It would have been an understatement to say that Sanskar was just stressed.

His brother had been missing and now he don't know where his wife is either.

He knew about Ragini trying to know what was he planning. But he wished she did not reached the edge after which it was a deep fall.

And he couldn't risk her life for it. He tried again to dial her number in a hope to get a ring but he was disappointed.

"Damn" he cursed throwing his mobile aside. "Sir. I need your signatures on these files" Shreya peeped inside his cabin.

"Yeah" he breathed and she entered his cabin. She placed the file in front of him which he signed.

Then she thanked him and walked out of the cabin.

“Um... I have to buy some stuff Swara told me to get. I will come there directly”

How could he even forget that? He should have thought about it long back.

But now when he took the phone to dial Swara's number he realized why he did not thought about it earlier.

He was in no mood to listen to her terribly shrilly voice.

But.

He had no choice. He dialed Her number and waited for her to pick the call.

"Hello" Swara spoke from the other side. "I thought you will not receive my call" he spoke.

"Jeth jee? I wouldn't have if my eyes weren't blur due to tears" she answered.

"Right" Sanskar rolled his eyes.

"What did you tell my wife to get that she is not to be seen from morning" he asked.

"What?" Swara asked confused.  "Look Swara don't act this with me. Tell me what did you tell Ragini to bring in the morning?" he hissed losing his temper.

"For your kind information, I haven't spoken to her from the day you people left Maheshwari Mansion" she spoke bitterly.

"You think this is funny don't you. I swear if you don't tell me where she is I will forget you are even pregnant with my brother's child" he threatened.

"Oh... I'm scared" Swara mocked.

"I don't give a damn what you can possibly do Jeth ji.  I'm already much worried about my husband to even bother your wife to bring something for me" she disconnected the call.

Sanskar thought of one more reply but had to stop himself as the line went blank.

He concluded that she wasn't telling a lie.

That meant Ragini told him a lie and his palm squeezed the phone in his hand. Luckily it did not fly into shards.

Why was she so stubborn and impulsive all the time. No usage of brain when she knew all this was so dangerous. She knew he will be worried for her. She knew it will kill him each second if she was not to be seen around.

Then his phone ringed with a message. He opened it and found a video clip which he played without noticing the sender.

First he did not understood the dark room. But then it started making sense to him.

There was someone whose head was down and face wasn't clear at all behind all the hair strands scattered.

But what caught his attention was the attire of the person.

"Laksh" he gasped when he recognized the clothes and the slight features of his face.

"What the hell?" he got up shocked and his phone was about to slip out of his hold.

He looked at the source of the media message. And there was no way his heart will not try to break out of his chest.

It flashed his wife's name. Ragini.

He dialed the number hoping she will pick up the call and tell him what's going on. But no she did not pick up the call.

But his phone rang again and the colour of his face was gone. With his shaking hands he recieved the call.

"I had warned you Mr. Maheshwari. I will not tolerate back stabbers" the voice spoke.

Sanskar gulped in the saliva formed in his dry throat.

"But I did as you said.... And I made sure nobody knows about it" he spoke and a sweat droplet developed on  his forehead.

"What about your wife trying to pry in my office along with your brother. You think I will not know if they confide their identities behind fake costumes?" the voice hissed and Sanskar narrowed his eyes confused.

What was happening? Ragini with Laksh and she did not tell him this. How can she? And now she is sending a message and not picking his calls. Why is she trying to dig her own grave. Not only hers but also his stupid idiotic brother's also.

Though he wasn't sure after finding the video clip he was eligible any less to be thrown in that grave.

He pulled his hair as he sat on the chair.

"See. I... I assure you okay.  She will not do this again. This time I will make sure" Sanskar requested.

"I have given you enough chances Mr. Maheshwari and I had warned you that if anything of this sort happens I will not be sparing her life. I think you took my threatening very lightly" the voice spoke venomously.

"No... No you can't do it. You had agreed you will not harm my family if I do as you say." he spoke urgently.

"Yes your family. But I don't think you consider her your family anymore" the voice mocked.

Sanskar closed his eyes to take a deep breath.

"She is someone who is important to me more than my family. And I don't regret to say I am selfish when I consider her that" Sanskar closed his fist so tightly he felt his nails will tear his skin and blood will ooze out any time.

"So it calls for a deal then" the voice challenged.

"I give you a chance to prove who is important to you more. Shall I? You have got just 12 hours. Either you can save your family or your wife" the voice spoke and Sanskar's heart felt it will stop beating in any moment now.

"You can't do it" Sanskar protested.

"You out of all people very well know what I am capable of. Don't you?"

Sanskar could see the smirk forming on the person's face already.

"And if you are successful in saving one among them then remember you have to start the arrangement for the others funeral" the voice dangerously spoke.

"No... You can't..." his sentence was interrupted by the blank tone. And the tone made his mind also blank.

What should he do? What should he do?

His mind came back to senses after some time and immediately began fretting.

Anxiety gets the worst side of your brain when you need it the most.

Then he grabbed his phone to dial Maheshwari mansions land-line in a hope to inform anyone about the situation and alert them.

But it was dead. How did he even think that the person who could make his mind blank will be any stupider.

He dialed everyone's number but he had no luck. It looked like there was some jammer in the area and all the cell phones had lost signal at the same time.

