, no, it couldn't be. His sister would not snatch away his sole source of happiness like that, she was not that cruel.

If that was indeed the case, why was she standing up? Why was she stepping away? Why was she creating distance if it wasn't all real? Why were people moving through and around them if it wasn't just happening?

And just like that, Mukti turned around, shedding waterfalls of tears but smearing them away as she hurried towards the direction of their home, if she could even call it that now.

Manik remained rooted to his spot for a long while, replaying what had just happened, over and over until it started to make sense, and then it didn't. The atmosphere echoed in a numbing storm of turmoil, mirroring his own.

Two goons appeared behind him from the scattered crowd, armed with cricket bats. Manik was surrounded in a matter of seconds, but he maintained firm contact with each man encircling him. The soul-blazing fury firing through him had nowhere to go. Without hesitation, Manik sprang into action, unleashing years and years of angst onto each blow.

𓆩𓆪

Amidst a thoughtful characteristic whistle, Cabir fiddled with a pen in his hands. He was reading through some bullet points he wrote down for Plan C a few minutes ago; that was before he got distracted and made a rough stick-figure sketch in the margins, which manifested itself into a main character trying to hop across buildings like a superhero.

Mission DhruLia was giving him a long run for his money. It was getting progressively harder to break the ice between the couple.

During the time he had seen the two of them in proximity inside Dhruv's bedroom three months ago, his own relationship with Raghav had been on a slippery slope. Though he was breaching their bubble of privacy to linger around further, their deeply conflicted eye-lock stirred something in a volatile fragment of his heart – a heart that knew what that pang of pain felt like. He had since shelved his problems to the side and vouched to fix their misunderstandings as a means to distract himself from life.

Plan A had been to approach Alia in a non-confrontation manner and gauge their relationship dynamics. In the few moments he had been around them, there was brimming sexual tension that remained forcefully restrained... against both of their wills... Both. Definitely not a one-sided thing, so that was ruled out. What was odd, though, was that they did not even see eye-to-eye when in close quarters amongst the others.

The obvious question hence had to be asked: were they hiding a relationship from the group, or from each other?

Given how Manik's and Alia's relationship ended, it made perfect sense for her to be tight-lipped about it, especially with others in the group.

Dhruv was chosen as the scapegoat for Plan B. One night over dinner at a fine dining restaurant, Cabir introduced Aryamann to the work group. Aryamann had been made aware that he was meeting Alia to hit things off, so over the course of that evening, he left no stone unturned in his compliments. His generous gestures knew no bounds around her, much to Dhruv's disdain.

Time and time again, the age-old jealousy trick showcased its charm and lit the path to a confession. Cabir paraded internally that same night when Aryamann had been chivalrous and gently guided Alia from the back, his hand trailed the side of her waist and in a split-second, those fingers had been clutched and snapped by the possessive lover who couldn't tolerate it any longer. He had thought Dhruv would man up and charm her.

All that came out of Plan B, to Cabir's misfortune, was some broken bones in Aryamann's body and a few tens of thousands subtracted from Cabir's pocket as he gifted the lad two luxury bottles of whiskey to cushion the blow.

He had to take extra precautions this time, so as to not incur huge losses.

A buzz interrupted him. He put the phone to his ear lethargically.

"Cabir speaking..." He played with the end of the pen as the caller on the other end conveyed some surprising news. "What?" Standing up, Cabir glared at the wall clock. "Exactly how long ago?" He probed.

"She is getting in a car right before my eyes, it looks like a taxi," said the man diligently dressed in khaki, guarding the airport's exit gates as he saw the yellow numberplate. "Do you want me to stop her?"

Cabir wandered into the verandah on the first floor, smoothing the railing. "No, no, the information is enough for now." Just as he was about to cut the call, Nawab appeared in the lounge downstairs, his T-shirt and jeans scruffy with mud as if he had fallen somewhere or had just come from a fight.

Something about Manik didn't look right. His face lacked colour. Long wispy strands of hair were gathered into a little ponytail behind his head, his beard denser than ever, especially with his hair tucked away. Cabir couldn't remember the last time he saw his friend's face without a black blob in the centre.

All this while, Cabir had been trying so hard to unite a couple whose layers and layers of secrets he was yet to unravel when all his efforts would have been more fruitful in another space... in potentially uniting another couple whose feelings overpowered the test of time, with ugly lies to cover up an unforgiving truth, possessing unbalanced egos greater than oneself, and whose destiny could be changed by one, small intervening force...

"Actually..." Cabir dragged on the line, poking a cheek with his tongue. One small lie couldn't hurt anyone, especially if it was for a good cause. "...you could do me one favour."

𓆩𓆪

Alternating glances between her phone and the surroundings, Nandini sifted through all the cabs lined up outside Navya's apartment gates. Her family would be eagerly anticipating her arrival any time now.

It was difficult to explain to her Chacha and Chachi why she didn't want them to receive her at the airport, and why it was absolutely urgent for her to meet Navya first before entering her own home. She couldn't tell them that Navya's life was in danger, and that Nandini needed to make sure Harshad did not have any leverage on her friend.

The stories she cooked up to appease her family were believable. Their tones while on call with Nandini denoted their reservations and disappointment on their delayed meet, but they did not let it get in the way of Nandini's wishes, which made her all the more guilty of lying to them.

She did not deserve such an understanding family.

Acknowledging those spiralling thoughts as temporary feelings which would dissipate in a short span, she focused on reaching home as quickly as possible. She missed being embraced and pampered by them. Clutching her pink tote bag protectively to her side, Nandini spared a fleeting glance. The last digits of a familiar yellow number plate beamed in the looming distance; she dashed towards the car, praying that it still had all her luggages in it.

At the door of the tinted car, she contemplated on whether to hold onto her phone. If she didn't clutch it like her life depended on it, she would go ballistic about having misplaced it somewhere. It was absolutely essential that her phone remained in her direct line of vision at all times. On the other hand, she recollected how her clumsy exit from the airport added a fifteen rupee fee on top of her regular fare. Her Chacha would be very upset if he found out about it. It wasn't particularly her fault, she needed to triple-check that she had all her belongings intact before she left; those anxieties were part and parcel of the hassle of travelling alone.

The car door opened automatically before she could make up her conflicted mind, and Nandini mumbled, "Thank you bhaiyya," using the moment to stuff her phone inside her tote in a mechanical manner.

A hand grasped hers tightly, and something clicked on it. When she looked down, Nandini's right wrist had a pink fluffy band around it, a handcuff... but it wasn't just that... it was attached to a similar one on the driver's left wrist.

Gasping for breath, Nandini scanned the person behind the wheel who wore a red buttoned-up shirt, jeans, and shades.

With a smirk, he pressed the central lock with his right hand.

A flood of terror overtook her. "YOU?"

"Wassssup!"

𓆩𓆪

Haha, cliffhanger pe chodd diya na? :P

Manik Mangalore kaise aaya? What was Cabir upto? Where is Harshad, and Alia, and Dhruv, and Rose?

Yup, all those answers are incoming in the next update. There's actually a little more to unpack on the emotional side of things... especially Manik's, since the fallout between him and Mukti but I could not wait any longer to write MaNan, okay? Sue me (please don't :P) :")

I thought it would be best to elaborate on all of that in the next update and keep this one more along the themes of: destiny picks you up when life throws you down.

Manik thought he lost all happiness in life and just then, guess who entered? Yet again, in Mangalore, it truly is destiny for them, isn't it? :")

Lots more to come, as I said, sabar ka phal khaane ka waqt aa gaya hai ;)

Stay tuned, and don't forget to vote and comment wherever possible, okay?! Lots of love <3