In Dixit Mansion

Nandini's Bedroom

The men got settled back on their seats again while the youngsters still were trying to control their anger. Viren, closed his eyes and leaned onto the head board with his hand clutched on Nandini's arm, as if he was scared that she might vanish if he doesn't hold her..

Viren: She wasn't even 18 at that time, when she was harmed for the first time. Harmed..isn't the word should be used for it. She was shot, in her spine. 2 bullets and the doctors have even said that she won't be able to make it. She could even lose her life. They even said that we shouldn't wait for her anymore because there's no chance. And when I was thinking that God was too cruel to me that he snatched my love, my Chhavi from me first and then now, he's snatching my baby too, he proved me wrong, he made me believe in him again by giving my doll back to me..

Raj: She was on her way back to home when she was shot. She never allowed more number of guards around her, she doesn't like it, still she had 2 guards with her on our insistence but then they were nothing for him. He shot them to death and then it was my Love. 2 bullets were more than enough for her fragile body..

Swayam: Right after 24 hours of our lives, we got the reason of our happiness back with us. When she opened her eyes, she said, her car got crashed with someone's car and some man came out of it and shot the guards who tried to fight with him and then he shot her before she could save herself. At that time, she didn't have any weapon with her to protect herself..

Lalith: We searched for the culprit but we couldn't find him. All our sources were useless when it came to him. He was powerful and we could simply wait for him to show up..

Akash: And he did show up, just like how we got a phone call now. He talked with us through phone and he demanded for only one thing to let us live in peace but we couldn't give it to him..

Manik ( curiously ): What did he ask in return..? Wasn't it supposed to be money..??

Ranvir: It was supposed to be money but he didn't want it. He wanted revenge, from us, especially from Viren. He wanted Viren's peace, his happiness and we knew what he meant by that..

Manik ( whispered ): Nandini...

Rohit: Yes, he wanted princess. He knew if he needs to see Viren's destruction then it's only through hurting princess. Her life was precious for all of us and he knew he could take his revenge from us by taking her life..

Manik ( frowned ): But, why did he want to hurt you..?? All of you..?? What was the revenge he was talking about..??

Viren ( still with closed eyes ): In his words, For snatching his love from him..!!

Manik ( shocked ): What...???

Raj ( nodded ): We snatched his love from him. We cared about us, not about him. And, he decided to punish us..

Manik ( confused ): I can't believe it. you can't snatch anyone's love, you know what's the meaning of love..

Swayam: We know and that's why we decided to snatch his love from him because we loved our best friends more than anyone could imagine..

Manik: Best friends..??

Lalith: Yes, we decided to help our best friends by snatching his love from him. We didn't have any choice. In front of God and our eyes, we were right.

Manik: I'm confused...Dadda...ye sab kya hai..

Viren ( stared at him ): When I decided to hurt him, I forgot that one day I would be hurt in some other way..

Manik: You can't, you simply can't hurt anyone..

Viren ( smiled faintly ): But I did. Maybe, you'll understand if you know who was his love..

Manik ( sighed ): Dadda, I don't care about whoever his Love was. All I know is you can never hurt even a little insect then how could you hurt someone mentally. It is impossible..

Viren: If I say it would be possible then..?? After all, even you know who's this Love of that man..

Manik ( curiously ): I too know her..??? Who was she..??

Viren ( closed his eyes ): Chhavi Virendhar Dixit..

And, Manik gasped in shock. He looked at Viren with disbelieving eyes. He roamed his eyes throughout the room to witness calm faces, including the youngsters, seems like they already knew about it..

Manik: Nandu's Mom..?? Your wife..??

Viren: Yes...Doll's mom..My kids' mom..My wife...Love of my life..And I simply didn't care that she was already someone's love while I was falling in Love with her..

Manik ( frowned ): You mean...She was already in love with someone else..??

Viren ( smiled ): Chhavi Virendhar Dixit, zindagi mein sirf ek baar pyar kiya aur ussee insan se shadi ki..

Manik: But, you just said..

Viren: I said that she was someone's love, I didn't say that she too loved that someone..

Manik looked more confused and seeing it, Rohit decided to break his thoughts..

