Thank you so much for being patient and sticking around the story despite my irregularity. It is an altogether a surreal feeling to see how all of you still look forward to this story.
Those of you who missed the 18th chapter, here is the update :
https://www.tellyupdates.com/in-the-name-of-love-chapter-18/comment-page-2/#comments
@Subu13 Thank you so much. Here is the update. Since I’m relatively free, I’ll try to update regularly.
@Unnamed Thank you for your wonderful insights. Yes, what Vansh is doing with Riddhima is absolutely wrong, and I don’t condone that in any way. Yes, Kabir’s feelings for Riddhima have been nothing but honest as of now. Also you said you stay outside of India, is it UAE?
@Yashi The update is here dear
@Niyati12 Thanks a lot.
@Vyshnavi Thank you dear
@Priyanshi_13 Thank you dear
@Mary Thank you so much. We all like a stronger Riddhima, isn’t it? And don’t worry, I won’t let her get easily manipulated by anyone.
It’s going to be a Riansh story only, otherwise the other readers might kill me 😂! What do you prefer?
@Aisha08 Thank you dear. Here is the update.
@AarushiSoni Thank you so much. It really feels nice to see readers waiting for your work. Here is the update dear.
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@Shivangi Thanks a lot. Glad you liked it.
@Ishu Thank you
@Thakur Priyanka Thank you so much for being so patient ❤. It is altogether a different feeling to see people eagerly wait for your updates. And really sorry for keeping you guys waiting. I’ll try to be regular now.
@Akshitha Thank you so much. It really feels nice to see readers appreciate and wait for your work. I’ll try to be regular now.
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The entire Raisinghania family arrived on time for dinner, except for Riddhima. She had apparently locked herself in her room and had refused to come down for dinner.
“I’m fed up of this girl’s daily dramas,” complained Chanchal. “I mean is it too much to ask for one day of peace atleast? And Maa, how ill-mannered and disrespectful she is! You kept calling her, but she instead turned her back towards you and ran for her bedroom. And did you see how hard she slammed the door? This is not her father’s house where she can destroy the expensive furniture.”
“Chanchal!” Gayatri scolded her. “Atleast think twice before uttering even a single word.”
But Chanchal wasn’t going to stop so easily. “I’m telling you that Riddhima is pure trouble! She is the one who goes on breaking the rules of this house, but then she herself tries to throw so much attitude around that it almost seems that we are the ones at fault.”
Vansh who was listening to all this quietly, had had enough of this banter. “Riddhima is new to our rules and regulations, and has no idea about how our family functions. So she making mistakes is still justified.
But Chachi, you’ve spent half of your life in this family, and you are much older to Riddhima in age as well as experience, but yet why do you still continue to make mistakes?”
Chanchal choked upon her food on hearing this.
“If you don’t want me to call out your and your dearest son’s mistakes, then it would be better if you stop talking negatively about Riddhima,” taunted Vansh. “And one more thing. I know how to handle Riddhima, and nobody will interfere in between.”
Chanchal and Aryan both made a face.
Anupriya nudged Ishani and whispered, “Wow, so now Vansh has started to defend her openly! And out of so many men in this city, that Riddhima could manage to find only Kabir to date? The same Kabir, who is one of the arche enemies of Vansh.”
Ishani chuckled softly. “Even if it would have been someone else in place of Kabir, still Bhai would have behaved the same way. You don’t remember, Mom, what I told you before. This is all Bhai’s plan to trap Riddhima.”
Anupriya knew her son more than how much Ishani did. She knew all this couldn’t just be a mere plan. She could sense for herself how Vansh’s heart, with each passing day, was getting increasingly drawn towards Riddhima.
She thought to herself, “That Sunidhi wasn’t enough to fill poison in my life, that her daughter also wants to do the same thing with my son? Like mother, like daughter!”
Gayatri started filling out another plate. “I’ll myself go upstairs, and make Riddhima eat this. I can’t let her stay hungry for the entire night.”
Anupriya tried to protest. “But Maa, you know the rules. Someone who doesn’t come for dinner on time, would have to go to bed hungry. Vansh, why don’t you tell her something?”
“It’s okay, Mom. Let it be,” Vansh replied casually.
Anupriya had her mouth wide open on hearing this. Vansh was always known to be very strict about his rules and regulations, but here he was ready to bend them for Riddhima.
The rest of the family was also equally shocked.
Chanchal whispered to her son, “Look what is happening. Last time it was entirely by God’s grace that we got saved, but the same miracle won’t happen again. We still have enough time now, please marry a nice girl and give a heir to this family before Vansh does.”
Aryan became irritated. “Which century are you living in? Getting married and producing a heir first, all this is so outdated! And I can’t spoil my life for your ancient thoughts.”
