by MV Kasi
"That's really sweet. And believe me, most of the women population in this state think so as well."
He just shrugged and smiled.
"If you don't mind, can we ask you something personal?" the reporter asked.
"Sure."
"Why aren't you married? And also, why not pursue a specialty that would earn you a lot more money than you'd earn as a pediatrician?"
"I'm only thirty one. I don't think I'm a relic yet," he laughed. "There's still a lot I want to accomplish before I marry and settle down. And coming to your other question, our family has never been motivated by money," he said.
"I see," the reporter said, and her tone and expression changed considerably. "It's quite interesting that you said that—about the money. Because just a couple of hours ago, we have received some information about the Naidu Estate from some verified unknown sources," she said, even though she had received the information a week before.
"Oh?" There was a slightly guarded look.
"Apparently, your grandfather, the late Rameshwar Naidu left a will that did not leave any of the ancestral properties or the various businesses tied to them— to your father or to you."
There was an uncomfortable silence.
But the interviewer forged ahead, "Your grandfather left you both nothing. He left everything to your aunt, your father's sister. Can you comment on that?"
Immediately Jagdish Naidu took over. "My son cannot really comment on that since he wasn't born when the will was made. He doesn't really have the history behind it. It was me who had personally asked my father to do that. Because I loved my sister, and I had made up my mind at that time, to live a simple life of serving people and forgoing all the worldly goods."
"I see," the reporter said. She wasn't too happy that Jagdish Naidu had answered on behalf of his son.
But Jagdish Naidu continued to drag the attention towards him. "Unfortunately, god had another path for me. My sister and her family passed away in an accident. And not being the kind to shirk away from duty, I had to take up the reins to run such a vast estate."
The reporter's eyes lighted up, but she looked at the two men innocently.
"Hmm...We also heard that your sister's daughter, who was the next in line, survived that accident. She used to live with you?"
There was a pause.
"Yes. She...passed away in a drowning accident when she was nine. We all miss her and mourn her, even now. Especially my son. She was very...attached to him," the older man answered.
At that point, the politician's son looked obviously unhappy with the direction of the interview. But the reporter didn't care. She went in for the kill.
"You family must have suffered through unbearable losses. Two different accidents, killing ALL the possible heirs to your vast estate..." The reporter's voice drifted off suggestively.
There was uproar from the audience at the not so subtle implication of double murders.
The politician looked at the interviewer coolly. "Our family doesn't really care for the wealth or any of the worldly possessions. Believe me, if I could have my sister or my niece back, I would gladly give up everything in a second," he announced.
Sia switched off the television with a satisfied look.
Then be prepared to give up everything, my dear family.
She smiled as she headed outside her room towards the media room where her husband was waiting for her.
"What are we watching?" Sia asked Ajay as she joined him in the media room.
Ever since he had lured her to watch his ridiculous movies, she had surprisingly gotten quite fascinated with them, and wanted to know what other ridiculous things could happen next in the movie.
She sat on the sofa, and snuggled next to him as his hands went around her automatically to hold her close.
"We are watching another legendary movie," he replied as he sniffed her hair.
She smiled. Okay, so it was slightly creepy and sweet at the same time when she felt him sniffing her hair at times. But she loved how he always seemed to touch her outside the bedroom. The affectionate pecks on her cheek, or simply placing his hands on her stomach to feel their baby move. Those gestures affected her much more than their usual raunchy foreplay or make-out sessions.
The desperate, hungry sessions made her feel desirable, but the simple gestures made her feel wanted. Like she mattered to him.
She also loved the way he looked at her. As though he already identified what a disaster she was beneath her cool exterior, and wanted her despite that.
And the fact that they continued sleeping together through the night from past few weeks, made her feel even more cherished.
Most of the time, she kept wondering how someone like her managed to land someone like him. And not only land him, she even managed to keep him close.
He was the only thing that had ever been right in her miserable life. And when they parted ways, she would always cherish their times together.
"Good god! Did he just shoot the bullet and split it into two?" she asked in disbelief.
"Shh. This is the interesting part. Be quiet and watch, woman," he said, placing a bucket of popcorn and some freshly squeezed juice closer to her on the table.
She rolled her eyes, but sighed contently, and snuggled even closer, continuing to watch the movie in rapt attention.
Ajay smiled at the serious look on his wife's face. She was probably trying to find some logic in the current movie, which was an impossible task.
When another over-the-top scene played in the movie, she snorted inelegantly.
He grinned, even as he felt that same overwhelming emotion whenever he saw her smile or laugh. He didn't know when he began to obsess over wanting to always see her smile, or wanting to always make her laugh.
She was beginning to mean a lot to him. Which was foolish.
Because if she still decided to go ahead with their original contract to end their marriage as planned, he knew he would turn into a basket-case, missing her, and wanting to be with her.
