Nishant Naik, billionaire MD of Naik Builders gets engaged but without love. Disillusioned, he gives up when a chance encounter leaves him intrigued and confused. For him, loving someone is giving your soul to her. Will he ever find someone to love...
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Siraj came and stood near the door and somehow managed to attract Dhruv's attention.
He and Sid came near him but Siraj just stood there not knowing how to begin.
"What?" Dhruv asked impatience getting better of him.
"They......have got a......body. They want us to......" Siraj stammered and finally stopped not able to say it anymore.
Dhruv clutched the doorframe hard trying to steady himself while Sid hugged himself to stop the trembling.
Vikrant Naik looked at the group standing near the door and his eyes narrowed as he realised something major was cooking up. He strode up to them and put a hand on Sid's shoulder.
Siraj backed away as Dhruv slowly turned with anguish written all over his face.
Vikrant looked at him questioningly but Dhruv failed to utter a single word.
"What is it?"
But still, he did not get a reply.
Irritated, Vikrant dragged Dhruv outside and shook him by his shoulders.
"Tell me, what is it?"
"The army has found a body........." Dhruv started to say but couldn't finish as a painful lump clogged his throat.
"And, they want us to identify it," Vikrant finished it for him, his face twisting with agony.
Dhruv just nodded and turned away.
Vikrant Naik breathed hard and wiped off his tears. He has to do this, not for himself, not for his family but for his brother. Gulping down the huge lump clogging his throat, he turned towards the drawing room and gestured Shefanjali to come outside.
The moment she came, he grabbed and pulled her to the corner and then told her everything.
Shefanjali clutched his shirt with effort as her mouth opened but Vikrant covered his hand on it and pressed her towards the wall.
"Shhhh! Please, don't. I want you to stay calm. Please."
As tears streamed down her eyes, she nodded and hugged Vikrant hard.
Aparna was still in a trance when the clock struck 1 pm. As if a mechanical being, she got up and wiped her tears off. Then, she went to the washroom and splashed cold water on her face and kept on splashing till every pore and vein became numb.
She wiped her face on the towel and suddenly felt completely alien. The pain erupting inside her was numbing everything. Mechanically, she picked up her bag and left the cottage for Prakriti's school.
All four of them approached the army Major standing near the clearing a little further away from the community hall. As he saw them, he came near.
Nodding, the officer beckoned them towards an ambulance standing nearby.
Vikrant slowly neared the ambulance with a dreaded feeling in his heart. As the officer opened the door, his heart almost stopped with fear. The body in front was covered with a white sheet stained with blood but somehow, his brain refused to register the blood stains and he gestured to remove it.
Slowly, the officer unravelled the face of the body and all of them cried out with pain as they saw it. The face was half gone.
"Is it him?" the Major asked.
Till now, Vikrant had been holding onto his tears, but as the question banged in his head, he started to sob hard.
"No, that's not my brother. That can't be my brother," he screamed in anguish as he turned away and wobbled near the corner where he lost everything he had eaten in the last 24 hours.
"Vikrant Bhaiyya?" Dhruv and Sid shouted in unison as they held him.
Siraj watched on dumbfounded not able to believe anything. He saw the ambulance move away. Closing his eyes, he turned away from everything and rested his back against a tree bark.
Bhaijaan is gone?
No!
How can that be?
Suddenly he heard Dhruv calling him and he started to turn towards them. But as he turned, his attention was grabbed by a man coming out of the army truck, which had just arrived with some villagers stuck at the landslide area. His eyes widened with recognition but his body refused to react. Suddenly as he found motion in his legs, he ran towards him shouting.
"BHAIJAAN!"
Sid and Dhruv looked in the same direction and saw Nishant limping towards them.
Vikrant blinked twice and started running towards his brother, for once not controlling his emotions at all.
Nishant saw him running and stopped where he was. The agonised look on his brother's face was enough to tell him what he had gone through in the past hours.
Vikrant reached him and instantly engulfed him in his arms, sobbing hard.
Nishant stood motionless for he did know how to react. It was the first time in his life that his brother was hugging him like this.
***************
Dhruv helped him get down from the army jeep as it stopped in front of the guest house.
Nishant's head whirled in 360-degree motion just as he neared the door. He steadied himself and stepped inside. The moment he did, the room erupted with cries and happy shouts.
Naresh Naik rushed to him and hugged him followed by his sister-in-law. But the moment they let him go, he saw his mother standing behind them. Her reddish eyes and streaming tears did not need any explanation.
"Nishu!"
Nishant eyes widened with surprise and shock just as he heard his nickname after so many years. Memories of his childhood rushed back in his head.
His mother hugging his brother and not him.
His mother playing with his brother and not him.
His mother turning her back on him while he shouted and cried, refusing to go with his grandfather.
Something had hardened a part of him that day. Although he loved her but somehow he never expected anything from her.
Nishant shook his head trying to brush away the negative feelings rising in him and started to walk towards her.
The moment he reached her, he saw her hands going up to his face and after all these years he felt his mother's touch.
Before he could relish the moment, everything went black.
