Vikrant

I frown, looking at the commotion outside the washroom.

The venue's staff looked anxious, murmuring in hushed tones while repeatedly pointing toward the washroom.

Wondering why they are doing so, I walk to the manager of the venue, recognizing him from the meeting I had with him regarding the arrangements for the party.

"Is something the matter, Mr. Pratap? Why is there such a commotion here?" I ask, narrowing my eyes when he looks nervously at me.

"We have a situation, Mr. Sisodiya," he tells me, his stance fidgety. "Actually, there has been a mishap in the female washroom."

I stiffen when I hear that.

Nandini was in the washroom. Is this mishap the reason why she has not come out yet?

"What kind of mishap?" I question, wanting to know.

"Umm, S-sir, ac-actually, the th-thing—"

"Say it clearly, Pratap. What's the matter?" I interrupt his stuttering, getting frustrated by it.

He takes a second to calm himself, but nervousness is still at large in his demeanor.

"One of our waiters says that they saw your date being carried away by a man. He recognized her because he had seen her enter the venue with you earlier. He says she was wearing a blue dress and a rub—"

"WHAT THE HELL?" I shout, interrupting him. "Who the fuck saw her being carried away? And why the fuck did they not stop that person? Where is Nandini?"

Pratap cowers under my glare but immediately starts speaking when he sees me about to shout again.

"The waiter saw them carrying her to the parking lot. And he did try to stop them but was hit by someone on the back of his head," he informs me. "When he came to us, his head was bleeding, but he managed to tell us everything before passing out.

"He has been taken to the nearby hospital for treatment, and we have already called the police and reported the incident, Sir. They will be here any moment."

"How long ago was this?" I ask, trying my best to keep my anger in check.

Losing my calm and shouting in anger will not return Nandini to me. I need to have a clear head to think properly at this crucial time.

"The waiter told us about this around ten minutes back, Sir."

"Why the hell was I not informed about it?"

If the waiter saw them ten minutes back, they must have already driven away from the parking lot. They would not risk hanging around, especially after someone saw them there.

"We were waiting for the police, Sir," Pratap replies. "We thought we would inform you about it once the police arrived."

"Are you fucking serious right now, Pratap? If you had told me, I would have immediately put my men into getting hold of Nandini," I say, taking out the phone to call the commissioner.

*****

"What the fuck is happening right now?" I glare at the commissioner, and the other officers gathered there.

Mom and Dad have also arrived, and they have been making calls along with me. We are all trying our best to find out who took Nandini and where she is now.

"It has been three hours already since you arrived here and sent out a search party, but there has been no news about her," I say, my frustration rising with each passing second.

Along with Nandini, Aastha is missing too, and we have been wondering where she went because when the police questioned the waiter after he gained consciousness in the hospital, he told them that he only saw Nandini being carried by that man.

He could not tell us how that man looked like because he only saw that man from the back.

He said he could recognize Nandini because that man had slung her over his shoulder with her front facing his back.

The waiter also informed us that Nandini was swinging in and out of consciousness, and the police think she may have been drugged before being abducted.

"We are trying, Mr. Sisodiya. Give us some more time," the commissioner says.

I ball my hands into fists, feeling my anger rising with each passing second. "This is the eighth time you have repeated this same sentence in the last three hours."

When he doesn't say anything, I call my private investigator to ask if he has been able to find anything.

But I almost throw my phone in anger when I get the negative response from him too.

Along with anger, there is also fear building within me because I have no idea where Nandini is and who took her.

I should not have let her go to the washroom alone. I should have been with her.

Turning to Samrat, I see him worriedly pacing around the room.

"Aastha's phone is still not connecting?" I ask.

"It now says that the number is no longer in service," Samrat replies.

While Aastha's number is unreachable, we found Nandini's phone in the washroom below the sink.

"Perhaps we can call her pa—"

I abruptly stopped speaking when I saw a police officer come rushing with a piece of paper in his hand.

He goes to talk with the commissioner, and I walk toward him, desperately hoping that he has found something.

