In the Name of Love – Chapter 40

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@Anannya07 Thank you so much. You take care too and lot of love from my side as well.
@AarushiSoni Thanks a lot. No need to cry, you’ll get ample opportunities to comment on wattpad, hehe.
@1234Aayu Thank you dear
@Aisha08 Thank you dear. Let’s see if she is the one…
@Prabhleen Thank you so much. Haha glad to see you addicted to it. Let’s see if your guesses turn out to be true.
@KB Aww thank you so much! That was so sweet of you to say that (^hearts^). I’m glad I could make you feel happy.
@Niyati12 Thanks a lot
@Samistha Choudhary Here’s the update
@N Ayesha Thank you dear
@Sumisha Thank you dear
@RiansHLoveR Thanks a lot. I’m glad you liked it.
@Jayashree Thank you so much!
@Priyadharshini Thank you dear
@JJ Thank you dear
@Vkjhp Thank you dear
@Sree Thank you dear
@Varshini Thanks a lot. Aww, really means a lot to me (^hearts^)
@Qt Thank you so much. Yes, Riddhima has begun to trust Vansh wholeheartedly. Hopefully, her trust on him remains throughout.
@Cutuuu Thank you dear
@Cutie Thanks a lot. Love you too dear! Yes, I’m on wattpad and I tend to post there relatively quicker.
The books are under the same name and @ni19534 is my profile name.
@Priyanshi_13 Thanks a lot. Well, we’ll soon find that out…
@Parita Thank you so much. Vansh’s sweet gestures are proving to be quite useful for himself too, because that is bringing Riddhima closer to him.
Haha yes, poor girl has to face so much for no fault of her’s. And yes, she can flirt too! (^wink^)
@Annoyinguser Thank you dear
@Adyyy Thanks a lot. I’m really glad that you are loving the story so far.
@Priyanka Thakur Thanks a lot. Yes, slowly but steadily, she’s beginning to fall for Vansh.
@Mary Thank you so much. Yes, from now on, I’ll give double updates only
I’m happy you are liking Vansh’s personality! Yes, Kabir’s actions seem suspicious. You will soon find out all about it.
@Milee Thank you so much. Happy to know that you liked it. Haha, I know the precap got you excited (^wink^)
@Jayanthi Thank you so much for another wonderful insight. Vansh is that kind of guy who when falls in love, he does so crazily.
I know, Angre’s character never made any sense to me in the show as well as in this story too, lol. He is useless in both the places.
There is definitely more to Kabir than that which can be seen. Whether your guess about him is right or not, we’ll have to see in the next chapters.
.
Haha I agree. Poor Vansh goes on bullying other people, but in turn gets bullied by Riddhima!
@Neetu Thank you dear
@Zara Thank you dear
@Riaa Thank you so much! I’m planning to upload 2 chapters in a row from hereon. And I’m glad you prefer it that way.
Like I said before, Vansh is like totally smitten by Riddhima. And that’s why, he is so upfront about his feelings and love for him.
As for Riddhima, I think she still does not realize Vansh’s worth. Like she knows that Vansh loves her, and she seems to like him too, but she does take him and his love for granted.
.
As for your doubts about Anupriya and Kabir, you’ll soon find out about them in the coming chapters.
Kabir does love Riddhima, but his love for her holds a streak of craziness, that’s all I can say for now.

---

When Vansh returned in the evening, he frantically began to search around the house for Riddhima.

“Where is this girl at?” he muttered to himself.

He began growing paranoid when he couldn’t find her in any of the rooms, or the garden and the poolside even.

One of the servants on seeing his desperation, adviced him to check the terrace.

Vansh felt as if he got his breath back when he saw Riddhima, all safe and sound before his very eyes.

“C’mon, raise both of your hands above your head, and gently lower your body down keeping your feet fixed to the ground,” instructed Ishani.

Riddhima followed her but not before making a face. She couldn’t help but curse at her fate. Gayatri had asked Ishani to get her to do some ‘special pregnancy’ yoga, that was deemed to be very good for the supposed unborn child.

This non-existent baby was literally getting on her nerves. She wondered with despair that what would happen when she’d actually get pregnant for real one fine day.

“Can we end this thing now? Please?” pleaded Riddhima.

“No, absolutely not.” Ishani was firm. “Dadi has strictly ordered me to get you to do the yoga, and I can’t go against her orders. You know how sensitive she is regarding this baby. She wants to do everything in her ability to keep you and your child safe.”

“But….” Riddhima tried to protest but then she spotted Vansh standing near the entrance of the terrace.

She signalled him with her eyes to help her out of this mess.

