AnuPre SS ~ Peanut Butter Cookies (Vol 1)

Chapter 1: My Little Cutie-pie

Prerna:

"Enough" I had thought to myself, while sipping my chamomile before going to bed that night. I was standing next to my window and looking at the night sky, it was a windy night, with patches of fluffy cloud sailing above the Calcutta sky, occasionally letting me glimpse at the perfectly round and mesmerising full moon that use to be my friend at some point in life.

The moon wasn't my friend anymore, not since it befriended Anurag too – the murderer of my child. The same Anurag who I could see then, was sitting in the garden swing right below my window and looking up at the moon with a peaceful and radiant smile on his face.

"Enough Prerna, stop looking at him, and go inside before he sees you." I told myself again, but my feet wouldn't move. There was peace in his expression, as if the moon was calming him down – this riled me up – anything that made him happy, smile, warm, positive or peaceful had started to make me angry, so much so, that I felt like I would lose my calm over it, even make a mistake and Anurag would take advantage of that and win against me. I literally shoved myself away from the window before I dragged his attention towards me.

It was the time I was living in the Basu mansion again – only this time it was by force, my force. I had arrived in India and successfully thwarted all the growth plans of Basu Industries led by the trio Anurag Basu, Komolika Basu and Ronit Chaubey – we were not only competitors in the market but we were better than them, we were driving them away from the market slowly – this was my revenge plan all along, and it was going well. However, this didn't quite destroy Anurag Basu – nearly not as much as I expected – he was bruised but still fighting – this bothered me – he had to kneel before me, and if he was fighting it meant all was not lost as yet – it had taken me sometime to figure out where this hope came from – of course, it was basu Wide Publication that was chaired by Moloy Basu, my beloved Kakababu. He had seen that I didn't attack it so far, and thus he knew, even if all was lost, he'd still have the huge empire of BWP to back him and finance him.

Despite all that Kakababu's family had done to me, I couldn't see him in light of hate, I couldn't get myself to destroy the empire he built along with my Baba, hence I couldn't bring down Basu Wide Publication – that was Anurag's hope – but I had decided I wouldn't let his hope win either – even if I didn't destroy BWP, we built so much pressure on them, that they were about to crumple, and we sought out a hand to them at the same time as chief financers trading for 51% of their shares. Now I had control over BWP and thereby share in their key assets and investments, which included the much talked about Basu mansion of Calcutta.

I had won again, BWP was saved, Anurag's hope were crushed; I had rightfully moved to the Basu mansion and claimed my room; and had once again thrown Anurag and his wife out of his room – all this gave me immense satisfaction – I felt every time each member of the Basu family would shed a tear because of me, it would serve as my prayer, offering for peace to the soul of my long lost Sneha.

As time passed, I noticed one thing, no matter what I did to him, Anurag was hardly affected. It is true I have cracked open Komolika, she is livid around me, trying every way possible to ambush me, with the help of his sidekick Ronit – but Anurag? I thought me and our daughter were animals raised for slaughter to him – for sacrificing at the right price for his business – then when the same said business was being plundered by me, how was he not destroyed – I kept asking myself, what was holding him together – whatever that was, I needed that leverage.

Anurag's calm had started affecting me, and he had started to see through that – I was not as cool and as composed before him as I was when I had started these chain of events by coming to India – that's why I wanted to avoid meeting his gaze at the window today – whatever I did, I wasn't giving him leverage over me.

As I lay in my bed with my eyes shut, I asked myself what Mr. Bajaj would advise me if I told him this, I was sure he'd ask me to keep looking for clues, keep looking till Anurag drops a hint at what his strength was, what kept him fighting – I pleaded to God for just one sign, so that I could mess with it, break his strength, remove the smile from his face, take his peace away forever, make him kneel before me for destroying my child, and then leave him to rot and go away and finally find peace in my own life.

***

Anurag:

I was looking up at the moon from the garden, it was the onset of summers, and there was a cool breeze playing in the night; I felt oddly light and I couldn't place it – I had no reasons to feel happy with a malicious Komolika and Ronit not leaving any opportunity to hit back at Prerna – not only that, under Mr. Bajaj's tutelage, my Prerna had become quite the ace woman, and she was brutally defeating us at our own turf – her company was new, but much ahead of us, her decisions were so sharp that she could cut through Komolika's strategies – every time she defeated us, I was secretly proud of her, and in the moments when she met me to rub her victory on my face, those were my moments of respite; I never said anything, I would just stand there, revelling at her presence, she would unknowingly soothe my senses – my Prerna.

There was something about the way she looked at me, whenever she came to meet me - it was not rage, it was not just hate, her eyes whenever it caught mine, it scorched me, it seemed to want to punish me for something much worse than abandoning her – I wish I knew what that was, but as entwined our lives were, I couldn't ask without showing that I cared; and I couldn't show that I did, not only was it unsafe for her, but now it was much too late.

Today was different, while having dinner with the family, my six year old daughter Diya told me all excitedly that her summer vacations were due to start in two weeks' time and she wanted to go on a holiday with me and her mother, while we were chatting about the various places we could visit, a sudden thought came to me. If it were the time for the vacations to start, surely my Cutie-pie's break will start too, I hadn't seen her in eight years and never thought I ever would – but for the first time in life, I felt there was a possibility here! If Prerna was staying at the Basu mansion, surely Sneha would come too? The feeling was so exhilarating that I had stopped speaking for a moment to imagine how it'd be to finally have my eyes on my baby girl, my cutie-pie, my Sneha.

So far I had assumed, she'd be studying in London where Prerna and Mr. Bajaj were based so far, and now Prerna was here, surely she'd not stay away from her mother for her entire vacation – that'd mean my baby girl was finally going to come home to her Papa? The feeling was so overwhelming that I realized I had tears in my eyes, and before others' could notice, I had ran out to the garden to compose myself, to control my excitement – if Prerna had any hint of how much this would mean to me, she would never allow Sneha to come to our lives. I looked up at the sky to see the full moon beaming down at me – I made a silent wish to my long time friend, please bring my baby girl back home to me – the thought was so overpowering that in that moment I forgot all the worry in the world, and was in peace – I was going to see my most prized gift from God, my Sneha soon – nothing could take that happiness away from my face then.