24. HIS STORY

It’s been two months since Manik and Nandini’s relationship grew. They are doing well, spending time and understanding each other. Manik moved into her home permanently and always cooked breakfast and dinner for her with love. Undoubtedly they both are quite active sexually. They can be seen fu*king each other anywhere from the car to the terrace. Nandini’s senior Cabir is well aware of their dating and happy with that as Manik reduces the killing or necessary murders. Now, he keeps himself busy with some illegal shipping. 

This is the change that Zara hates as their reputation is decreasing because some or the other members also follow Manik’s path. Their profits and their sake in the mafia’s market are decreasing, which she can’t see. The one she loves the most is her money or the urge to maximize her profits anyhow. 

Currently, she is waiting for someone. One of her loyal men comes and bends down in front of her and says, “Ma’am, the Germans’ are not ready to deal with us.” Zara groans as this is expected, half of their dealers are backing off just because of Manik, who is not ready to commit any more murders. They are afraid from the time when they come to know that he is dating a police officer as they are insecure about that. They think that now Manik joined hands with the police department which is not good for them. 

“Manik! Manik! Manik!, I can’t take this anymore. Call Dikshit and bring him to me. Now, he is the one who will help me.” Zara ordered her man who sweats after hearing the name DIKSHIT.

“Ma’am, agar Manik sir ko pata chal gaya ki humne Dikshit ko wapas is gang mai appoint kiya toh woh… woh… hume maar dalegai.” ( Ma’am, If Manik sir get to know that we called Dikshit back in our gang then, he won’t take a second before killing us. ) One of her men says wiping his sweat exactly knowing how Manik will react after hearing his name. 

“You are scared of him till now. Don’t forget that he is the loverboy now, he can’t do anything.” Zara screamed on their face with the hatred she held for Manik.

“If the lion stopped hunting his prey that doesn’t mean he forgot about that.” One of her men whispers which is audible to everyone and no one can deny this. He continues, “He is THE MANIK who can do anything to win who belongs to him.” 

Zara rolls her eyes and shoots a bullet right across his heart and looks at another man, “You also want to say something about how great Manik is?” The man nodded negatively and gulped his fear, “Then go and bring Dikshit into my chamber.” She ordered and dismissed him. 

On the other hand, Nandini is getting dressed in the living room watching how her boyfriend cooks pancakes for her as breakfast. She asks, “Manik, Cabir sir is marrying Navya tomorrow. Will you come with me as my date?” 

Manik looked at her once and again concentrated on his pancake, “Madam Ji, everyone will get scared seeing me there, and I don’t know what they will call you behind your back.”

Nandini scoffed at this and replied, “I don’t care. All I care about is that I want you there with me.” Manik restored calmly, “But I care! I won’t let anyone raise their finger on you.” He stopped and looked into her eyes while continuing, “Neither do I want to spoil anyone’s big day just because of me.” 

She understood his point and let him do what he wished, “I will miss you.” He smiles while keeping her pancakes on the table and says kissing her forehead, “Trust me, you don’t. You should enjoy this day because your sister Navya is finally stable and starting her new life with the man she loves.” 

Nandini smiles remembering the smile she saw on Navya’s face when Cabir Sir proposed to her for marriage. Manik asks, bringing her back from her zone, “Don’t you want to choose dresses for the wedding?” 

Nandini cries dramatically because this is the task she hates the most being a girl. She can’t decide the perfect outfits according to the occasion. But now Manik is here for her rescue, he says, “Don’t worry, I will buy a perfect gown for you.” She can’t thank him enough because he took the burden from her head. She goes forward to kiss him but stops hearing his mobile ring.

“Pick up the call first.” She says to her pouty boyfriend who lost the chance of getting another lip kiss. He talked on the phone until she cherished the delicious pancakes. “I have to go…” He says avoiding her eyes while she hums and pleads, “Please, try not to kill anyone.” 

Manik avoids that as he already promised her that he won’t take any innocent life anymore. But every time one or the other person provoked him to kill. To be honest, he can’t just leave the habit of murdering anyone within a few months. 

Nandini asks him calmly, “Can’t you just leave this field for me.” And his reply comes instantly, “I CAN’T! This is the thing that kept me alive till you came into my life. This is a bog, I can’t even come out of it, it doesn’t matter how hard I try.”

“Does that mean, you can never try to be free from this life?” Nandini asks, snatching his breath. Manik looks into her eyes and asks a simple question, “Do you know, who pulled me into this?” Nandini nodded negatively, not knowing his side of the story.

