The First Trillionaire

Untitled Part 20

More than two decades later, the same Sachidanand who had become a DGP brought the news of Vanashree to Olivia one afternoon through email. And the most wonderful part of the news was that she had a daughter, Shail who was Peter's daughter. Sachidanand had attached Shail's Facebook profile picture and had also included the photo of the mother-daughter duo. Olivia came online instantly and started chatting with Sachidanand Singh. She sat in her cushioned armchair overlooking the Thames. While in Bhagalpur, Sachidanand sat on the bed of the guesthouse typing the urgent mail to Olivia. He was relieved to see Olivia online. She typed:

'Tell me everything. Start from the beginning'

He replied:

'I saw the Bhramarpur Durga Mandir page on Facebook and sent a request to join it. And later when I became friends with Shail, I saw that she had posted a photo with her mother who was none other than Vanashree. I recognised her instantly; she was the same girl from our class.

As soon as I saw Vanashree in Shail's profile, I immediately made a call to IG Bhagalpur range and took a car to visit Bhramarpur village in the night itself. I camped in the car till next morning, and proceeded to search for her as a commoner, but nobody seemed to know her. Later in the day, as I continued my search, I felt really sad that she was not highly regarded by the villagers who knew her, except for few people like Ramu Sharma who took me to her home when I showed him the photograph in Facebook'.

Olivia had a question nagging her mind.

'Are you sure that it is the same Vanashree who was your classmate?'

'Absolutely. I can tell you aunty that I can recognise the dimpled Vanashree and her brother Kran from a million people in India'.

Olivia instantly asked,

'Kran, the CEO of Near Earth Miner's Group'?

'Yes, he is the one. And he is partly responsible for the mess that Vanashree found herself in for no fault of hers. I think they are not in touch with each other as Kran left home many years before. After Peter left school and when I had a talk with Vanashree last time, she didn't say anything about him...'

He continued to type.

'She recognised me at once and told me her story, which was not a happy one for sure. She was quite upset that I had seen her in not-so favorable conditions, but I could see her pride in her daughter, Shail who was on her way to join the East India bank. As she gave me tea, I asked her about her husband. She replied that he was dead and she looked like she was in pain as she said 'You remember your friend Peter? He was my husband and we got married in the Saptami of 1990 when we met after years of separation. He told me that they had left India and were settled abroad. Vanashree said that she used to visit the Vaishno Devi shrine every year and in 1990 she found Peter there who insisted on marrying her right then and wanted to bring her to England. They got married outside the holy cave there, and later boarded his private helicopter. But a few hours before they could land, the helicopter developed a technical snag and it crashed. Vanashree lost her consciousness and it was only after three days that she came to know that the helicopter crashed nearby a jungle and all the occupants except for her were dead. A saint living near the forest had found her, took care of her for two weeks and arranged for her return to her village when she was better. After three months, the young Vanashree found herself pregnant with Peter's child much to the dismay of the villagers who could not bear the sight of an unwed mother amongst them'.

Sachidanand stopped typing for a while as he began to think about the whole sad affair while Olivia was trying to put together all the information and facts that somehow linked and inter-linked their lives. She was thinking hard, stirring decades-old memories, "Peter at Nature's Heart with Sachidanand, Vanashree and Kran; Magnolia jumps to her death because Napier shot and killed the Adivasi boy..." she could not remember his name and continued her trail of thoughts. "Kran leaves home and somehow comes to America, Vanashree goes back to her village and visits Vaishno Devi shrine every year, meets Peter in 1990 and they get married. The helicopter crashes on their way back next day and Peter was dead before he could tell us. Yes, that's why he was not interested in girls or marriage here, and it was the reason he had put Vanashree's name in his will for he was confident of meeting her during one of the visits to Vaishno Devi temple..."

Sachidanand returned from his musings and began to type again,

'Aunty, Vanashree has suffered a lot I can say, and fate has not been kind to her for the world had only abuse for her and her daughter. She has tried very hard to shield Shail from the outside world. She taught her every subject herself and later gave her schooling through open school and correspondence. Shail is an intelligent child and she cleared the IBPS exam after her graduation. Now she is in Mumbai for her training'.

Sachidanand added almost pleadingly,

'Vanashree and Shail really deserve and need your love and attention aunty,

If you wish, I'll tell them all about you and their relation to you as I have not told them anything yet'.

Olivia thought for a moment then wrote:

'No, don't tell them now. Give me some time, I want to think about how I'll approach them. Will you promise me something?'

'Yes aunty. Anything.'

'Please look after Shail and Vanashree and give them all the help they need for my sake, but never make them aware of my intention to help them.'

Olivia stopped typing for few seconds, her mind working fast.

'What did you say about Facebook? That you had become friend with Shail through Facebook?'

The news revived Olivia again and she felt energetic enough to take stock of her businesses and their accounts, for, her wealth now had a purpose—an heir was there for all of it. She had been depressed after the death of Peter and Sid, her relationship with Kran was almost next to nil and her interest in business had begun to wane few years before Sachidanand brought the good news about Vanashree. She could not contemplate suicide as she felt that it would be the betrayal of love and trust of her mother, Sid, Magnolia and most of all Peter who had given 50% of his wealth to his mother. She felt that they wanted her to carry on their business empire borne out of hard work and honest efforts. She worked like a machine, doing all that was necessary. But at the end of every day, alone in her room, she felt angry at her fate and at her family who had left her alone and lonely. She would say to herself, "I'll work till the last breath of my life," but wished she could rest and hand over the charge of her affairs to someone. "Kran is not the one who is going to get a single penny when I die, instead I'll give everything to charity." She had ample time to think about her legacy in her 94 years until she heard from DGP Sachidanand about Shail.

Olivia called the young daughter of her personal assistant to learn about Facebook and within a few hours, her frail fore-finger had sent the friend request to Shail. She had wanted to say so many things to her grand-daughter and give her all the wealth on seeing her cute profile picture. "She looks a lot like me when I was her age and had braided hair. Yes, there is a lot more of Peter in her face than her mother." Olivia used to think over and over again as she looked at the profile picture of Shail and the other picture of Shail and Vanashree together. Olivia wished she could shower Shail with gifts, as she wanted Shail to have a piece of the wealth that was hers only. She could not wait a second to transfer some money when Shail had given her account number flippantly, and the selfie of Shail with the poster of a girl on a scooter only gave her a way to indulge her girly wishes. All the hard work and heartache of years disappeared when Olivia took a look at Shail's profile picture, "Going to work in a bank, aren't you? My grand-daughter after all," she smiled with pride. "Learn whatever you can, for I am waiting to give you the reigns of my empire."

Life had a new purpose; a new meaning. Olivia smiled fully for the first time in years.