Fates

Part 41- Reunions

Abhi, Alia, Purab, and Meera were all seating in a conference room, at a long table, waiting for the new investor to arrive.

"Alia, do you know where Riya is? Mr. Shergill could be here any moment. And Riya needs to be here to cosign the contract."

"Bhai, I'm sure Riya will be here. She's always on time. But just for your peace of mind, I'll call her and ask how long it will take her to arrive." Alia said going outside of the room to call Riya.

When Alia called Riya, the phone rang for some time, only to go to voice mail. Alia was going to call Riya once more but a voice stopped her.

"Excuse me, can you move? You're blocking the doorway." The person said, Alia looked up from her phone to see a young man in his late 20s.

"Are you Mr. Shergill?" Alia asked curiously.

"Yes, I am. And you're stopping me from going to my meeting." Rakshit told Alia matter-of-factly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I think you don't know who I am. I'm Alia Mehra, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Shergill." Alia said extending a hand to shake Rakshit's.

"I know who you are." Rakshit said too low for Alia to hear. Shaking Alia's hand with his own.

Once Alia held Rakshit's hand to shake it. She felt as if she had held that hand before.

Rakshit kept looking at Alia, his eyes misting over with unfallen tears. Rakshit mentally berated himself for having such a reaction, but couldn't bring himself to let go of Alia's hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Mehra." A woman said interrupting the moment between Rakshit and Alia.

"I'm Arpita Shergill, Rakshit Shergill's business partner." The woman known as Arpita said extending a hand to shake Alia's causing Rakshit to leave Alia's hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Shergill." Alia said reluctantly letting go of Rakshit's hand to shake Arpita's.

"Shall we go in?" Arpita asked to which Alia nodded, however, Rakshit did not move and kept looking at Alia, trying to read her face. Arpita lay a hand on Rakshit's arm to get him to move, and then all of them went inside the conference room.

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Rishi was waiting outside of his house for Priyanka. His grandmother and Pragya had gone to the local temple to do pooja. While Shahana and Prachi were at their part-time job. He was the only one home at this time, so it was a good time to meet with Priyanka, without him having to worry about anyone seeing them together.

As Rishi was lost in his thoughts, he didn't see Priyanka pull up in front of his house in her car. He only noticed her presence when she ran up to him and hugged him real tight.

"Did you miss me, Rishi?" Priyanka asked still hugging Rishi, while Rishi's arms remained limply at his sides.

"What do you want, Priyanka?" Rishi asked breaking the hug and moving away from her.

"I want you." Priyanka said coming close to Rishi, invading his personal space, and cupping his face in both hands.

"I told you that we were over." Rishi said removing Priyanka's hands from his face and moving away from her again.

"Please just give me another chance, please give us a second chance." Priyanka said holding Rishi's hand in her own.

"I can't Priyanka. I left you for a reason and I won't take you back." Rishi said jerking his hand away from Priyanka's.

"I'll change. I'll change whatever you don't like, please just take me back. I love you." Priyanka said with conviction, as a lone tear ran down her face.

"I don't know." Rishi said turning away from Priyanka, not being able to see her cry and confused about what he should do next.

"There's someone else isn't there?" Priyanka said after a long silence in a defeated voice, causing Rishi to turn around and look at her.

"Priyanka there isn-" Rishi began to say about to tell Priyanka how he wasn't seeing anyone else, but before he could Priyanka interrupted him.

"Even if there is someone else, they won't be there any longer. I will make you mine once again, Rishi Wadhwa." Priyanka said in anger, determined to win Rishi back, wiping tears off her face, storming away to her car, and driving away.

While Rishi just watched Priyanka drive away defeatedly, not knowing what to do.

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Once inside the conference room, everyone greeted one another, Rakshit and Purab were now standing in front of each other, about to shake hands.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Shergill." Purab said extending a hand to shake Rakshit's. Rakshit just nodded and shook Purab's hand in his own.

Purab looked at their joined hands in confusion, feeling his eyes water, for an unknown reason. While Rakshit looked at Purab with a pained expression, trying to read his face.

Both of them came to their senses letting go of each other's hands reluctantly, clearing their throats to collect themselves together.

And then everyone sat down in their seats around the table, beginning to discuss the details of their meeting.

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Riya was walking towards Drishti's house, having parked her car at the end of the road, forgetting her phone in the car. Once she reached Drishti's door she rang the bell and waited a few minutes but there was no answer.

Riya rang the doorbell again, but there was still no answer. Riya reached into her pocket for her phone to call Drishti, but as she looked down, she spotted a person laying next to the steps of the house facing the other way, who she had missed the first time because she was looking up.

Curious about who this person could be Riya took a tiny step towards the person and went to tap on their shoulder.

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