“Oh Bhai, you are here. That’s even better because the next set of exercises require participation from both the partners,” said Ishani.

“What?” Riddhima and Vansh blurted out in unison.

“Yes, wouldn’t it be so much fun?” Ishani rubbed her hands in glee. Her eyes on the screen, she said, “According to this video, Riddhima would have to lie on her back and Bhai would have to help her lift her leg up….”

“What nonsense? I’m not going to do anything like that!” said Riddhima keeping her arms akimbo. “And besides, it’s already too late. I don’t think you’d like to miss upon your beauty sleep considering how there are dark circles already beginning to appear under your eyes.”

“What?” Ishani gasped. “Dark circles?” She was a beauty enthusiast and always liked to keep her skin and figure at par with the top beauty standards.

She saw herself in her phone, “But I can’t see them.”

Vansh taking the cue from Riddhima said, “You know how the cameras are inbuilt with so many filters. That’s why you can’t see them in the camera. But Riddhima is right, you do have dark circles.”

“Oh no!” Ishani let out a cry. “I need to do something about it, before it becomes a permanent part of my beautiful face!”

Turning towards Riddhima, she said, “We’ll practice the rest of the yoga tomorrow. Goodnight!”

Saying this, she barged from there, while Riddhima could only manage to giggle.

Vansh amusingly looked at her. “Where do you even get such troublesome ideas in your head from?”

Riddhima chuckled. She suddenly grew quiet when she saw Vansh’s gaze fixed upon her. She could feel her stomach do a funny flip.

“What?”

“You troubled me a lot today. Now, it’s payback time,” smirked Vansh.

On realizing the actual meaning behind his words, Riddhima nervously tried to run her hands through her fingers.

Her eyes widened up when she saw Vansh walk towards her, slowly and steadily. She in turn tried to move backwards, but soon her back collided with a pillar.

Before she could know it, she found Vansh leaning over her and caging her between his arms.

Her heart was racing against her chest so fast that she almost expected it to leap outside any second.

She could feel herself growing weak under his unwavering gaze.

As he moved his face closer to her’s, a part of her wanted to act all egoistic and push him away. While another part wanted her to forsake her adamance and comply to his wishes, to his love.

She closed her eyes and parted her lips, waiting for him to….

“This,” said Vansh dusting something away from her cheek. “There was something on your face.”

Saying this, he backed away, leaving Riddhima utterly confused.

With a teasing tone, he said, “What? Don’t tell me that you were expecting me to do something else….”

She tried hard to hide her disappointment and embarrassment.
“No! Of course, not! I did not expect anything of that sort.”

“But your reaction and expression when I came closer to you, had something else to say,” Vansh continued to pull her leg.

Riddhima, on the other hand, was burning with rage. How dare he play with her like that! But she wasn’t going to give up so soon.

“What am I supposed to do if someone is blind enough to only see that what he desires to see,” she taunted.

“Oh is it?” laughed Vansh.

Riddhima lightly pushed him away and walked past him to the door. She tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Oh no! I guess that the door is locked from outside!” she exclaimed.

“Come on, Riddhima! You don’t need to give such lame excuses only in order to spend some more time with me,” Vansh said with a glint in his eye.

She rolled her eyes at him. “This is serious, Vansh. Stop fooling around and help me!”

When he tried to push the door, sure enough, he found it latched from outside.

“Ishani must have mistakenly locked us here,” he mumbled.

Riddhima started to panic. “Quick, take out your phone and dial someone up so that he may help us out of here.”

Vansh hesitated. “But I left my phone in my briefcase only…”

At this Riddhima began to pace up and down in a fit of anxiety. “Oh my God, Vansh, what do we do now? I don’t have my phone with me either. We must think of some way out.”

She tried to kick and slam the door in a bid to open it. But nothing seemed to work.
Not giving up, she went upto the railing of the terrace and tried to shout at the top of her voice.

Giving her a bored expression, Vansh attempted to place himself on the floor comfortably. He was genuinely exhausted from today morning, and all he wanted at the end of the day was to relax a little bit.

“All of your weird antics aren’t going to help,” said Vansh. “This door would open only tomorrow when the maid comes to clean the terrace.”

“What? We’d have to stay locked up here until tomorrow?” said Riddhima totally aghast.

Seeing Vansh snug up on the floor absolutely unworried, Riddhima became angry.

“How can you act so carefree in such a situation?”

Vansh lifted his head up. “So what else do you expect me to do? Besides I’m really tired and cannot waste my time worrying over something as trivial as this. In fact, you also should lie down here and try to go to sleep. There’s nothing else that can be done at this point of time.”

