Okay, since I had been taking a lot of time to update the next chapter, so today I decided to give you two chapters in a row. Happy reading!
Link to the previous update :
https://www.tellyupdates.com/in-the-name-of-love-chapter-38/
Riddhima pulled the sheets over her face, so that she wouldn’t be disturbed by the penetrating sun rays. She was sleeping on her stomach and was hugging her pillow tightly. A smile lingered on her face as a beautiful dream appeared before her.
“Riddhima! Riddhima!” A voice broke her from her sleep.
She woke up with a startle panickly looking all around her.
“What happened? Is any tsunami going to come by or did any fire break out?”
She rubbed her eyes to find Gayatri standing in front of her.
“What is this way to sleep? Don’t you know that sleeping on your belly in pregnancy is harmful for the baby? You should be more careful, beta.”
Riddhima cringed from inside. She couldn’t believe that her precious sleep had been disrupted by a non-existent baby.
Without thinking, she jumped out of the bed.
“Riddhima! What are you doing?” Gayatri shrieked. “Move about slowly, not like this with jerks. What if something happened to the baby?”
Even though she was getting really frustrated, she controlled herself and instead said in a calm tone. “Nani, this is a baby, not any doll made out of clay that would break upon the slighest movement. Just relax!”
But Gayatri, being Gayatri, was not someone to let things go off so easily. After breakfast when everyone had dispersed, Gayatri brought out a glass of specially made kadha for Riddhima.
“It’s healthy for the baby. Drink it.”
Riddhima eyed the strange, dark coloured drink in the glass skeptically. When she leaned in closer to sniff it, she found it to be so horribly stinky that she almost started feeling nauseous.
“I can’t drink this,” she said with pleading eyes.
“You have to, at any cost. When I come back after two minutes, I need to see the glass empty,” Gayatri ordered. “If not, I’ll forcefully make you drink it with my own hands. And mind you, if you dare to discard the kadha in the trash or the basin, I’ll be able to find that out due to it’s smell.”
Saying this, Gayatri left from there, leaving a worried Riddhima to herself.
“What do I do now? I can’t possibly drink this, or I’ll die because of it’s revolting taste!”
As she was contemplating what to do, she heard Gayatri’s voice call her out from the kitchen.
“Did you finish it yet or not?”
“Oh no! before Nani sees me with this unfinished kadha, I must do something.”
Just then, a sudden whiff of leather fragrance filled her surrounding.
“Vansh!” she turned around and exclaimed with happiness.
Out of the blue, Vansh grabbed the glass of kadha from her hands, and gulped it down in one single go.
As soon as he did that, he started coughing violently.
“Oh no Vansh! Are you okay?” she asked trying to rub his back.
Gayatri entered back. Looking at the empty glass, she became happy.
“Thank God, Riddhima! You finished it. But what happened to Vansh? Why is he coughing like that? Did he catch a cold or something? Wait, let me get another kadha for him….”
“No, no, no!” Riddhima screamed. “I mean, that is not needed, Nani. I’ll give him some cough syrup and he will be fine.”
“Okay, as you say so,” Gayatri replied walking away.
No sooner had she gone, Vansh squeezed his eyes and made a puking face. He continued to choke.
Riddhima brought out few toffees and stuffed them into his mouth.
After a while, the horrid taste started wearing off and Vansh began to feel better.
“Was it so bad?” Riddhima enquired feeling a little guilty that Vansh had to suffer because of her.
“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever tasted in my life,” he replied turning his nose up in disgust. “Thank goodness, you didn’t drink that. Or else you’d have definitely thrown it all up.”
“Why did you have to do that?” she asked.
Vansh turned towards Riddhima and stared right into her eyes. “When I said I love you, it did not mean that I’d be only romancing or spending some time with you. It also meant that I’d be more than willing to take your share of pain over myself….”
Riddhima could feel herself becoming overwhelmed. This man, he loved her so much. His love for her was so pure and out of the world. Getting a sudden craving to feel him close to herself, she stretched out her hand towards him. But she was interrupted by Anupriya instead.
“Oh Vansh, you look so tired!” remarked Anupriya caressing his face. “Do you want me to get something for you?”
“No Mom, I’m fine, thank you.”
Pointedly looking at Riddhima, she said, “I heard Ishaan is looking for you. Perhaps, he needs something. Why don’t you go to him?”
Riddhima understood that Anupriya was trying to send her away so that she could talk to Vansh in private. Not wanting to trouble Vansh further by creating a scene, she quietly left from there.
“Where were you busy last night?” Anupriya enquired.
“I had an important meeting.”
“Business meeting at night?” she asked suspiciously.
