My apologies for the delay!
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Recap: Manik kidnaps Nandini and takes her towards her surprise. Dhruv possessive for Aliya.
Nandini opened her eyes and they fell out of their sockets. She could not believe as she saw her grandmother whom she used to call Amms and her brother Rishab walking towards her. She looked around to find herself outside the arrival gate of the airport and the two most important people of her life walking towards her. Just as she realised it wasn’t a dream and she was actually seeing them after such a long time, she rushed towards them and took her Amms into a tight hug. After breaking the hug she took Rishab into a bear hug and kissed his forehead.
She then turned around to find Manik walking towards them. She had tears in her eyes and Manik could sense how happy she was. He reached them with a wide smile on his face and greeted Amms and Rishab before turning towards Nandini.
Manik: (to Nandini) So, do you like your surprise?
Nandini: Like? Are you mad? I love it! This is like the perfect surprise I could ever get! Thank you! Thank you so much! I don’t have words to thank you enough.
Amms: Yes Manik dear. Hadn’t it been for you, I wouldn’t have thought of coming over to be with Nandu for musicana. If you hadn’t kept on convincing me over and over, I might not have agreed to give up my music classes for so many days to be with Nandu.
Nandini kept staring at Manik all this while, wondering how could someone care so much for another person to focus more on their happiness rather than on their own performance. Manik noticed her looking at him and gave her a questioning look.
Nandini: So that was the reason Navya was always complaining that you’re not really paying attention to the rehearsals. You should have focused on your performance first Manik.
Amms: (to Manik) So even you are participating dear? So then let’s go. You should practice. Both of you. Tomorrow is musicana and we’re here.
They proceed towards Nandini’s place and chacha chachi greet Amms and Rishab as well.
While all of them had been seated in the lounge area, Nandini had been thinking of some way to meet Manik alone so that she could properly thank him. She instantly thought of a plan.
Nandini: Umm Manik, Navya had given me a few notes that I needed to give you so why don’t you just come upstairs and I’ll give them to you.
Amms: Nandu dear why don’t you get those notes here and give them to him?
And Amms had ruined the most perfect plan that she could have thought of.
Nandini: (hesitatingly) Umm…ye-ah! Okay.
Later that evening, as instructed by Amms, Nandini went up to her room to go to sleep early as it was a big day for her the next day. But, she just could not fall asleep. She had been thinking about Manik and the way he had been putting efforts for her, that made her wonder about his actual feelings towards her. He had been almost neglecting his own performance and just focussing on her.
Just when she was thinking about him, it seemed like even Manik could not stop thinking about her and therefore called her up. She instantly picked up the call excitedly.
Nandini: Hello! Hey!
Manik: Hey! I hope I didn’t disturb you?
Nandini: No not at all. In fact I had been thinking about you only.
Manik: Me?
Nandini: (nervously) I mean to say, I was feeling thankful to you for getting Amms and Rishab here.
Manik: Oh! So then don’t you think you should thank me properly?
Nandini: Actually that was the reason I talked about those notes from Navya but Amms ruined that plan of mine.
Manik: Well then you can thank me now if you want. I’m standing right below your window.
Nandini jumped out of the bed at that and rushed towards the window to take a look. As she switched on the lights of her room and looked down the window, Manik looked up at her and that made her blush. She closed the window, switched off the lights and rushed downstairs.
As she stepped out of the main door quietly and saw him standing by his car, she remembered how he had surprised her earlier that evening and that made her rush towards him and take him into a tight hug. As she threw her arms around him, he lifted her off the ground and turned her around. After turning a full circle around, he dropped her back to the ground but none of them broke the hug. They stood there like that for a long time lost in each others’ arms and felt complete.
Dhruv had been calling Aliya for a long time but her phone was busy as she had been talking to Aryaman. It had been 45 minutes since he had been trying to call and now he was losing his patience. Finally after so many efforts, the call connected and Aliya picked up at the second ring.
Dhruv: (angrily) What the hell is wrong with you Aliya? I’ve been calling for the past 1 hour and your number was constantly busy! Who is more important than me?
Aliya: What do you mean Dhruv?
Dhruv: I mean, who is so important that you had been talking to that person for the past 1 hour?!
Aliya: I was talking to Aryaman. But, what’s wrong with you? Why are you behaving like this? Today, even in the college you had been behaving so weird. What happened?
Dhruv: What’s wrong with me? You have been getting so involved with your ex-boyfriend, more than your friends as well and then you’re asking me? What’s wrong with you?
Aliya: What do you mean by that? There was something important and therefore I was talking. Why is it bothering you so much? And he is also my friend as of now so then why are you just referring him as my ex-boyfriend?