“Sleep here?” she asked with disdain.

“That’s upto you. If you wish to stay up the entire night like an owl, I won’t stop you,” said Vansh sharply.

Riddhima opened and closed her mouth quickly. This man, he compared her with a freaking owl? Not fair!

She wanted to give him a piece of mind, but he had already turned his face away, trying to sleep.

Not having any other option, Riddhima decided to do the same. She lay down on the floor, but got up after a while with a groan.

“What happened?” Vansh enquired.

“I can’t sleep without a pillow. The hard surface is hurting my head like hell,” she said rubbing her temples. “If I sleep in this position for even a second longer, I’ll end up with severe migraine.”

Vansh pondered for a while. “I have a solution to this problem, though.”

“And what is that?”

“You can rest your head on my chest and…”

“Excuse me?” she felt taken aback by what he had just suggested. “How did you even think that I’d agree to something like that?”

Vansh raised his eyebrows and then shook his head.
“You know what, Riddhima, you’re just impossible!”

She sighed and realized that she had no other option right now. She slowly walked in his direction and positioned herself right beside him. Hesitantly, she placed her head on his chest.

“Is this comfortable enough?” he asked his voice sounding as smooth as silk to her.

“Hmmm,” she said, holding onto his shirt for support. “But promise me that you’d keep your hands off me.”

He nodded and kept his hands as far as possible from her.

She was so close to him that she could hear his heartbeat. She took a deep breath, as his perfume seemed to completely invade her senses.

When she found Vansh looking down at her continuously, she said, “Why are you staring at me? Look somewhere else.”

“I have all rights to gaze at you,” he whispered. “And no one can snatch that. Not even you.”

She started blushing. Had there been no moon up there tonight, Vansh wouldn’t have been able to notice that.

“But I can’t sleep if you continue to stare at me like that. I get very conscious, you see,” she said.

“So why don’t you close your eyes, then?”

“Even if I close my eyes, I can still feel your intense gaze over me,” she said softly. “Your gaze is so penetrative that sometimes I feel that I may get completely burned by it.”

Vansh smiled quietly and turned away. He’d wait for her to fall asleep, after which he’d continue to stare at her again…..

Lay your head to my chest, call it home
All my wrongs in the past, let them go
When I was messed up, so gone, you were my shadow
And I owe you forever, to love you over and over….
[Zack Knight]
_____________________________________

Riddhima stirred in her sleep as the sunrays fell on her face. She tried to move, but found herself being held down tightly.

She opened her eyes only to find herself in Vansh’s arms, his chin resting against her head. She looked at his innocent sun-kissed face endearingly. Expecting this to be a dream of some kind, she tried to fall back asleep.

When realization hit her that this was indeed real and she had spent the night in his arms, she became apprehensive.

She tried hard to free herself from his embrace, but to no avail.

“Vansh, leave me, will you?” she said trying to apply force over his arms.

Vansh woke up with a startle. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, his eyes half closed.

“What do you think you’re doing, huh? You had promised me that you won’t touch me. But you….you went a step ahead and fell asleep while hugging me like a baby!”

Vansh grinned, tightening his grip on her. “I tried hard to keep my promise, but you were looking so beautiful while sleeping under the moonlight, that I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping my arms around you.”

She looked away, feeling shy.

He tucked a strand of her hair behind the ear and murmured, “Plus, it isn’t fair that you get to rest your head on me and clutch at my shirt, whereas I don’t get to even touch you.”

“I clutched at your shirt?” she asked bewildered.

“Yes. Look, you even broke some of the buttons of my shirt in your sleep.”

Sure enough, Vansh’s shirt was half open due to the buttons being broken off.

Feeling embarrassed at what she had done while sleeping, she tried to get up abruptly. But she fell down right on top with him with a sharp pain.

“Ouch!” Some of her hair had got stuck up with his locket.

“Let me help you,” he said trying to disentangle her hair. He did that as gently as possible, taking care not to hurt her in the process.

Just then, the door was thrown open and the maid entered the terrace. She almost screamed when she saw the couple in such a compromising position with one another.

She stammered, “I’m sorry, Sir. I didn’t know that you were here….I’ll leave right away!”

Riddhima finally got up and said, “Oh no! She saw us in such state. God only knows what she must be thinking about us.”

He teased, “What is there to think? Everybody over here knows that we’re going to have a baby, so they obviously believe that we’ve such a relation between us.”

Riddhima getting extremely irritated by his nonchalance regarding all this, stormed off from there, while Vansh was left in splits.
_____________________________________

At breakfast, Ishani happened to sit right next to Riddhima.

