Thank you,_justlikeastar, For this beautiful cover pic :)

Neev.

"Your Grandpa was attacked and he's hospitalized now," Uncle J.P said through the phone.

"What!?"

"It was Sebastian, he is hospitalized too, it's a matter of time before media get hold of this, As the CEO of the corporation, you must start now,"

"How's he?" I asked.

"Pretty serious, but stable, I have it under control here, but it's your turn now," he said and disconnected the call.

I know Uncle J.P for years and I know he's like a shadow of Grandpa. I have to trust him on this.

"What happened?" Riya asked.

I touched my temple, "Grandpa and Sebastian fought, both are in the hospital," I said.

Riya's eyes widened.

"Riya, please take care of Auntie Alice, Danny and all, I have to go now," I said.

She nodded quickly.

I am glad I have her by my side!

"Take care,"

"Don't worry about me," I started to run out.

My phone was already ringing.

"Uncle Dev? Please get everyone ready for the meeting," I said as soon as I attended.

Uncle Dev reached back to India only hours before, I am really glad that he's back.

"Before that, you have to come here," he said. "It's urgent."

Sebastian.

"How's Joseph Aldrick?" I asked from the hospital bed. "Is he going to die?" I looked at my PA.

I was in my hospital suite room, I know media is going to celebrate the news about Joseph Aldrick trying to kill me and I don't want to raise any suspicion, that's why I decided to pretend to be seriously injured and hospitalized.

"No, He's out of danger now, But still under observation,"

"What about the news?"

"I am coming back from meeting reporter Aravind, I handed over the CCTV footage too, Joseph Aldrick is going to be trapped in this, He tried to kill you and you were only defending," he said and I nodded, satisfied.

There is no need for anyone to know that Joseph Aldrick's gun was empty at the time.

"We have to act before he gets up, release everything on him, all the things we have been collecting on him. We need to turn him to an old man who is not sane and incapable of being a chairman,"

"Sir, that's too dangerous, the company will-"

"It's more dangerous if he gets back up, I know what I am doing, it's the only way I can control Nivin now,"

"Okay sir," he nodded.

"And Naina, move her today, If Joseph wakes up, everything is going to be a mess,"

"Her Uncle is asking for more money-"

"Give him whatever he wants and warn him well," I said sternly.

I don't have enough time to drag this; I don't want it to blow up now.

"Yes sir," he nodded again.

"Since Philip is already out of Aldrick family, tell him to take care of that guy at graveyard who knew about Naina being alive, I don't want him to ever open his mouth," I said.

When Naina fell down the stairs two years back, my people ordered him to bury Naina at the blueberry hills and Anil Ragunad rescued her from there when my men walked away, so the only person who knew about Naina being alive was him, and the person at the graveyard who was supposed to bury her.

But no, not only did he get the money, but also he hides it from me...

He should have told me the fact that she's still alive and that Anil took her from there.

I am going to teach him a lesson now; it could've been dangerous if Naina had her memories!

"We tried to locate him; he's not there now,"

"Keep watching; don't let him slip away," I said. "I am sure Philip can take care of him."

My PA nodded again.

"And we will expose it too, Riya's true identity and the fact that Nivin is married to the girl whose Father killed James," I said.

The board is not going to support Nivin if it gets out, everyone will oppose Nivin's marriage as everyone thinks Anil is the one who killed James.

I will force them apart first, Riya and Nivin, before dealing with them separately.

And I don't want any loopholes this time; I am trapping them from all around.

Riya.

The news was full of him.

All of Joseph's crimes seemed to get exposed.

They even had the CCTV footage of the attack, it seemed Grandpa was the one who started it and Sebastian looked like a victim.

But the next heading shocked me, the big wedding photo of me and Nivin appeared on the screen and the Reporter started to say about my identity.

They exposed it! They exposed that I am Anil Ragunad's daughter!

I bit my nail, tensed.

I know Nivin's going to have a hard time solving this.

Nivin.

"What are you saying?" I said angrily, "who exposed it?"

The fact that Riya is Anil Ragunad's daughter is out and it's going to create trouble.

I wanted to expose it too, now that I decided to stay with her irrespective of the past, but I didn't want it like this! It's the worst timing ever!

Sebastian is trying to trap me from all around...

Everyone in the board still blames Anil Ragunad for the death of James and nobody will agree with it if I am married to his daughter.

The second problem was Grandpa; they pictured him as a mentally unstable person who can't control his anger.

"I have been in this field for years Neev, I know what they are doing," Uncle Dev said. "They are trying to turn Joseph sir into an angry old man who is unstable,"

"But Dad, I think Sebastian is just framing Joseph Aldrick, I don't think he is a patient of depression! If anything, he is just too sharp," Sachin said.

