Read every line of this chapter to understand why manik is doing all this.
Author's pov....
Nandini stood leaning against the door smiling in a wicked manner which got Cabir under confusion and slightly feared.
"Soo ...." Nandini dragged so.
"Soo..." Cabir said it in a same way as Nandini did raising his eyebrows.
Nandini stood there with a evil smirk on her face which creeped Cabir out. He started thinking about the possibilities of what Nandini wanted from him. Unable to handle any more pressure and her creepy smirk he spoke.
"Oki stop smirking, it's creepy and can you just tell me what's going on ??" Cabir said sitting on the arm of the sofa.
"Umm ...let me clear your confusion, you're held as a hostage by the great Nandini murthy." Nandini announced in a proud manner feeling proud about herself.
"What !! A hostage ??...what did I do " Cabir said in confusion.
"Technically you didn't do anything but your friend did" Nandini said while walking towards him in a intimidating manner which did scare Cabir a bit.
"Wha..what friend ...I don't know what you are talking about " Cabir said breaking his eye contact with her.
"Yeah I'm sure you don't know anything that's why you called manik to confirm that did he spill the truth to me , right " Nandini said standing in front of him with her arms crossed across her chest.
"Ho..how do you know that??" Cabir said panicking.
"Buddy next time you want to talk secretively then stand a bit far from the door and not to forget about the volume of your voice genius" Nandini said filling her words with sarcasm.
Cabir felt like a complete fool at that time, he panicked cause if manik gets to know about this. He is dead.
"Umm ...I ..I don't know what your talking about, but now I need to go. Arav needs me" Cabir said getting up from his place avoiding eye contact with Nandini.
"Ohh boy !! You're not leaving this room until you tell me what's exactly cooking in the mind of that idiot friend of yours and don't you dare deny me " nandini said pointing her forefinger on his chest and pushing him a bit, Cabir sat back on the sofa taking his former position.
"Look!! why don't you ask him yourself, I'm sure he won't deny you" Cabir said adjusting his position.
"If that was the case , your dear friend would be in your place right now" Nandini said with a tight smile.
"That would have been way better" Cabir muttered to himself.
Nandini raised her eyebrows for an answer, but Cabir stayed num.
"Listen Cabir, I know you know about me and manik alright ! So just cut this silence crap and speak up , why the hell is he doing this" Nandini said huffing in frustration. That was enough for her, the pain she felt when manik did that was too much but still she stood up confident cause she knew it was a lie and to find out the truth she needs a lead that could take her to the truth and for now Cabir is the one.
"Nandini I'm sorry but ..."Cabir said feeling bad for her but Nandini cut his line in the middle.
"Save your sorry for your friend Cabir, I don't need that ...but remember this if you don't tell me what's going on then I'm going straight to soha and Harshad " Nandini said gritting her teeth.
Cabir felt proud of Nandini when he heard this and happy for his friend as his friend found someone who could go to any extent for him.
"Speak up Cabir" Nandini huffed.
"Oki fine I will tell you but promise me that manik won't get to know about this " Cabir said giving in. He could feel her pain in her words, even though she was acting strong from outside but inside she was going through hell.
"He would be the last person to know about this" Nandini assured him.
Cabir sighed and started telling her what all manik said when Cabir barged into his office after knowing about soha and his relationship.
"What was the evil smirk of his at the end about ??" Nandini now was sitting on the sofa adjacent to Cabir's.
"After that only he revealed his real plan" Cabir said giving a tight smile.
"I want to know" she said fidgeting with her fingers.
"I can't tell yo.." Cabir's sentence was once again cut by Nandini.
"Cut the crap Cabir ..tell me everything otherwise I will tell manik about what all you told me, till now"Nandini said with her signature smirk leaving cabir in shock.
"But you promised.." Cabir whined.
"I don't remember using the word promise" Nandini said twisting her lips.
"I need to be careful around this girl, I wonder how manik handles her" Cabir said to himself but Nandini heard it.
"You can ask your friend how he handles me afterwards Cabir but right now you are going to spill the truth. Am I clear ??" Nandini said in intimidating tone.
'I feel like I'm sitting on a dynamite with its tip removed' Cabir thought.
" Cabir ...tick tock tick tock !! Time is running " Nandini said raising her eyebrows. Cabir felt like Nandini is an assassin who is holding a gun in their hand and reminding the victim about the last few minutes of victims life. He shuddered at the thought.
"Oki Oki fine I will ...stop intimidating me " Cabir said huffing like a child.
Nandini smiled but stayed quite.
Flashback....
Manik gave a evil smile remembering his plan.
"Dude what are you up to ??" Cabir said getting suspicious.
"Cabir Cabir Cabir !! Man I'm soo gonna make them pay for what all they did " manik said with a goofy smile.
"And how will you do that " Cabir asked.
"First we need to find the traitor who dared to do this and second thing is we need to change the project " manik said getting serious.
"What !! You have gone nuts manik , we worked for 2 months for this project and we hardly have 2 weeks for the submission and you want to change the project. Are you even serious ??" Cabir said gritting his teeth.
"Cabir I said we need to change the project but not entirely " manik said rolling his eyes.
"Ufff !! Dude just spill out everything before I strangle you to death" Cabir said giving 'tell-me-everything-or-else-you -are-dead' look.
Manik shook is head and said.
"I don't know whether it was my instincts or 6th sense which kicked in but I just felt something might go wrong knowing Harshad I didn't want to take chances soo 2 months back when we started working on the project I really got some good ideas and a standard one. And I kept working on that myself soo I have another project ready with me" manik said removing a file from the safe(locker) and showed it to Cabir.
