BEYOND THE CLOUDS (Completed)

Chapter 40

After immersing her mothers ashes in the Beas river, they had all returned to Mumbai remorsefully.

For the first month, Shehnaaz had been beyond grieved, mourning the loss of her mother.

But somewhere the pitiful sight of her father had acted like a soother on her scars of all the years.

He hadn’t even recognized her and that had lifted off a huge mountain from her chest.

All those years she had been living under the fear of being discovered and harmed by him, seemed to have vanished.

Also the fact that Sidharth had stationed a man in Punjab specially to keep an eye on the bugger’s activity had left her even relieved.

The next two months after that passed by in a whim with both Sidharth and Shehnaaz occupied with their work.

They obviously spent a lot of time together, and with the aversion of being spotted in public or even papped gone, they had started to go out more often attending parties, visiting friends or even a cosy dinner sometimes.

She had been a bit distant from the time they were back but Sidharth had chosen to respect that and stood by her like any partner would.

The shutterbugs however went crazy and every second day Shehnaaz would find an article or a picture of them.

Not someone to mince their words, the tabloids had blatantly referred to her as a crawly to the lolly, fortune hunter, gold digger etc etc.

While she chose to ignore the filth, it was Sidharth who went berserk each time he read things like that and already had one publication run down and defamation suits filed against two others.

Today after learning his line-up of meetings for the day Shehnaaz had volunteered to visit him in his office in the evening, after which they were hosting her friends for drinks at salt water grill.

Even the thought of her brought a warm smile to his face, but before that he had to get over the monthly ritual he hated the most.

Dragging his feet to the boardroom, he braced himself “Hello Sidharth” his mother flashed a smile at him, as he entered for their monthly meet.

These interactions always left him stewing in anger, but since the past two months Shehnaaz had been his escape.

He would finish the unbearable encounter and as promised to her, instead of turning to alcohol, he rushed to his doll who miraculously took away all his woes and put a smile back on his face.

Without a word, Sidharth sat back, avoiding any eye contact with her and sifted through the papers in his hand.

“That’s so impolite, where are your manners Sidharth?” she scoffed, narrowing her gaze at him.

“Mrs. Sarika Shukla, polite or impolite, u have never been the one to teach me anything so do not judge my manners” still looking into the papers, his angry retort shut her up.

Soon as they were joined by his father and KK, their family attorney, the meeting had begun.

With the usual bantering on money matters and over expenditure on their limits, he watched the two bite each others heads off while he and KK played the mute spectator.

It amazed him, that at this age too both his parents were prioritizing money and the fun that followed it.

Flaring with anger, he stood up pushing the chair behind him.

“Enough!!!” he growled “u guys make me sick. I am not going to entertain any over spilled expenses. You will get only and only what you are supposed to. What is done over and above that is not my concern. Clean your shit yourself” with a firm edge to his voice, he buttoned his jacket and gestured Hariharan to hand over the cheques.