The entertainment industry was full of glamour, glitter, and gold but most of all, it was a world of deception. There was no face unveiled. Each one was in itself a vizard, a camouflage to hide what they were within from those who stared at their exteriors.
There was no day when the individuals who stepped in with a blank canvas left untainted. They were painted with colors of greed, disguised self-interest, and manipulation. They were left tainted, ruined, and scarred. Masking their faces to hide secrets was their only way out. Each person who worked within this industry was fake, from the cast staging to being someone they weren't to the crew who hid behind the camera and helped them fool the world.
There were no saints.
Each one of them was hiding more than the other. This world was no black hole, but a snake island. There was a possibility one could survive a black hole but never a poison. This place harbored not just a plethora of deadly reptiles but they stored large bushes which hid unworldly scourges.
There could be anecdotes to poison but what about evils?
There was no way out.
You get stuck in here, you gotta develop iron skin and a beautiful mask to live and liberate. Either you face snakes or become one of them. There was no surviving here. No alternative. No exit and most importantly, no breather.
People quote 'Consistency leads to one's success.' None realized, before everything, consistency leads you away from death.
In the case of the glamour industry, consistency leads you to withhold and suppress others.
"Is the coffee to your liking?"
Uttara watched the woman who occupied the seat opposite her. In her age of early sixties, she sat dressed to the nines at 4 at night or should say, an hour before the sun would rise and the city would be awake to start a new day while she was here, still watching the night prolong.
"You did not make me come here for only a cup of coffee. Have you Mrs. Sinha?" Uttara assessed her with indifference. Her face is masked with the calmness that seems to work its charm.
Weren't masks pretty little things hiding so much behind them?
A tangible mask worked well but an intangible mask rocked. It played with your opponent's brain.
Avantika Sahay let her lips tip at her need to get to the point. "I did peg you to be smart, Uttara. I knew my son wouldn't marry just anyone."
"Sorry to disappoint you, Mrs. Sinha. I never married your son." Uttara smiled her most pretty one at her host while she played with the spoon in her cup. "For, my husband is no son of a bitch."
"How dare you?" Avantika's mask cracked and she could see right through the Botox exterior she had built on her face.
"I dare very easily." She pipped taking a sip holding eye contact with her husband's bad memories. "You see, I dared to sit in that car sent by you and let your driver bring me here. I do dare unlike you who hide yourself behind your puppets."
"You think you can talk to me like you wish, Uttara? Are you not forgetting what I made of you in mere hours? You never came here on your own will, I forced you to be here." Avantika snarled and her features were downright ugly. How blessed Vidyut was not to take anything from this woman.
"First, it is Mrs. Chauhan for you." She raised her second finger. "Second, how about you explain your call to me? Or should I say, your threat to my husband which according to you forced me to be here?"
"I wouldn't say you care about him. Seeing, you left him in the middle of the road." Avantika smirked and wrapped her red-painted lips around the edges of a white Bone-China tea cup.
"Yes, I did leave him behind. Because If I wouldn't, who would have saved you?" She reminded her with her lips tightly curled in a sneer. "You should know about the Chauhans more than me. The moment Gayatri Devi Chauhan or Mom gets a hint about the evils you are planning against her family, you will be as good as dead to them and the world. You think Vidyut's mother Rashi Chauhan would let you monetize on her son and the truth which for records none will believe."
"She is not his mother. I am!" She banged her palm on the handrest, letting rage take over.
"No, you are not." Uttara reminded her. "A woman like you could never be a mother. I pity your two daughters. I wonder what fate they were born with to have you as their womb."
"You shouldn't worry about my daughters but yourself." Avantika chuckled. "The Chauhans could get to me, but what about the other enemies you have? Ever wondered how I got hold of the pictures you never knew existed? Or how after moments that followed my call, your past was out in the media and you were tagged as a cheater. Did you imagine a scandal this big could follow your ignorance? I have so much on you that it would destroy you before you can take another breath."
"I am not afraid of you." The words left a bitter taste in her mouth.
"But you should be afraid of me."
The voice sent a shiver of recognition in Uttara's spine making her fingers clutch on her cup harshly. In the dead silence, the footsteps of those heavy footfalls were audible along with the shallow breaths she had once heard a little too closely.
"Rocky Makhija." Uttara gritted the name as he neared the table. Not turning back, she kept her mask of indifference intact when it was ready to crumble.
