Three Months Later

Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose...

He stared at the bell for a whole minute before gently pressing his finger on it. Nervously he ran his hand through his hair and dug out a cigarette from his pocket. Tapping his foot impatiently, he lit up the cigarette and looked at the door in front of him. "Sonali Kapoor" He pressed at the doorbell again while blowing out smoke from is mouth. He finally heard soft footsteps from the other side. His heart began to pound faster in his chest, and he threw the cigarette out of view seconds before the door opened.

She was dressed in a black tank top with khaki shorts that went just below her knees. Her hair was pulled back in a lazy bun, and the spatula in her hands mixed with the aroma of spices told him she'd been cooking. Her red, sad eyes spoke numerous tales. Staring at her standing in front of him, dressed in the simplest manner yet managing to look graceful, he felt as if he'd fell in love with her all over again.

Her breath caught in her throat as she caught sight of him. He was wearing his famous ripped jeans, with a white Armani t-shirt, his biceps literally popping out of it. His slight stubble made him look more mature, and his face held a completely blank, emotionless look. She closed her eyes and resisted the urge to run into his arms, run her hand through his hair to fix it up, and especially the one to kiss him as if there were no tomorrow. Their eyes met.

She was the first to blink, while he was the first to speak. "Good evening Miss. Kapoor, my name is Angad Khanna. I am a private investigator and I was wondering if I could talk to you for a few minutes" He barged into the apartment without waiting for a response and began to look around. She stood there with her eyes closed for 30 seconds, and after she'd controlled her emotions, angrily turned around to face him.

He'd been able to catch a few lyrics of the song that she'd been playing over and over for the past few hours. She cursed at the CD player as he turned around and raised an eyebrow at the music.

So afraid to love you, but more afraid to loose

Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose

Once there was a darkness, deep and endless night

You gave me everything you had, oh you gave me light

"Quite a sad song to be playing on such a nice day isn't it?" he said, sarcastically of course. Nice, wasn't exactly the best of words to describe that day. It was a dark, cold December evening, mixed with light snowfall and muddy streets piled with mountains of snow. The temperature was about 20 degrees below zero, with a high frostbite alert. Horrifying accidents were occurring on expressways, and people were simply freezing to death. She frowned in disapproval as she realized he was holding his jacket in his hands instead of wearing it.

It was now, as she got closer to him, that she realized he was shivering, and that his face was turning from a dark shade or red to purple. "Quite unusual clothing to be worn on such a day isn't it?" Just because she couldn't help herself, she brought a blanket and threw it at him, lighting a fire in the fireplace to warm the place up. She knew he was staring at her the whole time, but pretending he wasn't, she wrapped a shawl around herself, seating herself on the sofa farthest from him. "Is this how you treat all guests?" he asked.

She looked at him for a moment and finally replied, "Are you hear to see how I treat my guests?" He took a deep breath and stared at her. "No" By now, she was a master at the skill of masking expressions. With a confident smile, she turned to him and gave him a blank stare, "Shall we get to the point then?"

He stared at her for awhile, drinking in the beauty reflecting from her face. Her determined expression wavered and her face flushed at his stare. "Miss. Kapoor, where were you on the night of September 15, 2007?" he asked out of nowhere. She noted how his expression had turned serious again, he was standing in front of her with his hands folded in front of his chest, and those soft warm eyes had turned cold. She hesitated for just a second before confidently giving her answer. "15^th of September? Isn't this quite a random date? You are asking me what I was doing three months ago? How the hell am I suppose to remember that Mr. Khanna?"

"So you don't?" he asked. She looked straight into his eyes. "I don't. And now I would like to know why the hell you are questioning me as if I were a criminal."

"Aren't you?" he asked. Shocked, she turned around and asked, "Excuse me?" He looked at her and continued bluntly, "A criminal I mean." She marched up to him and stood right in front of him, resisting the urge to punch him to the floor. "No Mr. Khanna, I am NOT a criminal. You have no right whatsoever to appear at my house and call me a criminal like this. I have been given absolutely NO REASON to why you are present at my house right now and why you are questioning me. Would you like to give me the reason or would you prefer getting kicked out?"

He ignored her and walked towards the window. "Miss. Kapoor, on the night of September 15, my fiance, Miss. Kripa Sharma was reported missing from Elmswood Hospital. She had just been treated for a shot in the leg and was asleep due to her strong medication. When I went to check on her around 11:30 pm, she was missing from the hospital. A search party had been sent out for her within 24 hours. Three months have passed, and we have still not found her."

"I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Khanna. But I still don't get how this all relates to me?" she asked. Once again, the poor soul was ignored. Angad Khanna was on a roll, and nothing could stop him then.

"There is a forest preserve a few blocks from the hospital. Someone claims to have spotted her being pushed into a car by a female. Neither this lady, nor the driver, who was a male, were recognized. What do you conclude from this?" he asked, still staring out the window.

By now, she'd given up on screaming at this man. It would be better if she just answered whatever questions he might have and let him continue as he wished. She replied to his question, "Well, one would conclude that-- Miss. Sharma you said?" He nodded slowly. "So yes, one would conclude that Miss. Sharma was kidnapped by these 2 suspicious people, the driver of that car and the other passenger." She looked at him carefully and at the perfect time as well, for she didn't miss the subtle curving of Angad Khanna's lips. He was amused by her theory?

