Intertwined Fates -- An IPKKND FanFic

Sinking Hearts

Great. So Payal's usual voice of reason was out of commission for the moment. Forget it, then. If Akash wasn't going to say anything, then neither was she. She pushed the sketch to the side of her desk and started working on a fresh design, pretending that her heart wasn't breaking every time her eyes landed on the wrinkled sheet of paper.

***

"And you have a meeting with Mr. Siddique at 4 today to follow-up on last week's shipment issue," Sheetal rattled off the last item on Akash's schedule for the day. This job was so irritating and she couldn't wait to be done with it. But seducing Arnav was turning out to be harder than she'd thought--he'd developed more resistance since his Harvard days, and he hadn't been an easy catch then, either. She was running out of time.

"Okay, thanks," said Akash. "Can you arrange a lunch meeting for me and Ms. Payal today? And send her an email about it."

"Sure," said Sheetal. "Any preferences to where?"

"My office. Order us some sandwiches from the deli down the street please."

"Of course," muttered Sheetal. As she left the office, she swore she'd get revenge for all the petty jobs she was being made to do now once she got the money she wanted from Arnav.

***

Payal stared at the email. A meeting with Akash in his office? With trembling hands, she replied to Sheetal with her confirmation.

***

Akash stared at the confirmation that Sheetal had forwarded him. He'd been afraid that Payal would make some sort of excuse to get out of it, but thankfully, she'd agreed.

He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. This was it. Today, he was going to lay out his feelings to Payal. It was the first time in his life that he was going against Bhai's wishes but there was no fighting his heart.

***

Khushi shook her head as she stepped out of the courthouse. Jury selection was always a long and tedious process but it was a necessary one. If they even got a quarter of the members selected today, she'd consider it a job well done.

Reaching for her phone to call Payal, she stopped when she saw that there was a text. Payal had a lunch meeting and couldn't talk to her.

Hopefully, everything was okay, thought Khushi as she took the Rikshaw to the mall. She needed a new pair of shoes and would grab something to eat while she was there.

***

Payal knocked nervously Akash's door. She didn't think it was possible but her heart rate doubled when he called, "Come in."

"Hello, Sir," she said.

"Have a seat," he said, not daring to look up from his laptop screen. Why was this so hard?

When she couldn't take the silence any longer, she asked, "What did you want to talk about?"

This was it. "Ms. Pansare--Payal Ji--I wanted to talk to you about something important."

"Ye-yes?"

"I think--that is, what I wanted to say was..." he cleared his throat. "It's just that, um..."

"What is it, sir?" asked Payal, growing more and more concerned. "Are you--am I being fired?"

He shook his head vehemently. "No of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Oh," she smiled with relief. "It's just that Arnav Sir was criticizing my designs so much that I thought--"

"That's just Bhai being Bhai. Please don't worry too much about it; your designs were fine."

"Really?"

"Yes, of course." With that the two of them launched into an in-depth discussion about the designs. Before Akash knew it, lunch was over and Payal had to return to her desk.

She smiled before she left and he smiled back dreamily even after she was gone until he realized with horror that he'd completely forgotten to say what he wanted.

Damn it.

***

Khushi munched on her slice of pizza as she walked out of the food court. She noted a brightly dressed middle-aged woman heading her way. Who wore such heavy jewelry to the mall? Shaking her head slightly, Khushi marvelled at the strange tastes people had.

As the lady passed by, Khushi's eyes dropped down to the young boy that accompanied her. Something about him seemed familiar but as she returned to the court, the woman and the child slipped from her mind.

***

Khushi's grueling day at court came to an end at five. They'd selected four of the twelve members, which meant that this process would have to happen again tomorrow but Khushi had expected as much. Four was a pretty good starting point.

As her rickshaw ricketed towards her house, Khushi pulled out the folder with the orphanage case. She went over the comments she made yesterday, and jotted down a few things to look up when she got home. Flipping through the photographs of the missing children, she wondered if it would be beneficial to put up their pictures around the city to ask for information. Or would that put them in more danger? What were the chances that they were in the city anymore?

Maybe they sh--Khushi's thoughts stopped in their tracks as she came to the final picture--the only missing boy of the group. She'd seen him! At the mall today, with the overdressed lady!

Instantly, she turned to the driver and asked him to change directions. The man grumbled for a bit, but when Khushi promised to pay for the detour, he agreed readily enough.

The boy in question was only a baby when they left him at the orphanage with a note that said his name was to be Arosh.

She was aware just how unlikely it was that the woman and child were still there but she couldn't leave any stone unturned. Keeping her eyes peeled, she visited several children's shops. She showed the clerks the child's photo and described the woman. At the eighth shop, she hit the jackpot.

As the eager-to-help teenage clerk gave Khushi the woman's name, Khushi's heart sank, for she was none other than Manorama Singh Raizada.

Author's Notes:

This chapter is dedicated to @nandrajogdivya. Your string of compliments always make my day.

As always, thank you so much for reading. I look forward to reading your comments.

Next chapter will be out on Thursday, November 14. Until then, take care, iA.