Destiny Rules..

by P. G. Van

  I knew what Nate was feeling. I had that with my youngest cousin when I was ten. I was obsessed with the little kid and had thought about running away with her, so I could play with her all day. I thank my stars for being a rational kid and pushing away such ridiculous ideas.

  “Nate, I will tell you a secret.”

  “Secret that you haven’t told me yet?” she teased, and I shook my head smiling.

  “What is this secret?” Nate raised a quizzical eyebrow.

  “You know when our cousin, Sruthi, was a little baby, I… at least a few times, thought about running away with her so that I could play with her all day, every day.” I laughed, but Nate was not laughing.

  “Meera, I have a confession.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yesterday, I seriously thought about taking the girls and disappearing for the weekend. I didn’t want anyone to interrupt me while I was with them. Not mom, not Srini. I am having the time of my life with them,” Nate said sniffling.

  “Nate, they are your nieces, and you are their godmother. You can spend as much time as you want with them, but that doesn’t mean you ignore Srini or Mom.”

  “I know, I couldn’t tell Srini I wanted a weekend getaway with the girls when I saw him,” Nate grumbled.

  “Thanks, Nate. I can’t tell you how happy I am they are with you. Last week when Nick and I were stuck in the tunnel, I told him I wasn’t worried about the girls, and that you would take care of them even if we couldn’t get out,” I said not realizing I had not told her anything about how we got stuck for an entire night in the underground tunnel.

  I saw her ears perk up, and her eyes widened in question. “What? How did you get stuck?”

  I knew I could always count on Nate to be the protective older sister even if most of the times she was more like my younger sister, and I was the one being protective.

  “Oh, it was a passageway in the palace, and we were a bit lost.” I didn’t want Nate to worry.

  “Meera, you do know you are a bad liar. If you didn’t think you were in some kind of trouble, why else would you think about who would raise the girls?” Nate growled.

  “Okay… Nick and I got stuck in an underground escape tunnel and…” Nate didn’t let me finish. “That is so irresponsible of you… both of you.”

  “I know, we shouldn’t have but…”

  Nate looked at me like she was going to reach out through the screen and shake me up until I came to my senses. “I know you want to know the answers to the questions more than we all do, and you sucked Nick right into it, and now you…”

  “I know, I promise to be careful,” I said sliding over the bed to lie on my stomach.

  “Okay. Where are Thatha and Nani?”

  “In the rose garden with Nick and Mitch,” I said raising my upper body off the bed to look at the small clock on the side table.

  “Hey, I like that pendant,” Nate said cheerfully.

  I sat up and brought my phone close to my neck to give Nate a better view of the pendant—the same pendant that waited for the heir for almost sixty years. “This is the one the Board gave me because I showed up in India. It’s yours if you like it.”

  “No, silly, you know I don’t wear anything around my neck, but if it were a pair of earrings, I would totally take them.”

  “Nate, you should have a piece of our family heirlooms. I have the chain, you should have the pendant,” I said showing her the pendant.

  “You have the chain because I wanted the antique bangles… this pendant is interesting. And you technically don’t have the chain because Nick has it now,” Nate noted.

  I pulled the pendant into my view and looked at the beautiful leaf-shaped pendant. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Yes, and it has a small eye in the middle, the same symbol I’ve seen on the trust paperwork,” Nate observed.

  “Nate… I never realized this was an eye, the eye is Nayana, like in Thatha’s aunt… as in Nethra, you. Its got your name written all over it. Who am I to suggest you should keep it. It’s yours.” I smiled.

  “It’s your gift from me, keep it. You know I won’t wear it.” Nate laughed.

  “Okay, you go find Mom and the girls. I need to get these folks out of the rose garden,” I said before ending the video call with Nate.

  I looked at the pendant on my chest and inadvertently said, “Nethra as in Nayana.”

  Chapter 21

  Nayana is like my mother who came back to take care of me as her child in my old age. My mother was deprived of being with her child even when she came back for me. What more does a father want than a daughter who is his mother and best friend?

  My eyes shot open, and I sat up in bed in the middle of the night. I could hear Nick’s steady breathing as I pulled the sheets around me and looked around the bed for my clothes. I spotted the nightshirt I had on before Nick peeled it off my body and pulled me into his arms earlier that night.

  “Sweetheart, what’s going on?” Nick’s asked.

  “Baby, sorry to wake you up. I remembered something.” I pulled my nightshirt and walked to the dresser for a pair of leggings.

  “Sameera, talk to me.” Nick sat up and turned on the light.

  I walked over to where he sat in bed rubbing his eyes, his bare chest on display. I placed my hands on his shoulders and brushed my lips against him. “I think I know where to look for whatever we were looking for in the tunnel today.”

  Nick looked at me with squinted eyes as I handed him his t-shirt. “You going with me, Mr. Bhatia?”

  He smiled pulling me to him to nuzzle my neck. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Then move your butt, Mr. Bhatia, and please wake up Mitch,” I said pulling up my leggings.

  “Seriously? You actually want me to get him out of bed now… at two in the morning?” Nick teased knowing how much I hated waking up anyone from their sleep.