"You haven't forgotten me, I see." He scrapped a chair and took his seat beside Avantika, sharing a look with his partner, he turned towards her and the smirks that they copied couldn't be more cliché for announcing their partnership in this scandal.
"You seem to love the drama that you work for, Rocky." Uttara taunted. "I could forget you but these cheap games you play keep you alive in my memories."
"Always the smart mouth." Rocky leaned with his thumb ready to tug her hair when she avoided his touch and swatted his hand away.
"Keep your hands to yourself or you will be left with none." Uttara glared at him, glancing at the moment next to them. "You think you can threaten me with his support? You got to be delusional, Avantika Sahay."
"Me? Or is it you being delusional?" Avantika taunted back. "Oh right. You would have had quite a shock witnessing your career tumbling down the moment you hung up.
"You are quite proud of that little victory, aren't you?" Uttara scoffed with a mirthless chuckle, she shook her head at the two and sipped on her mug a little. "It is done and I am still not surrendering to you. What next? Any offer you have to make and try out or you will keep singing about one damage you have done to me?"
"She is right." Rocky shrugged "Let's get to the point. Time is of the essence for pretty Mrs. Chauhan here."
The wink shot to her by him made her cringe in disgust.
"You need to sign this." Rocky forwarded a file to her, keeping a pen in her reach. "This is a statement that my PR team will release on your behalf."
"Your PR team?" She engaged them with a mocking, soaking the scene.
"It will announce that you were cheating on Vidyut being engaged to him and leading Rocky on for getting your next project. You are formally dropping the project and will gladly pay the compensation amount." Avantika explained.
"I am?" Uttara cocked a brow, witnessing the exchange with mirth and amusement.
"You will." She menaced "If you wish to protect Vidyut's secret, you will do as we say and get out of his life. You will divorce him and get on a flight somewhere and I will shred the idea of outing him to the world."
"Wow." She exclaimed laughing at their audacity. "I...am speechless. You two are capable of thinking this much?"
"You think it is a joke?" Avantika huffed.
"Is it not?" She frowned innocently. The face morphs into a sneer. "I got to be mentally retarded to do anything that you two expect of me. I. will. Do. nothing. Not even 0.0001% of this."
"Are you sure of this, Uttara?" Rocky asked crossing his arms and taking a leisured once over of her. "You wouldn't regret any of this?"
"I will expose Vidyut's little secret. Everyone will come to know about him being my son."
Uttara clicked her tongue interrupting her. "Your illegitimate son which you conceived before marriage and asked the nurse to kill. You think you can afford that, Mrs. Sahay?"
Avantika scowled at the details. "I don't bloody care. I want him in my life and I will stop to no ends to destroy you if that is what makes him vulnerable to me. He thinks you will be his family, his home. I won't let it happen. You have to go."
"What are you talking about?" Uttara mused. Vidyut talked to her? But when.
"He said I would never be a part of his life. He didn't need anyone but you." Avantika was ranting.
"When did he meet you?"
"Two months back." She snapped. "3 days after the gala. I begged the receptionist to let me see my so-called nephew and when she let me to him, he called security guards to kick me out. I only wanted to see my son and spend some time with him but he pushed me away. But the moment you came to him, he was smiling for you. He gave you more importance than his birth mother. He humiliated me in the lobby while he himself led you inside and held you close to him. He threatened to get a stay order against me. Me? His mother? I was hurt."
She should have done that. Uttara thought as the incident came back to her.
It was a day before they were scheduled to leave for Havelock Island. She went to his hospital to pick him up for their monthly Chinese dinner date. That day, she had witnessed him a little ruffled but the excitement to have him to her for the entirety of a week had numbed her other senses.
How she failed to ask him why he looked so relieved to find her that day was out of bounds now?
"So, you will hurt him now." She concluded. "He kicked you out of his life so you want to alienate him, that is some motherly love you are demonstrating."
"Shut up." Avantika hissed snappily. "I don't care. He needs to feel what I felt. The pain of losing the person you love the most. He will lose you."
"He will never lose me." Uttara declared with conviction. She dumped her coffee on the file pages and littered them like a waste. "You lost. I will never sign it nor I will leave him."
"I see." Rocky nodded with a snicker and turned towards her. "She seems to have made her decision, Mrs. Sahay."