Dhruv: Oh really? So then tell me what was so important with your “friend”?
Aliya: Alright Dhruv I am going to tell you but you’ve to promise you’ll keep it a secret. I mean, Aryaman doesn’t want everyone to know as of now and so…
Dhruv: (interrupting her) What is it?
Aliya: He’s in love!
Dhruv: (shattered) What? And…what about you?
Aliya: Me? What about me?
Dhruv: (clearing his throat) Do you love him back?
Aliya: What? No! It’s not what you thought. He’s in love with Soha!
Dhruv: (stunned) Soha?! Where did that come up from?
Aliya: Yeah he saw her in college someday and since then he has been falling for her everyday. He wanted to propose to her but you know it’s complicated because they’re not even friends yet! Well that’s not a problem for him because he is madly in love with her but she might not consider it too appropriate. And so, I was helping him figure out a way to you know…get to know her, become a friend or maybe just jump onto the plan of proposing to her.
Dhruv: Oh my god! I’m sorry Aliya. I don’t know what was wrong with me and why was I being so weird with you. I had no idea this was going on.
Nandini broke the hug unwillingly when she realised it had been quite a long time she had been in Manik’s arms. She looked straight into his eyes and said,
Nandini: Thank you !
Manik: (smiling) Do you wanna go for a drive? Just relax a bit before the big day tomorrow?
And they start off on the long drive and settle near the beach. They got two cups of hot tea while sitting quietly by the beach.
Nandini: Can I ask you something?
Manik: Sure! Anything.
Nandini: Well that goes if you are going to tell me the whole truth.
Manik: (realising what she had been talking about) Why do you want to know Nandini? Why can’t you just let it go and be normal?
Nandini: Well that’s the problem! I can’t be normal without knowing it! I can sense it, it’s something related to me so then I need to know! Please!
Manik: Alright! I tell you on one condition! You won’t let any of it affect your performance tomorrow.
Nandini: Nandini promise!
Manik: As you already know, my dad and your dad were the best of friends back in the past. But there was something that happened that destroyed their friendship and made your dad shift to India. Your dad had been working on this really important and big project. It was probably the most important project so far in his career. He was to get a lot of fame and money once that project was completed. But there was obviously someone who was too jealous of him, who was also a scientist in the same laboratory as your dad, who was trying to steal the project from him. And just one day before the actual project was to begin, that man got all the papers and documents to the project and your dad lost the opportunity. Now that happened just around the same time when my dad got a big deal with the same man’s brothers company and it was a really big achievement for my dad. That made your dad think that my dad actually sold all his documents to that man to get the deal cracked with his brother’s company. Now that was not the actual reason. It was simply a coincidence. But my dad couldn’t prove it and our families got separated forever. Now luckily the man who had stolen the documents could not succeed with the project because there were a few more documents that he could not gather. After coming to India, your dad started afresh with that project but this time with a lot of more precautions. When he had completed the project and was about to launch it, things got sorted out between my dad and your dad. Now you remember the accident when your parents died? It was planned by that man. He killed them after he thought he had got the papers to the revised project your dad was about to launch. But, the papers he siezed from them that night before killing them, were not the real papers. They were some dummy documents and the original documents were actually with my dad in New York. When my dad warned your dad about that man, they decided to play that game on him and he got caught in it. So now, he didn’t have the papers. But the papers were still there, was what he knew. He knew the papers must be with one of his family members and therefore he is after your life to get them. You told me you wanted to complete some incomplete dream project of your dad that your Amms told you about. It was that dream project which you could not complete because the papers were with my dad and so you never found them. You wanna know who that man is? His name is Rajat Saxena, Harshad’s father.
Nandini: (shocked) What?!
Manik: Yes. And that’s why he’s here. He’s here to get those documents for his dad. And that’s why he is trying to get close to you. And that’s the reason I’ve been asking you to stay away from him. But, he will never get those documents because they’re stored with me in my hard drive in the soft copy and the hard copy that your dad sent to New York back then is the file I always carry around and even have it in my car right now. Actually my dad found out that there are many people working in our company who have actually been sent by Rajat Saxena jus to steal those documents. So, we could not keep them safe there and therefore I got them here.
Nandini: I really can’t believe all of this! Can I see the documents?
Manik got the documents out of his car and showed them to Nandini. She had been a science student in school before she took up music and could understand some of the whole huge project. She had tears in her eyes thinking about her dad while going through the project. Manik noticed that and placed his arm around her shoulder and patted it gently to console her. She hid her head in his chest and cried softly remembering her parents.
Precap: Harshad’s final plan for the papers.
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Thank you!
Lots of love ❤️
#behappy
#spreadsmiles