City of Sthapan, Present Day, 8:05 a.m.

"Do you know about Sthapan Yellow."

She had lovely, mesmerising dark eyes. She was voluptuous, and Vani's oval face, sharp eyes, and easy smile could guarantee a second look from any man. Omkar was no different.

Omkar knew she was all that, and he also knew that Miss Vani Srivastav was not just an amateur historian who blogged about the arts and paintings of the era. In the real world, that was how Vani made her money.

Omkar knew otherwise. Omkar definitely knew that Vani was, in fact, a brilliant thief. Though she was a little partial to the royal era, she had stolen from far too many museums and private collections—far more than Omkar could even know about.

Yes, there was a sad story behind Vani's choices in her life, which had ended up with her becoming a thief—one that Omkar knew well. And Omkar had no intention of ever bringing that up. Why would he? He also had a story like that, and Vani had shown him the same courtesy by not prying too deeply into his personal life.

But wasn't that the point of the whole thing? This was a fling, a fling between a TTI agent and a thief.

Yup, the meeting between Omkar and Vani had started a little unusually.

The curator of the museum had complained of extortion, and that had dragged TTI into the mess. When the TTI officials came to the scene, the curator had ended up dead. Initial investigations had revealed that one of the paintings which the curator had in his room was a fake. That led TTI to Vani. Subsequently, that had led to a smuggling ring, of which the curator had been a part during his lifetime. The curator's death was a revenge killing.

Yes, that particular case led to the nabbing of a huge smuggling ring in the city of Sthapan for TTI.

At the end of the whole mess, there was a thief who had stolen from the curator.

Omkar had looked the other way instead of catching the thief who had stolen from the smuggler.

That single thing had started Omkar's relationship with this thief.

The real reason Omkar had encouraged it was because Vani had not tried to seduce Omkar when he had found her out. Vani had just wanted Omkar to leave her old fence out, and she was ready to take the blame for the whole thing.

Or maybe it was just the sizzling chemistry that Omkar felt when he was around this woman.

He had looked the other way during the theft from the museum. But even then, he knew that he could not keep himself away from this woman for long. She was a magnet for trouble, and she drew Omkar to her.

Omkar found that he just could not keep his hands off of her. Apparently, neither could she.

Subsequently,Vani had even been responsible for further arrests for TTI. She had even shared her 'expertise' in her profession to help Omkar nab the more dangerous criminals. Over the next year, Omkar had realized that there was so much more to Vani, and he had even intended on starting something serious with her.

Yes, Omkar knew that he could no longer dismiss Vani as a simple fling. In fact, that was exactly what he was here to discuss with her.

After a long day at TTI, Omkar found Vani's place to be the perfect place to rest. They alternated between crashing at her home and his, and today it was Vani's turn.

Unfortunately, Omkar's work at TTI had led him to a question about the arts of the royals, and that came first.

"Can you give me a crash course on the Sthapan Yellow and the royal arts?" Omkar asked, eyeing her tight jeans and T-shirt, wondering how long he could actually pay attention to her words. "I need it for a case at work."

She seemed oblivious to the effect she had on him and sat right next to him, on the sofa in the hall of her home.

Seeing her home always gave Omkar vertigo when he compared it to his own. Omkar, being the essential male that he was, was uninterested in the decorative or floral items in and around his house. There were times when Omkar felt that his apartment flat was a little too drab and simple. But then Omkar preferred it that way. He found that he could not spend any of his gray cells on deciding to make his house more beautiful. Which was probably why the colourful and exciting colours, plants, and decorations at Vani's house thrilled him. It was not just this. In every single situation, she thought differently, and it was not like the other people that Omkar knew – that alone was enough for Omkar's elation.

"The royals discovered that the yellow colour was obtained because of cruelty to animals." She told him this with all seriousness.

Okay, Omkar understood this part. He nodded fervently, hoping she got to the point before he completely lost control over himself. Her luscious lips and perfume were already distracting Omkar.

"As a result, after commissioning their third painting to a well-known artist, they prohibited the use of this color."Vani explained, typing intently on her laptop.

Forcibly, Omkar turned to what she was showing him on the laptop and saw two paintings – one of a beautiful, haughty looking woman who looked like a princess with a very cool looking tiara and a flowing transparent veil behind her; and the other of some dude with a crown. Yes, even the totally un-artistic part of Omkar agreed that both the paintings were beautiful.