"Yes, that is what one would conclude. But I asked about you Miss. Kapoor, what do you think must've happened."

"Well, no offense Mr. Khanna, but there are other possibilities you should consider. Maybe she was cheating on you? Maybe she was just after your money or something? The kidnapping theory seems possible too I guess."

He suddenly roared with laughter. It was infectious, but surprisingly, she was able to control herself. She looked at him with narrowed eyes. "And what exactly do you find so hilarious about that?"

He took a few minutes to control himself. Wiping a tear, he turned to her and spoke, his tone stating his amusement. As if his roaring laughter wasn't enough. "Miss. Kapoor your theories might seem possible for any other person, but this is my Kripa we're talking about. She would never cheat on me. She knew that I cared for her happiness, if she didn't love me, I wouldn't force her to marry me or force her to love me. Especially after all she had gone through..."

There was a few minutes pause. He began abruptly, "And about money she has enough inheritance to last her next 7 lives! I've gotta admit, you have some thoughtful, dramatical, theories, but none of these fit."

She rolled her eyes. How the hell was she to get him out now? "Mr. Khanna," she began, trying her very best to hide her annoyance, "You still haven't explained how I fit into this situation?" Angad began to move around, apparently searching for something. This, as they say, added salt to the wound, pissing her off so much, that one wouldn't be surprised at all if smoke began to come out of her ears.

A few minutes later, he appeared from her room, observing her shiny revolver. Her face was suddenly very white, and she closed her eyes as if it were all a dream and she'd wake up. But it wasn't. Once again, he spoke out of the blue, knocking her off a bit more. "Near the car, we found this Identification Card. In fact, it's actually a UIS agent card." Her face couldn't have gone any more whiter. She began to shake, but slowly realized that he could see her emotions, and quickly retained her stature. She took her card from her hands and, without looking at it, slipped it into her pocket.

"Miss. Kapoor, you look a lot like my fiance, and your UIS agent card was found right near the place she was kidnapped. Do you have an explanation for this?"

She turned her face and angrily huffed. "I don't. I must've been passing by and dropped it. I'd been looking for this for a long time. Thank you for it. But this doesn't prove anything. I've never met a Kripa Sharma in my life, and now you're saying I kidnapped her?! And you know that I am a part of UIS, the Universal Intelligence Service, why the heck would I go and kidnap some random lady?"

A picture was shoved into her face. She took a step back and her expression softened as she stared at the picture of herself, arm in arm with Angad Khanna, looking up at him with a loving expression, while her siblings sat there and watched with cute smiles. She quickly went back to her firm, angry expression. "Wow, she looks a lot like me. Except my nose is more in shape, my eyes look prettier, and my hair is shorter."

His quick grin quickly disappeared once she turned to face him.

"Mr. Khanna, I have a date, and I think I've answered all your questions. So, we're done for today then...?" She turned to wipe the tear from her eye.

"Mrs. Kripa Angad Khanna"

Her heartbeat increased and she was all tearful yet again. He'd done it. She missed when he'd call her that, and now, as he said it, she thought of what she'd missed, what she was loosing. In the blink of an eye, she was on the floor, head on her arms, crying. He took a step closer, and bent down. She looked up with tearful red eyes. "Mrs. Kripa Angad Khanna" he whispered. She hugged him and began to bawl out loud. He hugged her back, kissing her hair and comforting her.

Once she finally seemed to have gotten control of herself, he moved her back a little, looking directly into her eyes. She quickly shifted her gaze. In once quick motion, she had a gun on his forehead. "Leave" she whispered. He stared at her, a bit surprised, yet amused. "I said LEAVE" she screamed this time.

"You're gonna shoot me?" he asked cheekily, slowly moving forward. "Shoot then. Come on Kripa, shoot!"

"Khanna, stay back or I'll shoot!"

"Shoot dammit! Shoot!" He got closer to her and put his hand over her hand, his finger on the nozzle. He gently pressed on it, and before he could push it in enough she'd jerked the gun off and thrown it onto the floor.

"Why didn't you shoot me Kripa? Why don't you kill me? I'd rather die then go back alone." She'd broken down again. He took her into a bone-crushing hug, soothing her while shedding a few tears himself. "You could've told me Kripa. Why didn't you tell me? It didn't have to be like this."

"You didn't tell me anything either" she said after a brief pause. This time, she'd calmed down for good. He gently placed her on the sofa and then spoke. "A lot was going on. I wasn't ready to tell you. But my life wasn't in danger! I thought you loved me. Where was the trust? The faith? Where is it now?"

"I trust you. I still love you" she said quietly. She put her arms around him, sighing blissfully. "How did you find out?"

"Easy. Sonali Kapoor, looking exactly like you. The gun that day. Your disappearance. They were all puzzle pieces that weren't hard to solve. A bit more research thanks to some buddies who owed favors in the department, and bam, I had your whole family history down. So uncle and aunty weren't your real parents huh?"

She nodded. "Papa and Mama, Suryaban Sharma was my dad's brother. When... my family disappeared... him and Gayatri Sharma, his wife, adopted me. "

Kripa's story, to be continued soon.

[as in tonight =)]
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