  “Yes, I promised Nate we will be responsible parents.”

  Ten minutes later, Mitch showed up with a puzzled expression on his face.

  “Sorry to wake you up, Mitch, but you know there is no one else we can trust here.”

  “Not a problem, Ms. Nick. Is everything okay?” Mitch asked softly.

  I took a deep breath. “We need to go back to the panic room.”

  “To the tunnel?” Nick asked.

  “No. Whatever it is we think is hidden is right here.” I looked around the bedroom we were in.

  “Lead the way, love.” Nick smiled picking up the battery-powered lantern and a bottle of water.

  I gripped the flashlight as Nick opened the entryway behind the chest. I stepped into the small space behind the chest as Mitch stood guard. The initial jitters were there when I stepped in, but they died down as I turned the knobs as per the new link I had ingrained in my mind.

  It wasn’t until Nate pointed out the eye on the pendant that I had seen it. When I woke with the memory of what I had read in the journals about Rajaram’s daughter, my grandpa’s aunt, I remembered the symbol of the eye next to one of the knobs of the lock in the panic room.

  “This may or may not work, but I knew I couldn’t go back to sleep if I didn’t try it now.” I turned the knobs to match a few different combinations and stopped when I heard something move right under my feet.

  I took a step back looking at the small opening in the wall that was right above the floor—a gap that was wide and tall enough for someone to crawl into the space. Just like the previous times, the door behind the chest closed.

  “I’ll be right here, Nick,” Mitch called out from the other side of the wall.

  I swallowed looking at the entry that looked like it was leading into a crawl space.

  “Good job, baby.” Nick put his arm around me.

  “Nick, what do you think is behind that?” I asked dreading the idea of crawling into the darkness.

  “This is amazing architecture, baby.” Nick looked around the room. “This room appears bigger than it is because of the optical illusion. I
won’t be surprised if there is a room that is as big as this one behind that wall.”

  “I’m sorry, I woke you up. Let’s come back in the morning,” I suggested freaking out about getting into a dark space in the middle of the night.

  “There’s nothing to be scared about. If this is what Rajaram wanted us to find out… what he wanted his heirs to find out, there wouldn’t be anything dangerous,” Nick said as if he sensed my apprehension.

  I stood rooted to my spot as Nick dropped to the floor to flash his light through the small opening.

  “It’s not too long, and I see a staircase at the end of the passage.” He slid halfway into the opening to leave his lantern inside the hole in the wall that was only a few feet high.

  I went on my knees and bent down to look through the opening. The passageway was lined with the same stones I had seen down in the tunnel, and from what I could see through the opening, the back wall of the space behind the passage had the same kind of design on the walls like in the panic room.

  “I’ll go first.” I started to crawl through the space and realized the air smelled fresh, and there was nothing muggy about the space making me wonder if there was an opening on the other side of the space. I gently pushed the battery-powered lantern that Nick had placed at the end of the passageway out of the way. I held the lantern in my hand and cautiously stood up.

  I was relieved to have some room over my head after being in the small space. Nick crawled out of the space and stood up. The space was small, almost like a small landing area, and what had looked like steps from the other side was nothing but a design on the wall.

  “Now what?” I looked at the walls with nothing on them, unlike the panic room that had some pieces of art on the walls and the knobs to open the doors.

  Nick and I started to look at the wall closely as we moved around the small space.

  “I’ll be damned.” The surprise in Nick’s voice sent my brain on high alert.

  “What?”

  “Come here.” Nick pulled me to him and asked me to look closely at the wall where the wall had the similar design as the panic room with indentations and different patterns. He pointed at a specific one and looked at me. “What does this look like?”

  I gasped when I recognized the shape, the all-too-familiar shape. I watched as Nick pulled out the chain from under his shirt and pressed the pendant on the chain into the indentation, and as if on an impulse, he twisted the pendant. The small opening we crawled into closed, and another long one opened on one side of the space.

  “This is just unbelievable.” Nick pulled the pendant out of the wall and ran his fingers through his hair.

  The door that had slid open opened to a space as big as the space we were in, and even in the dark, I could tell the small space was filled with something. I let out a squeal when Nick flashed the light through the opening. It was a long room lined with brass sculptures and all the way to the back wall sat a metal chest.

  I followed Nick into the space admiring the metal sculptures, but Nick had his eyes riveted on the metal chest set into the wall.

  “Open it up for me, sweetheart.” Nick smiled turning to look at me.

  “Huh?”

  “Look what’s on the lock of the case.” Nick laughed.

  I looked in disbelief when I saw the shape of the pendant that was on Nick’s chain and the shape of the pendant that the Board members had given to me on the metal case. “This is so surreal. It needed both the pendants to be together.”

  Nick helped me take off the chain around my neck and placed both pendants in their slots, and we both heard the click. Nick pulled back the pendants before lifting open the six-foot-wide metal chest that seemed to be set into the stone wall.

  The first thing I saw as soon as Nick lifted the heavy lid was a rolled-up piece of paper with a red tie around it. I reached for it without another thought and pulled opened the tie. It was a hand-written note, and the date on it indicated it was written closer to when the trust was created.

