Hi there! Back with an update. Hope you like it. 🤗

And a very very verrryyyy Happy birthday to razzafathima and @Sally_Blr!

Much love! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Moving on...💃💃💃

"Words in double quotes." - Talking

'Words in single quotes.' - Thoughts

Chapter 44 - Misconceptions

#College gate#

Ragini, Laksh, Karan, Sanskar, Saara and Vivek met coincidentally at the entrance. Looking at each others' faces, they immediately knew why each of them were there.

"Any idea where he might have run off to Sanskar?"

"No Laksh. What about you Saara?"

"Me neither bhai."

Karan's phone rang suddenly. He checked the caller ID and he picked up in relief.

"Hello? Thank goodness you're alright Ansh. Where are you?"

"I'm hiding near Restro Corner at an alley. These guys are strong Karan. I can't beat them on my own."

"Don't worry. We're coming!"

#Vinod's apartment#

"I can't believe you're defending them! The Maheshwaris are the ones after Ragini, which makes it clear that they were the ones behind your parents' death! Yet, you refuse to put them behind bars!?" Vinod screamed.

Prasanth had called him and told him everything. However, Vinod wasn't expecting his nephews to defend the ones guilty.

"We aren't sure if they are the ones responsible uncle. The only thing that we are relying on is a symbol. Do you really want to proceed with such little information?"

"Little, Samay? Little?! Those are people who have left no traces for us to trace them. Even such a little clue should be like a big tip for us. And here you are refusing to accept the reality of this fact!?"

"Uncle those people are generous people. Yes Sanskar can sometimes be an arrogant jerk, but that doesn't mean that they could do such a thing. Please trust us." Nikhil defended, desperately trying to convince him.

"Just because of your new found friendship, you've forgotten about your parents' deaths? You forgotten about the threat to your sister's life! I really didn't expect you both to be swayed by emotions so easily. Emotional fools the both of you!"

"Uncle look. Knowledge is a tricky thing. Knowing too much or too little is always dangerous. I'm not saying that I won't punish them if they are really guilty. I'm saying that we should at least try to find out more before proceeding. What if we end up punishing them for nothing? Our parents wouldn't want innocents to suffer because of our misconceptions."

"I agree with bhai."

Vinod looked at them pointedly. After a moment, he sighed. "Alright fine. I'll give you a week's time. Until then, make sure you keep Ragini and Swara away from them."

#With Ansh#

Ansh peeked from the place he was hiding at the men. There were six of them. The leader looked thin and scrawny, but the other five were well built.

"Boo!"

Ansh looked back in horror, which soon turned into anger. "Sanskar, you idiot! What if I ended up screaming and alerting them?"

"Hahaha...sorry, couldn't resist. But you're face was priceless. Haha..." Sanskar calmed down when he saw Ansh's glare. "Okay okay. I'll get serious. Goodness! You don't know how to have fun."

"Get. To. The. Point!"

"Alright, here's the plan." 

After sometime...

"Hey ugly!" The men looked towards the voice to see both the twins standing there with a smirk. "I bet the mirror broke when you looked at it!"

The leader turned red in anger. "Get them!" on his command, all of his five men rushed towards the twins. Ansh and Sanskar nodded to each other and took off in different directions.

Ansh ran as fast as he could with three men following him. He stopped when he reached a dead end.

"Now you've got no where to run. Give it up boy." said one of the men.

"Actually, you should say boys." Spoke Karan, as he and Vivek emerged from behind the men.

Sanskar, on the other hand, wasn't having such a good time.

The men that were following him had guns. "How come I get the ones with the guns?! Ugh! I shouldn't have listened to this stupid plan of Laksh! 'Nothing will go wrong' he said. 'Everything will go according to plan' he said. I swear Laksh. If I die, my ghost is going to haunt you for the rest of your life!"

He turned the corner and heard a scream. He looked back to find Laksh standing over the two men, with the guns thrown away.

"Nice work Sanskar." Laksh remarked with a smile. "Knew you could rock it as a bait."

"Next time, if someone has to play bait, you do it!" Sanskar pushed past him with a huff.

Soon they all gathered and headed where the girls were supposed to be.

There, they found the scrawny leader lying unconscious on the ground, with Ragini sitting on his back and Saara waiting near, putting a foot on his shoulder.

"Nice work girls. Now we can hand all of them to the authorities."

"No. Not now. First we need to question him and get some answers ourselves. And I am getting my answers, no matter what!" Ansh spoke with determination.

"He's right. We mu-" Ragini paused as her phone rang. "Hello Samay? What do you mean come home? But...oh...okay. Okay I'm coming." she looked up at the others. "I'm sorry but I need to leave."

#Sanskar's apartment#

Saara and Vivek had to leave for college as they had left with an excuse. Sanskar, Ansh, Karan and Laksh tied the rest of the men in another room and were now standing before the leader, whom they had tied to a chair.

"Tell us who hired you."

The scrawny leader just laughed. "Never!"

"It seems you don't value your life then." Ansh spoke.

"I do. But I know that you won't kill me. Probably get me arrested, but you won't shoot me. However, if I tell you the truth, my boss will surely kill me."

Sanskar punched him in anger. "But we should kill you! You're even ready to harm innocents for that chip. What did Ragini ever do to you?! One of your snipers tried to kill her! She didn't even have the chip!"

The leader looked confused. "Sniper? What are you babbling about? We only want the chip from you. We never attacked any girl with any guns."

Laksh, Karan and the twins looked at him in shock. "But...but if you didn't, then who attacked Ragini? And why?"

