Wedlock - Part 57

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Chapter 57


Day 210


Arnav has got news for Khushi. Through Aman and his other spies, he has got to know why Vicky has suddenly entered in their lives again to ruin it. He is going to tell Khushi about it too. That’s why he is here, at her office building, to receive her. She will be surprised to know the real facts.

“Yes Inspector.” Arnav answers the call, waiting outside for his wife. “Is she arrested?”

The police official gives the good news to him.
“Perfect. Interrogate her, she must know where Vicky is”

He disconnects the call and waits for his wife to show up. Something is definitely wrong. It’s been 10 minutes that Khushi told him she is in the office elevator, on her way out. Why hasn’t she come out yet? What is taking her so long? Did she meet someone in the lobby that delayed her? He keeps staring at the entrance of Khushi’s workplace. He just happened to give her a surprise today by coming to pick her up from work. He has plans for dinner with her outside followed by a late-night movie. But why isn’t she coming out? He decides to call her number again and check. The wait is killing him. Her phone rings but she doesn’t answer, fretting him all the more.

“Pick the phone dammit” he groans, fisting his fingers.



The guards who are at standby, some distance away from him, keep focusing on Arnav’s sudden discomfort. They sense something wrong too. Arnav dials Khushi’s number again and hurries towards the entrance of her Office building. He will go in and check. He cannot waste his time waiting for her to come out. He can sense it. Something is definitely wrong. Khushi is in some problem. A cold sweat appears on his forehead despite the cold weather outside. He wants her safe. He has promised to keep her away from every problem and he will keep that promise no matter what.!!

He enters inside and looks at the elevators. People get out of them but there are no signs of Khushi. Where can she go? His guards follow him inside.

“Sir, all okay?” one of them asks.
“Go check in Khushi’s office on the 28th floor if she has left from there. And you check the CCTV Cameras”

Two guards rush away while the others head to the reception area to check the CCTV. Arnav dials his wife’s number again. He just hopes he is over concerned and she comes out from the restroom of the ground floor and tells him she is fine. He hears her phone ringing from an adjacent corner. He runs in that direction; the tone becomes clearer as he reaches that spot. But she is nowhere. There is paper shredder in the corner from where the noise is coming. He searches for the phone and finds it dumped somewhere below the pile. What is Khushi’s mobile doing here? And, where is she?

“Sir, you need to see this” one of the guards reaches him. Arnav follows the guard to the CCTV room. The staff of this Building has been co-operative enough to let Arnav’s men investigate Khushi’s sudden disappearance. They rewind the footage of the camera feed of the lobby. Arnav panics. The video shows Khushi coming out of the elevator. She seems very happy and normal for few seconds until something buzzes on her phone. She stops midway and checks her mobile. Her expressions change, she is horrified seeing something on her phone. Probably a picture of a video. The immediate next moment her phone rings and she is seen answering it. She mutters something cursing to the person who called. Definitely, it’s the same person responsible for her sudden disappearance. She is been instructed to discard her phone. Why did she agree to do it? Why didn’t she call him for help or mention about the trouble? He was just few feet away from her, wasn’t he? Arnav grips the chair he has been leaning against to watch the footage. Khushi drops the phone at the paper shredder where he found it few minutes ago and then takes the back-door exit. She has left the premises. She took the back entrance and not the regular one where he was waiting for her to arrive.

“Damm!!” he brushes his hair in frustration. “Where is the camera footage of the exit door?”
“Sir. Here..” another guard plays the next footage. He sees Khushi coming out of the backdoor and getting inside a black car.
“Check the number of the vehicle. Ron, run these plates and find whose car it is”
“Yes Sir”

She is gone!! Where?

“What the hell were you doing when all this happened?” Arnav holds the collar of the building security”
“Sir.. Please calm down. She went by her Will. How would we know she was in danger?”

Yea.. No one could guess that. He leaves the guard and makes his way to the exit. He still has Khushi’s phone in her hand. He unlocks it to find any clue. But the video or photo whatever she received has been deleted. Probably she was instructed to do so. Also the call logs have been deleted.

“Tap Khushi’s number and I need the caller id of the last call she picked. Also, trace the deleted media message on this number. I want to know what she saw which made her agree to this abductor’s demand.

The guards keep following his instructions. Meanwhile he dials Shyam to check if everyone at home is fine. As soon as he reaches out of the building, he gets inside the car which speedily drives on the free way again.

“Saale Sahab.. Whats wrong? You sound in distress” shyam asks.
“Khushi is kidnapped”
“What? How?”
“Jeejaji, I will explain everything later. Right now, don’t let the family out of your sight. Ask Shikha to come and stay with you until I find Khushi”

Giving strict instructions to Shyam, he hangs up and opens another app on his phone. He is thankful that he was already prepared for a situation like this. He knew if Vicky tried to abduct her, the first thing she will have to discard is her phone. That’s why he had given her a watch which had a GPS tracker. He was already tracking her moves, from past few days. She was his soft bait, the only way he could end this fiasco.

“Sir where to?” the driver asks.
Arnav opens the app and finds the exact coordinates of Khushi through the GPS tracker on her watch. She is still moving; probably towards the location where Vicky is waiting for her to show up.

“here” Arnav shares the coordinates with the driver and then uses his other phone to make a call.
“Call the Indian embassy and tell them about my wife’s abduction. I need a special team to track her. Location will be shared as soon as the team is assigned. We don’t have much time. Do it as fast as possible” he instructs his high-level contact in San Francisco and then disconnects the call.

