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Chapter 4

I was sitting in my home office with a pile of paper work that I missed out on in the past few days when a knock resounded at the door but the person behind did not even wait for me to answer before barging in.

"Bhai, our containers from Mumbai are lost" Rudra walked in, fuming followed by my best friends, Abhi and Shri.

"Who was it?" I asked, calmly. Abhi took a seat opposite me while Shri walked toward the bookshelf, pulling out a book that she was reading last time. Rudra on the other hand started pacing the length of the room.

"As per our intel it was some new gang. Snatched it by Gujarat borders." Shri stated as she settled down on the chair next to Abhi. She is the weapon dealer of my mafia. She looks after all the dealings and the inventory. She is also good with explosives. It's her speciality.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Abhi. He is the CEO of a leading advertising company in Mumbai. It's rare to see him here but it's rarer to see him walking in with Rudra who spends most of his time at the warehouse.

"I'd gone to pick this one up" he said pointing to Shri.

I nodded . "They are getting help. A new gang cannot get hold of such a huge consignment. Look deeper." I told Shri and then looked at Rudra. " You're going to personally look after the containers coming in this weekend. No more mess ups."

I was about to continue when the door opened again. I couldn't see anyone but the soft padding of feet gave her away. My princess walked around the table and climbed onto my lap, ignoring everyone in the room.

I looked down at her as she fiddled with the buttons on my shirt. Agni often does this. She randomly walks into my office, climbs on me and just sits there. She is usually followed by her brother Aarav. Both of them are always joined at the hips.

Although for the past year and a half I haven't seen either of them laugh or smile like they used to. They don't run around the house anymore or draw on the walls. Their eyes don't light up when they see me come back from work. I don't remeber the last time they talked to anyone other than me. It was a gradual process like something was hurting them. It has affected everyone especially Rudra who had started showing a playful side around them.

We tried everything we could to cheer them up but both my kids remained the same. A few months back Ma was the one who said that they might be feeling the lack of a mother in their lives. They are 5 almost 6 years old now and they see other kids around them have both parents and they might be feeling left out. That is how I agreed to this marriage but now it seems like a big disaster.

"Did you find what i asked of you?" I asked Shri.

She closed her book with a sigh. "Yes and no." I furrowed my brows, confused. " I did find a lot of stuff. Ayaanshi is the founder and CEO of a well-known tech company in Mumbai. The company has various branches all over the country and she is opening up one more in London right now. She shifted there when she was 15 and used to live with her dadu but now she has her own home. She bought a house here today and she is trying to shift her office here too."

"She's a good one" Abhi added.

"Never trust so easily" Rudra clapped Abhi's shoulder.

"What's the issue?" I wrapped my arm around Agni, who was now looking around at everyone. I know she started listening the moment she heard Ayaanshi's name. She and Aarav had been really curious yesterday.

"We don't know why she left. I mean she lived here all her life and one fine day she just left. Her dadu was old and retired. He was barely managing his own expenses when she went there. A few years later they were well settled with an apartment of their own, even though she was still in college. Also the initial funds for her company came from unknown sources. No one knows how they got all this money."