Love or Game (Complete✅)

Chapter 52 - "Dispute with destiny..."

"Hello!"

My voice gets overlapped by my over-anxious sister.

"Bhai! What is this? You are not picking up your phone for the last four days. Hotel staffs know nothing. You didn't give us the number of your collaboration company. Do you have any idea how helpless we were feeling? I was about to board the next flight if that lady didn't call me and inform me about you. Now, tell me how are you? How did you get your mobile back? In any case, Bhai, if your mobile had been lost, still, you could have called me from other numbers. Sometimes I really wonder if you are a business magnet or a forgetful professor."

Navya's express train almost deafens my ear. However, a line of her entire ranting attracts my attention. I recline on the soft pillow and ask,

"We were feeling? You mean you and Cabir? Cabir was worried about me? Give me a break, Navu!"

I giggle out the last line. Some seconds of silence linger on the line and she replies with a suppressed sigh,

"He is not heartless, Bhai. But he can't forgive you either. I can understand his dilemma. Neither he can entirely blame you for Nandini's leaving nor he can forgive himself for that."

Nandini's reference makes me alert that until now, I haven't told her about Nandini. I have met her and I have even talked to her and....and about Maan. I didn't tell anything about my son too. Navya's eager voice breaks my reverie,

"Bhai, are you there? By the way, when are you coming back? It's been 20 days. Don't say that you are planning to stay in Salvador permanently. Then I have to plan otherwise too. I can't leave my handsome brother alone among those sultry Latinas...ha...ha."

She tries to lighten up the conversation. Suddenly something strikes my tired brain. What did she say? A lady told her that I lost my mobile. Well, who is this smart liar and who is interested to save me and my family from worry? I interrupt her,

"Navu, who told you that I lost my mobile? I mean who was that lady?"

Navya immediately replies,

"I don't know. I asked her but she didn't tell me her name. She just said that she works in the company with whom ELYSIAN is going to collaborate. After that, she assured me about your well-being. But I must say, she had a very melodious voice."

She sounds teasy and I calculate the whole thing in my mind. There is no doubt that Nandini only called Navya and told her about me. Lest Navu worries that's why she lied to her. Oh, God! This girl thinks so much about everyone but still acts so impassively. An indebted smile curves my lips. Navya again asks impatiently,

"Bhai! When are you coming back?"

I scratch my nape and reply with determination,

"I need some time, Navu. I am...I am in a dilemma. Need to be sure about something. Without that, I can't return. I won't."

She may whiff something from my tone.

"Bhai, are you okay? Are you hiding something from me? Should I come?"

Her concerned voice alerts me again. No...if she comes then Nandini will be under pressure and perhaps will take the decision to return to India. But that won't be her spontaneous decision and I don't want her to make her mind under some emotional influence. If she goes, she will go by her wish...wholeheartedly. She will go with me with full conviction.

"I am absolutely okay, Navu. I just need some time to wrap up this collaboration thing so that I won't have to come back again. I want to leave this place with full assurance. Please give me some time."