Celebrity Castaway | COMPLETE | MaNan Fiction

27| Ground Zero

A/N: Hello readers! Here we are again! So let's start with the good news first. We are #3 in Manan stories out of 5K+ stories & I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am, about it! When I started off on Wattpad some 3.5 years back, I wouldn't even get 20 votes in days for a chapter. I still remember my first MaNan story would get an average of 30 votes/week, and this was about 2 yrs back! What a journey it has been from an average of 30 to 300 votes/week! A stellar readership, a staggering rise in readers, and lots of votes, are what I got for reward of sticking to writing & telling my stories no matter what! If there is one thing, I am proud of in this journey, it is that, I never bullied my readers for votes! I never put targets, I have only ever requested & that bore fruits! So, my votes are organic, my readership is real & my love & gratitude for you folks are heartfelt! 

Thank you so so so much! On that note, happy reading!

***

"What?!?!" Manik shrieked into the phone. "Have you checked properly? Knock the washroom door, you moron! Don't barge in first though!" He barked orders to a flustered Shyam, who hurriedly did his bidding before responding over the phone.

"I rechecked the attached balcony, she is not there either. The washroom door is open, ma'am is not there either..sir I think she left" mumbled poor Shyam with a freaked out voice. Manik was in a momentary blip. She disappeared? Again? How? No, no, no. It wasn't safe for her. First the mobs, now his family being after her! What if she went to the press and said something against them? Would his treaty with the senior Malhotra's to keep Nandini safe still stand?! What if..what if they shoot her like Abhimanyu?

"No!!" Manik screamed loudly, breaking free from his reverie.

"Manik, what happened?" Cabir's panicked voice got his brain working again. He barked back at Shyam asking him to check the whole premise and ask the security guard at the gate & get back to him.

"Cabir, I think we lost her. Nandini has run away. Again." He confided in Cabir, as his voice shook in dismay. Cabir sighed.

"Manik, you can't say you didn't see this coming. She left you after your divorce too, remember? Plus this time she was only here to help you, bro. After the amount of backlash she received, I am surprised that you assumed she'd stay put in your farmhouse!" he reasoned with Manik. Manik kept mum. If Cabir knew half the complication this could create in her life, Cabir wouldn't be as calm and accepting of Nandini's choice of walking away!

"Cabir that's why I stationed my most trusted home staff Shyam there & kept the security on alert & even got security cameras installed before I took her there." Manik snapped, and at the same time it hit. Of course! Security cameras! If Nandini left, the cameras would capture that, and maybe he'd get some clues to head start his search mission? He immediately called the commissioner of police in Panvel to meet him at the farm house; he had a good rapport with this man, since he helped him with press restrictions of his farmhouse when they built it & helped keep it hidden from the press.

"Don't freak out, Manik. We will know about her whereabouts soon, like we did last time too.." Cabir assured him and for once he nodded. Well if she's not at home, that means at least she didn't overdose on the sleeping pills, which was his biggest fear.

***

As Manik reached Panvel and barged into the farmhouse, the commissioner was already there going through the security footage and he briefed Manik that Nandini had walked out of the farmhouse in the middle of the night around 3.30am and left on an unidentified dark four wheeler. Unfortunately due to darkness and reduced visibility due to trees present in the line of vision, they couldn't catch the number plate but it was safe to assume that the car was a private one, because around the area all rented cabs were mostly white. A raging Manik was about to charge at his security for not stopping Nandini or informing him, when the commissioner further informed him, the guard was caught on camera sleeping!