Rohit: We all were best friends since childhood. Viren, Raj, Ravi and I were best friends since our birth. Our parents knew each other and we became best of friends. During our schooling, when we reached in 5th year, Ravi introduced Akash, Swayam, Lalith and Ranvir to us. They were in same class as 4th year was the only year where Ravi got separated from us but then the next year he gave us 4 another best friends and we became a gang of 8. We completed our schooling and reached our college but still, we were together. In fact, our bond grew stronger. We were ready to do anything for each other. Even if it means to take someone's life..

Raj: And finally, we reached our college year. Our Bachelors year. Viren, Akash, Ranvir and I were the cool guys of our group and the rest 4 were among the good guys. We bad boys, used to flirt with every girl present in the college and so we were the most popular guys of our university. Girls used to die for us. Virendhar Dixit was famous for his looks and so among girls. But, there was one girl who never cared about his existence. She simply didn't care about him being the popular guy. She never spared even a single glance for him..

Swayam: While for Viren, he was smitten. He was smitten the moment he laid his eyes on her. She was beautiful, intelligent but extremely rude for the world. She was a girl, who can do anything for her friends. She knew how to interact with people. But, she was simple. She was simply simple and down to earth. She was bold but at the same time, she was a soft-hearted girl for her family.

Manik ( smiled ): And, she was Chhavi Murthy..

Viren ( raised his eyebrows ): A wild guess, huh..

Manik ( smiled ): No Dadda, Swayam uncle was actually elaborating Nandini's character so I knew if someone could be like her, then it only could be her mother..

Viren smiled at him and nodded..

Manik: Phir kya hua..??

Lalith: Phir..? Phir kya, just like how a Romeo ran behind his Juliet even Virendhar Dixit ran behind Chhavi Murthy. He was her personal stalker. He followed her wherever she goes. Let it be, church, library, music classes or even the worst, shopping. He was ready for everything but instead of hanging up with him, she turned her face. She never gave a damn to him which did pinch his heart.

Ranvir: And his Ego too. Girls used to die just for Viren's glance and here, he has become a Romeo but Chhavi crushed all of it.

Viren ( glared ): Zyada natak math kar..bas thoda sa crushing kiya..phir maan gayi thi mujhe..

Akash: Haa haa..She accepted you, at the end of our Bachelors when you were back of her since the starting..

Viren made a bad face while Manik looked at him with a sad face..

Manik: I can understand your feelings, Dadda..Don't worry, we both sailed in the same boat..

They both shared a " ikr " looks with each other and this brought a small smile on each and everyone's faces which was looking gloomy for the past 1 hour..

Viren ( sighed ): Sab kuch ache se chal rahe the..She accepted my proposal finally after getting rejected for the nth time..

Manik ( frowned ): Par kyu..? You were the college hero, Dadda..

Abhi ( smirked ): Well, the college hero was a bad boy too while Mom was a good girl, simple..

Manik smiled and looked at Nandini and held her hands in his..

Manik ( thought ): Just like us, haina Love..

Raj: Wo tho hai..She didn't trust buddy but then gradually she too fell for him, we were the master planers of that. Which is why, now he is back of our happiness..

Manik: Who was he, Dad..??

Rohit: Chiraag Khanna..

Viren: Our enemy. He wasn't a bad guy, he was among those guys with whom good girls try to be friends with. A simple guy. He was our enemy because we were a lot different from each other. He never flirts with girls, he wasn't popular but he was interested in studies. A nerd with no geeky glasses but with good looks. We never crossed each other's path because we simply didn't like each other. Chhavi was friends with him. She always found a good friend in him. I was always jealous of him because he gets to be with her more than I could. He gets all her attention but for her, he was her best friend along with our group's ladies, that is, Shanno, Akshara, Poorvi, Trisha, Reeha ( Akash's wife ). Though, Neerja ( Dhruv's mom ) wasn't that close with us, the ladies were friends with her too..

Raj: But, what we failed to notice was Chiraag's behavior towards Chhavi. He was always more than close to Chhavi and when we said it to Chhavi she said that we never liked him and so we think like that. We too agreed to her thinking maybe, she was right. But then, she was proved wrong, when, the next day she accepted Viren's proposal, Chiraag lashed out at her for accepting Viren's proposal. He said, being friends with Viren is okay for him but he won't let her be his ( Viren's ) girlfriend.

