"Swetlana confessed something before dying..." Bhavya whispered.

Taking the small glass of tea from her hand, Om asked, "What?"

"She was with Dad so that she could take revenge..." Bhavya shrugged. "She thought dying that her father was wronged."

Rudra's jaw clenched. "I honestly have no sympathy with her. That bitch deserved it. She made our lives hell. God knows how much Bhaiya hid from us."

"That information makes no difference to our case. We are still stuck..." Om poured over the file in his hand. In stark contrast to Rudra, he was calm. There was a point in his life when he had thought that Swetlana's death will bring him peace. Nothing of that sort was happening now. He felt pretty much the same. Perhaps, the enemies, as much as one liked to believe otherwise, didn't drive one's lives. The people closest to us did.

Om knew that he would feel fine only after he saw Shivaay. That's what mattered. Nothing else.

"That's what I am trying to say. Can we keep this Kalyani Mills siyapa aside for a few days?" asked Gauri. "Shouldn't our priority be Shivaay Bhaiya?"

"I wish we could," replied Bhavya. "But it is all a tangled mess. I am pretty sure that everything is somehow linked with Kalyani Mills."

The four of them fell into silence before Om spoke up. "Guys. Hear me out with an objective head. The only person from our family who is not seemingly affected by Shivaay's disappearance is Mr Oberoi. In fact, if you think about it, he only stands to gain if something happens to Shivaay. Do you think he has a hand in the disappearance?"

"Maybe not the disappearance," Rudra added. Om who was expecting a vehement disagreement; widened his eyes in shock. Rudra took a sip of the tea. "But there is something that Dad knows for sure. He is very obviously hiding it from us."

"I think you should check the CCTV's footages from all our offices. Check where he has been in the past few days..." Gauri muttered. "That should give us an idea where all he has gone and who has he met."

"You are right. We should do that..." Bhavya nodded.

She called someone, gave instructions and cut the call. Then she told them. "I told my colleague to do that. He will get back to me tomorrow."

Bhavya sank on the couch. "Where is Annika Bhabhi?"

"In the bedroom..." informed Gauri. "She is just...lost. Completely. I can no longer recognize her."

Om sighed. He kept the file that he was looking at aside and went to the kitchen to make some instant noodles for Annika. If she remained hungry in his watch, Shivaay was going to make his life hell after he returned. He couldn't allow that.

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

"Shivaay..." Veer grabbed Shivaay's mouth and prised it open. Like an invalid, Shivaay only managed to moan a weak whimper. Veer titled Shivaay's face until the back of his head was not touching his back. Then Veer poured a semi-hot liquid into Shivaay's mouth. "Do you know what this is? It's chicken broth. I made it for you."

Shivaay was thirsty but even then he panicked because of the sudden flow of something in his mouth. It did soothe his throat a little but it was too much and he longed to take a breath. His throat spasmed, as did his chest. Shivaay gruggled.

"No!" Veer chastised him. "You will have to finish the whole beaker. I am not taking any excuses from you. You have to survive for a long time with me. You need energy for that."

Shivaay's feeble struggles intensified as Veer poured more liquid down his throat.   

"I am a good cook, no? I think you take after me!" Veer laughed.

Shivaay started to choke on the liquid and tried to sit up straight. Veer coolly emptied everything in his throat. Then he grabbed a cloth and pressed it over Shivaay's mouth. Going around Shivaay, he made Shivaay sit up.

Shivaay's hands shakily snaked up and latched onto Veer's large hand. He tried hard to remove the cloth from his mouth but the hand didn't budge a centimetre. Then Shivaay's tired body did its thing. All the hot liquid went down to his stomach. Coughing hard into the cloth, Shivaay tried to catch his breath.

Veer tightened his hold on Shivaay's heaving body. He held Shivaay's head and rocked him like a child. "There, there. Shhh!"  

"Veer..." Tej was annoyed and more than that, worried. He hated to see what Veer was doing to Shivaay. He snarled, "For fuck's sake. Stop it."