Cabir took the file and started examining that.
"Manik this is way too better than our project, I mean there is no way we will miss that contract" Cabir said smiling ,looking at the file.
"I know and now as per the plan I'm sure soha is here to know about the project only soo when she insists to know about the project then we will show..."Cabir cut him in the middle..
"The project we planned, that everyone in our office know about " Cabir said guessing.
"Exactly now the traitor who sold the half of our project which is ready till now to Harshad will be satisfied with his work and won't dig more about this project. And we will show that remaining work to soha and obviously she will inform Harshad about that and as the matter of Harshad, he will be thinking that he could show this project first and I would be left with no choice at the last minute and I would back off. At that time ..."
" we will present this file in front of them knocking off the project in front of that Harshad's face" Cabir completed maniks statement.
"Yep" manik said smiling.
"Such a solid plan dude but if you had another project then why did you make me work my ass out for that project " Cabir said getting irritated at last.
"Cause at that time I wasn't sure that soha would come knocking at my door steps and I needed a backup plan anyway" manik said rolling his eyes.
"Sound like a plan but why not tell Nandini about all this, I mean she is mature enough to understand this " Cabir said getting confused.
'How can I tell you that if nandini gets to know that dilip patil is involved in all this, i don't know what she will do and that dilip patil, he can be dangerous according to his past records. I don't want to risk nandinis life. Sorry Cabir I can't tell you about nandinis past, it's her secrete to reveal ' manik spoke to himself.
"Hello back to earth buddy" Cabir waved in front of manik.
"Ha...yeah ".manik said coming out of his thoughts.
"You didn't answer me" Cabir said raising his eyebrows.
"I can't tell you that Cabir" manik said avoiding eye contact.
"What !! You don't trust me" Cabir said feeling hurt.
"Dont talk rubbish Cabir !! You know I trust you with my life but this thing it's not mine to speak, it's nandini's and I can't tell that to anyone , I cant risk her life" manik said shouting at him.
"Her life ... how is she involved in this" Cabir said.
"Cabir I said I can't speak about that, which part of that sentence you didn't understand" manik said shaking his head.
"Oki fine I won't ask anything, now you started keeping secretes from me then later you will introduce someone as your new best friend too" Cabir said wiping his tears dramatically.
"Shut up drama queen and now can you take the honour of moving your ass out of my cabin so that I can do some work" manik said sarcastically.
End...
"....and I came out of his cabin " Cabir finished the flashback.
"My life is at risk ...how am I be involved in this ??" Nandini asked scratching her head.
"Basically he meant your life will be in danger if you get to know the whole truth which even I'm unaware off" Cabir said.
"But how to find that ..." Nandini said hitting her left palm with her right fist.
"Woah woah Sherlock !! Manik was right you are a curious cat " Cabir said.
Nandini rolled her eyes.
"But seriously Nandini just leave this matter to manik he will handle this, as far as I know there is something more going on which manik is hiding from me too and there will be reason for his hideous acting soo just give him some time " Cabir said calm manner.
"Cabir I'm just worried about him alright, I don't want that soha or Harshad to hurt him both physically and mentally. And if they do they will have to face my wrath " Nandini said gritting her teeth.
"You know manik is lucky to have you" Cabir said smiling at her.
" Ohh about his luck , you will soon find out how much lucky your friend is " Nandini said glaring.
"Will I ever get to see my friend in one piece ??" Cabir said gulping.
"Sure you will Cabir but not in right frame of mind , how dare he introduce that bitch as his girlfriend Cabir, girlfriend like seriously. I'm soo gonna make him pay for that " Nandini said giving a death glare.
"But he did that with a motive Nandini " Cabir said supporting his friend.
"Ohh really Oki then imagine something came up like this in your life too and suddenly navya shows up with some other guy introducing him as her husband, how will you take that ??" Nandini said.
"I would never forgive navya for that, how can she call someone her husband in front of me... "
" woah woah calm down dude, I just asked to imagine and see how you are getting riled up then imagine my position right now" Nandini said with a tight smile.
"Huh, fine I get it now " Cabir said giving up.
Night at 10
Nandini was standing in her balcony processing about what all Cabir said that's when she saw a car coming in. She narrowed her eyes at the car.
Manik came out of the car and what she saw next made her blood boil. Soha came out from other side. Nandini tightened her grip on the railing.
Manik was in his office when soha came to meet him. She told him that she want to spend more time with him to make their relationship work. Manik was getting irritated by her honey-coated words but agreed anyway. After the office she asked him for a coffee date to which manik reluctantly agreed. He had to act like he was getting interested in her and trying to move on from the past. She was whole time blabbering about her designer dress and cosmetics while manik felt like using a chloroform to make her unconscious soo that she won't open her big mouth.
After like 2 hours, she asked him to join her for dinner but he declined with excuses cause if he spends any minute longer with her he would go mad. He thought how was he handled her back then when they were friends, how couldn't he see how materialistic she was. Probably nandini's influence made him differentiate between real and reel(fake).
He drove to Malhotra mansion as per soha's request , there soha came out of the car and asked him that she wanted to talk to mukti and settle things out. manik said no and told her that mukti needs time. Soha eventually agreed. Manik asked his driver to drop her to her house and was about to go in but soha held his hand and lifted herself a bit to match his height and gave a kiss on his cheek. Manik was shocked , surprised and disgusted at the same time. But covered it up with a tight smile and went inside the house.
But but but all this was seen by Nandini who was spitting fire from her eyes to soha. She soo wanted to strangle soha to death for touching her manik. She came inside her room fuming and next thing happened was Nandini leaving her room making her way towards maniks room with fire in her eyes.