  My duty is my destiny, and I had embraced it to be the protector of the Vaasireddy Kingdom and its sentiments before I became Rajaram, Jassi’s Rajaram. My heart tells me not to give up on her, but my mind tells me she is safer outside the palace. Deep in my heart is where she is.

  Bhakti Ki Sandhi is my responsibility, and I cannot let down every king who put their trust in my kingdom. I have the unknown looming in my shadow, and the only way the shadow doesn’t envelop me in the darkness just like it pulled my king. My king, my father needed me to accept the responsibility.

  Jassi, you are the strength, and I never want that to be my weakness. You are my every breath, and when we become one, the truth will be found, and peace in our hearts will be restored.

  The unknown threatens to widen the distance between my life and me. Is the unknown existent? If it is real, it has the capacity to be more powerful than my love.

  Nayana is the protector of all. She will keep a watch on the symbols of success for all the kingdoms but also ours. I know my blood will find the ultimate truth and give everything back to the people. Neeladri will be the only one with the ultimate power.

  “This is it, love, this is what Rajaram came back for…” Nick’s words were strained. He held the sword that had the twin diamond just like it was in the painting. I handed the letter to Nick, and he read it and gave it back to me.

  I kept staring at the letter reading it over and over again, and all I could see was Rajaram abandoned his family to be a king and serve his people. Tears rolled down my cheeks when I realized Jasleen and her children paid the price of Rajaram’s real identity.

  “This is so unfair. How could he do this to her?” I cried, and Nick took me into his arms.

  “Sameera…”

  “Is this why she left the riches for him? She deserved a life with him. This is not right,” I mumbled into Nick’s chest.

  “I cannot accept this truth,” I growled.

  “Sameera, look at me,” Nick commanded, and I complied. “What you are feeling is the initial reaction to why he came back but read the letter, and you will see he is protecting his family.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Look at what the letter says about his strength being his weakness. What I am reading was a threat or some kind of trouble that he didn’t want to bring Jasleen into and give his enemies an opportunity to use that as a weakness.”

  I re-read the line.

  Jassi, you are the strength, and I never want that to be my weakness.

  Chapter 22

  “Are you sure you want them all in the palace?” Nick asked the following morning.

  I nodded as I rubbed my damp hair with a towel. “They need to know, and they all need to hear why he did what he did. The real responsibility of the kingdom.”

  “Why would they care?”

  “They should… plus, it’s the only way we can find out if we have more than just Sanjana’s father-in-law involved in this hunt for the chain.”

  “Hmm… you think there’s more than one person involved?”

  “I… I don’t know if one person was told about that piece of land loaded with diamonds and if that was a decoy. Don’t you think at least one other person would know about it?” I thought out loud.

  “Interesting, it’s almost an effort to validate the decoy.” Nick nodded.

  “And Rajaram may have passed it on to a not-so-trustworthy man of his as well.” I winked.

  “You look happy.” Nick walked over to where I stood.

  I smiled putting the towel away to run my arms around him. “I feel like a ton of weight is lifted off my shoulders.”

  “Sweetheart, why was it so important?”

  “I… I somehow was worried, yes worried, that if we didn’t find the answers… we would…”

  Nick pulled me into his arms swallowing my words with his kiss. I dug my fingers into his flesh never wanting to let him go.

  Nick pulled back slowly and cupped my face with his han
ds. “Sameera, if you are wondering if I would have done what Rajaram did, I would do what he did, but I would take you with me, build a moat around the palace and protect you with my life. Easy for me to say, hundreds of years later, but I would never walk away from my life, life with you and every ounce of happiness you’ve filled to the brink.”

  I hid my face in his chest, my happy tears adding a stain on his t-shirt.

  “Baby, Rajaram wasn’t wrong in doing what he did, but he could have told Jasleen everything before he left her with the children.” Nick kissed the tip of my nose.

  “She would have never let him go if she knew he was walking into danger.”

  “Now you know how it was a perfect storm in their life,” Nick said softly, and I nodded.

  “Does your grandpa know yet?”

  “I was planning to tell them at breakfast, so they are not entirely surprised when we announce at the event with the Board.” I wasn’t sure how my grandpa would take the news of why Rajaram left his family. Even for me, deep inside, I didn’t find it a justifiable reason, but I wasn’t there to know what he was going through and why he felt so strongly about leaving his family behind.

  “Tell them what it is and not what your take is on what happened.” Nick’s tone was playful.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Be objective, sweetheart. I’m sure it’s hard for you to tell your grandpa why Rajaram left his family, and if he’s not convinced, don’t try to defend Rajaram because I know you are not convinced it was a strong enough reason for him to leave his family.”

  “Oh my gosh, how do you do that?” I asked shaking my head.

  “What?”

  “Read my mind.” I hugged him thankful for Nick being in my life.

  *****

  Nick walked into the bedroom as I was getting dressed for the dinner event with the Board and their families the following day. He let out a low whistle and came to stand behind me, his hands on my bare midriff. “Hey there, beautiful.”