She focused on the man sitting nonchalantly. "What is it that you want, Rocky? Why are you avenging me? My team is already looking for loopholes to drop this project with you, you know this then why?"
"Because you are dropping." He answered standing up and shrugging invisible dust from his clothes. "You see, Uttara. I don't take rejections well."
"I am not rejecting your film. It was given to me before you came on board. I am only dropping out because I cannot bear to work with you. There is a difference." She slammed her palm on the table.
"Fine." He shrugged and took a step away. "You made your point now you may leave."
"What?" Avantika screeched. "She cannot go like that."
"She can." He stated. "She should." His eyes rested on her. "Leave, Uttara. You are free to go."
Uttara watched him skeptically but stood up to leave. Her brain seemed to create situations and moves he could make but once she reached the door, she heaved a sigh of relief against the pounding headache that seem to have been triggered by the lack of sleep and touched the knob.
Twisting the knob open, she glanced behind to find an aggravated Avantika yelling at Rocky who stood detached and unbothered. His eyes filtered to hers and he winked.
The door opened and she turned away from him.
"Long time no see, Boss."
Uttara blinked to recognize the face. "Farhan?"
Her head felt heavy and her vision turned blurry.
"Yes." The man who once worked for her smiled while her brain turned fuzzy and black spots stole her vision. "Your coffee boy."
â â â â
Shreya Thapar often wondered why all these big problems came to those who had money. Why media flock around them when there were other pressing matters in the world? Why were the stakeholders where fidgety and talked gibberish after just one news breakout or why the investors were so insecure when it came to big corporations?
Why don't they sit back and calm down? Why did they have to dump their trust and try running out as if their home was on fire?
She knew how the share market worked. A little rumor and investors flock away in hurdles creating excess supply in the market that crashed the price. It was demand and supply that worked in the market, the phenomenon was simple but these highly learned people failed to adhere to it.
They would sell everything they have or try to in some way or another, causing a deep loss of worth to the corporations. If only they had calmed down, thought rationally, and created a good enough escape plan, it would have been beneficial to all.
But these people, the brilliant investors, were headless chickens who ran in any direction they thought fit. Even at the cost of their own profits.
"Stop glaring at the poor machine or it will burst into flames, Meri jaan."
"You? When did you come here?" Shreya tore her gaze away with a scowl from her laptop screen and towards the man who somehow walked into her den with soundless steps and declared it as his.
"You were busy," Rakshit stated and slid a mug of hot chocolate towards her. "Take this and calm your horses. You look determined to sue all the media houses at once."
"As if I haven't already." She snorted watching his amused smirk. Picking the mug, she breathed into the delightful smell of her favorite poison. Chocolate drinks were her guilty pleasure and Rakshit Chauhan used them each time he wanted to.
"You sure have." He stood up from the adjacent single-seater couch and joined her on her triple-seater couch in Anirudh's study. The room she had sat holed up for the past 5 hours and constantly shooting warning emails and statements to media houses as Chauhan's PR head. He took the laptop from her lap and scrolled the screen to see a list of emails and documents she was working on with pity. "You can be ruthless when you want to be, Soon-to-be Mrs. Chauhan."
"Aren't you so sure about us getting married?" Shreya rolled her eyes, taking small sips of the drink and stopping a moan past her voice box.
"I am." He declared with assurance she often hated. "No one will be marrying you if not me, Shreya Thapar. You can jot that down somewhere in your brain."
"Narcissist moron." She grumbled and looked away from him while he dived into the mail she had drafted for the lawyers.
"Any reply on source confirmation? The articles have come to a halt but the social media platforms are still going strong." He asked after a thorough check.
"Yes, I got the update from Sahil. Check the mail."
"That is some good work." He praised and switched between tabs to work on the real-time data shared by her junior and created interactive charts to see the trends. Proud of his work, he tilted the screen towards her with another of his goading smirk. "But this seems better to me."
"Of course. Good job." Shreya gritted and sneakily rolled her eyes. A glance at the graphs and she could see the tentative fall of share prices that she was anticipating in the next 3 hours that the market would open for trading. "Have you talked to your board members? The stats look bad to me."
"Papa have assured them and I had a conference with them a few minutes back. They seemed understanding to me." Rakshit pursed his lips. "That was all we could do. Whoever did this sure caught us unprepared. We are in talks with two foreign investors and this could ruin any progress we made."
