Love's Strange Ways *COMPLETED*

Chapter 2

Vishal was all smiles on his way to his wedding. He felt like it was a dream. Everything was happening so perfectly; his arranged marriage without seeing the bride or knowing how she was in appearance. He had never expected his Granz would find the perfect girl who agreed to have an arranged marriage and make his dream come true this soon.

As Vishal arrived at the marriage venue, a wedding hall near the bride's home in Hosur, a distraught Mr. Reddy received him. His daughter, the bride, was missing!

It was a real commotion. All of the guests had already arrived. The bride's family had searched all over their house but to no avail; the bride was nowhere to be found. She had just mysteriously disappeared.

Half an hour later, Mr. Reddy received a call from the kidnapper, not for a ransom, but for the bridegroom, Vishal, alone to settle a deal with him in return for the bride, at a nearby forest clearing in Hosur.

Mr. Reddy turned to Vishal, apprehensively. Would Vishal go to protect his daughter? To Vishal, Shreya was no one yet. If not Shreya, Vishal would definitely be able to find another girl to marry. Would he be ready to take the risk and meet Shreya's kidnapper to save her?

Before Mr. Reddy could ask, Vishal, who had heard the phone call with the kidnapper, spoke, "I will go and meet him right away."

"I will accompany you as well," suggested Mr. Reddy.

"There is no need for that, Uncle. Whoever the kidnapper is, he wants to settle a deal with me alone. I will go alone. I will not return without Shreya."

***

Shreya interlocked her fingers nervously as she glanced around at all her friends seated in the van around her. They were waiting in the van near the forest clearing where Vishal was to arrive.

"Don't worry, Shrey," assured Mili, "We were worried if we would've been able to get you out of your house without anyone noticing. That worked. So now, there's nothing to worry; our plan will work."

"Do you think he'll come?" asked Shreya, biting her lip in her anxiety.

"Let's wait and see, Shrey. If he doesn't come, be glad you didn't marry him," replied Nikhil.

"What if he doesn't turn up?" inquired Swati.

"Then, Shrey will have to return home, alone, in the evening, pretending like she was able to escape from her kidnappers. And you will break off this wedding, right Shrey?" responded Ram.

After a moment of silence, Shreya hesitantly muttered, "Yeah."

Shreya wished Vishal would turn up and pass the tests they had planned. If not, the man deemed perfect by her Dad would not be the perfect one after all.

The seven friends were seated in silence, lost in their thoughts, in the van hidden behind some trees near the forest clearing when they heard the sound of a motorbike zooming towards the forest clearing from afar.

"Looks like your guy is here after all, Shrey," asserted Dev, with a smirk.

Dev, Nikhil and Ram descended from the van. Ram stood by the van, behind a tree, while Dev and Nikhil headed towards the clearing to meet Vishal.

Shreya and the rest of her friends, the girls, peered out through the windows of the van. They could clearly see the vast forest opening but no one from there could see them in the van behind the trees.

Shreya saw Vishal in real life for the first time. She had only seen Vishal in a photograph once, shown to her by his grandmother a week before. Wearing his wedding suit, he appeared quite charming as he got off the motorbike.