My 'Oh-So-Freakish' Life!

CHAPTER 29

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POV ADITYA:

Mehta tossed a bunch of tabloids on my desk in the study room. It had been a week to the rising speculations about Arjun Nanda's 'Mystery Girl' being my daughter while a few of them had a theory that I might have a hidden son too (aka Vivaan) who just decided to show up after the arrival of my 'never-heard-of-before' daughter. 

"What is it now?" I sighed looking over at the heap of magazines lying on my desk.

The flock of reporters outside the house and the pour of phonecalls for interviews had never stopped in the past week. Mehta was trying hard to get the situation under control while Arjun and I maintained a 'No Comments' status in the media.

"Where's Meera?" Mehta settled on the chair in front of my desk, " Is she aware of what happened?"

Massaging my temples I nodded a 'No'. We had gone about with a plan spontaneously and without consulting Meera. 

The knock on the door drew our attention to Shikha standing there in a pink churidar, her silky hair flowing down her back. Her forehead was creased as she bit her lower lip. The news-paper in her hand was almost crumbled. 

"Aditya." She whispered with a visible concern, "The newspapers---"

"We know." I gave her a nod.

Mehta nodded back, smiled at Shikha and walked out of the room. I stood there leaning on the strong edge of my wooden desk. She walked up to me and put her soothing arm on my shoulder. 

"What did Meera say about this?" Shikha asked.

"If my daughter knew about this, you wouldn't be here asking me about HER views!" I laughed despite of the situation.

"Of- Course. Aditya Mehra's blood runs in her veins." She smiled, "I can picture her making this whole mansion go upside down followed by a release of controversial statements about you in the media."

She embraced me into a warm hug. Shikha knew me well to not go about giving me those 'Everything-will-be-fine' consolations. We had always had this undefined relationship between us under the tag of 'friendship'. Calling her my friend would be an understatement. We had definitely something more than that.

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TWENTY-FOUR YEARS BACK:

The JFK airport bustled with the goodbyes, hugs and well wishes from the loved ones to the people departing. My case wouldn't have been any different except that I was just told that our family production house, YM Films was under a huge debt and might shut down pretty soon. And if I ever wished to save this family business and my sinking dream with it, I might just have to forget the love of my life and marry my childhood friend. 

My mother could not bear the rising tension between my father & I and decided that they would take an early flight to India giving me some time to think about the whole thing and make a "rational" decision. Mother went to the washroom while father and I sat there waiting for her in an awkward silence.

"You remember the first time I took you to a film set?" Father had a smile on his face while his eyes were glued on a distant memory.

"Yes I do." I smiled at the memory, "I had asked you if I could come visit this place everyday."

"It was the shooting of our first film and you were ten years old." He sighed, " My father, your grand-father had supported me whole heartily when I had first gone to him with an idea of a film-production house under my name, Yash Mehra- YM Films."