“It was a video conference with some of my foreign delegates.” He lied with so much poise and composure, making it almost impossible for anyone to doubt him.
“Who are these delegates?” Anupriya continued her grilling.
“The Wilson’s,” replied Vansh. “You know right that we have been dealing with them for quite a few years. They wanted to add some new clauses in the contract, and I wasn’t in favour of that. That is why, the conference ran for so much time.”
Keeping a hand over her shoulder, he said, “Don’t worry Mom. Now everything is under control.”
“Of course, Vansh. Your mother has complete faith on you. And I know that you will never let this faith to waiver,” said Anupriya with a smile.
______________________________________
“Boss, I spoke to Sunny today.” Angre paused for a while when he saw Vansh’s eyes shut. He half thought that perhaps he had fallen asleep because of his hectic schedule over the last two nights.
“Go on, Angre. I’m listening,” said Vansh, as if reading his mind.
“Sunny was saying that Pathak was going to make him meet with some of his important ‘clients’. He feels that these so-called clients have something to do with us.”
“Hmm. I hope that Sunny manages to find out that person leaking out our important business information soon. We’ve waited enough,” said Vansh sharply. His expression changed to a menacing one.
“Once I find out that person, not only will he be taught a lesson, but even Pathak would suffer by my hands. I still haven’t forgotten how that leech dared to touch my Riddhima.”
Angre bit his lip.
“What is it Angre? Is there anything else that you want to tell me?” asked Vansh.
“Boss, after Riddhima got to know about Anupriya Aunty’s truth, you had asked me to start tracking her phone once again….”
“Yes what about that?”
“I found out that Riddhima received a call from Kabir’s residence just twenty minutes ago.”
Vansh clenched his jaws and smacked his fist on the table.
“Boss, do you want me to call Riddhima over here so that you can confront her about this?” Angre suggested meekly. To be honest, every time Vansh’s temper rose, Angre felt like hiding his face behind a pillow.
Vansh shot an angry glare in his direction. “Are you my Boss, or am I your Boss? How dare you give me advice on how I must behave with my fiancee!”
“That was not what I meant. I’m really sorry, Boss.”
Vansh took a deep breath. “Unless she herself doesn’t come and inform about it to me, I won’t even raise a single question. Love is trust, and trust is love. If I always claim to love her, then isn’t it necessary that I show some trust on her too?
Plus, even I want to see how much she loves and trusts me…”
He was interrupted by a knock. It was Riddhima.
She nervously fidgeted with her fingers. Vansh saw that.
Angre, taking the cue, silently took his leave from there.
“What’s the matter, Riddhima?” Even though Vansh tried to remain as neutral as possible, he couldn’t hide the biting tone from his voice.
She said, “Kabir’s bhabhi called me up sometime back….”
Vansh couldn’t explain how happy he felt. Riddhima trusted him, and even wanted him to trust her too. She didn’t want any more lies or secrets to remain between them.
“Oh I see,” he said trying to sound surprised.
Riddhima narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t act as if you didn’t already know about this. I know that you and Angre have started monitoring my phone logs once again.”
“Damn! How did this girl know that?” he wondered.
“I know you too well, Vansh,” she smirked.
“What did she call you for?” Vansh tried to divert the topic.
At this, Riddhima’s expression turned into a sad one. “Kabir’s dad, Vinod Uncle has passed away.”
“Oh, that’s a very sad news indeed. I hope his soul rests in peace.”
“Today is his prayer meet. And she wants me to attend it….”
Vansh gave her a death stare. “No, you would absolutely not.”
“Why not?” she protested. “Vinod Uncle was my Papa’s friend. He used to frequently visit our house over tea.” She started tearing up. “This is the least I can do for him and for the sake of humanity at least.”
“Do not argue with me, Riddhima,” Vansh shouted at her. “When I say no to something, I expect you to take it as a no and keep your mouth shut!”
This broke Riddhima’s patience, and she started shouting back.
“Excuse me! This is what I absolutely dislike about you.
If you think that I am that type of girl who’d remain happy and satisfied her whole life with just a man who loves her like crazy, then you are surely mistaken. For being happy, I need much more than that. I need my freedom to do whatever I want, to go wherever I want and to meet whomever I want!
I can’t be coming to you for taking permission for every little small thing.
Hell, even my parents always gave me complete freedom, then who are you to deny it?”
Vansh retorted, “And this is what I dislike about you, your stubborness. Sometimes I fail to understand you at all. When I forbid you from something, you go against me and do exactly that. And when I instruct you to do something, you don’t do that.
If you know me too well, I know you much more than that. I am damn sure that in spite of my refusal, you’ll still manage to find a way to visit Kabir’s house.”