Yes, Sebastian's side has even accused Grandpa as a person with depression and psychological issues.

"Yes, Sebastian is framing Joseph for everything, and about that depression case, he's trying to picture Joseph as an unstable person with anger issues,"

"Is he really taking anti-depressants?" I asked.

I never even thought that Grandpa was taking anti-depressants!

"According to J.P -yes, ever since James's death, he's been taking it and they will bring it out, they might even testify Joseph sir's doctor!" Uncle Dev said.

"And what does he gets in return?" Sachin asked.

"He is trying to manipulate everyone, at this rate, even the CEO position can be taken away from you, Neev, because you were elected when he was the chairman,"

"But all the members were there! He won the position fair and square," Sachin said.

"Yes, he did, so it's time for us to fight back now,"

"I don't want to help Grandpa; I can't do anything for that cold-hearted person," I stated, now coming to a decision.

Both Sachin and Uncle Dev looked shocked.

"You don't mean that!" Sachin said.

"You saw that CCTV footage, he attacked Sebastian, Sebastian was only defending, besides, think of every heartless thing he did, he did all of it for the company," I said.

"Nivin Rosh James Aldrick," Uncle Dev looked angry now, "you are the CEO of this company and you will do whatever it takes to protect it," he said.

"I can't do anything for Grandpa! He must've known about Naina too, He knew that Sebastian killed her and he hides it from Rohan all these time. He did whatever he felt and destroyed people around him without a second thought," I said, "and I am not going to help him get out of this situation," I started to walk back.

The first reason I entered this company was to destroy it, to keep it out of Grandpa's hands, and karma is playing its role even without me!

"Neev!" Sachin shouted.

"You can go, but let me tell you something first," Uncle Dev said, "give me 10 minutes Nivin," he said.

I turned around to face him.

"Something like these happened years ago and the company was going down," Uncle Dev started.

"I am well aware of the story," I said, slumping down to the settee.

"No, you are not!" Uncle Dev said, "You still don't know how much trouble James had to control it, he wanted to save the company, he visited each and every labourer in their home, he gave his everything to save this company,"

"And we helped; I helped him to fight through law and Anil-"

"Uncle, I have nothing against this company, but as long as Grandpa interfere with our lives, I will have to take down what's precious for him-"

"Do not interrupt me, Nivin, just hear me out," Uncle Dev said.

"Yes, the company was facing bankruptcy and the shares were going down, everyone believed there's no future for the company,"

"But Anil helped James to secure the shares, he was the only son with a large fortune, he helped James financially, he was risking everything then and they also got back all the shares and paid back the debt too," Uncle Dev looked at me.

"Sebastian was the best student at the college, he had a bright future, we were friends too, so James invited him to join him, it was the first mistake we did,"

"We already talked about this before, I still can't fight for Grandpa, and He deserves to be punished," I said firmly.

"Do you know how much effort we put to protect the company? if Grandpa's going down, that would mean that the company is going to suffer,"

"I don't understand why you would talk like this, protect the company!? As if it needs to be protected, all the problems started from it, Grandpa even lost his sanity because of it," I said bitterly.

If you think about all the things that have happened, anyone can see that I am right, every single thing started with this cursed company.

"Forget your Grandpa, Neev, If you still think you can't battle against Sebastian, Stay back, I am going to give it my all, I don't want to disappoint them," Uncle Dev said, Referring to his best friends, my Dad and Anil Ragunad.

It was too much to take; suddenly Philip's words swirled around me.

"It was Sebastian! He...he was trying to threaten Naina  but ended up pushing her, her head hit the wall and she fell down the stairs"

Then J.P's voice rang in my head.

"Your Grandpa's hospitalized, it was Sebastian"

I rose up from my chair. Sachin was still frozen in his seat, looking at me.

Riya's words echoed around me now.

"Your Grandpa, he loved his son so much that when he lost him, your Grandpa lost all of the reasoning, his love turned him to be the cold person he is now,"

I closed my eyes tightly for a moment; I need to take a decision.

I might regret this later...

"So... what are we going to do now?" I asked, turning around.

Sachin got up from his seat and hugged me and patted me on the back.

"Am I late?" I heard Uncle John's voice and turned around in surprise.

"We still have a few directors to join us," Uncle Dev said, then he looked at me.

"As for your question, I think I have a good strategy," Uncle Dev started. "Since everyone already knows about Riya's identity, we will take it to our advantage,"

"No one will support her, Dev." Uncle John said as two more people came inside, "everyone thinks James died because of Anil, they won't take it lightly."

