Kismet...

Ch 07| Battleship

"You okay bud?" Shivaay knelt beside Ansh, who was throwing up.

"Never better!" He said wiping his mouth.

"Want to go see Momma? She must be waiting for you?" He nodded with a bright smile.

"So...What do you want to do today? I took the day off..."

"Oh YAAAY! We can go to the beach maybe?"

"I think I'd like that too..."

"But Shivaay? Momma says you have a family....Won't they miss you?" Shivaay's palms got sweaty and he loosened up his tie.

Ansh's innocent question was far more complicated than it was meant to be. He was thankful to Tia, who understood him so well. Yet Ansh was right. He had a responsibility to his family; he also had a responsibility towards Ansh, and Ann too. No matter what the world would say, they were his responsibility too.

"Bud...I do have to go back to my family too...Just as you would go back to Momma everyday....But you should know...You are my family too! So I'll try my best to balance...It's going to be hard for me...I might muck up...But you'll call out on me if I do? Won't you?"

"Yeah I will! But if I am your family....Does that mean Momma's your family too?" Shiv smiled, and didn't hesitate for even a second when he said, "Yes Bud...You both are...Always!"

They parked the car, on the sidewalk by Ann's small house. It was no mansion , but his heart swelled up, with pride every time he came here. This was the place she raised Ansh all these years, alone. This is also the place Ansh took his first steps...Learnt to say his first words—Possibly the first words being Momma. He laughed to himself, and ruffled Ansh's hair.

"Okay buddy....Home..." He woke a sleepy Ansh, and opened the door for him.

They walked up to the front door, and Ansh pulled out the key, when the door swung open on it's own. Shiv and Ansh both looked up to see a very tall, Vikram Thaper towering over them.

"Vicky what are you doing here? Aren't you suppose to be in South Africa? Feeding the lions or something? " Ansh made a face, as if he met his arch nemesis.

"Ah now now Ansh...That's not the way we talk to adults...Manners my boy..." Vikram chuckled, and Shiv clenched his fists. How dare he talk about manners to my boy? Tall tower of hell....Pfft!

"I think he was making a joke Thaper...Hello again! Shiv..."

"Ah...Shiv the donor right..." Okay now the guy needed a punch right across his big ass nose!

" He's my Dad..."

"Dad?" Vikram looked straight at Ann, who was sitting on the couch with her leg propelled up on the coffee table with a pillow underneath it.

She attempted to stand up, and Shiv gestured her to stay put where she was. Vikram squinted his eyes at Shiv and held on to Ansh's shoulder.

"I think we have a lot to talk about...Don't we Annika? Maybe Ansh can go up to his room, and Mr. Shiv here can go back to wherever the hell he came from?" Vikram kept his gaze fixed on Ann, and she nodded.

Why isn't she saying anything? Why isn't she asking him to stay? Why is she listening to this asshole?

"Ann will you be alright if I leave?" Shiv asked her still standing on the door step.

"And why wouldn't she be alright with her fiancé Mr..."

"SHIVAAY SINGH OBEROI....THAPER...I am sure you know who I am..."

"Ah...Oberoi...You are the asshole who bought off that slum from my idiotic project manager and gave it back to those people?"

"You were trying to build on their homes...I believe that makes you the asshole!"