Saying this, he angrily left from there.
Chanchal thought to herself, “Today you are calling it outdated, but tomorrow when matters get out of hand, you’ll regret your decision and come to me running for help.”
______________________________________
Riddhima lay on her bed, sobbing. She looked at her parents’ photo, reminiscing how they had always let her take her own decisions.
She had always been in control of her life, but now someone else was controlling it.
She tried to call Kabir, but strangely her phone wasn’t able to catch any network. She didn’t know what was making her sadder, the thought of losing Kabir, or the thought of losing her freedom.
Just then, Gayatri knocked at her door. “Riddhima beta please open the door.”
Riddhima was in no mood to listen to anyone, not even Gayatri. But she later took pity upon her old age, and finally opened the door.
Gayatri entered inside with a tray of food, but was caught by surprise when she saw everything scattered around. There lay a suitcase in the middle and some clothes were stuffed in it too.
“What is this suitcase doing here?”
“I don’t want to stay here anymore,” said Riddhima softly with tears in her eyes.
Gayatri looked at her sympathetically and caressed her arm. “I know you’re very angry right now, but try to think practically instead of emotionally. Where will you go? The place where you used to stay as a tenant, has already been giving out to other people. You had also resigned from your job at the local shop.
And think about Ishaan, he’s in Delhi right now, preparing for his match. How worried he’ll become because of all this?
Please think with a clear mind, and don’t take any rash decision in haste.”
Riddhima remained silent.
Gayatri continued, “I know, the way Vansh handled this matter was not right at all. But I’m sure his decision itself must be absolutely right.”
Riddhima looked up at her in surprise, unable to believe that she was openly defending Vansh.
Gayatri noticed her expressions and understood what she was thinking.
“You must be thinking that I’m saying all this just because he is my grandson whom I love a lot. But trust me when I say that Vansh never takes a wrong decision. Being the head, whatever decisions he took had always been in the best interest of this family. You won’t understand all this now, but sooner or later, you will definitely realise that Vansh’s decision regarding this matter was also correct.”
Saying this, she started feeding Riddhima. “If as a doctor in the making, you won’t take care of your own health, how will you look after your patients’ health? Taking out anger on food is very wrong. Come on smile now.”
Riddhima tried to force a smile for Gayatri’s sake, but from inside she was burning with anger. She had made up her mind that no matter what, the first thing she does tomorrow is to meet Kabir.
______________________________________
The next day Riddhima was furious to see that her scooty had been locked up in the garage again. She was scolding the security guard for this, when even with her back turned, she could sense that Vansh was standing right behind her. If he could identify her presence by her perfume, even she could the same, no big deal. The leather cologne, that she initially seemed to like, had now become her hatred because it reminded her of how much of a controlling and dominating person Vansh was.
She turned around to face him. “What exactly do you want to punish me now for? What rule did I now break, huh?”
Vansh rested against the bonnet of the car. “Well technically, you did break a rule by keeping in touch with the police. And your boyfriend….oops,” Vansh corrected himself. “I mean your ex-boyfriend was a police officer, and still you remained in contact with him. But it is okay. I’m willing to let that slide.
But from today onwards, you won’t be allowed to go anywhere without any supervision. You won’t be using your scooty, and instead will be using the car and driver. You will go to college and return back home, that’s it. No roaming around or getting down at any other place.”
Riddhima looked up at him in shock. “Why are you doing this?” That was all she could manage to say.
“To be honest, I don’t trust you a bit,” said Vansh. “You have that rebellious streak in you.”
“So you think on the pretext of going to college by myself, I might try to meet KABIR?”
“Do not take that man’s name ever in this house and in front of me,” scolded Vansh.
Riddhima crossed her arms across her chest and firmly said, “I will not use YOUR car and driver.”
“Okay, don’t use it, if you don’t want to attend college. Might as well, just stay at home.”
Riddhima couldn’t believe that this was happening to her. Just as she was thinking as to what could be done, Vansh out of the blue snatched her phone from her hands and threw it on the ground.
“How dare you!” shouted Riddhima, looking at the broken pieces of metal.
“That phone had become useless, as it had your old sim card that has now been deactivated.”
Oh so he had got her sim card deactivated, and that is why she wasn’t able to get any network on her phone!
Riddhima became more furious and tried to say, “With whose permission did you…..”
“Vansh Raisinghania doesn’t need anybody’s permission to do anything. In fact it is the other way round, in which others have to take my permission,” said Vansh matter-of-factly. “Also here is a brand new phone for you.”
He handed out the latest I-phone. “It has been fitted with a new sim card. And beware, your call and message log will always be tracked by me. You try to contact any unwanted person, and that would be the end of it. You would be losing the privilege to keep mobile phones.”