Khushi’s tracker still shows in rapid motion. Where the hell is, she being taken? She must be so afraid. He kisses her picture which is the wallpaper of his phone.
“I am coming baby, just be brave” he murmurs.

*******************

Khushi struggles as the men drag her outside the Van.

“Leave me” she scowls in anger.

They drag her inside the old deserted building which once happened to be a motor garage. It took some 30 minutes for them to reach here. Fools they are to think that she is not being tracked. She is wearing the watch Arnav had specifically asked her not to take off her wrist ever. He must already be on way to find her. These men are fools to think they wouldn’t have taken that precaution.

“Khushi…” a known voice echoes as they reach inside. Vicky comes out from a dark room. He is wearing a black hoodie to cover his head. He has built up his muscles now unlike before when he had a lean body. “I am so happy to see you again”

All the memories of the troubles which Vicky gave her during their College flashes in her mind. He always used his power to threaten his juniors, especially girls.

“Where is Lavanya? What did you do to her?” she roars.
“Oh.. don’t worry. She is not my type. She will be safe if you agree to do what I want.”

The moment he comes near, Khushi raises her knee and kicks his stomach. He hadn’t expected that move. He stumbles on the floor, his guards grip both her arms tight.

“Stupid girl” Vicky roars in anger getting up from the floor. “You do that again and I will ask my men to shoot Lavanya”
Khushi frets. She cannot take that risk.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you even crossing my path again?” Khushi yells.
“Stop pretending woman” he growls. “I didn’t wish to cross your path but you left me no choice. I always knew.. I knew you won’t sit quiet. You had that fighting spirit in you. And you would come after me some day prepared. But ..you chose the wrong person to target onto.”

Khushi has no clue what he is talking about.

“You are mistaken. I didn’t turn back to revenge you ever. I wanted to, yes. But I couldn’t.”
“Liar” he interrupts. “You broke my engagement”

Khushi is confused. What is he talking about?

“Mira and I .. Mira and I were in love and you… you purposely revealed about that incident to her.. you told her what I was in college. You told her all my misdeeds in that letter. You knew Mira would definitely dig it further. She contacted your other classmates and they told her everything. You broke my engagement, Khushi. You started it all”
“Letter? Which letter? I don’t even know who Mira is forget me sending any letters to her”

Vicky became agitated as she didn’t even acknowledge her doings. He punched his arm on the wall, blood oozing out immediately. Khushi noticed one thing. Vicky was misguided about her. Someone else did all of this in her name. But who?

“Enough of your lies” he came back to her. “You broke my engagement; I will ensure you never get a good life either. I am going to drug you, click our pictures together and upload it everywhere on social media. I want your husband, your parents, your friends, everyone who knows you, loves you to see that dark side of yours. They should hate you too just like my Mira hates me. They should throw you out of their lives just like Mira left me. Even if you shout and tell people you are innocent, they wouldn’t believe you. I will ruin you Khushi Gupta.. I will ruin you to this extent that you can never face anybody else again”

It all sounded horrific to Khushi but she didn’t show it on her face. She trusted Arnav. She knew he was just around and any time he would show his presence, putting this man in his right place.

Another man gets a syringe filled with some colorless liquid inside. Khushi starts to struggle again. Vicky laughs heartily holding the syringe in his hand.

“This is your end … your end Khushi Gupta” he laughs again.

Fear spreads on her face. She closes her eyes, muttering her husband’s name once. She knows he will never break their promise. He will not allow Vicky to even touch her. That’s what he had assured her. It is that promise which is still keeping her hopeful. There is a loud sound of a gun firing at the entry point from where she was dragged inside. The two guards holding her become alert along with the man who gave Vicky the Syringe.

“Go.. check what happened” Vicky asks the other guard to check who runs holding the gun in his hand. There is another gunshot and a complete silence after it.

Khushi smiles.

“He is here” she mutters.
Vicky looks angrily at her.

“Arnav is here..” she smiles again.
Vicky is terrified, confused. He had taken all precautions to ensure that Khushi’s location couldn’t be tracked. Then how is it possible that she was followed?
The syringe falls from his hand as he pulls Khushi from the guards. Twirling her around, he strangles her neck from behind, using his arm. A little more pressure and she would be short of breath.

“Leave her” Arnav Singh Raizada shouts, entering the place with the police officials.
“Arnav..” Khushi shouts but Vicky puts some more pressure on her neck, dragging her behind with him. He wants to escape this place and she is his only bait. “Aahhh” Khushi shouts in pain.
“You don’t need to do this Vicky.. She is innocent.. She is not the one who hurt you..” Arnav mentions quickly.
“Don’t fool me Raizada. I know what she did. It’s her” he keeps moving behind, towards the back door.
“It’s Shagufta.. She sent that letter to Mira. Khushi didn’t”

Vicky stops.
“You are lying” he shouts. “Why would Shagufta do it. She is the one who helped me to frame all of this act against you people”
“That’s because Shagufta doesn’t like Khushi. She wants to throw her out of my life. That’s why she did it. She alone couldn’t fight us that’s why she brought you in the picture. Believe me”

Vicky is confused but he still doesn’t believe.

“I have proofs against Shagufta” Arnav keeps marching forward with the police officials who have pointed a gun at Vicky. “We will show them to you. But you need to let Khushi go..”
“No” he presses his arm forcefully on Khushi’s neck, making her gasp for air. She is being strangled badly and if that continues, she might even die.

To be Continued.


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