Always Besides You.... (Editing)

Partners-in-crisis

 "All of a sudden, a storm hit and Dadaji, Dadi maa and Baba..." Swara choked on her words.

"And from the very next week, I started getting self-destructing text messages and I couldn't handle myself. I didn't want to deny their demand of keeping everything to me and land our family in another disaster."

"I was back in Banaras by that time and I had called Ragu to inform about my transfer to Delhi." Arvind started sharing the part he knew. "Since I knew what happened earlier, it was easy to catch on the hint she gave me. So I initiated my investigation from there but the transfer to Kolkata took a while."

"And by time, they proved they were strong enough to destroy me; us. Even then, I wanted to tell you—

"Sanskar.." She called out as Sanskar was getting ready for office. He turned to face her to see a worry across her face. "Do you have to go to office today?" She asked.

"What happened Ragz? Well, today....." He was interrupted by a call. He excused himself to attend it. "There is Lady Hitler's interrogation today." He rolled his eyes. "Discussion about the next week's meeting in Lucknow which I'm attending. So I should be there today." Sanskar pouted on his helplessness.

"It's okay." Ragini gave a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Everything okay? If it's something important, I can cancel it."

"No. It's nothing. I just felt like.." She sighed. "Don't regret." She said holding Sanskar's hand following which he bid bye to her.

"The result was Papa ji ran into accidents twice." Swara said. "I and Papa ji hid that not wanting to worsen Ragini's condition. We couldn't just let her feel insecure. But---

"But I got to know. Ananya informed me about it." Ragini completed Swara's words. "Anyways, I would have; they wanted me to know that."

"Ananya?" Sanskar asked.

"Ananya Sharma; Shanaya's cousin sister; Aru's associate, and part-time intern in our office. She had been trying to connect the dots and trace them."

"There were so many new entries in our life and we didn't just notice them. You mean, Shanaya was also---" Laksh asked bewildered at the discovery of his new PA's identity.

"Kind of!" Swara said rolling her eyes. "But she's an irritating leech PA who doesn't have any part in our discussions."

"Ananya had to come to Kolkata and have a connection with Maheswaris, and it had to be casual. An abnormal interference in you all's life won't be missed from their eyes."

"And that incident got me to Ragu's aid. As if God's blessing, the next demand from them was to have a stake in the Maheswari properties and at the moment to make sure that everything was under control, it helped. Papa ji supported us though he doesn't know the whole things." Swara continued from where Ragini left.

"And we had every single thing sorted. I was here at home with Annapurna Maa, Sujatha Maa and Pari bhabhi; Swara at office with you both, Adarsh bhaiyya, Bade papa and Papa ji; Uttara had Sanskar to pickup and drop to college—

"And I had made two of my friends stay at Baadi." Arvind completed Ragini's words.

"Swara you could have—" SanLak said together and glanced each other. Laksh gestured Sanskar to complete. "You could have told us in office."

"AND??" Three voices echoed together making them surprised.

"Their demand was not to let anyone know. And I carefully let Swara and Aru know these so that we couldn't just sit idle and be mere spectators." Ragini justified her action. "Sanskar, I tried telling you and the results of mere trying were quite terrific for us. We were silent from our parts, but whoever he/she/they are, didn't hesitate in trying to blow the whole house in an explosion. And the most sensitive Pari bhabhi; we had a pregnant woman living with us. We couldn't just keep lives on stake."

"And you had seen the consequence of her deciding to tell you everything, Sanky. They mercilessly pushed her to a condition where she couldn't walk and talk for days." Swara recalled the recent terror they faced.

"Look Laksh and Sanskar, one thing you both need to understand is, their basic motive was to scare and weaken Ragini psychologically. It started with Shekhar uncle's accident. It was indeed a planned one but they wouldn't have planned for their death. Else, they would have made sure that uncle also...." Arvind's words trailed off as he let out a sigh and he continued.

"It became clearer with DP uncle's accident; where they made sure that he doesn't get injured in anyway. But the gas incident quite a big blow; that too it followed their silence. They wanted some casualties to happen and by God's Grace—

"But it was accident, right?" Sanskar cut Arvind in between.

"They made it seem to be one. Three staffs working here are associated with them; two of them, indirectly, have been 2 years here and one 1.5 years which are directly involved with them. And firing them all of a sudden or being impulsive on knowing the problems won't help us unless we get to know who is targeting us. Untraceable calls!! That is the thing which helping them so much. I can't even directly get into connection with police or cybercell; who knows if they have people over there." Arvind continued.

"And telling both of you will get them in doubt. That's why..." Swara trailed off.

"And now? Won't they get to know?" Sanskar was feeling his head about to explode.

"They would have started investigating about me at the second you both caught me and shouted. There are high chances that microphones are installed in this house. Otherwise, them getting details so accurate at the exact time itself is not possible. So now we can speak aloud; it doesn't matter." Arvind scratched his head in confusion. "Well, Ananya got a hold on something that she claims very important. Also got to speak with Mohan Kaka; if his observation is correct, we are in the correct way. I strongly feel either we are close to them or they're close to us. Since we are all together...." Arvind, Ragini and Swara's eyes widened in realization.

"Sanskar, call Adarsh bhaiyya ask them to return the soonest."

***

"Arvind" Sanskar called out. "Thanks a lot. You had been the greatest support to Ragz. I have heard a lot about you from her and I'm happy that we got to meet soon."

"Come on Sanskar. Don't be formal. Actually I'm a bit salty that we had our first meet like this. What all dreams I had on meeting Swara, you and Laksh!" Arvind sighed dramatically. "Well, Arvind. Arvind Mehra. You can say IPS along with that." He chuckled. "Well on leave for a year more. Now I'm concentrating in expanding the aid-org department of Mehra Industries in Kolkata."

"Sanskar Maheswari"

"Lakshya Maheswari"

They shook hands each other.

So guys, this is purely a filler chapter. I thought I shall give this as a separate one instead of being pakau in the starting of another chapter where we have some scope of making interesting, you know.

So we are having *finger crossed* two entries in next episode and I'm quite excited about writing that. [I just hope I have this excitement while drafting that too *rolling eyes*]

This chapter is dedicated solely to my laziness as it finally motivated me to write off this part. *chuckles* 

So, I won't force you guys to vote for this but please do drop comments. It makes me soo happy.

Thanks a lot the reads, votes, comments and love till the last chapter. It's so heartwarming.

Stay safe and happy

With lots of Love

Sameera♥️