Enemy Within

Chapter 5

The wedding had started off in a manner that indicated ample excitement through out the day. Laksh's horse had been hell bent on throwing him off. Sanskar had wondered why he couldn't have been sensible enough to just use a car, but then this was Laksh. They had finally reached Swara's house, Baadi, only to find out that the bride had gone missing. She had run away leaving behind a video stating she wasn't ready for the wedding and was leaving Laksh. Ragini had tried to console a heartbroken Laksh, but some of her comments had rankled Shomi to the extent that she had announced Ragini had somehow been behind Swara's disappearance and all wasn't as it appeared.

Sanskar had been standing away from the drama, watching everything minutely. At different times all through this, he had felt more than one pair of eyes watching him. He had messaged his assistant Kunal, about 45 minutes back when this drama first began. His instruction was clear; he had wanted Swara located. Sanskar suspected some sly game was underway and the 'innocent looking' Ragini seemed to be at the center of this. He liked to be top of anything that could even remotely impact his plans. That wasn't the only reason for his recent instruction to Kunal, but it was still the main one. His phone beeped, it was Kunal messaging him. Sanskar had always been impressed by his efficiency. It was a hospital address. Sanskar sneaked out from there and made his way to the hospital.

At the hospital he was directed to her room. On entering the room, he saw her lying on the bed. Baring some scratches she seemed fine, exhausted, but otherwise fine. He was told she apparently walked into the Ganges. She was about to completely drown when some of fishermen saw her and pulled her into their boat. She had already inhaled lot of water. While they got it all out, she had fallen unconscious after that. Unsure of the seriousness of the issue and looking at her well-to-do clothes, they had brought her to this hospital. The doctor who examined her thought that she might have been drugged, rather than trying to hurt herself. She had just regained consciousness when he had entered the room. She looked at him, surprised to find him there.

"Miss BGM, for a moment there I thought you had become wiser and decided to wash your hands off my cousin, but your dear sister seems more keen to take him off your hands" he told her, seeing her stare at him.

"What are you doing here? Come to gloat?" she asked softly

"Why would I gloat over your narrow miss from the disaster of marrying my dear cousin, Miss BGM?"

"Why are you here? Look I am not in the right frame of mind to fight with you right now" she pleaded

"I am here you give you a lift back to Baadi, that is in case you want stop your sister and stick to my cousin after all"

"Why this generosity all of a sudden?" she asked, surprised by his offer

"Don't concern yourself with the why's Miss BGM. Do you want the lift back home or not?"

"There are questions that I need to ask my sister. I need to ask her why she did this to me" Swara looked at Sanskar, her eyes welling up at the memories of what transpired just a few hours between her sister and herself "Yes, I need a lift"

"Lets be quick then. We don't have any time to loss. Your sister is quite the actress by the way."

Swara tried to stand up from the hospital bed, but almost fell down. Sanskar quickly grabbed her hand, to prevent the fall. Beyond exhaustion, she seemed to still be in some mental shock, it was clear to him that she wouldn't be able to make the journey on her own feet right now. He lifted her in his arms, giving her a quick glance, before making his way to the lift.

They drove in silence for a while. At one point, Sanskar handed her his handkerchief seeing her cry, but there was no conversation. He sped through the roads. Swara wasn't sure why he had done what he had, but right now Ragini was plaguing her mind too much for her to give this any additional thought.