MaNan: Trust?

33

Two days had gone by after the entire fiasco. Manik was getting restless. Today they were all supposed to meet at Abhimanyu's place for dinner.

All the people were present there but Nandini was not. He ignored Fab4 during the entire time. At the same time he wanted to know if she was fine. He guessed that Abhi's family already knew that she wasn't going to come as no one asked about her. It was somewhat awkward. Abhi's parents tried talking to Manik about the incident. They wanted to help these children in any way they can. But Manik diverted the topic every time. At one point they gave up knowing he didn't wanted to indulge anyone in his life.

As he left their home with Ahana, his worries had sky rocketed. He just wanted to know that she was fine.

He drove off to his house with Ahana sitting in the passenger seat. After getting down from the car he was about to pick Ahana, when suddenly he ran back towards the driver's seat and sat inside.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and drove off.

*****************************

Reaching near Nandini's house he stopped the car.

"Papa... Whosh house is this?"

"Jaana... Just be quiet till the time we are here okay? We are playing hide n seek. No one should know that we are here."

She widened her eyes in delight.

"Ide & sheek? Okay... I will be shhh.", She told  him cutely making him kiss her cheeks.

He walked towards the door with her in his arms. He frowned seeing there was no security guard at the gate. Walking towards the door, he rang the bell & hid near the wall.",

"Papa!!! Ide n sheek. Why did you ling the bell?", Ahana screeched making him look at her.

"Jaana we have to go inside right. That's why we are hiding after ringing the bell."

She mouthed an ohh before placing her head on his shoulder.

Seeing her not opening the door he rang the bell once more and waited. Still no response. Repeating it a few times, and still not getting any response he grew tensed.

Removing his phone, he was about to call Abhimanyu to ask for a spare key from Fab5 when suddenly he remembered something.

Moving towards the back of the house, he walked towards a window. Bending near a different coloured vase just below the particular window, he picked a key from underneath it. Nandini's Mom had told him about this when Manik had cooked for them for the first time, just to save himself the embarrassment after getting a drunk Nandini home next time.

He took the key and moved towards the front door. Opening the door he met with complete darkness.

"Papa... Scary.", Ahana wound her arms around his neck and tightly shut her eyes.

"Papa is here Jaana. We will shoo the darkness away okay?"

He carefully walked inside with his phone's flashlight. Finding the switch, he put the lights on. The hall was clean. But there were no signs of someone living in there for quite some time.

He walked upstairs with bated breath.

Knocking lightly at her door, he waited outside.

No response.

He slowly walked inside only to see darkness all around. He sighed deeply.

"Nandini.", He called out softly.

"Nandini.", Switching on the lights, he saw her sprawled over her bed.

"She is sleeping?", He breathed a sigh.