Akash: But Chhavi too got irked with his behavior, so she chose Viren because she truly loved him and that was when he confessed that he loved her. It shocked her but then she politely rejected him and said that only Viren holds that place in her heart which her soulmate could hold..

Lalith: He apologized for his behavior to her and accepted Viren or call it, he faked acceptance. Because, in real, he wanted to separate them. He did try many attempts but it says right, when you love someone with all your heart, you would eventually with be together at the end, the same happened with Viren and Chhavi. The ever calm Chiraag became aggressive when we caught him red handed, who was making plans on how to kill Viren..

Swayam: Chhavi broke all her ties with him. She even asked him not to show his face to her, ever in his life. We thought, we got rid of him. But, he came back again and that time, he tried to kill Chhavi. He was quiet obsessed with her that we had to get Chhavi and Viren get married in front of him and prove that she can never be his and will always be Viren's.

Viren: That was the mistake which I did. I shouldn't have done it, maybe I should have made him understand how much Chhavi and I love each other. Maybe, our marriage had hurt him to that extent that he tried to snatch my happiness. He was in a mental asylum for a long time. When he got normal, Chhavi was already gone and his obsession turned into Revenge. He blamed me for everything. He said, if she hasn't borne my kids then she would have been alive.

Rohit: That was quiet ridiculous of you to agree to him. It wasn't in our hands. Chhavi was too fragile to handle more babies in her womb but that doesn't mean it was your fault. You loved her, stupid. You never forced on her..

Viren: Maybe, I should have never married her, warna wo mere samne zinda rehthi, meri nahi tho kya, hamesha dekh patha mein..Aur ab meri bachi ke saath bhi ye sab nahi hotha. He's trying to kill my daughter so that he can hurt me. He can make me feel helpless..he can make me go through a miserable life like how he had gone through..

Manik ( softly ): Dadda, you loved her with all your heart. When you proposed her, she accepted you because her heart was already given to you. Even if you haven't walked behind her like a love sick puppy, she would have been yours because, she was written in your destiny. If you wanna blame someone, then blame your destiny, it made you fall for each other and it took your love from you. It was written by God, so ask him for the strength to fight all the odds in your life. I'm pretty sure Dadda, He will help you and you'll now that it wasn't you but your fate was to be blamed for your loss, for whatever is happening with Nandini. Aur waise bhi, kyu blame kar rahe ho aap, she's safe. Koi bhi nahu chu saktha ab usse..hum ithne saare log hai jo iske aage peeche ghoomne keliye..I promise you Dadda, I wouldn't let any damn person to hurt my love, your doll..

And the men stared at Manik with a sweet smile playing on their lips. They looked at him lovingly. Viren stared at Manik with pride in his eyes..

Viren: I'm so jealous of Raj that he got to be your father..

Raj smiled at it while Manik made a baby face..

Manik: Come on Dadda, does it mean that I'm not your son. Blood doesn't matter when it comes to relations, its all about love that we share..

Raj ( raised his eyebrows ): I didn't know that my son was this matured..

Manik ( chuckled ): Perks of being with Nandini Dixit..

Raj ( smirked ): Wo tho hai, aakhir wo meri bachi hai..

Akash/Swayam/Lalith: Wo meri bhi bachi hai..

Rohit: Tho mein kya karun..beitke nachoon, wo meri bhi bachi hain..

Arya: According to my brain, none can sit and dance, it would be quiet hilarious..

Rohit glared at Arya and he simply looked here and there..Manik, who was smiling by looking at his family turned to Nandini, only to see her eyeballs moving..

Manik ( happily ): Nan..Nandini...

And this made everyone to look at Nandini and saw her trying to open her eyes..

Viren: Doll...baby..are you alright..??

Raj: Love...can you open your eyes..??

Ritesh ( glared at them ): What the..Dad and Papas, let her open her eyes..kyu tang kar rahe hai..

They gave an apologetic look and turned to Nandini again. Soon, she opened her eyes fully and blinked them twice..

Nandini: Where am I..??

And Manik grinned widely after hearing her voice..He cuppued her cheeks and kissed ehr forehead..

Manik: You're alright. Nothing happened to you, Love..You're fine, now..

