Ripped Apart ~5~ (Maaneet) teaser ;) pg 130 - Page 54

He stumbled back not only with the impact of the push but also her words. Her words pierced his heart like countless needles bringing him back to the actuality. Trying to regain his balance, he at once conceded his hurt behind his anger. His eyes spitting fire, he once again held her by her shoulders, careful enough to not hurt her ailing arm. Back to the realism, Geet now fought back to get his hands off her. "Jaane dijiye mujhe Maan. Please" she said maintaining her struggle. "Jaane doon? Kyun? Kyun Geet" He asked her hoarsely raising his voice just a bit. Geet looked at him aghast, "Mujhe jaana hai" she whimpered testing his patience. "Nahi! Tum achchi tarah jaanti ho ki Maan Singh Khurana never repeats his mistakes." He snarled as he roughly held her jaws and forcibly turned her face to look him in the eye. "Maan!" she objected but he ignored her. "I realize I made a mistake by listening to you, believing you when you asked me to leave that damned place! When I should have clearly hauled you along whether you would have liked it or not" he said through gritted teeth. She yelped as she tried to remove his hand. He then hit the nail, "Why didn't you tell me about Uncle and Aunty?" he asked her. Geet gaped at him as her eyes got teary. He closed his eyes at the hurt that he saw emancipating through her eyes and calmed himself a bit before he softly asked, "Bolo Geet! Tell me!" however she turned away from him and shook her head refusing to open up. His jaws tightened again as he held her arm and in one swift move he turned her to face him once again as he now demanded, "Dammit Geet! Speak up!". Geet flinched and pursed her lips as his face turned dark and he urgently asked, "What were you telling Vicky? Who was he? Kya hua tha Hoshairpur main Geet?" his intense eyes blazed with immense rage and hate.     

Geet was horrified beyond words with the realization that he had heard what she had unwillingly blurted out. Why was this happening now? Especially now when she had come to terms with his cold self and when all she wanted to do was get away. "Whom were you talking about?" he shook her hard "What did he do?" he demanded. Not able to take it anymore, she looked in his eyes, hurt and pain reflecting from her own, as she said, "You have no right to ask me anything Mr. Maan Singh Khurana" Maan's fingers dug in her shoulders, "Geet!" he roared. Just as she was about to say something, her eyes grew wide as her vision caught attention of something behing his shoulders. "Bhabhi!" she mumbled. Maan let go off her shoulders and turned behind slowly to find stunned Pinky standing by the end of the corridor. She looked at Maan and then at Geet before finally walking upto them. A little jittery, Geet began to explain, "Bhabhi woh actually..." But Pinky put her hand up asking her to stop before she quietly held her hand and started pulling her along. "Pinky!" Maan began but Pinky turned to him and calmly said, "Sir, Yeh humara personal matter hai. I would appreciate if you stayed out of it."

Pinky escorted Geet to her cabin as she kept her eyes in front and greeted the passers-by with a bubbly smile. However, Geet was jumpy. She wasn't sure what Pinky had seen and what she was going to make of the entire situation. And what if she told Adi about it. No! That would definitely not ease her worries instead would only escalate it. As soon as they reached her cabin, Pinky turned to her and held her hand, "Geet we need to speak" Geet faltered, "bhabhi woh..." Pinky however, squeezed her hand in assurance and smiled at her warmly, "Yahan nahi Geet. Shaam ko ghar pe baat karenge. Now get to your work". Geet gave her a little nod as the two left turned towards their respective destinations.

Anu looked at him in disbelief and then he turned the picture for her to see. Anu's breath caught in her throat by the implication of what it meant. She looked at the picture of her best friend and than at her fianc. Arjun laughed at her expressions and then taking it from her hand placed it on the near-by table. Anu was staggered and wary at the sudden change of his expressions and then mustering up some courage she asked, "What are you doing with Geet's pic?" Arjun pulled her close but she resisted. Knowing well how to pacify her, he gave her one of those charming smiles which he knew would instantly melt her. And he was right, for Anu did calm and then tracing his finger over the side of her face, he said "Socha tha tumhe humari engagement pe surprise doonga. I have called a detective to look for her. They needed the picture." Anu's face lit with a bright smile as she excitedly went close and hugged him tight, "Oh Arjun! I love you so much" Arjun hugged her back as he smirked, mocking her innocence and her trust on him. She drew back as she looked at him and held her hand, "Thank you so much Arjun, but this is needless." She winked at him. A knowing shadow passed in his eyes. "You know where she is" he said rather than asked as he felt his desire building. "She'll be there for our engagement" Anu chirped in. "You told her?" his voice barely contained his thrill. Anu grinned ear-to-ear, "Pretty soon". Before he could ask anything more they heard someone at the door. Anu instantly pulled herself from his lap and his mom walked in.

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Naintara stomped in her room completely agitated and was soon followed by Dev who shut the door to the room and turned to her, "Yeh sab kya hai Naintara? Everyone is busy with the preparations aur tum maa aur dadi ma ki help karna toh door ulta sabko baatein suna kar aa rahi ho?" he admonished her. She turned to him in anger, "Hum ne galat kya kaha? Anu ko saari Delhi chod ke East Villas hi mila engagement ke liye? She just wants to show us down! And what is wrong with you? Did you forget aapke Vade Veerji ne kis tarha humari absence ka fayda utha ke hotel ko apne haath main liya tha?" she asked bitterly. "It wasn't his fault! If he wouldn't have done it toh aaj hotel Khuranas ki management ke haath main nahi hota!" he spat. "You are such a spineless loser Dev!" she hissed. "NAINTARA!" he yelled at her. "Don't you dare yell at me! Aap main self-respect naam ki cheez nahi hogi magar hum main hai. I'm not going back to that place where people are just going to mock at us. To hell with Anu's engagement!" she said seething. "ENOUGH! (Removing his glasses) Till date you have decided everything about us and I have indulged you all the time. