The Curse of That Night (2 page)

Chapter 2

Malvika Singh

“May I help you?” Receptionist asked.

“Yes, I have a 12 o’clock appointment with Mr Raichand,” Malvika said to the receptionist realising she was too pretty. Rich people do have hot receptionists for a fact.

“Name, please?”

“It’s Malvika. Malvika Singh,” she replied.

“Oh! So you are the new intern?” she asked.

“Yeah, that’s me,” replied Malvika.

The receptionist spoke over the intercom and showed her the way to Abhijeet’s office.

A small girl of not more than eight years was watching her Mom talk to the house maid. She was offering her some leftover food that their family had the night before.

She kept her Barbie doll aside and marched towards her Mom.

“Mommy, what are you doing?” she asked innocently.

“Beta,
giving some food to Kanta aunty,” her Mom replied smilingly.

“Mommy can you eat this food?” she asked.

“No
beta,
it’s a day old,” said her Mom.

“Then Mommy, how can you expect Kanta aunty and her family to eat it?”

Sounds stupid, right? But, that was Malvika Singh. Weird in her own way!

Malvika was always confused regarding what to choose as her career. She had gone ahead and tried everything that she was good at. She even went for the Roadies auditions! It eventually turned out that even though she was good at most of them, she didn’t have the kind of passion for any of them that would do wonders. She got bored of everything very easily and quickly.

She tried everything under the sun, be it painting, singing, dancing to name a few. At last it dawned upon her that its law she was born to pursue. She did law from Symbiosis society’s law college, Pune and got a chance to work with ‘The Abhijeet Raichand’ himself as an intern.

She walked towards his office. As soon as she got inside the office and closed the door behind her, she got confused. She was standing in front of a well built man with a glum look on his face. She was expecting him to be much older. Soon she calculated him to be approximately twenty-six years old.

“Ms Malvika Singh?” asked Abhijeet.

“Yes,” she smiled nervously. Obviously she had every single reason to be nervous and so she was.

“Hi, I am Abhijeet Raichand.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you sir.”

“No sir, please,” he replied curtly.

“Ummm… okay. So, shall we discuss my work and stay with you?” She asked.

“Yes, sit.”

She looked around and sat down on one of the expensive looking sofas placed across the office. The office looked like a living room with every sort of amendments that a person requires. She felt like she had entered into a king’s palace!

But, she had no time to gawk at her surroundings. She was there to do some work and learn. Right?

“Malvika? You fine?”

“Ah… no… aaa… yes,” she stammered.

“You want to say something?”

‘Yes marry me!’
she thought. “No, so what I need to do?” Malvika asked.

“Well, I am currently working on ‘Om Enterprises’ case. I want you to go through the case study and fill me up with your valuable comments by tomorrow?” said Abhijeet.

‘Such a workaholic! Bore’,
thought Malvika.

“Understood?” asked Abhijeet with a raised brow.

“Yes sir, I mean yes, Abhijeet.”

She stood up and decided to leave and had a closer look at him for the first time. The broad, muscular frame – covered by his crisp white formal shirt looked inviting.

You serious? Inviting? How can I even think like this.

His eyes were deep set with eyebrows that looked stern. A long straight nose over the perfect lips and a strong chin. A square jaw line and high cheekbones which made him look like a ramp model.

She was astonished that she didn’t notice all that in the first instance. Maybe she was too nervous to even take a proper look at him. But when the apprehension was gone, she did notice how killing his looks were.

“You want to ask something Malvika?” Abhijeet asked, looking at her.

“Oh…? No, no, I am good. I should get going,” Malvika stammered.

“Let me know when you are done with the case study.”

“Ok,” she said and shook hands with him.

She almost fainted with the first touch, although formal it was.

Malvika was having a sleepless night. Abhijeet’s thought engulfed her mind and heart. It was an initial spark within her, ignited by their first meeting. She was not sure if it was just attraction or love, though it was something for sure. There was something special in him that attracted her. His vibes, behavior, personality, were taking her heart away. She was unsure about the future of this relationship, or if there would be anything that could be termed as a relationship. She was not sure if Abhijeet loved her too or not.

Keeping all her worries aside she left it on God to decide.

‘Let the friendship grow, and if we are destined to be together, then love will surely blossom’,
she thought.

Chapter 3

Abhijeet

In those years of struggle, he had drowned himself in work. Took case after case and engrossed himself in solving them. The wound of his father’s death ultimately healed. And thus, when Malvika entered his life, he didn’t stop himself from falling in love with her.

His fame as a lawyer was growing exponentially and people’s interest in him was raising. Especially that of girls. He never had a shortage of beautiful and hot girls desperate to be with him. But over time, he realised that it was not him, as a person, that the girls were interested in, it was what he was. The female attention was only a means to get money from a wealthy boyfriend.

Malvika was one girl who cured his wounded heart. She helped him live again, and showed him how much fun, life was. She slowly became more than just an intern, and slowly he lost his heart to her.

From the moment he first saw her, he had been trying not to fall in love with her, adhering to his decision for no emotional bondage. The lessons life had taught him were not forgotten. The death of his father and his loneliness taught him not to be too close to people; else he would ultimately loose them too. He also learnt that being rich mattered more than anything in this world and money became his only obsession. ‘If you have got money, you have got everything’, that’s what he used to believe. But, Malvika made him understand that money couldn’t get him everything, at least not happiness and peace of mind.

He actually felt something different about Malvika. She was just twenty-four and had achieved more than an average girl of her age could ever imagine. She was carefree and did whatever she felt like, with no pressure of anyone. He felt drawn to her. He assumed that the bond they shared was getting stronger because of their mutual love for law.