Does it mean that Uncle John doesn't believe that story?

I looked at him in surprise, I realised that there are people who are not following the rumours!

"We will try to convince them," Uncle Dev said, "we will go and see each and every labourer and shareholder like we did last time and we will try to convince them," he said.

"Do you think they will accept us after what happened with Joseph Aldrick?" one of them asked now.

"We will try to bring out the truth because I think that CCTV clip was tampered with. Nivin, Sachin, and Riya will talk to those people," Uncle Dev said.

"Why Riya," I asked, not feeling good about dragging her to this.

"I am just recreating the past, everyone loved James so I hope they will accept Nivin too," he turned to me.

"The last time we had a crisis, Anil, James, and I went to see each and every one of the labourers and visited as many shareholders as possible, Now it's your turn, the next generation, you have to prove them that you are trustworthy,"

"That's good, it's like a message, the future generation, good thinking," Uncle John nodded.

Riya.

I am still staying in the family house. Nivin is too busy these days. He is not even coming home. He is staying overnight at his office.

"They are not coming home today either?" Auntie Alice asked me and I nodded, feeling guilty.

Neev and others have told her that Rohan is busy at the company, so as not to make her worried.

Rohan is still refusing to come home, Neev visited him and Rohan has locked himself up in that little house of Naina's.

Neev has decided to give him a few days before dragging him out.

Neev is really stressed these days; Sebastian is still making it hard for us.

I was really worried about Neev, Especially after my identity was exposed, I thought Nivin would talk to me about divorce but when he asked for me to help, I was actually very glad.

Sachin, Neev, and I visited all the labourers of our factory and I was surprised to learn about my dad and his two best friends- James and Dev.

They seemed to have been their heroes. Even though some of them were apprehensive, most of them accepted us happily.

It has been a week since the legal battle started and the Media is celebrating the fight really well.

It has come to the point where even Auntie Alice, Danny or I couldn't go out without our security people.

Grandpa is still in the hospital, injured while Nivin is busy fighting along with Uncle Dev and Sachin; even the usually calm Uncle John was actively running around. Both the groups were neck to neck.

"When is it going to end?" I murmured as I watched the TV.

"So many people are in our team Riyechi, ours is the team of youngsters!" Danny said.

"All the people who hate Grandpa are with Sebastian," I said, "which is a lot."

"There's a chance for the company to get split," Danny said now, "There were cases like that too," he said.

"But it's not going to happen in this," we heard the sound and turned around to see Uncle John.

"Everything will end soon, we agreed to do another election to elect the chairman, and it will decide the fate of the company,"

"What! Why?" Danny asked.

"The legal battle can really prolong for a long time, even years, so both the party decided to agree on this,"

He looked at me, "Nivin would like a change of clothes tomorrow, he can't come home," Uncle John said and I nodded.

......................

I walked to his cabin. It was only 8 o'clock in the morning, but he would need a change if he has anyone important to meet in the morning.

I knocked twice on the door, there was no response so I opened the door inside and stilled.

All of them were sleeping.

Nivin was leaning to the back of his chair. Sachin was on his laptop and their three juniors on the bundles of papers.

"Neev?" I tiptoed to him and touched his shoulder.

"Neev," I shook him slightly.

He woke up with a jerk.

"Riya..." he said.

"I brought your clothes," I said.

He got up and started to stretch, "let's have a cup of coffee before you go," he said and I nodded.

We started to walk out. I looked at him sideways. Something has changed between us, I know that he cares for me, but it still makes me uneasy to think about that deal.

No... Don't think about it... Don't bring it up...

I really want to forget about it, like it never happened.

But it did happen!

Don't think about it... now is not the time... I need to hang on until Rohan finds my Mamma...

"Actually, I need a favour," I said as we sipped the coffee and he looked at me.

"Auntie Alice is very worried, we need to go and meet Rohan, or he's not coming back home,"

Neev sighed.

"I really want to help him, but..." he stopped. I know it too, nobody can help Rohan, we are totally helpless.

Neev checked his watch.

"I have a meeting in a couple of hours, we will go and visit him now," he stated.

"Now?" I asked, surprised.

"I am counting on you, Riya, I know you are great at convincing people, you even took us for the family day," he said. "Let's try and persuade him to come home,"

................

"It's beautiful," I whispered as I watched the cute little house in front of me.

"It must be really hard for him," Nivin said slowly. "He's going to be pulled into the depression if he stays here any longer, he needs to let go of her,"

"Do you think he'll be angry if we go inside?" I looked at Neev.

