Dream and Destiny:The Saga of Love, Faith and Betrayal. *Editing*

Chapter Twenty Four

Sanyukta decided not to be grand and to take public transport to the dinner place, she slipped herself into a casual outfit, put on her shrug and walked down to the basement, before she left, she made sure that she had all the necessary documents with her, she called raghu and told him that she's going to meet parth. Raghu said nothing but he strongly opposed her idea of taking public transport to meet parth, however on his insistence, sanyukta drove to the dinner place in her plush black Honda city car.

At 8 00 pm sharp sanyukta found herself in front of a huge swanky hotel building especially for business purposes, she sucked in a lung full of air and entered in, the boy there ushered her to the restaurant. By the time she stepped into the restaurant, she found parth at a table, waiting for her, with a bouquet full of red roses. The sight of parth with roses, waiting for her itself made her blood boil. She clenched her jaws to control herself and walked steadily up to the table. As soon as parth saw sanyukta, he stood up and stepped forward to hug her. He did. But she didn't return the hug as she grasped his intentions from the way he hugged her. It was nothing a friendly hug. It was all a lustful one, a lecherous one, as she felt. She smiled smugly and distanced herself. She quietly sat in the chair.

Her act was like a slap on parth's face. He fell silent and sat back in his chair. The first five minutes went in silence; neither sanyukta nor parth spoke a word, another moment rolled and parth essentially broke the silence between them,

"Isn't the music amusing" he asked referring to the light violin music playing behind in the restaurant.

"Sometimes dogs' barks too sound amusing mister parth," she smirked. Her words stung his heart, he felt something fishy but meeting her after months and the overwhelming happiness he felt when he saw her in front of him urged him to stay silent and laugh her words off and not to spoil the moment. So he did.

"Nice one!" he laughed.

"Nicer than this?" she rose her brow pushing the file raghu had given her the previous night, towards him. Parth's face tightened as he took the file into his hands and began to read it. His face went pale. But still he composed himself and said "I called you here to talk about this"

"Is it? That's so interesting mister parth. So... come, let's begin talking about this" she said leaning on to the table resting her chin on to the back of her palm.

"sanyukta" parth was calm.

"Yes parth?" she raised her brows tilting her face down a little that few of her tresses fell on her forehead. Parth looked at her for a moment in silence and then smiled. Pissed off with this behavior, she pushed those stray locks back and asked "what's making you smile sir?"

There was another moment of a strange silence. After which parth took out a small box, covered with blue velvet cloth and placed it open in front of her. It has an expensive diamond heart shape inscribed in a platinum love band.

"Will you be my better half for the rest of my life?" he asked.

His words hit her ears immediately making her feel like she just received a 1000 volt shock. Her jaw dropped in shock, disbelief and utter disgust. This was certainly an unexpected situation for her. For a moment she felt uncomfortable. But still she remembered the purpose that made her sit here in the restaurant in front of that uber-disgusting creature named parth. So she controlled herself for a moment and spoke with a smile, a sarcastic one that parth grasped immediately.

"Leave aside the marriage thing parth but have you ever wondered how agawal's sank into bankruptcy shortly in a span of two weeks?" she asked fiddling the fork in her hands. Parth fell silent and leaned back in his chair as if he was studying her. He actually was!

"You suspecting me?" he asked a minute later.

"Ain't. Am sure of your hand in this" she leaned back. There was a much needed silence again after which sanyukta spoke. She said something that she never could have said to parth. Never in her life. But she said.

"In case you think they are helpless and alone then let me kill your misconceptions mister parth" she said and the colors on parth's face faded. He was baffled at her words. Whilst she continued to speak "their daughter is still alive mister parth, to protect them and her family" saying so she shoved another file towards him. Parth, too perplexed to register her words silently took the file and skimmed through the papers, the papers were evidences that the legal heir of Mr. Kishore Agarwal Ankit Agarwal claimed 50% shares in agarwal auto mobiles whilst the remaining 50 are on the name of Rain-Deer group of enterprises

Things slowly began to make sense for parth, he simply left the file on the table, and leaned back in his chair, there was an unexpected smile on his face, it was unpredictable too. Sanyukta was watching him in surprise

"So you are sanyukta agarwal" parth guffawed.

"Yes. I am! Am Sanyukta Agarwal" sanyukta emphasized the word 'agarwal' as she said with the same attitude that made her stand unique, however, it was the second ever time in her life that she had said her name along with her family name and that was the biggest mistake she ever did.

She expected parth to burst out and display his wrath as she observed his palms balling into fists and his veins bulging. But the irony is that, Parth's face softened, he looked at her as if she was a kid who wasn't on talking terms with her friend for spoiling her favorite toy. He stood up, walked up to sanyukta and knelt in front of her. Sanyukta's heart was now thumping and was pumping faster than usual. Cold sweat broke into beads on her forehead while parth spoke.

"Good to hear that" he held her chin in between his thumb and index finger and made her look at him

"i am surely going to destroy the Agarwal's, take it to be granted. But my love for you dominated my hatred on Agarwals that i can't harm you" he said, his voice dark, his fingers slowly tracing her jaw line, reaching her neck, sanyukta shuddered for life under his disgusting touch, before she could realize what that was happening parth gripped her neck.

The people around them were now staring at them in horror and shock, but parth ignored them and continued to speak through his clenched jaws "had you not been that pretty lady who stole my heart, I could've killed you the moment you said you're agarwal's blood" his grip grew tighter with every word of his, his voice unusually strong, strange and frightening, soon sanyukta began to feel stifled and suffocated, under his grip, but she didn't let that play on her face. But parth grasped it and smirked at her

"But I didn't" he loosened his grip and sanyukta gasped for breathe "be my official whore baby. I'll let you breathe" he winked tapping on her cheek. Sanyukta was staring at him with blood shot eyes; her face was pale because of the short asphyxiation she just underwent. There were finger imprints on her neck.

Parth ignored her gaze and got to his feet "it takes seconds for me to destroy you and your empire. So think twice and act wise" he picked up the bouquet "i know what a wiser business tycoon like you does, meet you soon at our wedding. Hasta la vista baby" he placed the bouquet in her lap, the platinum love band in her hand and walked out leaving a dumbstruck sanyukta behind.

The clock struck 11 in the night the restaurant patron float had thinned up but sanyukta sat there still. Like a stone, too numb to react, too shocked to register things, too scared to think. She had dealt with many jerks and perverts before, ever since she embarked her journey as a real estate developer but this encounter with parth made her feel that something worst was going to happen. She just sat there thinking what she had to do to get rid of that parth in order to save herself, her family and her empire, doing that she lost track of time and totally forgot that there was a heart to which she belongs was worrying about her being late. There was a soul to which she was connected was roaming on deserted roads of Delhi searching for her! She forgot that there was randhir waiting for her back at home!!!