"Damn" he cursed as he threw his phone aside.

The person had planned this very cleverly.

And he needed to use his brain if he wanted to save everyone. Though he said Ragini was most important to him and he can  reach any level of selfishness for her it was practically impossible to ignore whole family to protect whom, he had come so far.

He can't let anyone die. Not even Queen Victoria and the heir.

Then he remembered he had just spoken to Swara and her mobile might be reachable.

In a hope to talk to the last person he will ever wish to talk he dialed her number. And he was right. Her number got connected.

"Probably her eye sight is clear now" he spoke bitterly while waiting for her to answer the call.

After almost dialing her number for tenth time she answered the call.

"Again if you are going to blame me that I kidnapped your wife let me tell you the fact I am six months pregnant who can't even carry herself around the room" she spoke sarcastically but calmly for which he was thankful.

"Listen sister in law. Before you waste more time whining about your pregnancy just hear what I say" he spoke in a breath.

Swara realized the seriousness of the situation by the time he spoke. But she knew he couldn't avoid being sarcastic while talking to her but this time his jibe was controlled which was unusual.

"Fine" she sighed.

"Oh thank god" he sighed. 'Finally she developed some brain cells' he spoke in his mind.

"You have to be very careful okay. But I don't know I should tell you this or not. But its for your own safety" he spoke.

"Well I am surprised you are worried for my safety" she replied.

"Will you stop interrupting?" he spoke annoyed.

"Sure" she said coldly.

"There are hidden cameras in Maheshwari Mansion. First you have to disable them. And you have to do it very cleverly. The one who is watching from the other end of it should not get a clue that you are doing it on purpose" he spoke biting his nails in hope she will be able to do it.

"There are cameras in our mansion" she screamed startled.

"Shhh" he spoke trying to suppress her voice.

"I told you don't let anyone know about it okay please" he had only this way to make her do the work...

"okay" she breathed relaxing herself.

"Then come back to your room and call me. You have got only two hours to do that" he spoke.

"Can I trust you with this job?" he asked unsure. "If you are not sure about it please call Maa or badi Maa in your room and give them your phone. Their cell phones are in jammer radar and I am not able to reach them" he spoke caressing his forehead.

"I will do it" she spoke calmly this time.

He took a deep breath this time.

"Thank you" he genuinely spoke.

"And sister in law take care" he said a bit relieved.

She stretched her lips in a thin line and disconnected the call.

He knew he could at least try his luck by trusting Swara.

Then he looked at the message again and studied the surrounding of the video. It was a room where there was very little light and air.

The canopy of the light was forming from the left window and there was no door in the video.

That meant the door was behind the phone and by the time of recording it was day before yesterday  evening and he realized how close he was to this video when he had grabbed Ragini's phone this morning.

But she was with him the time recording was done. So it was not recorded on her phone because he very well remembered he had snatched her phone and it was in front of him all the time.

That meant someone sent the video to her phone and she might wanted him to see this and may be she was not in a position to receive the call or send him a text.

He looked at the video again. There was a shadow of the person recording. He concentrated more on it to get a clue. And he got it.

There was a blur image of the person on the dusty cracked window of the room.

"Rajat" he gasped. 

Rajat was alive. He was alive all the time when they thought he was dead.

His breathing became uneven now.  Where he was thinking one enemy was down he had sprinted up again.

It was like he was carelessly walking around a grass patch and suddenly a snake has buzzed out.

It was that scary.

Now he knew where he had to go. In the back of his head the last moments of Uttara flashed.

Her face had no expression of revenge but fear. How could he miss that. She was really worried. She was scared.

He had no time to regret also.

He drove his car as fast as possible.

He stopped the car just outside Kavya's home. But he wasn't sure he should enter it like he was super human and can face anything.

He drove the car still far away from the home and parked it inside a mall and from there walked out to reach the house again this time from the back side.

There was a huge compound wall he had to cross. He carefully crossed it somehow and scanned the area to reach the basement without being noticed scanning everywhere for humans or cameras.

He felt someone walking that way and found a garage and entered it and it looked empty. There was a door at the floor which he approached and lifted up.

There were stairs to reach the basement. He carefully reached the basement and looked around for anyone.

Finding nobody around he searched for his brother.

He saw there was one room at the corner.  He reached it and opened the door.

His heart jumped with inhuman speed when he found his brother tied to the chair and in the same situation he had found him in the video.

"Laksh" he whispered reaching the wooden chair.

He shook him but there was no response. He lifted his brother's head and saw his forehead and lips bleeding.

He checked the pulse at the neck which was faint.

"Laksh... " he whispered again. But there was no response.

He stood up and started untangling the ropes. When it was done Sanskar had the sane mind to analyze.

This wasn't the room in the video. It was below ground and how could there be canopy of the sunlight and the position of the window was wrong.

But it was late.

He felt a sharp object entering his back and a loud but pressured scream erupted from his mouth.

His breathing became hoarse and urgent.

And his eyes started to black out.

No he had no time.

Time. He had absolutely no time. 11 hours to go.

He can't faint Now.

No.....

**.***

Okay

I don't know how my old sims data is active.

Miracle I guess. But don't know how much time I have.

But all this time I have written some stories which I will upload once and let me see when I will actually come back.

In my city the lock down will be extended so 😑