Aditi did go to Mumbai after all. That was one place she had made sure he won't go to looking for her. Yet that was the one place he would go to if he ever changed his mind. Alas, nothing of the sort happened. This time, he had left her truly alone.

She kept her head down and got on with work. Autumn turned into winter, then into spring of the following year. Ealy March, she sat for her post-graduate entrance exam, and by the time she had her results, baby Neev was here.

Lying in her lonely hospital bed, surrounded by nothing else but the bare walls for company, Aditi hugged the baby close and gazed at its tiny face. Her heart filled with containment. This was truly a new beginning. From here onwards, nothing will go wrong.

*****

"Coffee?"

"No thanks."

"Tea, then? I can make good tea. You should try it." Nehal smiled. He remained cold.

"No thanks, Nehal. And please leave me alone. I have work to do."

"I am only trying to help. Surely, you would have accepted it from Di if she was here?"

"But Aditi is not here, Nehal. And so it's best for you to stay away."

"I know what is best for me, Darsh. And you should know what is best for you. That wife of yours is never coming back. Take it from me, she's already found someone else."

*****

Darsh wondered if this was the end. If anything ever will be right again. Letting her go had seemed like a wise decision at the time but now he wondered if he should have made her stay. His cunning brain would have come up with some plan, some clever scheme to achieve his means, but on second thoughts, he knew it was not worth it. Forcing her would only have made her more determined to leave. There was no use stretching something that was already at the breaking point.

Talking about breaking points, there were other matters that needed his attention. His Ma was utterly disappointed. It was hard enough to find true love once in this lifetime. He had found her, married her, and lost her all in a span of a few months. Not just her, but his child too. Can anything be more wretched? He tried to explain, but his Ma was too weary of his excuses. His words were not good enough anymore, he needed actions to show for himself.

"Let me know when Aditi is back. I'll come to Palampur to see you both. Until then, no need to visit me here. I'd rather see you both together or none at all."

Sighing, Darsh put the phone down. It rang back immediately. It was Rajeev.

"I am happy that the worst has been averted, but I want out of this Palampur venture."

"What do you mean?" Darsh frowned.

"I mean it's time for me to bow out. I don't want to be in a situation again where I am left at the mercy of others. Buy me out and free me of these projects. It would be best for us both."

"Buy you out? How?" Darsh stared aghast. "You know I don't have the kind of money, Rajeev. My money is all locked in investments, properties..."

"Don't give me that excuse, Darsh. Right now, you are the most powerful man in Palampur. You control the riches of the Sharma family. Surely, money should not be a problem for you. Moreover, Palampur was your dream, I never wanted any part of it. It's only fitting that you take it over and free me of this obligation."

Darsh shook his head. Yes, Palampur was his dream and he still believed in it, but what Rajeev was asking was impossible. He did not have the cash. And misusing the family money was out of the question.

"But this is very touching! Am I to understand you have changed after all? That you actually have grown a conscience and started caring for Aditi?" Rajeev sneered. Darsh remained calm.

"Think what you want, Rajeev, but as things stand, I do not have the money. You have to wait until I arrange for it and it will take some time."

It took a few months to divide the business. Darsh lost all his life's savings. His investments, bank balance, a few properties, and the home that he had bought for his mother. The only things he did not touch were the fixed deposits in his Ma's and Vicki's names. The ones in his own name were broken to pay for Vicki's hospital expenses.

Life had come a full circle. All he had left was Palampur - the projects, the people, and the family that he had to hold together until Aditi returned. He hoped it was worth it. And it would be worth only when his own family were back.

"Penny for your thoughts?" He heard the now-familiar voice as Nehal pushed open the study door. His pen clattered to the desk.

"My thoughts are worth much more."

"And if I am willing to pay the price?" The girl raised a tantalizing eyebrow. He remained cold.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"At the cost of your sister?"

"A cousin sister, who has so much, she squanders it with both hands." The girl smiled. "As I am sure she has given you up for good. Surely, I am entitled to her leftovers?"

He was no leftover, he wanted to yell at the annoying girl but didn't have the patience. Pushing her out, he locked the door. Aditi had not left him. That divorce had no meaning. As long as her heart beat for him and his for her, they were together.

He immersed himself in work. There was plenty to do. He had to restart the projects, regain the trust of his workers, and re-investigate Aditi's report about fraud on his sites. At the time he had dismissed them as figments of her imagination, but he could not rest easy until he was absolutely sure.

Days passed at a frantic pace, wearing him out. Nights were slow torture, fraught with restless dreams, and unfulfilled desires. In his mind he relived his time with Aditi, only changing the outcome each time, turning every fight, and every sad moment into a happy one. That was the only thing he could do to stay sane. The rest seemed like sand slipping out of his fingers.

He hoped she was fine. He prayed there were people around her to take care of her. She was not a loner like him and her pure heart always attracted people like magnet. It was a good and a bad, but he wouldn't wish her anything else.

