Treacherous Souls

VIII. "What do we do now?"

Manav Rajput

"Now what? What do I do with Manasvi?" I could hear Kabir's frustrated voice from Dhruv's office from outside the opaque door.

"Watch your tone, Kabir. I didn't force you to marry her." Dhruv's cold tone sounded, and I decided to wait outside instead of barging in, even though what I came here for was much more important.

"Of course, you didn't. You never force us to do anything, right? Just like you didn't force me to drive her to the airport." I heard a crashing sound, and then silence. Complete silence, which terrified me like nothing else.

"Are you done? You can leave if you are." His tone wasn't suggestive, and Kabir knew that because he opened the door the very next second only to see me.

"How much did you hear?" He growled, which made me so angry that I had to grip the files in my hand to keep myself from punching his face.

"Not enough to do anything." I voiced out, my voice just as much insensitive as his.

His glare didn't faze me as I gave him side to leave. Once he had angrily marched down the corridor of our office, I entered inside to see Dhruv sitting on his chair, twirling the paper weight in his hand and staring off into space.

"We have got some bigger issues at hand." I muttered, bringing him back into this world.

"What happened?"

"There are rumours about the existence of Rajput daughters-in-law." He stood up from his swivel chair in shock and snatched the newspaper from my hand, reading the recent article with furrowed brows.

Before any of us could say anything, Dhruv's phone rang and he put it on speaker for the both of us to hear what the speaker had to say.

"Dhruv? Did you see the news? The photos taken in Kabir's wedding got viral, and now everyone is talking about the Rajput brothers' wives." Mishka bhabhi's voice was calm, as if she was talking about the weather, and that was because she was not one to panick during such situations. She was the perfect eldest daughter-in-law and a perfect wife for Dhruv, who was the same as her.

"I did. How is Manasvi and Aastha?" We didn't know Manasvi and what type of person she was, so he had to ask about her, and Aastha was too soft spoken, she would not be able to handle this news very well.

"They are fine. Papa is asking for you, and bring Manav, Kabir and Arjun with you too. He is declaring a complete lockdown." She said, and cut the call.

We turned our gazes to the door of his office where we knew those idiots would be eavesdropping, so we didn't bother to wait and marched angrily all the way down to our cars.

These media people were surely going to see hell on earth after I made sure Aastha was not crying hysterically anymore.

***

She wasn't.

Bhabhi had handled her well, and my wife had stopped crying long ago but the tear streaks could still be visible on her cheeks. Manasvi, like Bhabhi, was very cool about the whole situation and was hugging my wife close enough to provide her warmth.