Chapter 10

It was half past eleven when Sanchi was sitting in her room getting tensed about the plan that Vihaan must have thought for her. Chetan knocked on her door and she allowed him inside. He stood before her and said, "Sanchi, why don't you take the money that I've received after selling the bracelet? I know it's not the full amount of twenty lakhs but some good amount I've got."

Sanchi stood up from her bed and enlarged her eyes. "Will you tell me from where you've found that expen-sive brace-let? I hope you haven't earn-ed it by wrong means."

Chetan shook his head vigorously. "Not at all, Vihaan Sir gave it to me and I'll repay him later. I told him so."

"Vih-aan!" Sanchi stepped ahead and said again, "I know I wasn't able to pay eno-ugh for your mother's treat-ment at the centre she's admit-ted to, but it doesn't mean you'll be taking things from others and bec-ome indebted to them."

Chetan explained her under what conditions Vihaan had helped him with the jewelry and Sanchi sighed sadly. "I hope your mother's treat-ment becomes succe-ssful."

Chetan wiped the little tears trickling down Sanchi's eyes. "Sanchi, please don't be sad. I know you are feeling bad for not being able to help me but for the past two years, you've done enough for me. You always paid for my mother's medicines, sent me to evening school, provided food to us. I can't expect anything from you seeing the situation you are facing now. Vihaan Sir has promised me that I can always go to him for help but don't worry, I won't take any help just like that. You've taught me to work hard in life."

Sanchi nodded quietly and Chetan spoke one last time before leaving, "You can also ask Vihaan Sir for help. He won't deny you as well."

When Chetan left the room, Sanchi traced her way to the glass window of her room which faced the front yard of the building. It was a new moon day and the night was pitch dark outside. "Vihaan is not bad at heart. Some-one who can easily give away his prec-ious jewelry to a person in need could be any-thing but not bad. He might be arro-gant but posse-sses a golden heart."

She inhaled the lukewarm breeze blowing outside her window and whispered again, "Am I thin-king too much? Is he wor-thy of ample of praises?"

Fighting her own feelings wasn't easy for her and she stood wondering of how her life would turn in a matter of a few days. She hadn't enough time left for the weekend to end and Shakti might turn up any time to claim her. She had lost her job but she was sure to find a new work again. She had to also get rid of her problems with Shakti and get the orphanage legally under her name.

As the varied thoughts clouded her perturbed brain, she saw the headlights of an approaching car. While the four wheeler pulled along the driveway, she stood watching it quietly. Under the glow of the only streetlight at the corner of the narrow lane, she found a burgundy colored Chevrolet Beretta halting a few feet away from their building and the dashing driver stepped out of it.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the handsome man, who was wearing a blue polo shirt and khaki trousers, move out of the car in his own prim style. Untangled dark brown hair, blue canvas shoes and striking muscles, he was a typical example of a stout man with perfection.

He leaned against the side window pane of the car and took out his cellphone. Sanchi's phone rang in the next moment but she didn't receive it. Instead, she replied him with a short text.

"Wait there, I'm coming."

Fitting her feet into the flat slippers, she covered her shoulders with a white tippet. She was wearing her casual round neck top and cotton pajamas. Like a simple and easy-to-go girl, she even ignored the messy bun of hair over her head. Locking the main gate of the orphanage, she sneaked out of the building quietly.

The more she was nearing him, something unknown was churning and twisting randomly inside her. As soon as their engaging eyes met, she inhaled deeply while he straightened himself. Breaking his intense gaze from her, he looked away towards the unending narrow lane that led to the outskirts of the deserted place.

Meeting someone from the opposite sex at night was definitely awkward and both were completely new at it. Both were trying hard not to mess up the secret meeting with their usual arguments. Vihaan opened his mouth to speak but sealed his lips again.

Sanchi took one more step towards him and said blankly, "Vih-aan... Sir."

The left corner of his upper lip lifted a little as he could not decide whether he should feel proud of it. He uttered lamely, "Can we walk so that I don't have to look at your puckered face while we discuss?"

Sanchi frowned at first since she was not really sure what he meant. "If you didn't want to look at...at my face, why did you come driv-ing all the way from Indore to meet me? You could have simply spo-ken it over phone. There was no need.. I mean..."

Sanchi stopped her speech when Vihaan stepped aside, revealing the rear view mirror of his car to her. As she stared at her own devastated image, her head drooped slightly while Vihaan stood crossing his arms against his well-built body. 

Her eyes were sore and swollen from weeping the whole day, her smooth black hair tousled in a mess because she hadn't brushed it properly and the skin of her cheeks rumpled in appearance. She felt ill-at-ease seeing her own disordered condition as compared to him. She bent her head and muttered, "Are you teas-ing me for my help-less condi-tion?"