Veer smiled at him. "What is your problem now? Can't a big brother care for his baby brother?"

Tej rubbed his forehead. "Please Veer. Drop the pretence. You and I both know that this is not what you want."

"I always knew that the Oberois were intelligent!" Veer laughed. "Anyway, to answer your question, I cannot stop this. I have to make Shivaay live for a few more days. Because sadly, he won't survive without nutrition."

"Why?" Tej grunted.

Veer let go of Shivaay's body. Shivaay fell back with a thud on the lumpy mattress. His entire body protested and he coughed violently. He curled up as the sourness rose in the back of his throat. He could not contain himself anymore and puked all over the mattress.

Tej looked away. But Veer saw it and clicked a picture of it. Then with a smile, he turned towards Tej.

"Why you ask? Because I want all of your family to find me. And then see Shivaay die in front of them."

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

"I am sure you are hiding something from me Tej..."

Tej sighed. Jhanvi's voice was not angry. She was not even accusing him. She was just stating a fact. And since it was true, he didn't react to it.

Jhanvi has come over to Mumbai to meet Tej. She knew that she had to face him to prise the information out of him. The whole Oberoi Mansion looked ghostly. She was glad that she had the foresight to send Kalyani away to Priyanka's house in the States. Or else after hearing after Shivaay, she would have been the worst hit.

Tej poured himself another drink. As he drank the cool liquid, the visual of Shivaay being made to forcefully have something flashed in his mind. He closed his eyes and rested his head on the chair's headrest.

"Swetlana is missing since a long time now..." whispered Tej.

"That's not what I said," Jhanvi said. "And that isn't something that I want to know either."

"I heard that you had your spies after her..." muttered Tej. His voice was not accusing either. He was also just stating a fact.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to get my kids out of this mess. I told her location to Bhavya. I don't know what they did with her after that..." answered Jhanvi. "But all she wanted from you was revenge. She was Kapoor's daughter after all."

Tej let out a dry chuckle. He was no fool. He knew that she had died. After Jhanvi told him about Swetlana, he had gotten his own trusted people to get the dirt on Swetlana. Jhanvi's words turned to be right. Swetlana never loved him. She was there to just get her revenge. Tej didn't know what to feel. How had he not investigated her to begin with? How had he been so gullible?

Tej had genuinely thought that he could have a future with Swetlana. Now that had been watered down, he felt numb.

"I know..." he sighed. "I know."

Jhanvi reached out for his glass and downed the alcohol. She took a deep breath. "We had everything Tej. Think about it...everyone dreams about money. We had that. Everyone dreams of a good business. We had it. We had three beautiful children. We had a beautiful extended family. A great home."

Tej smiled at the memories. Jhanvi was right. He once had everything. When had things gone wrong?

Jhanvi answered for him. "Then you got greedy, Tej. You wanted a better wife. Me and my wrinkles were no longer desirable. My boobs and stomach sagged after three children. You wanted to be a better businessman than Shakti. Then Shivaay. You wanted more profits. You wanted better children than Shakti..."

She poured herself another drink. "But you lost everywhere, Tej. What a tragedy."  

"What do you want Jhanvi?" Tej asked tiredly. He really didn't need anyone else to remind him of what a failure he had been.

Jhanvi leaned in and squeezed his palm. "The truth. Where is Shivaay? Tell me before it is too late."

Tej snatched his hand back. "What makes you think that I know where Shivaay is? Ridiculous."

Jhanvi smiled at his statement. "Tej, I know you for thirty-three long years. And I know for a fact that if you weren't aware of Shivaay, you wouldn't be this relaxed. You would have searched for him too. I know that you have always loved him more than you have loved any of our children."

"Jhanvi..."

She didn't let him speak. "Remember the first time we saw him? His first steps? Or the time he called us Ma and Papa too? Or the first time Shivaay yelled at Pinky? He didn't want to have that apple paste or whatever it was and that small toddler screamed shut up to his mother. You were the happiest person then. You chose his pre-school, his school, his university...he studied with you. You trained him. You made him Shivaay Singh Oberoi. And on his part, he never forgot it. Then what went wrong, Tej? When did we both forget all this? How could we ever doubt him?"