"These are the two paintings of the era that have yellow in them." She told him as she pointed at the dude with the crown. "This painting was, however, deemed a mistake by the artist. He felt that he had drawn the subject without the usual glory of the royals. He felt the subject was out of focus and was almost willing to trash the thing. Luckily, the royals paid the artist and saved it."

His senses were pervaded by her perfume, and he knew that the case of distraction was long past. He could not think clearly. Omkar leaned over to find her lips." Things are going out of focus for me too, lady."

She laughed her throaty laugh at him, but she made no move to back away from him. "Seriously, how do you work for TTI with all this?"

That had happened two years back, and no, Omkar did not remember much of that conversation, beyond that. Primarily because there had been very little verbal conversation after that.

Omkar knew almost immediately why he had remembered Vani now – the sunrise in the painting in Ramesh's house had triggered it.

Yes, Vidyut knew about Vani and Omkar too. That was irrelevant to Omkar.

Omkar was just thankful that he could think about Vani without the other usual feelings that accompanied that.

The usual melancholy which filled Omkar as he thought of Vani was now almost gone.

Omkar only had Kriti to thank for that.

That beautiful techie had accepted Omkar, broken and all, and she had loved Omkar enough to help him get over Vani.

Two years back, it was Omkar who had broken up with Vani, because deep down, Omkar had known that there was no future for him and Vani. A TTI agent and a thief could never make it work. Vani could not change who she was. Omkar did not want that either. So he let her go.

Vani was probably aware that Omkar had made the decision with both of their lives in mind. Or probably, she felt that Omkar was the wrong man for it. Whatever it was, she had not fought hard when Omkar had let her go. She accepted it and she moved on with her life.

She never interfered with Omkar's life after that, and neither had Omkar gone back to her.

In Omkar's case, something beautiful had happened after he had let Vani go. On the very same day and place that Omkar had broken up with Vani, he had unexpectedly met Kritika Kiran.

Omkar was happy that Kriti had met him.

But the thing was, after that, Omkar could never forget the techie's beautiful brown eyes, and it never left him alone. He found himself thinking about it all the time.

But Omkar felt that he had zero chance with Kriti. She had to blink and better men than Omkar would be willing to share their lives with her. Why would a girl like Kriti be willing to look at Omkar? What could he offer her that other men could not?

Yes, those were relevant questions.

It was just that none of that mattered to Kriti. She had flipped for Omkar, and she intended to take it to its logical end.

Braving the other TTI members, Mitran himself, Kriti and Omkar's love story had reached its end, and here were Omkar and Kriti. They were going to celebrate their half year wedding anniversary in three days. And Omkar knew that he enjoyed himself on every single one of those days.

Kriti even knew about Vani and the other women in Omkar's life before Vani.

Kriti had accepted him with all that, and Omkar loved Kriti more because of that.

No, the best part of their relationship came three months back.

It had been a really bad case for TTI as a whole.

Vani had been the thief that TTI had first arrested when the whole case had started. And the whole thing had culminated with Shreya's arrest.

The day after that, Kriti sat with Omkar as he looked into Vani's personal records.

Vani's file read 'deceased' in the front.

Kriti just sat with Omkar, and she did not say a single word, as Omkar had gone through the file.

Omkar had not had any comments to make about it, other than the melancholy. Kriti understood it and just let him grieve. She had not even asked for any explanations. That was the most beautiful thing that Kriti had done for him.

Yes, Omkar was loved, and he had every intention of keeping Kriti, the happiest woman in the world.

Vidyut, naturally, could not know that much. Which explained his belligerence at Omkar for bringing up Vani at a time like this.

As said, that was not Omkar's problem right now.

What was important was that Mitran was wrong in his assumptions.

The killer could not have taken the original painting. But the painting was important for another reason. For that, they needed to be back at TTI.

"Chief, I think we can go back to TTI." Omkar told the two other men. He looked around the house. "There is nothing more we can do here." Omkar thumbed at the clock/camera. "Vidyut, take that clock with you and give it to Kriti. Ask her to check the images for it. And ask her to verify whether this painting is genuine or a fake."

Omkar studied his watch and then looked at Mitran. "Chief, we need to talk with Dr. Bhide."