Vihaan let out an uneasy laugh. "I'm not that bad as you think of me. It's just that... I mean I can't tolerate to look at melodramatic people when I speak. Criminals are also highly melodramatic."

Sanchi looked away, adjusting her tippet round her shoulders properly. "I'm melo-dramatic because I'd been wrong-ed by people in my family, I'm melo-dramatic because I've been tea-sed by people for my ton-gue, I'm melo-dramatic because I had been mole-sted and in future too, I'll be melo-dramatic for worst things yet to come. In that sense, you shou-ldn't have come to meet a melo-dramatic person ton-ight."

Vihaan sighed and muttered under his breath, "Hickory dickory dock!"

"Did you just..just tease me?" she asked, with tears still flowing down her cheeks. 

Taking the handkerchief out of his pocket, he tossed it towards her. "Now stop being a fightercock in the middle of the night and tidy yourself up."

Apathetically, their fingers brushed against one another when she took the neatly folded white linen in her hand. The smell of his cologne enthralled her the moment she wiped her face with it.

Vihaan began moving along the sidewalk while Sanchi followed.

"What is...is your plan?" she said softly in her sore voice. Her voice had turned heavy from the day's struggle of crying her heart out for her ill fate.

"I will tell you but I hope you aren't going to explode in the middle of this deserted street," Vihaan said calmly, without looking at her.

"What is that suppo-sed to mean?" Sanchi stepped in front of him, causing him to halt his pace of walking.

"It simply means I'm here to propose you for a marriage," Vihaan blurted in a single breath, staring into her almond like eyes this time.

Before Vihaan could disclose his plan completely, the exploding sound of a defeaning slap reverberated in the air surrounding them. Vihaan felt the heat of her palm against his left cheek and narrowed his eyes.

Sanchi took a step away from him and spoke in her grating voice, "You've convin-ced and fetch-ed a girl in the middle of a seclu-ded street to talk all sorts of non-sense! At least Shakti was way better than you, he gave me am-ple of time to re-think my deci-sion. Did you simply bring me here to put me in an another help-less situa-tion and you can..."

"Will you shut the hell up? First of all, I hate stuttering things but yet I am tolerating your blabbering just because you had saved my dad and my life. I was getting under the impression that you aren't a bad girl after what my dad confirmed about you. Secondly, I haven't yet disclosed my foolproof plan to you. I am not even interested in hooking up with you or get married to you. Under extreme conditions, I had come up with this plan. Accepting or rejecting will solely be your choice," Vihaan remarked sternly and when Sanchi didn't answer anything, he continued.

"I don't know the real reasons behind why you had dropped your surname. I am offering you a secret marriage to me so that you earn my surname and get your loans approved. You have hardly four days left for the weekend to end and Shakti might come claiming you. Even if you won't receive the money from the bank so soon, you will be married to me and Shakti can't claim you easily. But I'm sure I can find a way out to put Shakti behind bars with evidences before the weekend ends."

"But..." Sanchi did not know what to say.

"Wait, I have not yet completed with my speech. After your loan is approved and Shakti is imprisoned, there'll be nothing to bind us to this false shackles of marriage. We will mutually apply for divorce and I will talk to my lawyer about it. Hope this doesn't sound nuisance to you."

"It means I'll have to spend some hand-ful of days with you, pret-end to be your wife and..."

"I also don't want to regard you as my wife, not even in my worst nightmare. You don't have to pretend and nobody will come to know about it. It'll be a secret and you'll be staying at the orphanage itself. Once everything is sorted, I'll get rid of you and all your debts. But you still have a choice. Take the full amount from me now itself and pay that bastard. No need of the marriage drama." Vihaan concluded his speech and waited for her answer in anticipation.

Sanchi nodded her head. "I am sorry...sorry for slap-ping you without listen-ing to what you had to say. I made a grave mistake for comp-aring someone like you to a cheap inhu-mane like Shakti. I think I'll take the money as a loan from you. Marr-iage seems to be the last choice for me."

"But I don't think taking only the money will be a right decision because Shakti is not what he seems. Do you think paying him only the money will silence him? It'll only earn you the building legally but what about the after-effects? Finding evidences against him will need time and he can treat you like a crap. He can still claim you."

"If that is so, do you think stay-ing at the orpha-nage after marr-iage will be safer for me?" Sanchi asked and he smiled a little.

"It's not and I've thought of it too. I'll put my men to guard the orphanage against his unusual activity till the time he's arrested by us. So are you ready to execute my master plan?"

Sanchi closed her eyes for a second and agreed finally. Vihaan laughed victoriously. "So will you now agree that I have an intelligent brain and not tiny like yours!"

They had come a long way walking along the deserted street but it was time to return to the orphanage. Sanchi turned towards the exact direction and uttered, "Thank you for think-ing so much for me."