She nodded with understanding. This had killed three birds with one stone.
Vidyut and Uttara's relationship.
Uttara's career.
And, Chauhan's business reputation.
"Are you worried about the new proposal you were working on?" She asked him with a hint of empathy. Rakshit passionately worked on a resort proposal for which he wanted all the backing. The project he wanted her help with. It was what gave birth to their entire arrangement and now with one scandal from a Chauhan, the other would pay its price.
"Not much." He tried smiling nonchalantly, tugging into her fingers as he clutched them. "I have strong backing and a real good PR strategist to handle the mess. I am not worried."
Shreya felt the warmth radiating from his touch and she leaned towards him, fingers intertwined like woolen threads. "You don't need to worry. You wouldn't pay for someone else's mistake. I won't let it happen to you."
She had paid for someone else's mistake, she knew how that felt and she sure wouldn't let him go through it again.
His mismatched eyes held hers for a long minute and then back to her mug that she had cuddled to her chest. "Drink this faster and get back to work, Thapar. No more slacking off in the name of your snacks."
"Jerk." She sprung her hand away from his and turned away to get back into a comfortable position. Legs stretched on the small coffee table placed in the middle. She snatched her laptop from him and got back to aggressively typing a good enough reply to a gossip mill who had published 3 articles on Uttara and Chauhan's family in the last 6 hours.
She stabbed on Enter key to send the mail when Rakshit winced at the harshness.
"What?" Shreya snapped towards him.
"Can you be a little gentle with them? They have feelings too." Rakshit caressed her laptop with pity in his eyes, as if it was a human whom she had slapped.
She glanced at the device and back to him with her mouth gaping. This man cared more for the damn device than he ever cared for her.
"Then why don't you handle them for me." She thrust the PC to him and crossed her arms. She was tired and grumpy from the lack of sleep. Her fingers were sore from all the typing and her arms ached. "I will narrate and you will type. Go on."
Rakshit frowned in surprise and dumped it back in her lap. "You are no boss of mine. I am not following your orders."
"And I have been following yours for the last 7 hours, why?" Shreya glared at him, wishing to bash his head with anything in her reach. She closed her eyes and opened them with newfound patience. "Get lost from here, Rakshit. I don't want to see your face."
"Is it so?" He asked with a pout.
She scowled in response. Her moments turned nastier, so as the words that formed the next response she was to send.
After another few seconds of silence, Rakshit got up to leave. The same man who held the world record of being the most annoying creature in the universe was acting obediently.
"You are leaving." She slammed the laptop shut and threw it far away from her. Turning towards the man, she let her eyes glare at him with hurt.
"You wanted me to leave."
"And you decided to listen to me."
Rakshit shrugged innocently. "I thought you wanted me to listen to you."
"Are you for real?" Shreya blanched in anger. "You have never listened to me. Not once in the past 2 decades and suddenly you decided to abide by my words? You are leaving me here to work alone. Like seriously? I have been working non-stop, without a break for the entire night and not once you checked on me. Now when you come to me, you are not even staying. Am I only an employee of yours that you will leave me..."
Her next words died with his lips plastered on hers.
His rough, but gentle fingers tipped her chin up, molding his mouth to hers. He silenced her words with his breaths. Small, audible, and intense breaths that they were now sharing.
With wide saucer-like eyes, she watched his face muffling into hers, her vision blurred and she took the sign to close her eyes. The movement of his open mouth grabbing her clamped lips, nudging them to open and match his pace made her shiver in anticipation of more. His delicate hovering of lips gave her fingers a mind of their own, they traced his shirt and grabbed hold of his color, pulling him to her, hovering above her form that sat on the couch and his that stood behind it.
She wasn't breathless, for his arm slid to her waist and traveled to the back of her head. Each inch they glided was burning while she yearned for more.
"You speak a lot." His lips whispered against hers.
"Shut up and kiss me again." She pulled him back for another.
This time, she was on her knees to match the height difference and he pulled her closer to her waist. Arms entangled, lips moving together, and eyes shut, they pulled the other one close. His chuckle vibrated through her chest yet she held him closer, merging his body with hers.
Syncing heartbeats, deep inhales, and tugging on lower lips. All of this and more, so much more. She could taste the mischief on his lips, the smugness, the annoying grin, and the narcissism yet she wouldn't exchange it for anything better.