It felt too private to trespass; I know that this house and the memories are too precious for Rohan.

"Let's get him out first, He needs to come back to his sense," Neev said firmly before walking towards the door. "That rascal, he didn't even lock the door," he said while opening the door.

We moved inside.

The smell of alcohol hit me even before we saw the mess, there were empty bottles everywhere. Rohan was sprawled out on the couch, sleeping.

"He's trying to kill himself," Neev muttered darkly.

"I will see if there's anything to cook, you wake him up and-" I stopped. I was stepping on something.

I bend down and picked up the black shiny cloth.

"What's this..."

I dragged off as I saw the mask, the black shiny mask with tiny beads along the eyes.

Something flashed through me, bothering me.

"Must be Rohan's," Nivin nodded towards the settee where Rohan is fast asleep.

"Yea-" I froze again, it looked familiar.

Nivin looked at me watching it, "Isn't it a girl's mask? Do you think it's Naina's?" he too looked at the design.

"What the!" I said shocked, examining it and raising it up to have a closer look.

"Riya, what's it?" Neev looked worried at my shocked expression; He took the mask from me.

I turned to him.

"I... we... designed it... this pattern... It's the same; we designed it for the masquerade ball!" I exclaimed.

"What is it doing here then?" Neev said and I looked at Rohan's outstretched hand like he has been holding it while sleeping.

"It's Priya's mask," I said.

"What are you talking about? You must be mistaken,"

"No, see this beads, Kiran added it by my request," I whispered.

Kiran is Auntie Alice's stylist who designed our costume for the masquerade ball.

"Then why Rohan is keeping this-"

"What..." Rohan opened his eyes. "Ri...ya?... Neev?" he slowly sat up.

We were still confused.

"What are you guys doing here...? That's mine!" he snatched it away from Neev.

"What is this, Rohan?" Nivin looked at him.

"Something I need to throw out," Rohan muttered, pocketing it.

"You didn't even meet Priya at the masquerade ball, how did you get hold of her mask-" I stopped again.

I was frozen in my spot now, watching the framed photograph in the middle of all the empty wine bottles.

Nivin saw it too and he picked it up.

"Priya!" both of us exclaimed in unison.

Rohan pulled the photo out of his hands too.

"Both of you, stop talking nonsense and get out of here, I don't want company;" he got up and dragged his feet to the table.

"That's...that picture-" Nivin started, still looking as shocked as me.

"No way... there's no way-" I said, unable to believe it.

"What are you two blabbering early in the morning?" Rohan still looked a mess; He was pouring the water into the cup.

"That picture..." Neev said again, the light in Rohan's eyes went out.

"Yea... Naina," he said, placing the water back on the table.

Nivin.

I was still driving. Riya gave me a nervous look from the passenger seat.

We had to drag Rohan out of there and locked him in the backseat.

Rohan has started to get annoyed now.

"Are you telling me or what?" he grumbled. "Where are you taking me early in the morning?"

"We are almost there,"

"If it is one of your clients, Neev, I am going to beat the crap out of you," Rohan said again.

Riya was too silent. I think she's worried. I know Priya doesn't have her memories, but I don't have the heart to hide it from him, I can't do it to Rohan.

As soon as we reached her house, both of us got down. Rohan followed us reluctantly.

"Come on," I said and we started to walk.

"Whose house is this?" he asked.

Riya rang the bell twice and Priya's Auntie opened the door, her Uncle was right behind her.

"The car is here already-" her Uncle stopped as he saw us.

"Are you going somewhere, Auntie?" Riya asked pleasantly.

They looked taken aback for a moment, so unexpected to see us, then their eyes stopped on Rohan and they looked worried.

"You!?"

Before we know it, Rohan was clutching Uncle's collar.

"Rohan!" Riya and I both shouted.

"Why are you here!?... Whose house is this?" he started to shake him by the collar.

"Rohan, leave him! It's his house-"

"No! It's not! He was living in a crap before! He's Naina's Uncle!" Rohan shouted, and then turned back to him again, "How did you get this house? Did you help Sebastian to get rid of her?" he punched the middle-aged man.

Auntie tried to stop him but Rohan turned to her.

"I am going to inform the police, you were hiding well all these time," Rohan raised her Uncle by the collar and I pulled him back.

"What the hell are you doing? Calm down!" I said.

But Rohan pushed me off and kicked him in the middle causing the man to hit the wall in force.

"Stop this! What's going on here!?"

Everyone stilled at that. Priya was looking angry; she supported herself to the wall and looked around, her eyes stopped on Rohan who was frozen in his spot.

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