He exhaled sharply. “So might as well, I just ALLOW you to go there.”
Riddhima’s face glowed up.
“But I won’t let you go there alone. I’ll be accompanying you, too,” said Vansh.
She tried to reason out with him. “What? But why? You don’t need to do that or things can get awkward…”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you want to go there or not?”
She nodded her head. “But…”
“No more ‘but’s’ or ‘if’s’,” Vansh cut her off. “Besides, being engaged, this is our social duty to meet people around as a couple, so that everyone gets a clear message that I am exclusively your’s and you are exclusively mine.”
Riddhima frowned. “This man is impossible!” she thought to herself.
______________________________________
When Riddhima and Vansh entered Kabir’s house, they found a solemn atmosphere around. People were dressed in white and were seen shedding tears.
A large photo frame with garland around it was placed in the middle of the room. Two incense sticks burned in front of it.
“He was a really jolly man,” said Riddhima getting emotional.
Vansh entwined his fingers with her’s, and made sure to keep her as close to him as possible.
“What are you doing, Vansh?” asked Riddhima getting annoyed. “We are here to attend a prayer meet, so please keep your romance away for at least now.”
“This is not romance, rather it is my….”
“Possessiveness,” Riddhima completed it for him, shaking her head.
A little boy about the age of Nandu ran up to Riddhima.
“Hi Niku.” She greeted him with a smile.
“Hi! Thank you Chachi for coming. Now Chachu will get happy,” said the boy.
Vansh fumed. How dare this boy call her his Chachi?
He opened his mouth to scold him, but Riddhima stopped him.
“Why is he calling you Chachi?”
“How should I know that?” she mumbled. “I can’t fight with a small boy over such a petty issue like this.”
“Niku beta, she’s your Aunty. Not your Chachi,” the boy’s father corrected him.
“But Kabir Chachu told me that….”
But his father cut him off. “I’m really sorry about that. You know how kids tend to act up sometimes.”
“Of course, I understand, Ashok Bhayya,” she replied. “I am so sorry for your loss, though. Vinod Uncle will be thoroughly missed by one and all. He was a very nice man.”
It seemed like Ashok was fighting back tears.
“Yes, this loss is irreparable. But in spite of that, all of us are trying our best to move on….”
His eyes fell on Vansh and how he had clasped Riddhima’s hand tightly.
“He is my fiance,” Riddhima introduced him.
Ashok’s face lit up as he recognized him. “You are Mr. Vansh Raisinghania, right?”
“Yes, that’s me. My heartfelt condolences for your loss,” said Vansh earnestly.
“You know him?” Riddhima asked him in surprise.
“Of course. Who doesn’t know him? He’s such a big name throughout Mumbai,” beamed Ashok.
Riddhima found this really weird. Kabir had told her that Vansh was the reason behind his father’s suspension from the police force. But on the other hand, his own brother, Ashok was acting all cheerful on meeting Vansh, instead of being angry on him and acting as if nothing like this had happened.
“Make yourselves comfortable and please do pray for our father to attain peace and salvation.” Ashok gestured them to join the congregation.
When Vansh found Riddhima’s eyes searching about the whole place, he became even angrier.
Tugging at her arm, he said, “Are you looking for KABIR, huh?”
Riddhima looked at him with contempt. “Why do you always have to see things in a wrong light? Kabir has lost his father, so it’s obvious that I’d want to pay my condolences to him as well.”
“You won’t meet him,” he grumbled.
“Here we go again!” She facepalmed.
“Are you blind or what? Did you not see how Kabir taught his nephew to call you as ‘Chachi’? Doesn’t it ring a bell, ding-dong? In spite of you telling him time and again that you don’t want anything to do with him, he still resorts to this nonsense!”
Riddhima said, “Stop reacting on what a small boy said. Just because Niku called me as Chachi, I won’t become his Chachi for real.”
When Vansh saw Riddhima getting up, he pulled her back.
“Where do you think you are going?”
“Ritu Bhabhi is calling me.”
“Which Bhabhi? Whose Bhabhi?”
“Kabir’s Bhabhi.” Riddhima said trying to free her hand.
“So why are you calling her as Bhabhi?” Vansh asked getting irked.
“So what else should I be calling her as?” she said. “Let me go. She might have some work with me.”
Vansh loosened his grip when Riddhima scratched his hands with her nails.
“Serves you right!” She said haughtily leaving from there while Vansh burned in fury.
______________________________________
“Thank you so much for coming, Riddhima,” said Ritu taking her hand in her’s. “It really means a lot to me.”