Rakshit Chauhan was hers. Her to know, her to love, her to tackle, and her to curse.
"Do you need more?" He tugged on her lower lip, peppering small kisses that worked like magic in irritating her.
"Stop teasing me." Shreya moaned in protest and tugged on his hair. He held her waist and ran his fingers on her back. They settled against her middle back, hovering over her bra strap which he unhooked.
She gasped and he entered his tongue in her mouth.
"You cheat." She mumbled in his mouth to which he grinned and bit her lip, taking control.
She had lost the count of minutes they had lost, their kiss turned unpretentious from a power play, relaxing from punishing, and slow.
His lips detached from hers and glided down the column on her throat, licking on her skin. It was sending electrics to her core and she clenched on his nape. Her nails dug into the muscles of his shoulder and guided his lips to a certain point she didn't know was this sensitive.
"Rakshit."
"Yes, meri jaan." A slow grin played on his lips and he sucked on her skin before he tore his lips from her skin, leaving her bothered and wanting.
She could see her reflection in his crystal eyes, she was flustered, a mess of limps, and turned on.
Unlike the first kiss they shared months back, this was real. Alive.
Then, she kept announcing her hatred for him, letting his staged alliances and reputation cloud her judgment.
"I love you." She said the words without remorse, no hesitation, and definitely no regret.
His eyes hooded with her confession, making his thump caressing her skin and nuzzle in her neck. "I love you. I love, love you, meri jaan. You are my life. My whole fucking life."
She knew she was. He didn't proclaim his obsession for her in these words just for a nickname. She was his life.
"I want something." She pressed a small kiss on his jawline, mumbling.
"Anything. Name it and it will be yours." He assured.
"You sure?" She confirmed.
"Yes, Love." He straightened with the playfulness evaporating. "Just say it."
Shreya bit her lip and watched him ready to give her anything.
"What is it, meri jaan?" He asked again.
She sighed, letting her face morph into one that conveyed her hesitation.
"Shreya?" He called for her again.
"Carry me to bed." She demanded.
"Bed?" His eyes widened comically.
"Yes. Bed." She bit her lip for extra effect.
"Now? I mean you want to go to bed." Rakshit flushed at the thought.
Shreya bit her grin back, nodding. "Yes."
"You sure?" He mused.
"Yes." She pressed, leaning towards his ear, and watched him blushing. "Rakshit"
He hummed in anticipation.
"I..." She watched his eyes close as she murmured. "I am sleepy."
Rakshit snapped at the admission, jumping away from her as she burst out laughing.
"Your face." Shreya pointed to his flushed cheeks and slapped her palm on her mouth to control her hysterics. The air betrayed her as the cackles ricocheted her.
"Woman." He greeted bashfully and turned away from her, mortified.
"The great Rakshit Chauhan is a blushing mess." She chuckled, holding his wrist, and preventing him from storming away. "My god. How cute!"
He swatted her attempt to pull his cheeks. "Stop it."
His grumbling did no good to stop her fun.
Exhaling and controlling her laughter, she breathed and watched him glaring at her frame.
"You will pay for this." He scowled.
"Sorry." She pursed her lips to stop chuckling. Raising her arms to him, she pouted. "Please carry me."
"In your dreams." He snorted swatting her palms away.
"I am sleepy." She pouted, doing her best to shoot a face he could not deny.
He shut his eyes and grumbled, shaking his head, he ended the distance between them.
"Please, Rakshit?" She shot at him in another attempt. "I love you."
"The only reason I put up with you." He rolled his eyes and lifted her in one clean sweep. "You better stop irritating me. It is my job, not yours."
He carried her out and inside the elevator towards his floor. Ditching the guest room set up for her, he carried her to his room and lay her down, gently.
She grinned at him and rolled to the other side of the bed. Patting the space near her, she jutted her chin to it. "Sleep with me?"
He watched her for straight ten seconds and shrugged out of his coat. Getting inside the comforter, he yanked her closer from her waist, he nuzzled in her hair. "I love you too."
She heard his confession and smiled.
"Stop smiling and sleep." He mumbled.
Cuddling to him, she sighed in relief.
It may be the rich people's thing to have problems, so many of them coming at once but sleeping after a night of chaos, she was contended to find him.
To hold him and she would happily be a part of it all for him.
For her Rakshit.
A much deserved kiss. It was pending from the time of their confession, well here it goes.