Intertwined Fates -- An IPKKND FanFic

It's about to hit the fan

Khushi's eyes were glued to the café entrance as she waited for Payal to enter. What was taking so long?

She nearly jumped up in excitement when she finally arrived. "Thank goodness you're here. Sit. Here, I already got your favorite sandwich." She thrust it across the table to her. "Now tell me what happened."

"Embarrassment. That's what happened."

"What? Why?"

"Do you know how embarrassing it is to show up at your boss's house in the early morning with a lame excuse? Thankfully Akash Sir covered for me."

That Akash covered for her was interesting and Khushi filed that tidbit away for later. Right now, she needed to focus on the child.

"What about the boy? How did you find out about him?"

Payal explained how she'd initially though it was Arosh, then confused him for Arnav Sir's son and how the family had clarified that the child, named Aarav, belonged to Sheetal.

"And she's a family friend? What else do you know about her?"

"Why does it matter, Khushi? The boy isn't Arosh so why do you need to investigate more?"

"But you did think he was Arosh at first?"

"Yeah, because he looks a lot like him. But why would Sheetal kidnap a boy from the orphanage just to have him pose him as her son? It doesn't make any sense."

"We can figure out the motive later. First we need to figure out if it actually is the case. Now, what do you know about Sheetal."

"She works as Akash Sir's secretary. I think she went to Harvard—"

"She went to Harvard and she works as a secretary?"

Payal frowned. She'd never thought before how strange that was. "Yeah."

"Last name?"

"Kapoor."

"Sheetal Kapoor, Harvard graduate?" Khushi noted something down in her phone. "I have to go; I'll talk to you tonight. See you!"

"Wait," Payal started to say but Khushi waved at her as she grabbed the remnant of her sandwich and her bag and ran out of the café.

Can you get me a background check on Sheetal Kapoor? All I know is that she graduated from Harvard and works for ASR industries.

The Rickshaw that Khushi was taking back to the office rocked so much that it was difficult for her to type properly but at last she managed to send her text to Lavanya.

A few hours later, Khushi was in her office working on the orphanage case. She had a record of the orphanage owner's movements as well as a list of the gangs suspected to be involved in human trafficking and was trying to figure out a pattern.

She was interrupted by an incoming text from Lavanya. Details in email. Getting warrant now. Will arrest in morning.

Spurred on by the cryptic text message, Khushi hurriedly signed into her account. Lavanya's email detailed a woman who should have had the world. Intelligent, beautiful and ambitious--not to mention wealthy parents-- she had been going places until she'd gotten into a nasty gambling habit. Now, those parents had disowned her and she was buried in debt up to her ears and was wanted for credit fraud. Nowhere was there a mention of a son.

So why did Sheetal have Arosh? Was she somehow going to use him to find the money to pay her debts? Khushi didn't know, but the child needed to be extracted from the situation. Quickly, she dialed Lavanya.