ADNI FF – Chapter 1 – Entrapment A New Dawn
Adni FF
Adni FF, IPK3, Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon, Entrapment, Advay Singh Raizada, Chandini Yash Narayan Vashisht.
Keeping his tearful gaze on pretty reflection of her smiling face in his rear mirror, Advay breathed, “Chandini.”
And in over five years, he had actually breathed. The air had not just reached his lungs, it had reached it heart, and deep in to his soul too.
With his eyes moist with tears, a smile curled his mouth as he sighed finally, in relief.
“Jeejuuu…”
“Chandini,” he choked.
But the moment he found Shikha turn her head, and gasp first, before squealing “Jiji” at the top of her lungs, he turned in his seat, to grab her so she didn’t open the door and jump out of the car.
“Leave me.” Shikha fought him. “Jijiii.”
“Calm down.” Advay pulled her back, and glanced at Veer to help him hold her back, but his brother too was lost in trance at the sight before him, of that of Chandini greeting some of the parents and smiling at them, before following the crowd up the stairs.
“I said leave me.”
“Don’t be silly.” Advay snapped. “Sit quiet. And watch.”
“She’s alive.”
He sighed when she glared at him in horror, and then back at her sister too.
Advay too glanced out of his window, and pursed his lips. She was alive.
Yet, tears blurred his vision, as he watched her delicate face shining with a smile. Four and a half years, he reminded himself. She looked just the same… a vision in yellow… just like how she had done all those years ago when she had crashed into his arms… her long hair swishing behind her, her delicate hands full of bangles, and her sweetest smile adorning her face.
“How dare she, Jiju? How dare she?” Shikah was fuming mad, yet couldn’t help break into a sob.
“Shikha….calm down.”
“No, I won’t.” She reached for her door again, but Advay locked her door and wiped his face.
His heart ached at how pretty Chandini looked, and happy too. Her features were glowing. She probably looked the happiest since he’d known her as an adult. Perhaps she was happy without him.
“I need answers.”
“Shikha. Calm down.” Veer finally spoke. “Let us wait and see.”
But when Shikha looked out of the window again, she covered her mouth and gasped. “Jiju….She’s wearing a sindoor,” she whispered, and then it all dawned upon her. “Who is she here to collect Jiju? Who is here for?”
Advay too had noticed that. Her Sindoor was cutting through her parting like a scar. And a delicate black chain adorned her neck. Maybe she had married again. Maybe she had found her happiness in the arms of another man. A man who probably treated her right.
Yet, he couldn’t help smile at the collar that glittered around her neck. Wife or not, she was still his slave, and a dark possessiveness took over him.
“Jiju, do you think she’s married,” Shikha choked?
“I don’t know, Shikha” Advay too choked, as he wore his shades and watched his wife step into the gates.
“Jiju…” Shikha shot out her eyes of the vehicle again. “This is a school…who is she here for?”
“Kya farak padta hai.” His tears rolled. “Until an hour ago I thought I had lost her forever……at least she’s alive.”
Once all the parents disappeared into the gate, Advay leaned back and sighed. “She’s alive. Thats all that matters to me.” Relief finally swept through him. “Now I can live, just by watching her from a distance.”
“What?” Shikha snapped.
“I don’t want to disrupt her life. Look at how happy she looks. I will stand at a distance and watch her.”
“Haan, you do that.” Now that the place was empty, Shikha finally struggled to release the door.
“Shikha…stop.”
“She’s your wife, right? You sit here and mourn, or grieve or watch her from a distance. But she’s my sister too….and I have the right to ask her where the hell she’s been for all this while, while we have wept for her.”
As her eyes burned with tears, Advay blew out all the air in her lungs.
“Bhai.” Veer placed his hand on Advay’s. “Even if she is married, so what? Let’s meet her. Let’s talk to her. And its only fair you divorce her, so she is legally free from you.”
“I won’t…”
“Bhai. Get practical.” He looked Advay in the eye. “You can watch her from a distance for all your life. But meet her..”
“But I do not whan…”
“And what if she’s not married.” Veer asked.
“Shah but who is she…” Shikha spoke.
“Let’s find out,” he replied, before glancing at Advay. “I know my Bhabhi. She let go of you because you wanted her to move on. Do you really think she would have moved on?”
Advay leaned back, pondering on those words, but shook his head again, before he spoke again. “Four and half years….she didn’t bother contacting any of us for four and half years….maybe she….”
“Let’s find out.” Shaheer smiled at him. “Whatever her situation, lets find out. Enough of living in assumptions now, Bhai.”