Tej had no answer to that. He remained quiet. Jhanvi cried. "He is our child. How can you let this happen to him? Don't you feel anything for him?"

"You should go..." whispered Tej.

"I should," Jhanvi wiped her cheeks and rose up. "But Tej, don't forget that if anything happens to Shivaay, we both will lose all our children. Now, you have to decide whether you want to die alone or with our family around."

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

Annika eyed the dark bottle sitting in front of her. Her first instinct was to smash the bottle on something.

She traced the contours of the bottle. "Aap toh yeh bottle tod hi deta na Shivaay? Aur phir haath mein chot lag jaati. Then you would have denied it."

A wry chuckle left her mouth. She was fast turning into him. These days, her first thought was to break everything. "I am turning into you Billu jee...dekho na."

She laughed harder and picked the bottle up. She took a giant swig of the liquid. It burned her throat but with it came a numbness that she had desired so much since the day Shivaay had landed in the hospital. Funnily, Annika now understood why Jhanvi had taken to the bottle after Tej's betrayal. It felt nice.

With a sigh, she lied down on the bed and closed her eyes. She had things to do. She had to give Sahil a call. She had to sign a few official documents that Jhanvi had given her. But all she wanted to do was to sit and cry. It had been five days since Shivaay had disappeared from the hospital and now, she was losing hope.

Annika felt cold. Vulnerable. Lost. She didn't know what she was going to do. How had she fallen so deeply for Shivaay? How had love transformed her so much? Hot tears poured out of her eyes as her heart mourned for their ill-fortune.

She reached out for his mobile. Annika had taken to charging it regularly. She punched in the security code and went to the songs gallery. She played the song he would regularly listen to while driving or taking a shower. Unknowingly, she had picked it up too. 

As the song played out, Annika hummed along, "I'm, I'm so in love with you whatever you want to do is alright with me. 'Cause, you make me feel so brand new and I want to spend my life with you."

Still crying, she turned to her side. Annika clutched the phone close to her heart and sang, "Let me say that since, baby since we have been together, loving you forever is what I need. Let me be the one you come running to. I'll never be untrue."

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

Shivaay wanted to take a good, long hot shower. And then he wanted to get under his thick blanket and just sleep for days without waking up. But right now, he was on a disgusting mattress in some kind of a weird room. He had tried to take stock of his surroundings but he didn't have the energy to understand anything. He however had assessed that he was in trouble. Big trouble.

He tried to walk towards the window and see where he was. Shivaay raised his arm and tried to prop himself up but the hand fell back on the mattress limply. He groaned. There was something so wrong with his body. He was pretty sure that someone was giving him something to keep him down and out. But why? His business strategies were different but he had never ever hit anyone below the belt. His personal life had remained clean except for the stunt he had pulled with Annika during his marriage. But apart from that, he had hardly done anything questionable. So who was doing this to him?

A wave of pain hit him suddenly and Shivaay curled up. He bravely endured it. Then relaxed his muscles. A wry smile formed on his lips. The only thing that had been constant was the pain he was feeling. It had become his sole companion.

His head spun and the images around him swam. Shivaay felt like he was floating in one minute and then weightless in another. As his body slipped into that feeling, Shivaay's thoughts fleeted towards his family. Were they okay? He always claimed that he was a wall for them. Now he was lying in some random room and struggling to survive another day. What wall? Shivaay's headache intensified and he groaned.

He just wanted to go back to them. To Annika. All he wanted was a good life with his family. All this was too much. But then, at the back of his mind, in the deep reservoirs of his spirit and strength, the place only he knew about, the factor that made him what he was, sang silently, "Oh no darling, no wind, no rain...no winters cold can stop me, baby. Ain't no mountain high enough..."

He knew that the voice was breaking, shaking, dim but he would persevere. He had to. He wasn't named Shivaay just for namesake.

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

Have a great day! :)