Pandya Store - Shiva Raavi (ShiVi) FF- My North Star

Chapter 33

With each passing moment, as she made breakfast Raavi's hands felt cold and clammy. She had no reason to be nervous, but she wasn't sure how Shiva would react to their imminent conversation. She remembered Shiva asking, tu ne kuch kaand kiya hai?", and almost dropped the washed teacup she was about to put back into the cupboard.

Before Shiva and Raavi left to go to Hetal's parents', Pavan and Bhavna Mehta's house, he sat her down on the couch, rubbed her palms to comfort her, give her some much needed warmth and asked her again about the Patel Nagar property.

Sitting beside Shiva on the sofa cross legged, she took his hand, and said, "Based on the paperwork, my parents bought land in Patel Nagar, located near Sabarmati Ashram dedicated to Gandhiji. They asked construction company, KJ Group to construct a building, splitting the cost of construction with the construction company for equity stake in the building to be built for commercial use. But, after they passed away, the construction was abandoned."

"When I inherited the Patel Nagar property and land, Pavan . Pavan Kaka felt it was better to start legal negotiations with the builder, letting them know we intend to demolish due to poor construction and they have to bear the cost to demolish. Then, we found out that the construction was abandoned over large nonpayment of dues which they claim my parents owed them. They are a bankrupt company whose best-case scenario is to just let everything be as it was before I officially inherited it. And they are very well versed in playing out the legal system, using every trick in the book to prolong this case," said Raavi.

"So that's the dispute? Crappy construction company, owned by a shady builder, taking undue advantage of your parents' death and drag out the whole thing as much as they can to avoid demolishing their mess, and that means you cant use the land, either," he asked her, squeezing her hand.

"In a nutshell. Yes."

Shiva looked at her averted face, holding in tears. Tell me, sweetheart..." he probed her.

"I, too, don't want that building destroyed... until...until..." her voice broke. Shaking her head in frustration, she started talking again, "I found out that few of my mother's things maybe left behind, and I want to go see for myself, but I am not allowed inside, because Mausapa and Pavan Kaka think going inside the building for any reason is not safe," she said, sadly.

Raavi's words caused the hairs on the back of his neck to tingle. If the building was that poorly constructed and then abandoned, Raavi's safety came first. Staring at his Chipkali, he knew she could do anything, go to any extent, when she believed she was right.

"The security guard won't let me inside in agreement with Kaka and Mausapa's instructions... but I want to go inside the building to see for myself if anything is left behind," she finished with a stubborn tilt to her voice.

"Raavi, baby, your safety comes first, you know that" said Shiva, and he could see she didn't like that. He imagined with Mama in Somnath, and Hetal's parents travelling intermittently for work, letting Raavi run around risking her life wasn't an option they could afford. "How did you find out about your mother's things? Who told you?"

"Someone told me, when I went there for the first time with Pavan Kaka to see the property and land."

"Someone?" he asked, pouncing on that clue, looking at her quizzically.

"Someone," she said carefully, in a tone that screamed she wasn't going to give out any more information.

He stared at her contemplating what she said. He knew Raavi's brand of stubbornness. When Raavi made up her mind about something, she never f**king gave up, and she was very capable of taking extreme measures to get what she wanted. So, dreading the answer, he asked, "Have you tried before to get into the building?"