“Where is Kabir? He can’t be seen anywhere. I hope he’s fine,” said Riddhima.
At this Ritu started weeping. “After Papa’s death, Kabir is not in his own senses. We all tried our best to console him, but to no avail. Now only you can handle him, Riddhima.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Even you know how he holds an important place for you in his heart. Please don’t say no,” Ritu requested.
Riddhima reluctantly agreed. “I’ll try to put some sense into him.”
Ritu led Riddhima to Kabir’s room.
Kabir was sitting in a crouched up position at a corner. He was crying inconsolably.
“Why did you leave me Papa? Please come back….please.”
Riddhima’s heart went out to him. She lightly tapped his shoulder. “Kabir?”
As soon as Kabir saw Riddhima before him, his eyes started glittering with happiness.
“Riddhima, you came? I thought you’d not come. Look what happened with me? I lost everything, I ‘m all alone now.”
“No, you’re not! You have your brother, your bhabhi, as well as your little nephew with you….”
“But I don’t have YOU, though,” said Kabir suddenly holding her face. “Please, come back to me.”
Riddhima pulled back with a jerk. “No Kabir. This is not possible.”
But Kabir instead hugged her tightly, not letting her go. Riddhima wanted to shove him away, but she saw Ritu pleading to her with her eyes to stay mum.
“I know Riddhima that you are very angry with me. And your anger is absolutely justified. When you had called me for help before your’s and Vansh’s engagement, I should have helped you, instead of asking you to get engaged to him. I’m really sorry.”
Unbeknown to them, Vansh had arrived at the door just then. He happened to hear everything. Plus, when he saw Kabir hugging his fiancee like that, he started boiling with temper.
He tried to barge inside, but Ritu joined her hands in front of him.
“Please, don’t. If you want, I’m even ready to touch your feet. But please, Kabir needs Riddhima right now.”
Vansh furiously said, “Riddhima is my fiancee. How dare Kabir misbehave with her like that? And I can’t let my Riddhima suffer for your stupid and selfish reasons. I’m taking her away, right now.”
“Please, just give me only ten minutes,” she begged in front of him. “We have already lost our father. We can’t afford to lose Kabir as well.”
Not able to see the helplessness of the lady standing before him, he marched away from there.
On the other side, Kabir kept continuing his rant. “Vansh is the reason for all my miseries. Do you know Riddhima what he did? He burnt all of your photos. He thought he will be able to remove your memories from my mind and heart. But no, this can never happen! I foiled his plan by doing this.”
Kabir got up and pulled out sheets after sheets in front of her, all having her drawings on them.
“See, I drew you! I know that I couldn’t capture even half of your beauty in these sketches, but still, it’s a good attempt, right?”
Riddhima looked at him with shock, as he insanely kept showing her one drawing after another, all having one common thing between them – Riddhima.
After a lot of coaxing, Riddhima finally managed to calm Kabir down and made him go to sleep.
She collected the scattered drawings of herself, and arranged them back into his cupboard. As she did that, a diary dropped on the ground.
She was about to place the diary back in it’s place, when suddenly, her glance fell upon one of the opened pages.
Dear Me,
Today is one of the worst days of my life. When I returned home today, I found all of Riddhima’s photos completely burnt in front of me. Those photos, that had become an important part of my life, were now no more. And it’s all because of that Vansh!
But thank goodness, he only found the photos and nothing else. Had he found that phone also, then everything would have got finished. Everything….”
*
Riddhima shut the diary. She wondered about the phone that Kabir was talking about. What was there in it? And why was he so keen on hiding it from Vansh?
Something struck her mind causing her to get terrified. What if that phone contained certain proofs against Vansh that could cause him to get arrested even?
No, she couldn’t let that happen. Even though she knew that Vansh belonged to the Mafia, but the mere thought of something bad happening with him, caused her heart to wrench with pain.
She quickly rummaged through the rest of the cupboard, and as luck would have it, she finally found an older model of phone inside a drawer.
Hiding it inside her purse, she said, “I’m sorry, Kabir. I know this is wrong, but I cannot let Vansh to fall into any kind of trouble. Ever.”
______________________________________
Vansh angrily dragged Riddhima by her arm out of Kabir’s house.
“Vansh, listen to me for once at least….”
“Listen to you? What is left to listen to by the way? You had contacted Kabir just before our engagement in spite of my warnings? How dare you!”
Riddhima screamed at him. “So what else could I have done instead? Did you leave me with any other options? I didn’t want to get engaged to you, so I did everything within my capacity to escape from it. Yes, I turned to Kabir for help, but I don’t think I did anything wrong in that!
