Chapter 14
The babies were living in Shrey and Akanksha’s room, because the pungent smell of glue and paints was still there in their room. Akanksha was inside the bathroom, bathing, while Shrey had just bathed, he was keeping an eye on the babies and getting dressed for the office.
As he sprayed deodorant on his body, the boys started laughing, maybe the liked the sound of the spray. Shrey sprayed again. They laughed again. The ritual went on for a few minutes and the entire room smelled like a garden now.
‘Shrey, what the hell is happening?’ Akanksha screamed from inside, the smell was so pungent that it filled the bathroom too.
‘What? You like it?’ Shrey asked the boys and they giggled. Shrey sprayed on the babies too, and they loved the cold-touch of the droplets on their tiny bodies.
Shrey emptied two bottles of deodorant, and he picked up another bottle of perfume and started spraying it too. The boys were clapping now, their father had unwillingly made the room smell like rotten eggs by mixing so many different fragrances. Akanksha came rushing out.
‘Oh God! What is this smell?’ she covered her face, picked up the babies and ran outside.
‘Nothing, sweetheart, they were laughing when I sprayed the deodorant, so I sprayed…’
‘Sprayed a hundred bottles?’
‘No, only two and those were also half-filled.’
Akanksha slapped her forehead. First, the babies’ room smelled so bad, that they couldn’t live there, and now, with the thoughtfulness and intelligence of Shrey, even their room smelled so pungent that it was hazardous for the babies to stay inside.
‘Where will we go now? Shift to the guest room? I’m not entering that smelly chamber of yours now!’ Akanksha took the boys to the guest room and told the nannies to shift all their belongings inside the guest room, till both the other rooms were free of pungent smells.
Akanksha smelled the babies and yelled at Shrey, ‘Why have you sprayed on them? What the hell do you want Shrey?’
‘Nothing, sweetheart, I told you they liked it!’
‘Oh yeah? If they like being thrown away into a valley, will you throw them away?’
‘Well…’
‘God! Shrey, just get me their soap and shampoo, I’m going to wash the babies again.’
‘Careful! Don’t wash one baby twice…’ Shrey laughed. The babies clapped as they saw their father laughing.
‘What? Do you think it’s a joke? I know the difference between my both boys, and it’s you who commits such blunders, not me!’ Akanksha tied up her hair into a bun, and picked up Akshan first.
‘Come here, baby…mumma is going to wash you now and get rid of the bad smell that daddy gave you…alright?’ Akanksha undressed him.
‘Wow! I was out only for a minute and you started back-bitching about me to my boys?’ Shrey was back with beer shampoo.
‘What have you brought Shrey?’
‘Shampoo, you asked for it, didn’t you?’
‘What shampoo is this?’
‘The one that I use!’
‘And you think it’s suitable for the babies?’
‘Why not? Boys, see, it’s beer shampoo, I bet you’ll like it more than the plain white milk you keep on drinking whole day!’
‘Stop it, Shrey! Go and get their kit.’
‘What kit?’
‘The one on which it’s written ‘Johnson & Johnson baby-supply’, it’s white and pink kit.’
‘Really? Sometimes I think I’m raising two girls and not two boys!’ Shrey trudged out.
‘Here you go…I’m getting late for office, now, bye!’ this time, Shrey had brought the right soap and shampoo. Akanksha washed both the boys and dressed them up nicely. Then she fed them and slept them on the bed.
The guest room, in which she was staying temporarily, was Natasha’s abode for a week when she was here. Akanksha saw a paper stuck inside the opening of the drawer. She opened the drawer to check what it was, and she got an envelope in her hands.
‘What’s this?’ she wondered and opened the envelope. Although reading someone else’s letter is a bad habit, but her moral science values didn’t work at that moment and she tore open the seal of the envelope only to find a letter addressed to Natasha, and some photographs of Nitin with her beloved sister. The photographs were shocking. Akanksha’s jaw dropped as she saw Natasha and Nitin’s intimate moments captured and printed on paper. Nitin was such an asshole, she thought and opened the letter.
‘Dear Natasha,
Chances are, that you won’t even bother to open this letter, by how much I’ve known you, and your ‘I-don’t-give-a-fuck’ attitude. But if you’re reading this, then let me tell you, your life is so screwed. You don’t know whom you’ve messed up with this time. You think you’ll show me dreams and then shatter them to pieces when the time for wedding will arrive? I’ll so not let it happen, you bitch. I accepted you, despite your previous affairs and even an abortion, you think I’ll let you go so easily? No way!
If you want these photos, not to reach the internet, then kindly deposit $5 million in my bank account within a week, or I promise you, on Sunday, your entire city will witness their lovely whore on the internet. And don’t give me shit like ‘I don’t have so much money’ and other crap. I know you’re the favourite sister-in-law of Shrey Chauhan, that billionaire bastard, so the amount I’ve mentioned is very small in that case. I hope my bank account will soon see a rise, or otherwise, you hope that internet will soon see another sensational story.
Now close this letter and do my job!’
Akanksha’s hands were trembling as she read the entire letter. She tried calling Shrey but his number was switched off. Maybe he was in some important meeting, she thought and clicked a photograph of the letter and sent it to Shrey on whatsapp, with a message –
‘Shrey, Nitin left this for Natasha, and I found it in drawer of our guest room with their intimate photos. Please do something, please save my sister from getting ruined.’
After a few hours, Shrey switched on his phone and the first thing he got was Akanksha’s messages. As he went through the text and the letter in the photograph, he was stunned on Nitin’s behaviour. He thought of him as a decent guy, but he proved out to be an asshole, just like Jayant.
Last time, Shrey had handled Jayant alone, but this time, the case was too sensitive as Natasha’s future was at stake. Last time, nobody came to know about the pregnancy or the abortion, but this time, Natasha could be insulted in the entire country. He knew that one person will help him at any cost, and he called him up immediately.
‘Hello, Abhinav, I’m coming to Nirvana, meet me buddy, there’s a storm coming!’ Shrey disconnected and drove off to the club-Nirvana.