“So, had fun last night?” Ishani whispered mischievously.

Riddhima almost started choking upon her food.

“What do you mean?” she asked trying to feign innocence.

“Babe, you don’t have to act all prudish in front of me. I know that you and Bhai spent the night yesterday, together,” said Ishani.

Riddhima was stunned. How did she come to know that?

As if reading her mind, Ishani said, “I purposely locked you guys on the terrace so that you’d get some private romantic time to spend with each other because I know that Dadi has lately been really difficult on you both. I think I definitely deserve a thank you for this.”

Riddhima sat there open-mouthed.

“This Ishani is also turning shameless like Sia!” she thought to herself.

“Riddhima, you are looking so radiant and fresh today,” Sia said loud enough to be heard by everyone. “Did something happen last night?”

She started giggling, and soon Ishani too joined in.

Gayatri looked visibly confused. “God only knows what these girls are upto!” she muttered under breath.

Vansh scolded them, “Haven’t I told you ample number of times that laughing while eating is not only ill-mannered but also unhealthy?”

Ishaan who could not make head or tail out of this said, “It’s impossible to understand girls, I tell you!”

Without thinking, Vansh said, “I absolutely agree with you on that.”

But then he realized that he had committed a grave mistake by commenting that, when he found Riddhima giving him a death stare.
______________________________________

“Look Maa, Rudra has been not talking to me since two days! I really don’t know how to pacify him,” wailed Chanchal.

Gayatri remarked, “Knowing you very well, I presume that you only must have done something….”

Riddhima who was passing by, happened to overhear upon their conversation.

“Wait, why don’t you make Rudra’s favourite stuffed karelas?” Gayatri suggested. “Once he sees his favourite dish in front of him, he’ll forget all his anger. After all, there’s a saying that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

Unable to stop herself, Riddhima blurted out her opinion.
“Nani, I don’t think that saying holds true in today’s times, when both men and women are equally involved in cooking.”

Chanchal made a face at Riddhima’s interference, but she kept her mouth zipped up. Vansh was crazy behind that girl, and she couldn’t afford to say something that would earn his wrath.

Gayatri gave Riddhima a smile. “You might brush it aside as an orthodox ideology, but this strategy works every single little time. Whether your man is angry at you and you want to pacify him, or you want to showcase your love to him and make him happy.”

“Really?”

“Yes. But why are you taking so much interest in this? Do you also want to do something similar for Vansh?” Gayatri asked with a gleam in her eye.

Riddhima fumbled with her words and tried to divert the topic, but Gayatri had already taken the cue.

“Vansh loves meethi bhaat. Moreover, it is a relatively easy dish to prepare for a beginner like you,” said Gayatri.

“No, Nani. It’s not like I want to cook for him or something like that. It’s just that curiosity got the better of me and I asked you all that,” said Riddhima trying to cover it up.

Chanchal who had remained quiet for a lot more time than she would normally, decided to speak up.
“Such an over-ambitious and career-oriented girl like her won’t be interested in cooking.
Maa, remember how Vansh used to relish Ragini’s specially prepared meethi bhaat….”

“Chanchal!” Gayatri told her off.

Riddhima on the other hand began to burn in jealousy. If Ragini could cook Vansh’s favourite dish, why couldn’t she?

And besides, how hard could cooking get? It wouldn’t be as difficult as climbing Mount Everest, right?

With a determination to make the best meethi bhaat ever, Riddhima headed into the kitchen.

She looked up on the net and tried to accumulate all the ingredients on her working platform.

“Rice, ghee, jaggery, water, cardamom powder, and some nuts for garnishing. Okay that seems pretty simple.”

When she tried to take out the box of cardamom powder from a shelf from the top, she mistakenly tumbled the black pepper over herself. She screamed in pain when it fell into her eyes.

Hearing her cries, Vansh came running towards her. He rinsed her eyes multiple times with water, but the burning sensation did not cease.

He picked her up in his arms and took her to her bedroom, while she kept crying all along.

“Wait, let me get the concerned eyedrops for you.”

He soon came back with the medicine, and applied it into both of her eyes. He adviced her to keep her eyes closed for few minutes. She obeyed him but even as she did that, she continued to yelp due to the irritation.

“How did this happen?” Vansh asked angrily.

“I wanted to prepare meethi bhaat for you…”

Getting even angrier, he chided her, “What was the need to do that? Who asked you to do it?”

“No one told me anything. I wanted to cook that for you with my own wish,” Riddhima choked upon her sobs. “I wanted to do something special for you and Nani told me that meethi bhaat is your favourite dish. Besides, even Ragini used to often cook this for you, so I thought….”