Sometimes, he wondered if she would miss him. Or simply treat him as a failed business venture and move on.
But there were other times when he felt that she was softening towards him. Especially when she clutched his hands and placed them on top of her belly, so he could feel their child move. Or when they spent an evening together, talking and bonding,
Or sometimes when he caught her looking at him in a puzzled, forlorn way. As though she was repeatedly asking him the same questions.
Why are you still here?
Why are you wasting your time on someone like me?
I'll only bring heartache to you...
It broke his heart to see her feeling that way about herself. He felt that beneath the cool and confident person, lived a woman who craved love like everyone else. He also felt that she probably never had love, or affection or any kind of simple kindness shown towards her.
His self-preservation had been shouting at him to maintain some distance. But it was impossible to do that.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
SIA WAS READING a scathing article about the Naidus. After the interview with Jagdish Naidu and his son Kranthi Naidu was aired, there was a lot of speculation about their morals and their motives.
People were fickle. A few damaging doubts about their ideals, and they would be ready to change sides or even grab their pitchforks.
It hadn't been that easy to slowly brainwash the masses. She had to systematically release and feed other confidential information to the reporters about the Naidu men to create bigger doubts.
She had sent them proofs about how the management of the children's charities run by them, wouldn't allow educational courses such as 'Personal safety from child predators' to be taught to much younger children. And the Naidu management had just released a statement with their weak reasoning.
"We live in a highly sexualized environment. We don't want to corrupt the innocent minds of the children, teaching them about the filth that rarely exists."<
br />
There had been several debates on the topic. And some of Jagdish Naidu's firm supporters began to question his and his son's ideals. A few articles that were supposedly sponsored by the opposition also made it seem like something sinister was lurking under the charming and dynamic personas of the Naidu men and their charities.
"Varun, continue to monitor the feeds. I'm tracking the two guest houses and the three orphanages. Just one little proof or even a hint of abuse, and we'll have him where we want him," she told Varun over the phone.
"I know. But it's really hard, Sia. The private areas don't have access to cameras. So, without you or me meeting those children or the management to check if anything strange had happened, we might not get much."
"I know. But let's not completely rule out the feeds we have. And if we wait for two more months, I'll definitely get us unlimited access," she said.
"Yes. I can't wait for it either."
She gave a few more instructions to Varun before ending the call and heading towards the kitchen.
She was planning to bake a chocolate cake.
From the past few weeks, she had been making desserts regularly for after dinner. She had a sweet tooth, and the pregnancy hormones ramped up her craving even more. And even though she hadn't had any training or experience in cooking, she took Ajay as her inspiration, and began fixing up desserts.
Putting on her apron, she opened the recipe of chocolate lava cake on her tablet. She was so engrossed with the video that she didn't realize that it was time for Ajay to return.
She was still mixing the ingredients when she felt his presence. He was standing only a few feet away on the opposite end of the kitchen island watching her in amusement.
"Good evening," he drawled.
She smiled absently at him as she continued watching the instructions on the video. "Save some space for dessert," she told him.
"I definitely will," he said.
"You say that. But you barely have more than a few bites, and I end up finishing it all. If I don't watch out, I'd be as big as a house before the baby arrives," she stated with a frown.
His eyes danced in mirth.
"Baby, I know you mean well. But I have to confess something really urgently," he said with laughter in his tone.
"What?" she asked, loving the word 'baby' from his mouth. It felt intimate and it made them seem like any other normal couple.
He was looking at her mischievously. "My stomach won't be able to take any more of your desserts."
When she stopped mixing the dough, and narrowed her eyes at him, he continued grinning.
"I love the taste obviously. But seriously, I keep going into a sugar coma with only a few bites. And soon, I won't be able to have the same energy and zeal if I continue eating so much sugar and butter; you keep feeding me every day as dessert."
What the hell? She had been rushing home from work over the past few weeks, slaving away hours to make desserts for him. And this was the thanks she got?
And the maddening man was now chewing on a piece of carrot like he hadn't just insulted her.
But obviously her glare didn't faze him. Because his eyes still danced with mirth.
"And like you said, you are getting big, and you are already a handful to carry," he teased. "So I really need more muscles and minimal fat in my body. Last night's bread that was fried in butter, and dipped in sugar syrup and super sweet condensed cream must have done some serious damage to these muscles," he said, displaying his still impressive muscles with a grin.
"That was called Double-Ka-Meetha. Any proud Hyderabadi would have been able to finish a bowl full of it, and then request for another one," she said haughtily.
He burst out laughing. "That wasn't Double-Ka-Meetha," he said, shaking his head.
"It most certainly was," she said, glaring at him.
He laughed harder. "Baby, I've eaten Double-Ka-Meetha a lot of times in my life. It's a very subtle sweet. So trust me, when I say, whatever you made wasn't subtle. I almost went into a diabetic coma with just a spoon!"
She lost it then.
Taking a handful of cake batter, she flung it towards his face. She missed, and the blob ended up landing on the wall behind him.
He turned to look at it, and then turned back to her, the smile on his face and eyes gone. Keeping his eyes on her, he slowly began to close the distance between them with an unreadable expression.
She stood in her place with her eyes still shooting daggers at him.
"You, my dear wife..." he began."You really need to work on your aim. This is how it is done," he said, and soon a blob of batter splattered on her hair, dripping down her face and then landing on the floor. She looked down at it in shock, and then looked at him.
He was grinning at her again.
"You dared to...you..." She narrowed her eyes and took an angry step forward.
Her feet ended up landing on the batter on the floor. With widened eyes, she spread her arms, and flailed them as though trying to find balance.
"Sia!" he exclaimed worriedly, and he reached out a hand to grab her.
And instead of accepting his help, she gave him a fooled-you! look, and picked up a huge blob of batter, and smashed it into his face.
He looked stunned.
And now, it was her turn to smile at him.
"You are so going to pay for it," he growled mockingly, seeing the small smile on her face.
Soon the kitchen became a warzone. They began to smear whatever leftover batter was remaining in the bowl on each other. And when they ran out of it, she reached for the chocolate powder. She shook the whole tin on his head.
He was about to pour the oil over her head, but stopped when he saw her gesture.
"Okay time-out. Time-out! I'm tired" She was shouting and laughing.
"Okay, so do you concede?" he demanded.
"I do. I do. No oil on my hair, please," she shrieked and laughed some more.
He grinned, and held her hand, pulling her carefully towards the kitchen table.
"No. No. The chairs will get dirty," she said, still laughing, looking at his cake battered face and the white flour filled hair.
Smiling, he sat on the floor and pulled her down gently onto his lap.
She was laughing with tears rolling down her cheeks."You look so funny. I think I need a camera to capture your face, and then frame them up on one of the walls."
"Oh yeah? You don't look that sensible either," he said grinning down at her, his teeth white, surrounded by the dark chocolate cake batter and cocoa powder.
She laughed even more.
"Okay I'm feeling hungry after that fight. I need something edible," he said, and licked the bitter sweet batter from the tip of her nose, and then from her chin.
Soon, things got heated and they spent several minutes tasting chocolate in the most interesting places.
After a while they showered and went into her room, where she lunged at him, and then as usual their intimate war began.
They were opponents right from their kisses, touches and the ultimate decisions on who made the other come first.
But luckily in their war there were always two winners.
"I won tonight. I made you come twice," she declared with a small smile.
He smiled back, amused at her competitiveness, and rubbed his thumb on her bottom lip, trying to capture her smile.
"It wasn't a fair fight because you ambushed me while we were in the shower," he replied as he began to gently massage her back, and then cupped his hand to her rounded belly.
She sighed in content.
"You were begging for it when you gave me that look as soon as you got me started on a cake fight," she teased slightly.
He laughed.
"The night is still young. And remember, these days, you are always in a submissive position and I have to take the lead."
That got her riled as he had expected. She reared up with narrowed eyes.
"That's because of my belly. If I wasn't c
arrying our child—"
He grinned and pulled her closer, and then kissed her lips, cutting her off. She settled down again next to him, probably more out of exhaustion than surrender.
His wife was a challenge. His challenge. And he was glad that he had her in his life.
Soon he would have their child too. To love and to protect. And then, he would have everything.
But one bad thing about having everything was that, when you lose, you could lose it all.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
SIA WAS LOOKING at the picture she and Ajay had taken recently in a photo studio. He was kissing her large belly while she watched him with a smile on her face.
She had several pictures of them on the walls of their home now. And Ajay had brought in a few of his family pictures along with a few of his favorite knick knacks as well. Her once stark house looked like a true home now, radiating warmth around.
How did he mean so much to her so soon?
She kept asking herself the same question over and over again. It didn't matter that she had only known him for only a year, but it had been long enough to fall for him with an intensity that she had never ever experienced before.
She had tried to stay focused purely on her mission. And she had tried pretty hard to shut herself from feeling anything towards him. But she couldn't do it.
And on top of that, she had been feeling extremely guilty about using him.
Ajay was a good man who had been trying to make a good life with her. And he didn't deserve to be used in anyway. He deserved someone honest, and someone who would make him their first priority in their lives.
Not someone who was just biding her time while burning up with the need to take revenge.
And when the things she had set into motion finally come out in the open, he might even be in mortal danger. And if not danger, his entire life would upheaval for sure.
He needed to be told the truth. Even if it meant risking the entire mission. And after he found out the truth, if he left her, she would still not regret it. She'd find another way. A way which won't drag the man she loved into her murky past and war.