As it was the die was cast. She was gone and he was left to pick up the pieces. And pick he will, mending each one of them until they resembled some kind of a whole. Until that time, he must keep going. That was his goal until she returned.

Every evening, he sat next to Balwant Sharma holding his hand. The man looked more fragile with each passing day. Some days he was delusional, some days he was frantic. Some days he stared out of his window as if lost in past.

"Susheel, my boy, promise me you won't harm yourself." He would say to Darsh, clamping his bony fingers around his wrist. "I know Meera is gone, and with her, your will to live. But that doesn't mean you give up. Life must go on."

"Yes, Babuji." Darsh would pat the old man. At last, he had come to appreciate what Susheel Sharma must have gone through after his wife's death.

"Promise me you won't hurt yourself. You must live for Aditi. You owe it to her. The girl has suffered long enough. You must take care of her."

"Yes, Babuji." He would try a reassuring smile, but the hollowness inside would well up to swallow him whole. Lies and empty promises were all he could afford at the moment, and it was a poor return for what the old man had entrusted him with.

It took him ages to bring Palampur back to normal. The calm waters of the village were stirred beyond belief. Aditi had made arrangements to compensate the workers but the moment the money came into play, new troubles raised their heads.

People stayed unhappy. No compensation was large enough; no compromise was satisfactory. Their trust once lost was too hard to regain. The fact that their 'Bade Malik' was no longer in charge too played its role. They were suspicious of Darsh. He was an outsider, a man they could not trust wholeheartedly. If only Aditi was by his side, things would have been different, but that was not to be.

He spent his days trying to undo the damage. The rest of the household remained oblivious, or rather, they chose to watch from the side-lines as he struggled, running from pillar to post to bring things under control. He had hopes of help from Mohit but as the weeks passed, the boy too revealed his true colours.

"It was underhand of Dadaji to give you the POA. It should have been me. I don't understand how he could do such an injustice to his own grandson."

"He must have had his reasons." Sitting behind his desk at the hospital site, Darsh shrugged his shoulders. It was just a week after the site restarted. There were still a million things for him to iron out, and Mohit's whining was the least of them. "Why don't you ask him yourself? Anyway, you have plenty of time nowadays seeing as you have refused to resume work here. How do you spend your days again? At the club? At the racecourse? Or at that shady hotel in Rajpur where you entertain the most interesting guests?"

"How I spend my time is none of your business!" Mohit flushed. "I'll do as I please. Don't forget I own half of Palampur. It's you who's not needed here. If you have any shame, you will sign that POA over to me and leave here pronto."

"And why would I do that?" Darsh raised his eyebrows.

"Because you have no business here. Di is gone and so should you. You have your home in Delhi and this is mine."

"And what about the sites?"

"I'll handle them. I have enough experience now. I don't need you."

Pity. Darsh tusked. Mohit might not want him, but he was needed here nonetheless. There were things he had uncovered in these past few days. The embezzlement of funds and the wrongdoings that Aditi had reported were not all untrue. Funds were mismanaged. Quality was compromised.

"Sure. I'll leave when I have set things here in order." He leaned back in his chair to give the boy a calm look. "You see, I have discovered we have been purchasing substandard material at a high cost. Someone's been siphoning the money away, compromising the quality of work, and blaming it on others. Some of my trusted employees have reported the involvement of a stakeholder. So far, I was away so no one dared to raise it, but now that I am here, they have started talking." His sharp gaze stayed trained on Mohit. The boy looked pale.

"Suit yourself. You won't find anything. There's nothing to find anyway. And even if you find something, it won't have anything to do with me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"Good then. You have nothing to worry about."

"Of course, I have nothing to worry about." Mohit's face turned hard. "And even if I had, I would advise you to keep out of it. For your wife's sake, if not yours. Remember, she has no one in this world apart from you."

Those words stayed with him as he went about his business the next few days. He spoke to his workers, those who were sympathetic with the Sharmas and those who weren't. One thing was common - nobody liked Mohit Sharma. The villagers chose to keep mum, some out of loyalty, some out of fear. It seemed Vivaan was not the only tyrant here. Mohit came a close second.

How had he been so blind? Rajeev had been right about the boy all along. Maybe this was his undoing. This failure to gauge people that will haunt him forever.

The night fell as he collected his things to start for home. Today he had come to visit the bottling plant at the caves. The place brought up so many memories they made him dizzy. The path downwards from the mountain was lonely yet he was lost in his own world. The cool spring air, the falling dusk, and the chirruping of night insects felt like a call from the past. The fireflies twinkling in trees mesmerized him so much that he failed to notice someone coming out of the bushes to block his path.

It was a pack of dogs, wild and hungry from the look of them. It didn't take them five seconds to set Eros off.

Darsh didn't remember much after that, only the darkness and the jerks as Eros thundered through the forest waywardly. The reins slipped out of his hands as he tried to duck against bushes. The final thing he remembered was when the horse slipped into a ravine. The fall took forever. And when it stopped, the dead weight of the horse was on top of him.

***** *****