"Maybe it's because they want Swara and thought of harming Ragini to hurt Swara. They aren't being able to get to Swara because of the security." Laksh surmised. Seeing all of their puzzled faced, he explained to them about the threat to Swara. "That's why I asked Mr. Maheshwaris to hire guards. But I still don't know who maybe behind all this!"

"Prasanth."

They all looked wide eyed at Ansh who spoke.

"I've seen him keep an eye on Ragini today. I've seen him do it some other times before. You even said that there could be someone from the college involved, right Laksh? I bet it's him."

"Wait Ansh. It's not good moving to conclusions without enough knowledge. We should try to find more information." Karan reasoned.

Ansh nodded "I guess you are right. From tomorrow, we begin spying on Prasanth."

"Hai!"

#Next day#

"Yeah, yeah. I know. You play your part, I'll do mine. Besides, Karan is right beside me to keep me in check!" Sanskar spoke into his ear piece while patting Karan on the back. From the corner of his eye, he saw Ragini arrive with Swara. She and Swara were about to turn the corner, when she turned to look at him.

Sankskar smiled and waved at her. However, Ragini simply looked away and moved ahead. 'Eh? What the heck? Did she just ignore me?'

He ran after her. "Ragini? Ragini!"

Ragini looked back at him, but didn't stop. Her eyes seemed to say sorry, but she didn't wait for him.

Sanskar quickened his pace. Now he was sure something was up. 'That does it! I'm finding out the what's wrong right now!'

(What's wrong with Ragini bhai?) questioned Saara. Sanskar had almost forgotten that Saara and Ansh were listening.

(Did something happen stupid twin? What did you do to piss her off?)

"That's what I need to find out."

He saw Swara enter her class, while Ragini moved towards the stairs. However, before she could get on the steps, he pulled her back by the wrist and made her face him. "Alright. Why in the world are you ignoring me? What did I do that even I'm not aware of?"

"Sanskar, leave me. I can't talk to you right now." she uttered, looking down.

"Okay, how about in recess? Would you tell me then?"

"I'm afraid I can't Sanskar. I..." Ragini closed her eyes as if it was physically paining her to say the words. "I can't meet you anymore."

Sanskar's eyes widened in shock. "What do you mean we can't meet anymore? Are you joking Ragini? You've got to be joking. You're playing some joke on me, aren't you? Ansh probably put you upto it!"

"No Sanskar. Its not a joke. I really can't be around you anymore." Ragini tried to move away, but he held her back by the wrist.

"Ragini, what the heck?! You can't just stop talking to me. What's the reason?" he asked in panic. "Did I do something wrong? If I did, I'm sorry, alright? I'll do everything I can to correct my mistake. But please don't say such things."

Only then did Ragini look up at him. He felt worried seeing her miserable state.

Her eyes looked red and puffy from crying. 'Did she cry all night?' Even now, they looked moist. He tried to touch her face. However, she moved away at the last moment.

"Why Ragini. I know I am obnoxious. But don't punish me like this. I'll change if you want me to!"

"Sanskar, please don't make me feel more guilty by saying such things. Just let go of my hand."

"No! Not until you tell me what happened. Why are you crying? Did someone do this to you? Is someone blackmailing you to stay away from me?"

Ragini wanted to make an excuse, but looking at his eyes she knew he wouldn't let go until he knows the truth. "No one is blackmailing me Sanskar. Its just...its just that my cousins do not want me and Swara to be near any of you Maheshwaris."

Sanskar released her hand in shock. Saara and Ansh, who heard everything over the ear piece, were also in similar state.

"W-what? Why? They didn't seem to hate us earlier. What happened all of a sudden?"

"I don't have any idea Sanskar. But they seemed extremely serious. Even Nikhil seemed dead serious about it and strictly told us to stay away." She rubbed her moist eyes in order to keep her tears from flowing. "I tried Sanskar. Me and Swara tried our best to convince them that there is nothing wrong with your family. We tried to convince them that you, Ansh and Saara are good people. But they just wouldn't have it! They even banned Swara from meeting Laksh since he is your best friend."

"But why? We didn't do anything to offend them!"

"I don't know Sanskar. All I know is that me and Swara made a promise to not associate with you and your siblings. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." she spoke in a broken voice.

Ragini couldn't bear to see his hurt and turned to leave. However, she stopped on Sanskar's next words.

"And what about the both of us? What about our relationship? Are you willing to let go of it that easily?"

(Ahem...Okay. I guess we should give these two some privacy. Saara switch off. I'm doing the same as well. Talk to you later bro.) spoke Ansh over the device.

(I agree with Ansh bhai. Hope you convince her Sanky. Bye...)

Sanskar heard the beeps as they cut the line.

However, he was more concerned about Ragini's reply. "Answer me Ragini. Are you willing to let go of our love that easily?"

"Don't say that Sanskar. I won't ever stop loving you. But my family means a lot to me. I can't hurt them!"

"And what about me? You're willing to leave me? Hurt me? Doesn't my feelings mean anything to you?" he shouted.

Ragini came near and held his hands. "I love you more than my life Sanskar. I would do anything for your happiness."

"Then forget your promise to Samay and Nikhil."

"Sanskar, please try to understand! I would give up my life for you if you ask for it. But I can't give up my promise to them. Samay and Nikhil mean a lot to me. I'm sorry Sanskar. So sorry." Ragini slowly backed away. She took a deep breath and gathered the courage to say what she was about to say next. "I-I think we....I think we should break up."

Sanskar's eyes widened. Although she said it in a whisper, it felt like turned his entire world upside down.

Ragini rushed up the stairs with tears flowing, without waiting for Sanskar's reply. What she did was necessary. But it broke her heart into pieces.

Sanskar remained frozen where he was, watching as she went away too shocked and hurt to do anything.

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To be continued...

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~ 🌹 Mona 🌹