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

Chapter Thirty-one

At seven pm the next evening, sanyukta was in the park hotel, waiting for Mr. Vardhan suryavanshi at the table that was reserved for them. Her mobile kept on buzzing with raghu's texts. Raghu truly hated sanyukta meeting Mr. Vardhan what-so-ever and kept on pestering her to come back. But for sanyukta a decision taken once will never be retracted and so she kept on ignoring his messages.

Soon clock ticked seven thirty but there was no sign of Mr.vardhan Suryavanshi, the waiting began to irritate sanyukta, at a point she decided to leave but something stopped her, she then decided to wait for another half an hour and then would leave, thinking so she left for the loo.

It took pretty five minutes for her to come back from loo, and by the time she walked back to her table she caught sight of a man in his early fifties, sitting at the table, smoking his cigar.

"Mr.vardhan suryavanshiiii" sanyukta gritted her teeth checking her watch, she stomped her foot on ground and walked to him furiously. She didn't greet him even and just sat there like an angry kid. And that made the person sitting opposite to her smile. Sanyukta looked at him intently, as if studying his face. His age was pretty visible on his face with little wrinkles around his dark eyes and the grey strands of hair in his beard and on his head.

Sanyukta sat there in silence with poker face trying to suppress her anger and irritation and the person opposite to her sat with a constant smile on his face. Strange that the both of them were never like this, vardhan, never did smiled like this way since ages and sanyukta, she remember passing witty sarcastic comments for her rivals who ever don't have that punctuality, but today the scene was different and they she wondered why

Another five minutes passed and none of them spoke a word. It was the waiter who walked to their table broke the ice with his evergreen phrase "order sir", they both looked at him and vardhan took the menu card to his hands, sanyukta looked at vardhan. Vardhan smiled and said "what do you want to eat beta?"

"beta?" sanyukta narrowed her eyes. It was something unusual for her to hear such word. Being in the real estate world, a male dominant one and being a woman, a pretty seductive single woman, sanyukta never heard her rivals addressing her as 'beta'. seriously. Her rivals, competitors, regardless of their age all behaved alike, "after all all men are same" she used to think. In the initial years when her business was rooting deeply she learnt a thing that there will be no well wishers in the field of real estate, there will be only rivals and competitors. And she learnt to deal with them. Every men as a competitor or a rival she met, regardless of their age wanted her in their bed, wanted to kiss her or kill her, over the years in her business, she was expertised in identifying the filthy touch and sugar coated words which actually had a worse intention behind. The lust with which the eyes see her, the lecherous smile that greeted her. But today it was something different.

The smile on vardhan's face seemed so genuine that sanyukta couldn't refrain herself from smiling back, she actually forgot the main purpose of their dinner meeting today. the dinner went with perk up talks and all smiles, there was no business but only a heartfelt talk, never in her life sanyukta had a dinner, enjoying this way other than with randhir and this was strange. She felt a strange connection to this man sitting opposite to her and dining, she felt a fatherly bond with him, she sensed care and protection in his stone cold voice, and she had seen love in his pitch black eyes

Even after the dinner was completed, they sat there talking and they lost track of time. At ten in the night sanyukta realized that she was late and that randhir must be waiting for her, soon she took leave of him and began to walk out of the hotel when she heard him calling her from behind. She turned back only to see a crippled vardhan walking towards her with the help of crutches. And the sight pained her. She stood there silently, watching him, and with every step he took towards her, her heart turned heavy. Mean whilst her reached her and said "if you don't mind, will you drop me home beta?"

"Sure sure" she smiled as a lone tear rolled down her cheek, she wiped it and held his hand to support him.

~~~~~~

As clock stuck eleven in the night sanyukta entered into her flat with the key she kept with her, and found randhir standing in the balcony sipping wine from his glass. She flung the car keys, her bag aside and walked straight to balcony.

"ranuuuuu" she hugged him from behind, randhir smiled, took her hand and kissed the back of her hand.

"You're getting busy these days" randhir pouted

"Business meetings baby" she was in his arms now, pecking his pout. He smiled, hugging her tightly. She broke the hug suddenly as if she remembered something and asked him curiously "know what rain-deer? I met someone today"

"Is it? Who is that?" he asked adjusting her stray strands of hair behind her ear. Pecking her forehead.

"sun na." she pouted and that made randhir smile "say" he smiled.

Sanyukta walked him to the couch, there in the balcony and made him sit, when she was about to sit beside him, he pulled her into his lap. She adjusted herself comfortably in his lap and blabbered everything that happened the previous day and that day at the dinner. Randhir listened to her patiently and asked her "did you drop him home?"

sanyukta sucked in a sharp breathe and said "i did. And know what? He asked me to call him 'papa'"

"What did you say?"

"I cried" sanyukta hung her head low and said with a pout. randhir cupped her face and made her look at him, she was on verge of tears

"I know vardhan" he said

"You know??" sanyukta seemed to be surprised. Randhir nodded and picked her up to their room in his arms

"Tell me randhir. Just. Please" sanyukta kept on iterating. Randhir silently placed her on bed and sat beside her. She crawled up into his lap and wrapped her arms round his neck. "Tell me na" she cocked her head

Randhir sighed and said. "I don't know much. Dad knows. After all he's a business tycoon too. When i was a kid there were allegations on him that he killed his daughter and portrayed it as an accident and from then on his wife went missing. No one knows what happened actually and it remained as a mystery. There after he wasn't much active in his business activities, people haven't seen him for years. Strange that he met you for dinner" randhir shrugged, and it was still like a mystery for her. Why the heck on earth did vardhan stalked her? Why did he meet her? Why did he ask her to call him 'papa'? — Questions began to whirl in her mind. But for her one thing was damn sure that vardhan wasn't a criminal and that he's harmless. Sanyukta was pensive.

"What are you thinking???" randhir shook her hard that it disturbed her thought chain, she shook her head and crooned an "hmm" and fell silent for a while. However after a moment she spoke "let's go to his house tomorrow"

"His house??? But why?" randhir was staggered by her words.

"There is something intriguing about him randhir. Some tangled mess and I feel like his life is somewhere tangled with mine. With ours. And I can't sleep sound without sorting it out. I need to know this." Her voice was stern. Randhir did understand her inner turmoil and so accepted her though of visiting vardhan's house the next day.