Making Her Mine- An IPKKND story.

Chapter 40 - Inquisition

The officer who met Arnav and Akash at the farmhouse was a tall mustached man wearing the khaki uniform of Delhi Police, his eyes dark and heavily-lidded. He had brought along a subordinate. Aman accompanied them.

"Thank you for coming here." Arnav said, extending a handshake, swallowing his revulsion at the sight of the uniform.

"ACP Viraj Dubey," the officer said, shaking his hand. He flicked a glance at Aman. "It's no trouble. Someone tried to kill you. We will do everything to catch them."

They settled down in the study, with the farmhouse caretaker, Manohar, serving refreshments Aman had thoughtfully organized for them.

"Mr. Mathur told me about your attacker — and also your suspicions about your brother-in-law. Rest assured, Mr. Raizada, I understand the delicacy of the situation. Please tell me everything — start with a detailed description of the attacker and the attack itself — everything you remember. Then you can tell me about Shyam Manohar Jha."

The attacker bit was the easy part. Why he suspected Shyam was a lot harder.

"He is cheating on my sister — he confessed this to me himself. I failed to remove him from my house because my sister is pregnant, and I was worried for her and her baby. She worships him. I was waiting for the baby to be born, but I suspect Shyam is after our money, and he knows time is running out for him."

"Have you seen the new Page 3 article about you?" ACP Dubey asked unexpectedly.

"No... why?"

"There's a journalist who has dug up quite a bit about you — interesting stuff. Last year, your wife fell from the ramp in a Lucknow fashion show — yours — straight into your arms. It became a bit of a sensation on local channels. Then she came to Delhi and worked with you in your office and in your home. Then you were to be engaged to a Miss Lavanya Kashyap, but you announced the relationship was broken on the day of the engagement. Miss Kashyap is no longer in the country. A few months later, you were suddenly married, but there was no announcement or even a ceremony. No one knows the exact date when you got married."

"All this is in the paper?" Arnav asked, looking around at Aman.

Aman nodded. "I didn't have the chance to tell you — it's brand new. Our people are working to —"

"What has that got to do with anything..." Arnav said through gritted teeth, turning to the officer.

"I know you said you suspect your brother-in-law. I'm going to take that seriously and look into it. But my job is not to only investigate your suspicions. I need to know who all had the motive to harm you. Whoever attacked you knew where you were and was keeping an eye on you – that's the only way they could have found you."

"Lavanya and I ended things on good terms," Arnav replied, unable to get the anger out of his voice. "And my wife —"

"Please tell me about your wife. She's also your sister-in-law?" The last part was directed to Akash.

There was no choice, he had to explain everything about Shyam. The police were there to help. Arnav made up his mind grudgingly, hating this smug policeman.

"Shyam wanted to marry her. Before I — before he — he tricked her family into thinking he was single and got engaged to her. This was before Akash got married to her sister."

"You better tell me the whole story, Mr. Raizada."

It was not fun telling a stranger the most private details of his life — everything he had kept from his family and even Aman, to an extent. Arnav skimmed over the part where he had blackmailed Khushi to marry him. It made his story a bit patchy, but that wasn't something he wanted to share with the police. And he hadn't yet mentioned the contract to Akash — not that it held any meaning anymore.