𝖉𝖎𝖘𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖚𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓 | ✓

𝔢𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱

Annika stared at the decorators rushing past her while she stood to a side, pretending to be interested and involved in the preparations being made for a small evening garden party to quell all worries and rumours about the Oberois having a dead body dropped in the middle of the youngest Oberoi brother's gift ceremony.

Her eyes kept on darting towards the ceiling, the scene replaying over and over in her head.

Her nightmares had been plaguing her even more than before: her confusion and stress only rising as she tried hard to understand why they had burst into flames all of a sudden.

Annika didn't remember much of her childhood other than dark rooms and hugging her sister tightly while they slept on the streets or in the orphanage. She remembered warm hugs that felt like a mother's embrace, and laughs which sounded like her father.

The fact that she was suddenly remembering so much in details was scary as well as comforting. She didn't understand why they were of occurring all of a sudden—— she hadn't wished to unearth her background, nor had she felt a pull towards it in several years since Sahil's parents had taken her in.

"Bhoujai!" Gauri rushed up to her, urgency in her voice as her eyes darted around in panic.

"Gauri? Kya hua?" Annika cupped her cheeks, looking at her sister-in-law worriedly.

"Bhoujai! Aap chaliye mere saath," Gauri dragged her away.

<>•<>

Annika looked on in surprise as Bhavya arranged scrambled papers on her bed in a strange pattern with threads connecting them.

"Bhavya?" Annika frowned. "Ye kya CID ke tarha murder board banake rakkha hain?"

"Bhabhi aap baithiye," Bhavya said urgently. She pointed at a paper with the name Payal, connecting to Manav, with a hastily scribbled dead written under it.

"Bhavya thinks that Manav was murdered because the assailant couldn't get to Payal," Gauri spoke up. Annika looked at the two, shocked.

"What?" Annika whipped around to look at Bhavya worriedly, "Why would you say that?"

"Bhabhi," Bhavya shook her head, "I checked the CCTV footage." She swallowed. "The Oberois' records show that it has all been deleted but the person who m-m-murdered Manav," she paused, her voice wobbly as Gauri gripped her arms tightly. "Tried to take Payal away. Manav and Payal had both been drugged by someone masked. And they came back inside after we left."

"What did they do?" Annika whispered quietly.

"They dragged Payal away inside a suitcase and Manav inside a body bag. They cleaned all traces of struggle and furnished my entire bedroom," Bhavya met her eyes with an indescribable amount of fear.

Annika felt her heart drop to her stomach—— she looked at Gauri and Bhavya who were staring at her horrified. Her own fear was palpable—— if they had the ability to enter Oberoi Mansion undetected and cause such a scandal, just how influential and powerful were these people?

<>•<>

Annika walked restlessly, her mind replaying Bhavya's words over and over again when she was suddenly grabbed by someone. Before she could scream, someone slapped a thick piece of tape over her mouth and threw her onto the floor of a store room.

As her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, she turned around to leave, when light, reflecting off gold letterings, caught her eye. .

Her eyes fell onto a file which had the words GreenGrid: RC, AvRaz and Oberoi Group of Industries, 1993-2003.