"Sir, we missed it when we checked the washroom earlier, but I have found something after scanning the area again," he says.

"What is it?" I ask, urgency apparent in my voice.

"I was looking around the sink and saw a lipstick stain there. I had ignored it earlier, but when I looked at it closely now, I noticed someone was trying to give us a clue."

Blood drums against my ears as I apprehensively look at the piece of paper where the inspector has written the clue that he saw written with the lipstick around the sink.

'Risha Chp' is written in the paper, making me wonder what that meant.

"It could be the victim spelling the culprit's name," the officer says, and I nod at him.

At least this something is better than absolutely nothing.

I fervently hope it's really the clue that Nandini has left that can lead us to her.

Immediately taking out my phone, I call Manish to tell him about it.

"The police have found Risha Chp written around the sink in the washroom," I tell him as soon as he receives the call. "They think it's some kind of clue that can lead us to the culprit. Do you think it can be of any help?"

"Thank you for letting me know, Sir. It could be something...," he pauses. "Wait, what did you say?"

"Risha Chp. Why? Do you know what it means?" I ask him.

"I feel I have heard about it somewhere."

"Where have you heard it, Manish? Think hard. And fast. Each second is crucial for us," I urge him, hoping he'll remember something useful for us to be able to find Nandini.

"Risha....Risha....Rishabh. Yes. It must mean Rishabh Chopra," he says after a few seconds.

"Who the fuck is this Rishabh Chopra?"

"After you ordered me to snoop around and find out more about Vivek Iyer's death, I had been questioning around in the neighborhood where Nandini Ma'am used to live with her parents and brother. I found out that Rishabh Chopra was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Iyer's close friends," Manish replies. "When I asked the neighbors about Rishabh's address, they told me that he, along with his parents, moved to another country right after Vivek's death. They said that they moved mainly because Nandini Ma'am kept accusing Rishabh of her killing her brother even though he was cleared from it by the police."

My blood freezes as I continue listening to Manish.

"With such history between them, and now, with this clue left behind after Nandini Ma'am's abduction, I think it has something to do with Rishabh," he tells me.

"Find out about Rishabh's address as soon as possible. I'll also tell the officers about him."

Hanging up the call, I narrated everything to the commissioner, and he immediately made a call to find out about Rishabh's address.

I know I should feel slightly relieved after finding out the culprit's name because we are now one step closer to finding Nandini, but I only feel the claws of fear squeezing my insides.

When Manish told me who Rishabh Chopra was, I remembered Nandini telling me about the man who molested her.

She had not told me his name, but she had revealed he was the son of her parents' close friends.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I feel myself shaking, a mixture of anger and fear rising within me. "She is with that fucking molester. Fuck."

"How do you know this, Vikrant? And how did your private investigator know the name of Nandini's culprit just by hearing the words from that clue?" Samrat quirks his brow, looking questioningly at me.

"Because Nandini is my wife," I tell him, ignoring the shocked look on his face because I'm in no mood to answer his further follow-up questions.

Instead, I walk to the commissioner, wanting to know if they have found out Rishabh's location yet.

Samrat, however, follows me.

"Why the hell did you two hide your relationship? You didn't tell me about it earlier even when I asked you about your wife."

"Seriously, Samrat? Nandini is missing, and you want to know why we hid our relationship from you? Get a grip, Man. And if you can't, get lost from here. I don't want to waste my energy on anything other than finding my wife right now," I tell him, immediately looking at my phone when it pings, alerting me of a message.

Looking at the screen, I notice it's a message from Manish.

"This must be Rishabh's location." I realize, opening the message and immediately showing it to the commissioner, who then shows it to his officers and tells them to get there asap.

"I'm also going," I say, not wanting to stay back.

When I see the officer in charge about to argue, I give him a look, making him promptly shut his mouth.

Without wasting any time, I run to my car and start the engine to drive to the location as fast as I can. "Please, hold on, Nandini. I will soon get you out of there."