Nandini ( blinked her eyes ): Mani..where are we..?? Mujhe kya hua..

She held her head which was in pain but soon, she remembered what all happened. Dev's marriage, from feeling thirsty to falling in Manik's arms, Vishal's worried face and then finally slipping into darkness..

Vishal: Bachi..it's fine..you're safe now..

She looked at her family who were having happy tears in their eyes..

Nandini ( whispered ): Dev kaha hai..??

She roamed her eyes around and got to know that she was in her bedroom..She got up, immediately with a tensed face..Manik held her shoulders..

Manik: Love, you're not well. Kya kar rahi ho..??

Nandini ( worried ): Manik..Dev..dev ki shadi thi..phir mein..

He cupped her cheeks with his hands..

Manik: Shh..nothing went wrong. Dev ki shadi tho tumne dekh chuki thi aur ab Sona ki bidaai ho rahi hai..Dev usko lekar Kapoor's Mansion thak shayad pohanch chuke hoga..

She breathed a sigh of relief and this made everyone to look at Manik with a proud look on their faces who was simply smiling at Nandini..Soon, she got hugged by her two little brothers and sobbed in her arms..

Ritesh: Di...I..I thought..we lost you..

Rishab: Di, hume chodke..math jaana..haan..

Nandini smiled and kissed their heads..

Nandini: I'm sorry, par aage se nahi karoongi..teek hai..??

They nodded at her and wiped their tears..One by one, all of them hugged her while Manik preferred to hold her in his arms without letting her away from him..

Nandini ( frowned ): But, what happened to me..?? Sab teek thi, how did I get unconscious suddenly, huh..Manik..kya hua tha..Dad..

She turned to Viren who moved to her and kissed her forehead..

Viren: Nothing to worry. you just need to take some rest..

She noticed worry in his eyes. She held his hand and made him look in her eyes..

Nandini: If I'm alright then how did I faint, Dad..??

Raj: Arey bas, tiredness ki wajah se hua..

Nandini: Tiredness..?? Pops, aisa bhi kya kiya mene..hamara family ke har ek function ke hosting M5 ne kiya hai aaj thak then how could you just tell me that I fainted due to tiredness..

The men shared a nervous look and this made her believe something was really wrong. She looked at her brothers who gave her faint smile. Now, she turned to Manik who wasn't even looking at her..

Nandini: Manik Malhotra mujhse nazar nahi mil rahe hai tho obviously this isn't normal..

Manik snapped his head at her and then looked away..

Nandini: Koi kuch kahega..??

Swayam: Princess, kuch bhi tho nahi hai..

Nandini: Fine, mein bhi tho Nandini Dixit hoon aur ye jo tum log chupa rahe hai wo jaanne keliye bas ek ghanta kaafi hai mereliye..

She tried to get down when Manik held her tightly..

Manik: You ain't stepping down, Miss Dixit..

Nandini: Why..? If you can't tell me the truth then why can't I get to know by myself..

Manik tried to argue but like always, she was stubborn..

Arya: He's back, munchkin..

Nandini turned her attention to Arya and he nodded at her, while others stared at him in shock..

Arya: Aap sab ghoorna bandh keejiye..iss ladai mein Paris ki Diva ki har ek source zaroori hai..Tho Miss Dixit, he's finally back, the one whom we have sent to prison, 7 and a half years back..

Nandini ( shocked ): What...??

Abhi ( smirked ): Haa..and I hope, you remember what we planned for him, doll..!!

And the shock on her face vanished..

Nandini: So, he's back. Of course Bhai, I remember it. As usual, I'm his target, let's see aage kya karega wo..

Manik: you've got something in your head..

Nandini ( innocently ): Nothing Mani, bas jo hamare Papas nahi kar paaye wo hume karna hai na..so we had made a plan for it..

Manik ( smirked ): You mean, now its payback time, Chiraag Khanna is doomed..

Nandini looked at him in shock..

Nandini: You know about him..??

Rishab: Oh yeah, Bhai just got to know about it now..Seems like, we've got one more in our team..

Lalith ( annoyed ): Koi bolega ab kya ho raha hai yaha..

Ritesh ( smirked ): He's simply going to learn the exact meaning of PAIN..!!

The men looked at him in shock while youngsters had only smirks on their faces..

To be continued..