She became further enraged. “This is an absolute breach of my privacy! You are such a control freak! Just because you are carrying out our finances, doesn’t mean that you have bought us and we are your personal slaves who have to dance to your tunes!” She said all this in a single breath.
Vansh wanted to yell back at her, but his eyes suddenly fell upon her moistened eyes. His expressions softened, and he went away from there, without uttering anything else.
Riddhima decided it was better to head to college rather than stay in this house, which was no less than a prison for her.
She wiped off her tears and consoled herself, “Don’t worry. Once I reach college, I’ll try to sneak away from there and meet Kabir.”
But boy, she was so wrong. The driver told her that he would be continuously waiting near the gate of her college, till her classes get over. With the driver at the gate, it was impossible to sneak out. She could not even use anyone else’s phone to call Kabir, because mobile phones were not allowed in the campus. All the students were required to deposit their phones outside the campus and could collect them on their way home.
Riddhima looked behind, and found the driver to be watching her like a hawk. There was no way by which she could borrow someone else’s phone outside the campus, without the driver catching her red-handed.
Disheartened, she headed towards her classroom and quietly took her place. Throughout the lectures, she wasn’t in the right frame of mind, so much so that despite being a bright student, she couldn’t give answers to the simplest of questions.
Soon she felt the need to get freshened up, so she excused herself from the class to visit the washroom. She turned the tap on and splashed cold water upon her face.
Just then, she felt someone place one hand over her mouth, and the other dragging her by the arm into one of the toilet cubicles. She tried to scream and struggle, when she finally saw who it was. It was Kabir in the disguise of a middle aged woman!
When he removed his wig, Riddhima threw her arms around him. Kabir gently patted her head. “Riddhima, it’s okay. I’m here, right. Stop crying. I was getting so damn worried for you. I tried calling you, but your phone was out of network. So therefore, I decided to come to your college.”
Riddhima explained everything that Vansh did with her.
“Kabir….what is happening….I don’t….I cannot….understand anything.” She fumbled with her words. “In a short span of time, I lost my freedom, my independence, my self-respect, everything. I feel jailed, imprisoned. I can’t live like this…..I just cannot. I just hate that Vansh Raisinghania!”
“I hate him too,” said Kabir softly.
Riddhima stared at him through tears. “Can you please explain?”
Kabir took a deep breath. “Vansh Raisinghania is not an ordinary businessman. He is….a Mafia.”
Riddhima gasped at this absolutely unexpected piece of information. “What!”
Kabir said, “Yes, that is true. For the whole world, he just runs shipping and hotel business, but very few people know that he is actually he proudly carries out illegal alcohol business!”
Riddhima tried to reason out. “As far as I know, alcohol business is very much allowed in Mumbai, so what’s the big deal?”
“But do you know that for running a liquor business, you need to have a special license from the government? And do you also know that to discourage alcoholism, our Government imposes heavy taxes on alcohol? But Vansh doesn’t follow any of these rules.
He is doing this business without the knowledge and without the permission of the Government.
And not only that, but whoever comes in Vansh’s way or tries to expose him, he will either get ruined or even worse….may get murdered.”
Riddhima was shocked beyond words. She could not believe that she had trusted upon an underworld Don. She could not believe that she had been living with a criminal for the past few days.
Kabir continued, “Vansh is literally robbing our Government by not giving them their rightful dues. He makes more than a hundred millions through this, and on the basis of that he should be paying taxes worth at least a million. Just think where all that money could be used. In building roads, giving better education and health to the poor people….
In short, Vansh is not only cheating the Government, but also its citizens, by stealing their rightful money.”
Riddhima recalled how Vansh had helped her and her brother so much. Was that all just a mere facade?
“But that’s not the only reason I hate him, Riddhima. There is something more to this.” Kabir started getting emotional. “My father, S.I. Vinod Sharma, was an honest police officer. He got hold of certain evidences that could prove Vansh guilty, but he….”
Kabir tried to choke back his tears. “He trapped my father in a fake encounter case. He was stripped off all his badges and medals, he was humiliated. In fact, our entire family was taunted and looked down upon in the society. We later had to leave our locality and had to shift to our present residence area, where no one knew us.
But from then, it had become my foremost aim to avenge my father’s disrespect at any cost. And as soon as I entered the police force, I started working upon Vansh’s case. But unfortunately he is very smart. He always has a way out. It’s been more than six years, but I have still not managed to crack this case.”
Riddhima felt disgusted. How could Vansh trap an innocent and an honest person like that? That was the reason why Kabir hated rich people.
The person whom she had started respecting immensely, had now fallen very low in her eyes.