“DIKSHIT MALHOTRA” Suddenly his voice becomes cold and stern which she never heard. His body stiffens with the mere mention of this name giving him lots of pain whereas she remembered a scene. 

His breath is heavy too because of the kiss but he still says while huffing for air, “Manik… MY NAME IS MANIK MALHOTRA… Rest you will get to know soon.” 

She comes out from her memory lane and keeps checking her words, “Malhotra! Is he related to you by any chance?” He chuckles humorlessly, “HE WAS MY FATHER.” The color of Nandini’s face vanished leaving just a thought “Does his father push him in this line? How can any father do this to his son?” 

She gulped hard to voice out her thoughts and held his hand to support him, “Father?” Manik nods and sits on the chair in front of her, putting her hair strand behind her ear to get a clear view of her face whereas she continues, “How can a father do such a thing to his child?” 

Manik chuckles dryly and asks, “Why not?” She frowns but gasps the next second hearing his words, “If he can kill his 10-year-old daughter just because she asked him to give food to her little brother.” 

“Your sister?” The words hardly come out of her mouth while her eyes are wide whereas he is expressionless. He closed his eyes to remember when he became a true monster just because of his father, “I was just 5 then…”

“Didi… woh log bahut gande hai…. Woh… woh mujh par haste hai… aur… aur… aur mujhe pistol bhi pakadne bolte hai… aur mujhe bolte hai yeah cigarette bhi pee. Unhone mujhe… bola ki mai… aap ko… aap ko… goli mardu… kyuki… aap kisi kaam ki nahi ho… kyuki aap girl… ho na.” A little 5-year-old boy complains to his sister who is his mother figure. He always complains about those guys who forced him to hold a pistol and shoot any random person walking in the park just for fun. His sister can do nothing except calm her brother and give him hope that everything will be fine. The little boy asks cutely with frowns, “Didi, yeah rakhel kya hota hai?” ( Di, what does “mistress” mean? ) 

His sister gasped and immediately palmed his lips stopping him from pronouncing that abusive word again. “Who taught you that?” 

The little boy answers looking into her eyes, cutely, “That bulky man said your sister will be our mistress who will warm our bed when our wives would not satisfy us. I didn’t understand the word “mistress” so I asked them what does that mean they said it means “RAKHEL”. He stops abruptly and pouts his lips, “But I didn’t understand that too…” 

Although his sister is just 10 years old, she is mature enough to understand those words only because of their father. He asks again, seeing the changes his sister had after that, “What does that mean, Di?” 

“No… nothing!” His sister tries to act normal but can’t stabilize her breath. His stomach growls, making him smile sheepishly, “Di, bhook lagi hai. Maine kal se kuch nahi khaya.” ( Di, I am hungry. I haven’t had anything from yesterday. ) 

His sister knows that because she has also been hungry since yesterday. “Wait, I will bring food for you.” Saying this his sister went down to bring food for him but after five minutes he heard a shout from downstairs which made the little boy run to see what happened. 

He saw his father shouting at his sister by pulling her hair, making her wince, “There is no food for this motherfu**er. He is as useless as you. He can’t even hold a gun and then forget about killing someone.” He runs to save his sister from the living monster who happens to be their father but is pushed by him. His father again shouts at his sister by pushing her as well, “Take him to your room and fu*k yourself. You both should know how to please someone because you both can’t do anything except warming the bed for my dealers.” 

Both the brother-sister have tears in their eyes but all this is common for them.

Manik didn’t understand a word his dad said but those imprinted on his mind for life. His sister tries to ask for food again just for her brother when her dad’s mistress comes to pleasure her dad. She knows what is about to happen. That’s why she covers her brother so that he can’t see anything, “Da… dad, he didn’t eat anything from yesterday.” 

Her dad, Dikshit, ignores her plead and focuses on his mistress who is ready to su*k him. He makes his mistress naked in front of his two little kids and says, “Come, baby, su*k my di*k. Teach them how to do that.” He closed his eyes in pleasure and had his drink while holding the moving head on his di*k. 

Manik’s sister tries to gain his attention one last time. “Da… dad…” And the next moment, his father smashed his beer glass on her head, making it bleed. Some of the glass pieces even pierced her head, decreasing her chances of survival. The little boy keeps standing there looking at his sister who is bathing in blood while his father does nothing except moaning in pleasure. 

To be continued…