Ishita, pulled out the chair in front of singhania's desk, taking a good second to sit, before putting her phone back in her purse, to the very apparent annoyance on gautam's face. He exactly knew what she was doing. 

"well, first of all, get all these fucking media ppl out of my house..." conditioned ishita, as singhania nodded casually, how hard can it to be literally stop media companies from not showing a news you want them to, when you own almost all that weren't owned by the government. 

Gautam, grabbed his phone, wrote a quick text, in a matter of seconds, kept it back. 

"done. ab point pe aa jao, jiske liye actually yahan aayi ho..." stated gautam, as ishita looked at him with the utmost of adoration, real one, as her elbow was perpendicular to the table, her face resting on her chin, a real smile on her face. 

"have i ever ever told you that I like you more than dushyant...." remarked ishita, as gautam to leaned a bit forward, anything if close to a real smile witnessed on his face so far, was this.  the distance between them, was one where you could hear the other's breath, probably feel it a little too, if you noticed. 

"i like my wife more, she usually gets to the point quickly..." retorted gautam, a grimace across his face, which ishita reciprocated with looking away from him, and stepping back, a temporary smirk on her face, they were back to business. 

"what really happened there gautam?" questioned ishita straight away, a blazing gaze of her unmoved eyes, fixed on him. 

Gautam had gave up the smug appearance, took a long sigh, his chair rotated to the right side, before he walked up and sat on his desk, now completely facing ishita, the barrier of the table between them no more. Her beaming stare responded by his of despair. 

"i did cut costs on the project, but maine labour ke wages kam kiye the, I did not cut the costs around the cement, lanter...anything...i have been in the business for too long, to not see how much of loss this will cost later...that was most probably kavin, or maybe your husband...i have though, kept reserves for the project, a general one, we'll use that on fixing this rather than compensation...on my assurance, investors have agreed not walk out...labor ke wages se joh paise bache hain...woh, hamare project ke reserves hain...uske baarein mein kisiko koi idea nahi hai, it's a secret reserve. so, you don't have to worry...quarter ke end mein you can see the balance for our reserve..." explained gautam, in a tone, lower than his usual, his demeanor though more calm rather than aloof. 

"and no offense, but, your daughter went missing at the best time, no print newspaper would even report on this...they haven't had the chance to pay attention..." remarked gautam, switching back to his usual self, as he went back to sit on his chair, the usual smirk back on his face, as ishita scoffed. 

"i wouldn't call it the best of times, my husband has gone nuts..." retorted ishita, as gautam raised a brow at her. 

"he wasn't, before?" asked singhania casually, as ishita couldn't find it in herself to glare at him, but burst into a chuckle. 

"i mean...i don't know, gautam....i just have this weird feeling, like since i've heard this news...like, something isn't really wrong...it just, seems like something that didn't happen by accident...i don't even, i cannot find it in myself, to panic about this...panicking about that is the closest i have come to any worrying..." expressed ishita her mixed feelings, as after gautam was sure she had finished, he opened to his mouth to utter the next sentence. 

"to be honest, agar arjun ke saath aisa kabhi hota...I don't think I would have panicked either...concerned yes, but, they are our children after all, usually there's a call if something goes wrong...maybe, what would be more scary is that he did something i might have wanted to at his age..." confessed singhania, a tone not low or friendly, but genuine and honest, without being brutal. 

Ishita couldn't help but wonder, would she have done this too?

                                                                                  ***

Abhijeet seated in a dark cell, on a chair of cheap quality wood, staring at a young girl, not a day above 16, as she nervously clasped her hands together, on the table between them 

"toh bas, isse zyada kuch nahi hua? tum aur deepika, jasmine ka mood thik karne usse picture dekhane le gaye, tumhare ghar jaake sabne thoda chinese order kiya, baatein ki, uski birthday party karke, usne apne ghar ke liye auto le liya, aur woh chali gayi, jiske baad deepika ko bhi uski maa ne pick karliya?" concluded abhijeet, as she nodded. 

"dekho, priyanka beta, thoda dimaag pe zor daalo, kuch bhi ajeeb, ya unusual ho, jasmine ke behavior ke baarein mein, recently?" cross-examined abhijeet, when pasi entered the cell, agitated. 

"sir, deepika bhi gayab hai..." informed pasi, as abhijeet was shocked. 

                                                                            ***