The next few weeks went by at a speeding pace. Working with Malvika was an overwhelming experience. He was utterly impressed by her work and dedication.

She got engrossed in whatever she did, be it something as important as case study or as significant as pointing out all the evidences that could back fire the opposition. She put her heart into everything.

That night, they had to attend a warming party at Mr Om Kumar’s mansion. Abhijeet was not in a mood to attend it, but changed his mind when he found out that Malvika too was invited.

It was probably the last chance to meet her and he couldn’t afford to miss it. Over the time they both worked together, she got into his nerves. He was so used to having her around. Her laughter, her smile, her shining eyes… all became a part of his routine.

Abhijeet turned up to the mirror. He was wearing a navy blue shirt under a black Armani suit. Trying to manage his hair to make it look presentable, he grabbed his car keys and walked out of the bedroom.

By the time he reached the mansion, his heart was beating furiously. He was like a small teen, madly in love, not knowing how to deal with it. He didn’t know what to do.

But when he saw her that night, his nervousness simply vanished, not because she was looking splendid in the peacock blue
saree
she was wearing, but because of the everlasting smile she wore on her face.

She stood only a few feet away from him with a drink in her hand. He took a closer look. It seemed like something was going on in her mind, like something was bothering her.

He tried to catch her attention, but she was too busy with herself and her group of friends.

“Hi,” he went to her and said, looking into her eyes full of sunshine.

“Hey,” she replied smiling.

“Enjoying the party?”

“Yeah! It’s fun.”

Silence.

“I think we should get some fresh air. What say?” he said.

“Sure,” she replied in affirmation.

A move to get some privacy with her.

He pulled her closer to him and stared into her eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Nothing seemed to matter. Time froze. There were tears in her eyes. They were smiling. They were in love.

He had never imagined that love would come back in his life. He had not known Malvika for long, but he knew they were meant to be.

He promised himself to love her for the rest of his life.

“I love you, Malvika,” he whispered.

“I know,” she whispered back.

“But, I love you more.”

For all the time she’d been working with him, she had waited for this one single moment and when it finally came she was numb.

He could not hold back any longer. He pulled her close to him and touched her lips softly with his lips. They stayed like that for a while and looked into each others’ eyes.

The kiss felt like heaven to him and if he had a choice he would have never let it end!

Malvika was not picking up her phone. And he hated to admit it, but – he was missing her. He tried for one last time.

“Hello,” Malvika shouted.

“Where are you Malvika?” Abhijeet asked.

“Hello? Abhijeet?” she yelled. There was loud music behind her and the pitch of her voice was high too.

“Malvika where are you? And what’s that noise?”

“Well, partying. Friends insisted. What’s up with you?”

“Nothing, was worried about you a little,” Abhijeet said.

“Hey! I have an idea, why don’t you join me?”

“Yeah sure,” said Abhijeet.

“Ok. And I will not make you stay for long. We will leave after a while, I promise,” she said.

“All right, will be there in fifteen minutes,” he said.

“Where to?” Abhijeet asked, looking at Malvika.

He had gone to the club she was partying in, seen her drinking like hell and had taken her back to his car.

“Can I drive?” she asked.

Abhijeet paused, turned back to stare at her.

“What? I want to sweetie!” she said sheepishly.

“You are drunk Malvika. Let me get you home,” he said.

“You have so many cars. Does it matter if I drive one of them?”

“We are talking about Audi R8 Malvika. And you are drunk, not in your senses.”

“I’m not going to crash it anywhere.
Pakka
,” she said.

One look at her cute face and he was taken. The shine in her eyes worked too.

“Ok. But be careful, okay?”

“I love you!”

Once they got into the car, she took the keys from him, revved up the engine and pressed on the accelerator.

“Will you please slow down?” Abhijeet said.

“It’s a sports car honey! It’s designed to run,” she said and increased the speed.

“Hey watch out!” screamed Abhijeet.

Malvika tried to apply brakes, but that didn’t work. She lost control and ploughed through the guard-rail and crashed into a tree. Its front end crumpled with the force of impact thrusting two-foot of metal back into the car. The windshield imploded, showering the insides with deadly slivers of glass. Both the driving wheel and dashboard compacted into one mangled mess.
The metal of the car groaned like the final cry of some wounded beast and it shuddered once, then fell slowly onto its side.

Abhijeet was still breathing. He knew he was lucky to be alive. The crash alone should have liquefied his insides; it was equivalent to jumping off a five story building. His chances of survival were slim, almost zero, yet here he was, his face pressed into an airbag, still strapped firmly into the seat with cuts and scrapes to show from the accident.

He looked at Malvika. Blood. And more blood. He tried to scream. Scream for help. Darkness surrounded him. And he too blacked out.

The next thing he remembered was waking up lying on a bed in a hospital.

“Malvika,” he said.

“She is fine; just a few minor stitches and fractures. Nothing to worry. You should thank this poor boy who brought you both here,” said the doctor.

“Hey! What’s your name?” asked Abhijeet.

“Darsh,” said the boy.

“Thanks Darsh. I owe you one.”

“No worries
sahib
. It was my duty as a human being to save you,” he said.

“Well, well, well. Seems like
Agneepath part 2
in the making. With you acting as ‘Vijay Dinanath’ dying and this guy Darsh playing ‘Krishnan Iyer’ a saviour. Cool! Why do you have this one bad habit of coming back from the dead?”

“Rohan? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Hello brother? I am back,” said Rohan Raichand.