She said, “I’m so sorry for whatever happened to you and your family. I never knew he was such a horrible person. Actually….” She hesitated. “It was on his saying that I had asked you to close my parents’ case.”
“What?” blurted out Kabir. “Oh my God, Riddhima, he definitely misused your innocence.”
“Yes, I realise that, but what do we do now? After coming to know about his reality, I cannot continue to live in his house. Please do something. Help me to run away from his shadows!” pleaded Riddhima.
“This is not so easy,” said Kabir. “You never told me that Vansh Raisinghania was the one at whose house you were staying. If you could have told me before, you could have easily escaped from him with any excuse.
But now, he knows that you have a relation with me. He won’t let you go off so easily. Wherever you go, he’ll easily get hold of you and might as well, even punish you for that.”
“So what should I do then?” asked Riddhima getting worried.
“Riddhima, the only way by which you can escape is if Vansh gets jailed for his crimes. I have almost made out a plan how to trap him. Once that plan gets successful and he gets imprisoned for life, then there will be no force that can stop you. You’ll be free for once and all, and we will be together.”
Riddhima tried to say, “But Kabir…..”
Kabir held her hands in his. “Riddhima, trust me. I will sort everything out. You don’t need to do anything, just stay mum and try to ignore Vansh as much as possible.”
Riddhima wiped her tears off and nodded. Gayatri Nani was right, it was high time that she started thinking practically rather than emotionally.
After an hour or so when she came out of the washroom, she found one of the college security staring at her strangely.
“Madam, is everything okay? I mean you had been in the washroom for quite a lot of time…”
Riddhima snapped. “Excuse me, mind your own business.” Saying this, she entered her classroom.
______________________________________
At VR Mansion, Riddhima was walking while still busy in her phone. She wasn’t looking where she was going, when suddenly she bumped into someone. It was none other than Vansh himself.
As Kabir had adviced her, she tried to ignore him and steer out of his way. But he came in front and blocked her way.
She blinked her eyes at him. “Is it written on my face, or am I supposed to word it out loud enough to be heard? Now what is it that you want from me?”
“Answers to my questions,” said Vansh sternly. “Where had you been for a whole one hour in between your lectures?”
Riddhima was startled. How did Vansh know that Riddhima wasn’t in her classroom for a long time?
She then remembered how the security was looking at her and asking her weird questions. She realised that he was the one who was acting like an informant for Vansh, telling each and everything about what she did during her college hours.
She was getting so irked, that she felt like shouting at him and even confronting him for what he did to Kabir’s father. But instead, she coolly looked at him and replied, “I was in the washroom. Didn’t your informant inform you that?”
Vansh glared at her. Even though he held feelings for her, but she still got on his nerves.
“One hour in the washroom, seriously?”
“How disgusting of you, Mr. Raisinghania! Don’t you have basic etiquettes to never ask such a question to a woman?” she said.
“Oh c’mon! Don’t play this ‘women’s card’ in front of me! It’s not like you were feeling unwell or something because you look completely fine to me. So what exactly took you so long in the washroom?”
“Women’s problems, you see,” she said calmly.
Vansh appeared flushed. He hadn’t expected such an answer from her.
But his ego made him to question her more. “One hour for that?”
“Since you are not a woman, you can’t understand a woman’s pain, you see,” said Riddhima. She was enjoying seeing how her words were making him feel embarassed.
She continued, “Mr. Raisinghania, is this enough, or do you need more explanations? Actually, being a medical student myself, I don’t feel shy to talk on such topics. So whenever you feel like you need a detailed lecture, just come to me. I’ll be more than willing to help you out. Free of cost.”
She smirked at him and went into her bedroom, leaving a fuming Vansh behind.
As much as he had begun to like her, he hated her for her guts and argumentative nature.
“Angre! Angre!” he shouted at the top of his voice.
Angre hurriedly appeared before him. He was trying to recall if he had made any mistake due to which his boss was getting so mad.
“I want you to arrange a female bodyguard for Riddhima, who’ll be able to follow her everywhere in the college, even into the washroom!” he growled.
“But Boss, Riddhima will be having fifteen days off starting from tomorrow onwards as part of exam preparation,” said Angre. “So we don’t need a bodyguard that urgently.”
“Okay, but as soon as her college is started, I want this work to be done. Understood?”
Angre nodded in agreement, because he could never go against his boss.
Precap :
ACP Lakshya starts doubting if Vansh has any hand in Riddhima’s parents’ case.
At Ishani’s birthday party, a guy misbehaves with Riddhima. Vansh gets angry.
That is it for today guys. Hope you guys liked the update, and if you do, do not forget to comment below.
Also stay safe, wear a mask and practice social distancing. Remember, prevention is better than cure.
Peace out!