“I don’t want to freak her out.” Fear settled within him again. “You didn’t lose her for all these years. I did. I cannot afford…”
“I did too.” Shikha snapped from behind. “So did Meghu, my Baba, Mamaji, Maasi, Murli Bhaiyya, Kausar jiji, and Pramaji jiji too.”
“I did too, Bhai.” Veer welled. “She is the reason we met. I owe my life to her…..in fact, she is the reason I used to come to the Haveli. She was all I remembered from my childhood.”
Advay sniffled, while nodding at their argument.
“We deserve to meet her. We deserve to find out why she hasn’t come back to her.”
While Advay continued nodding, the parents began stepping out with their kids, and Advay stiffened.
“Right, this is the plan.” Veer glanced at Shikha. “You stand at the bottom of the stairs. I will stand on that street, opposite to you.”
“Okay.”
“Go quick. Talk to her, the moment you see her.”
“Fine.” Shikha opened the door and sprinted to the steps so she didn’t miss her sister in the flow of the parents streaming down the steps.
“Bhai. Take a chance.” Veer clutched Advay’s hand. “Baba has sent you here to Rishikesh. Maybe this was all planned.”
Advay frowned at his brother’s voice, and nodded. Advaya…that was the name the cleaner had told him. Even if she was married, and she had a child now, he smiled at the thought that she had named her child after the name he had suggested to her.
“Why don’t you stand there, under that tree, behind that car.” Once he got out of the car, Veer suggested.
Advay nodded, it was a good place. It was right next to the steps, yet secluded, so Chandini wouldn’t see him, yet he would be able to see her to his heart’s content.
Without wasting another beat, he strode up to the tree and hid behind it, while his gaze met Shikha’s who was pacing the length of the street under the stairs.
From the frown on her face, he knew she was planning on strangling her sister. But what if his Chandini had hit her head and forgotten them all. That wasn’t an option he was willing to consider. She had named her child Advaya, she knew him. She had to know them all.
As most of the parents now dispersed away with their children by their side, Advay kept his gaze to the main gate, worried if he had missed her. But with Shikha guarding the steps it was impossible for her to have left. What if she had seen them and taken a different route?
Fear settled within him, but as he glanced around, it seemed like there was only one exit.
And then he heard it, her sweet singing voice, the sweetest melody of his life, like the birds in the morning, singing, chirping.
With a sigh, he fell back into the wall behind him and closed his eyes. He had only been listening to this voice over the recordings he had of hers.
But to hear it in person, was the ultimate blessing.
As the voice got closer, he slowly raised his eyes to the stairs, and sighed again, when she descended down the stairs, wearing her sweetest smile, while carrying a child in her arm.
“You are a strong girl like your Papa, aren’t you?” He watched her in awe, as she kissed the cheek of the tear-stricken child in her arms.
He removed his sunglasses and wiped his tears, not wanting to miss anything.
Every sway of her hips, every move of her lips, every smile, every gentle flick of her hair, he captured it all and locked it away into the depths of his heart, to devour it later, in detailed slow motion.
Whether she belonged to him anymore or not, she was alive and she was here, standing in flesh… before him. This was the sight he had longed for, over four years and it was here… finally.
___
At that same time, “Jiji,” Shikha shrieked from the bottom of her stairs.
“Shikha.” Advay watched Chandini freeze to the spot as her gaze met with her sister’s. Relief flooded through him that she had recognised Shikha. But it also bothered him when instantly fear flashed in her eyes, and she searched the street.
“Who are you…How are you?” still standing mid way on the stone steps, Chandini clutched the child closer to her.
“You’re alive Jiji.” Without wasting another beat, Shikha ran up the stairs and threw herself into her sister’s arms and broke into a sob.
“Shikha careful.” Holding tight to her child, Chandini gasped.
Advay gasped too, worried she might fall, along with the little child.
“Sorry. Sorry.” Shikha held her at arms length and laughed. “Jiji. You’re alive.” Advay sighed when Shikha took Chandini’s face into her hands and kissed her cheek. “Where have you been Jiji? Why haven’t you contacted us? Itne saal…Do you even know how we…. Meri yaad nahi aye….”
“Arey Bas bas.” Chandini chuckled as she wiped her sister’s face. “Are you going to interrogate me here in the middle of the road, or shall we go home?”
“Home?”
“Haan home.”
Advay welled at that word ‘Home’. He had lost his home for so long now. And now his home was here, standing before him.