But that coward, instead of finding a way to help me out, asked me to quietly give into your demands. Because for him, it was just a mere engagement that meant absolutely nothing to him. That was when I decided to break up with him for once and all.”
Vansh angrily said, “Now do you understand as to why I was so keen for you to break up with that Kabir? Always knew that he wasn’t the right guy for you.” He looked at her with fiery eyes. “What else have you been hiding from me, Riddhima?”
“I know that you….belong to the Mafia,” she said hesitatingly. “Kabir told me this when he sneaked into my college to meet me.”
Vansh was flabbergasted to hear this. He recalled how one of the guards had told him about Riddhima taking too much time than normal in the college’s washroom on one of the days. Now everything started to fall in place.
Riddhima waited for Vansh to say something, but when he didn’t, she continued, “Kabir also told me that you got his father caught up in a fake encounter case which eventually led him to get suspended from his department.”
Vansh, who felt heat rise to his cheeks, growled, “What rubbish! This is not right. Kabir has spewn nothing but pure lies in front of you.
Yes, I agree I belong to the Mafia, but I don’t participate in any immoral or harmful stuff. All I do is illegal business of alcohol. I can vouch that I’ve never even harmed any innocent and common man ever.
I’ve always tried to evade from the police, but I’d never trap any honest man in a false case. Plus, I not only did never meet Kabir’s father, but in fact, I don’t know him at all.”
“Yes, after seeing Kabir’s own brother meeting you with such grace, I did get a thought that perhaps Kabir had been lying to me all this while,” said Riddhima. “In fact, I feel like a fool now for blindly believing each and every word he said.”
Vansh grasped her shoulders. “Exactly! If you had shown even half the amount of trust on me that you had shown on Kabir, then things between us would have been on a much better note.
I wanted to take you on a dinner date and come clean to you about everything – about my involvement in the Mafia and Mom’s truth. But you being your regular inquisitive self, had to get to find it all out before itself.”
His grip on her tightened causing her to wince in pain. “As for that Kabir, I won’t leave that bastard. How dare he hug you, how dare he touch you!”
Realizing that he was hurting her, he left her abruptly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. But I cannot see any other man touching you or getting close to you. You can call this my possessiveness, craziness or love even, but only I have the sole right to touch you, to hug you, to love you.”
“Even I have given these rights only to you Vansh,” she said softly.
He was surprised to hear her say this and couldn’t help but smile a little.
Riddhima took out the phone that she had stolen from Kabir’s cupboard, and showed it to Vansh.
“I feel that Kabir is hiding something important in this phone, and I’ve a doubt that it is something related to you. Some proofs against you perhaps?
Unfortunately, this phone is not working at all. We need to show it to a phone mechanic to help us turn it on. And….”
She stopped midway when she saw Vansh gazing at her intensely.
“What?” she asked.
Vansh let out a snortle. “Nothing. I was just wondering that you always used to consider law above everything. But today you broke that very law by stealing something vital from a police officer’s house? Interesting, very intetesting.”
Getting closer to her, he asked, “Now tell me sweetheart, what happened all of a sudden that you are ready to use the not-so-lawful way just to save me?”
“You know the reason, though,” she said blushing.
“But I want to hear you say it out aloud.”
“I did say that already.”
“But at that time, I was inebriated. But now I want to hear it again, and this time when I am in my complete senses,” he said mischievously. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he said, “Come on sweetheart! Don’t torment me any longer and tell me whatever is there in your heart.”
Riddhima smiled at him coyly. She pushed him away. Flipping her hair at him, she gently ran a finger across his face.
“You want to know why I did all this, right?” she asked sultrily.
She pinned him against the wall and clutched at his shirt. Vansh was amazed to see Riddhima’s bold avatar.
“Yes…” was all that he could manage to say.
Bringing her lips close to his ear, she whispered, “I’ll tell you all about it….but only after getting back home.”
Before Vansh could know it, Riddhima came back to her original form and started speaking ‘normally’.
“Come, let us go back home,” she said as if nothing happened.
Vansh caught her hand. “Not fair, sweetheart! You can’t escape so easily after tempting me like this.”
Riddhima flashed a wide grin. “Now tell me that I don’t know how to flirt!”
“What?” he asked confused.
“Yes. This was just part of my demo to show you how well I can flirt, too!” she winked at him.
Vansh smiled to himself. “What do I do with this girl? She’ll drive me crazy one fine day.”
Precap:
Vansh and Riddhima get locked together where they spend some time with each other.
Vansh gets shocked to know the actual person who was leaking the information to Pathak.
Vansh says that he has a surprise for Riddhima. She becomes excited.
Hello everyone! That is it for today guys. Do vote and comment below.
Peace out!