Vansh took a deep breath. He sat beside her and took her hand in his.

“Riddhima, you don’t need to do all this to earn my admiration. I’m already completely besotted by you. Of course, there are certain traits of your’s that I absolutely dislike, but overall, I love you just the way you are.”

He wiped off the excess ointment combined with the tears from her face.

“As far as Ragini is considered, I know that I had a past with her.” He stiffened on taking Ragini’s name and he almost felt that his old wound had become fresh again.
“You should have no reason to compete with her. She was a betrayer, a liar, whereas you are everything that she was not. And that makes me love you even more.”

Riddhima could feel her heart beam with joy. To be honest, she herself did not know why she had started feeling insecure of a cheater like Ragini. But maybe this was what love did to a person, instilling weird fears in one’s mind.

She brought his hand closer to her and snuggled her head against it.

Vansh smiled as he saw a peaceful expression pass across her face.

Just then, his phone started buzzing. Sunny’s name flashed on the screen. He wanted to go outside and attend it, but Riddhima had held his hand tightly, not allowing him to leave.

Vansh couldn’t afford to miss out on this important call, so he lifted it up. He spoke in a hushed voice, taking care to not disturb Riddhima.

“I finally know the person who was leaking important information regarding your business to Pathak,” said Sunny. He was speaking in a muffled voice too, perhaps for the fear of Pathak catching him redhanded.

“Who is that?”  asked Vansh, sounding desperate.

“Sushant Sinha.”

Vansh felt the ground slipping beneath his feet. He became so numb, that he just stayed still for a few minutes.

He felt himself getting engulfed by a mixture of emotions – confusion, disbelief, rage, betrayal.

When finally he regained his lost senses, he jerked Riddhima’s hands off him.

“Vansh, please stay….” she said weakly, with her eyes still closed.

Looking at her with sudden resentment, he ignored her and stomped off from there.

“What happened? I hope it’s nothing serious,” she wondered.
______________________________________

It was past dinner time, but there was no sign of Vansh anywhere.

“He must be stuck in some important work,” said Rudra.

“But he missed out on the dinner. I hope he eats something outside at least,” said Gayatri.

Riddhima on the other hand, was getting tensed with each passing second. She had called him umpteen number of times, but everytime the call went unanswered.
Plus, the rude manner he behaved with her before leaving, added up to her worries.

“Is it something related to Maa?” she pondered. “Or what if he is upset on me? But why would he, I haven’t done anything.”

She retired to her bedroom with all these thoughts in her mind, when suddenly, her door was flung open.

“Vansh!” she exclaimed when she saw him standing before her.

His hair was unkempt and his face looked drained of all colour. But his eyes….his eyes, they appeared dark with….hatred?

“Are you okay?” she caressed his face.

He let out a groan when her hands grazed against a not-so visible cut.

“How did this happen? Let me do your first aid,” said Riddhima getting worried.

“Before that, there’s something I need to show you, Riddhima,” Vansh said with a menacing tone. “A surprise for you, sweetheart.”

Riddhima could not understand what was going on. Why was he speaking to her like this?

Without giving her any further time to think, he dragged her by her arm into the living room.

“What the hell do you think you are doing? You are hurting me,” she winced in pain.

“Well, a little bit of suffering should be endured to attain a greater happiness, you see,” he said with a wicked smile lingering on his lips.

Soon, the rest of the family had gathered around too, and nobody had any idea as to what was going on around.

“Oh Ishaan, you are here too?” said Vansh. “There’s a special surprise for you and your dearest sister. Aren’t you excited?”

Ishaan and Riddhima could not ignore the sharp tone of sarcasm from his voice. They both did not know what he was talking about.

But Anupriya, who observed all this was internally dancing with joy looking at Vansh’s rude behaviour with the sister-brother duo.

She thought to herself, “I don’t know what is going on in his head. But one thing I’m very sure about is that Vansh is going to teach a big lesson to Riddhima and her brother. What more could I ask for? The icing on the cake would be if Vansh even went as far as to kick them out of their house.”

“What is wrong with you? Why are you behaving this way?” Riddhima pleaded in front of him.

Completely ignoring her, Vansh said in his loud, crisp and intimidating voice.

“Come inside.”

Everybody turned their eyes towards the door expectantly.

A man appeared in rags, his hair was long and dishevelled, his beard looked untidy and unshaven since many days.
He was wounded and limped his way upto the entrance. His eyes bore the look of long-term sorrow and suffering.

“Papa!” Riddhima gasped.

Hello everyone! That is it for today guys. Do vote comment below.

Peace out!

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