But when Shikha took a step back, she gasped out loud, Advay gasped too, only just realising, there wasn’t one child, but two. The other child was standing behind her mother, peeking up at Shikha with big wide eyes.
And as he peeked from behind the tree, it dawned upon him, that they were both twins. His Chandini was now a mother, to twin girls.
“Oh my god Jiji,” he heard Shikha choke.
“They’re mine.” He sighed again at the pride with which she spoke of her children. “They are identical twins.”
He muffled back a sob. She’d always begged him for kids. It was obvious she had married again. And whoever her husband was, he was thankful to him for having made his beautiful girl so happy all over again.
“Chalo Shikha maasi ko apna naam batao.”
He smiled at the tenderness with which she spoke to the child in her arms.
“Advaya Singh Raizada.” Advay froze when the child flew into Shikha’s arms without hesitation, and told her name. “And I am strong like my Papa.”
While Shikha chuckled, the other child chirped from behind her mother. “I am Advini Singh Raizada. My name is after a french wine company….because my Papa loves wine.”
Advay broke into a laugh, yet his eyes welled with tears. That was the name he had thought for their daughter, had she fallen pregnant all those months ago, on the night of the roka.
She had named her children after the names he’d once suggested. Yet the mystery hadn’t cleared in the cloud of the sudden joy.
That was until Shikha spoke. “Singh Raizada?”
Patting the child in her arms, as Shikha turned to hold his gaze, it was then it dawned upon Advay, and he felt the blood drain from his body.
Advaya Singh Raizada. He gazed at the girl in Shikha’s arms. Advini Singh Raizada, his eyes moved to the little girl, whom Chandini was lifting in her arms.
They were his girls. It struck him like a thunderbolt. He was a father, to twin girls.
Chandini had had twins, his twin girls. But how? When he gazed at the girls, they seemed a little over three. They had to be his. But when had she gotten pregnant? And how had she managed all this while.
Bile rose in his belly, as he felt disgust for himself. And guilt for what he had done, not just to his wife, but to his children too.
Did he have any right to ever look her in the eye? He didn’t know.
Yet, the moment she carried her child, and descended down the stairs, he found his feet move of their own.
And he stepped closer to her, slowly, on stealthy feet, like as though approaching a little butterfly fluttering about a garden.
He watched in awe at how she lifted her pleats, and glanced over her shoulder to Shikha, and at how while chuckling at her sister, she sprinted down the stairs, and straight into his arms.
His heart stopped the moment he felt her body crash into his.
“Sorry!” She gasped, but the moment she glanced up, she staggered back. Her face paled, and she tripped on her ankle.
Advay leapt in tandem, to wrap his arms around her waist.
She gasped again, but he tugged her closer, till she crashed into his chest.
The moment their gaze met along with their bodies, his body burst into flames and he felt himself stiffen in his pants. And they were both transported, back in time, to that first time when she had crashed into his arms in the courtyard of the temple.
But she wasn’t fighting him like she had that morning, he noticed. Instead she kept her gaze on him, and them looked away.
And fascinated by the beautiful butterfly now in his arms at last, he slowly raised his hand to feel her hair, sighing at the way they slipped through his fingers, and growled when she purred at his touch.
Their gaze met again, but this time she looked away. Yet her cheek blushed like they always did, and her body shivered in his arms. And a smirk curled on side of his mouth. She was turned on.
Four and a half years, and this was the effect he was having on her.
And the moment she peeked at him and trembled, it was obvious she knew, he knew how deeply affected she was, Just like he was too.
“You won’t ask me who I am?” He was stunned at how gritty he sounded.
But when she kept her gaze away from him, he slowly reached for the soft silken hair of his child’s and sighed at how they slipped through his fingers, just like their mother’s.
“Shall we go home.” Only when Shikha spoke again, did he give a nod, yet he kept his eyes on Chandini. And she peeked at him again, before stepping away from him.
But Advay was right behind her, his chest brushing her back, and his body singing at the way the heat from her body seared into his. And he was glad he was in a dhoti. It not just hid his aroused state, it also earned a second appreciative glance from her.
And he couldn’t help blush.
His second was here. And how.
As he gazed at his beautiful girls, he sighed. And he looked up to the heavens, while touching his father’s rudraksha and saying a silent prayer to him.
His father had kept his promise, after all.
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Author’s note
Hello all my lovelies,
And so begins the saga all over again. Do take a moment to comment again on how you like this chapter.
For me it felt like the first rain after parched draught-ridden summer. Well that’s what my Chandini brings to the story. She is the life, the heartbeat, of Entrapment, and Advay too.
Love Chitra.