Vihaan nodded and uttered in his usual hoarse voice, "I didn't do anything thinking about you. I'm helping you for the trust my father has on you, I'm helping you for the love the children have for you and I'm helping you because I can't keep your pending debts on me. So don't misinterpret or develop any wrong feelings for me. I warn you."

As they reached the orphanage, Sanchi requested him to wait for a couple of minutes as she hurried her way inside. She met him again after some time and held his summer jacket before his eyes. "I had forgot-ten to return it to you."

Vihaan took it in his hand casually and tucking himself in the driver seat, he ignited the engine to his car. Sanchi wondered at his silent behavior and said slowly, "And thank you once aga-in."

He glanced at her pale yet expecting face from the rear view mirror of the car and found her waving at him. Sanchi was shocked when he simply drove away without saying anything to her again. She could only realize that his silence had hurt her more than the killing worries she was already dealing with, in her destined life!

***** 

Vihaan was ready in his formal attire the next morning, properly showered and beards trimmed. As he was fixing the belt to his watch, Dheeraj came to his room to talk to him again. "Vihaan, where are you going so early in the morning? Mom hasn't yet completed with her prayers and the breakfast? Remember, you're not going to leave before the breakfast is done. You know what all you faced that day."

"I'm going to have breakfast at Sanchi's orphanage," Vihaan said casually. 

"Will you be going there now? Didn't you visit last night?" Dheeraj frowned.

"I did and I've already spoken to her. She has agreed to my plan," Vihaan informed him.

"Did she even agree to take the divorce from you? Do you understand how difficult it's for a girl to get divorced after she is married to someone? She'll be humiliated by the society and..."

"Wait brother, we're not going to tell the society around that we are married. So it's basically harmless."

"I don't want you to be hurting the innocent girl and if she has really agreed on her own, then it is fine with me," Dheeraj warned him.

"She has agreed on her own, I have not forced her. In fact, I offered her to take the full amount from me without doing this drama. But then Shakti can't be trusted so this is final," Vihaan explained while putting on his socks.

* 

Durga had done away with her wheelchair and was able to move around with a walking stick. The new doctor that Vidya had sent for Durga, informed Virendra that her condition had improved drastically due to certain changes in her mental health. Durga was improving because she was keeping happy these days and would improve more in the upcoming days if it continued with her.

After she completed her prayers, she could not find Dheeraj around to give the sacred morsel to him. She remembered Dheeraj's promises to her and quickly paved her way to Vihaan's room in the hope that Dheeraj would be there talking to his brother about Sanchi.

When she reached Vihaan's room, she smiled satisfactorily upon seeing the brothers together and discussing something which could induce a new life and fresh breath in her.

"Vihaan, I hope you are really not taking this decision in a haste. Are you sure you're doing this?" Dheeraj squeezed Vihaan's shoulders.

"I am brother, I'm marrying Sanchi and this is the best I can do for her. Wish me success," Vihaan said one last time.

Durga was gaping widely, her dreams of getting Vihaan hooked to Sanchi was coming true sooner than expected. She hid behind the curtains when Vihaan walked past her, leaving a tensed Dheeraj in the room. Durga's cheeks arched into a big fat smile and she hurried her way into the room.

"Dheeraj, is this true? Is Vihaan getting married to Sanchi?"

Dheeraj jumped upon hearing her voice. "Mom, are you on your walking stick? You seem much better than before."

"The doctor said I'll be better if I continue staying happy like always. Now you tell me what I asked you. Is Vihaan getting married?"

"Mom, please sit down. You shouldn't pressurize your limbs so quickly. You are just improving." Dheeraj tried to deviate the topic.

"I won't. I just want to know the truth. Tell me Dheeraj, please."

Dheeraj held his head lower before her as he replied, "Yes mom, you heard it right. He is getting married to her."

"Then what are you waiting for? Go and fetch them for me." Durga pulled him with her to their temple and held a few things before him.

A box of vermilion and a sacred thread... 

"Mom, they're just getting married before the lawyer and that's it."

"I know how Vihaan is, he must have told the poor girl that he doesn't like gaudiness or colorful events in his life. So they must have agreed to marry in pen and paper, but these are the blessings from Sanchi's mother-in-law. Tell Sanchi about it when you give these to Vihaan to put it on her. And yes, I am not able to become a witness to their marriage but I don't want to miss any of the moments. Get the pictures for me, please son," Durga pleaded enthusiastically.

Dheeraj thought to himself, "I can't even tell mom the truth about the divorce thing because she's just improving on her health. A little mistake on our part can cost her life. When she'll be completely cured, we can disclose the truth to her. But how will I manage doing everything? Vihaan will be so pissed with us."

"Just leave quickly, Dheeraj. I will be ready here to welcome my daughter-in-law. Fetch them as quickly as you can," Durga ordered him and Dheeraj simply promised to her. After all, he didn't really have a second choice!

To be continued...

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