A suitable Man

Chapter 30

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Smriti's house

Smriti woke up with a start, she was disoriented about where she was. She looked around for Mahendra when she realised she was at her father's place. She sighed and got up, quickly doing all the routine things she used to do when she was home. She went looking for her father, " Appa, tea is ready, breakfast is on the table". Padmakar came in, in a pensive mood. He looked at Smriti and said, " Its really puzzling me, why did that husband of yours leave you so easily, after all the tall claims he made, all those things he said, he was ready to pay me whatever money I wanted for you.... I mean this is really so not right, he let go off you!!!!!, and you also came back to me without any qualms, without having a inch of shame. You never thought of how I will deal with the embarrassment you caused me by eloping away with that boy!!!! You have the gall to come back to me again". He almost shouted at Smriti.

Smriti was alarmed, her cover would blow up. She had to convince her father that things were indeed bad between her and Mahendra. She made a sad face saying, " I know Appa, I have done terrible things to displease you, but now i realise my mistake, and i don't have anyone else in the world but you and Shashank", she hated herself for saying this. To overflow with love for someone and not able to express it openly is the biggest punishment for a person. She continued saying, " the moment that came to know I am your daughter, they just didn't like it at all, and after that Sheena Nayak attacked Mahendra, it was confirmed that it was because of me and my ill fortune. They didn't want their only son to be sacrificed". Please Appa, I have no where to go, no one I can call my own." She shed some crocodile tears. Padmakar knew his daughter would not lie, how ever he had treated her, she had been a very good daughter always. Only if she was indeed his daughter, for a moment Sumitra's agonised face flashed before his eyes. The beautiful helpless Sumitra, he had taken pity on, rather, taken advantage in her sorry state. He brushed away those thoughts. Now he had this girl on his hands again. He would make full use of this girl till she was with him. He would make her work as he used to, he would make her repent every single day she spent with Mahendra, and after making her at his mercy, he would again put the proposal of Vishwanath in front of her. Under his debt she would be forced to marry again. Padmakar couldn't help but smile at all the wicked thoughts he had. He would fund his son's higher studies with all the money he would make. He would then marry Shashank too with a wealthy girl and amass more wealth. He made a mental note of all the things he would need to do to make Smriti forever in his debt.

Smriti was observing her father, she was not sure whether he was totally convinced. She had to put up the facade of a woman deserted by her husband. Her acting skills were on test now. She had to think of ways to convince her father.

Few days went by, there was no sign of Sheena trying to met Padmakar. Smriti too had never let her cover blow up. She used to chat with Mahendra every night, that was the only good thing of her day. She looked forward to the time when her father would go to sleep.

It was almost a fortnight that they hadn't even had a glimpse of each other, it was killing them both inwardly. Mahendra had been very busy these days as he was tightening on the security of his plantations, checking out on each and every suspicious activity in the area. The henchmen of Sheena were nabbed from the nearby villages. They were not ready to disclose the whereabouts of their Sheena Anna. Inspector Prabhakar had wired all the major police stations up to Mangalore about Sheena's disappearance. Vasundhara had gone back to Bangalore instructing Mahendra that as soon as he nabbed Sheena, she would personally come down again to Kumta, along with Dodda and Karunakar too.