Rudra OS- Between Lies and Truth

oh nakhrewaali

@oh_nakhrewaali

Rudra was lazing around when the servant came to him saying that MJ was asking for him in one of his old study rooms. Sighing, Rudra went to the room, his eyes still brim red because of the lack of sleep. It had been 3 weeks since Maya’s death and he couldn’t bring himself to move on. Ananya had stepped in his position as the owner of the RuAn publications and was doing a much better job at it. She had brought in two more writers whose initial drafts of the story looked brilliant, the printing of the story was halted and in a press conference, the death of Maya Jaisingh was announced, but MJ’s backing and supported this loss financially. Overall, everything around him was functioning well, only he was a fu*king mess.

“The man I was looking for!” MJ exclaimed and smiled warmly at him. These days, he was slowly getting closer to his parents, forgiving them for their past wrongdoings, after all, he was the only son they were left with, and the guilt of marrying Rishi’s killer was forcing him to be with his parents in these difficult times.

“This used to be my old office, Anatara used to keep newspaper article about me and award that I won here*,” MJ chuckled, and seeing that MJ still somewhat cared about Anatara made Rudra smile.

“This is what I gift you today, Rudra,” MJ pointed at the room.

“This will be your study, your office. Ananya and I feel you should work from home and what better place to start working than the place I started building our empire from, because one day, it is you who will take upon the empire,”

“Dad, I don’t think that is necessary, I will be joining the office soon,”

“Take it from me Rudra, a man needs to get over his grief if he wants to win. After dad’s death, I was in no shape to look after the office, but I buried my sorrows and took up the job,”

Rudra had heard this story for as long as he can remember, but today, he didn’t roll his eyes and instead smiled and thanked him.

“I will have one of the servants clean up the room for you and set it up to deem fit the office of Mr. Roy!” He pressed his shoulders firmly and smiled.

Rudra watched as the servant cleaned the room. He didn’t have anything to do anyway.

“I have never seen you around?”

“Sir, my brother has fractured his hand and cannot work, and Aamir sir has been kind enough to let me take his job for a few days,”

Rudra nodded and the servant went back to his job. He picked up the boxes filled with newspaper articles and left. He didn’t realize when a paper fell and kept walking. Rudra picked it up and was about to call out to him when he read the headline.

“A young woman claims to be the mother of Mr. Roy’s child.”

Intrigued, Rudra read the article that said that a woman anonymously called all the major media houses and the paternity test of the pregnancy too was promised to be dropped off at their offices but no such reports had reached them as of yet. The Roys had denied this news and had stated that the woman was just blackmailing them for money.

The date was some ten years ago and the article was of Bharat Times Newspaper. Rudra dialed to his friend, Dhruv at the newspaper publication house.

“I cannot promise you much Rudra, because that time many of the reporters were fired, but I will try to get back to you at the earliest. How is that you aren’t aware of such a thing?”

“I was in the U.S.A, wasn’t I?”

“Yes, but surely your parents would have spoken to you about it?”

“Seems like they haven’t,”

“I am so sorry buddy, I will find out about it, ASAP,”

The call was cut and Dhruv looked at the lady who threw a bundle of notes on the table.

“You will get rest of the payment after the whole job is done,”

She did the online transaction and the servant who cleaned the study thanked the almighty for the heavy inflow of 50 thousand in his bank account.

“Rudra, I spoke to this senior journalist who said that a now NGO worker, Gauri Prabhu was following this story, but was thrown out of her job, but suspiciously enough, became an NGO worker in no less than six months who now works for the underprivileged children. I couldn’t get hold of her, but she is in Delhi it seems. Of course, this is not at all confirmed and you didn't hear anything from me.”

Rudra thanked him and immediately booked tickets for Delhi and lied to his family that he is off to meet a writer. He wasn't sure why he was going a wild goose chase, but if the story comes out to be false, his building trust in his father would grow stronger. And if the story was true, it was the case for another day to deal with.

“MJ, you shouldn’t let Rudra out of sight,” Anatara warned MJ, who just shrugged and replied that now that Rudra is out, he can focus on eliminating Maya. He looked at the obituary in the paper that read the death of his previous driver, Jogi.

“I cannot help you Mr. Roy, that woman, and the article was fake! I was paid to lie against the Roy,” She told him for the nth time, but Rudra stared at her, a stern expression on his face.

“And you say you were fired for spreading fake news?”

“Yes!”

“No, Mrs. Prabhu, what I feel is that you were close to finding the identity of the lady, but failed to do so, or managed to do so, and because you were about to bring the true face of Mr. MJ Roy to the world, they had you fired and gave you enough money to shut your mouth, but in your guilt of not doing your job as a journalist, you used the money to set up this NGO, to pay for your sins,” Rudra looked at her in her eyes who avoided his gaze.

Rudra looked around the office and the picture that sat on the glass piece in the further end of the corner caught his eyes. He looked at the picture of Rajeev Chandra.

“Who is he?”

“My cousin. He was helping me search for the girl.”

“Do you know where he is?”

“Last I heard, he was in London, with his boyfriend, that was some six years back,”

“He was in Mumbai a few weeks ago, and is now missing.”

Rudra and Gauri looked at each other in fear. There were chances of the death toll increasing.

Rudra read the story that Maya had half-written. A girl crazily in love with a man who promised her the world and then left him with a child. She then stepped back in his life to avenge her broken life.

Rudra closed his eyes and focused on Maya’s words of her family’s death and the way she expressed the protagonist's broken dreams.

Why would Maya kill his brother? What had he done to her, unless, his father had killed her father and brother? It as far-fetched, Rudra knew, but Rajeev’s close connection to Gauri and Maya was somewhat pointing in that direction. He would find out the truth of what had happened ten years ago!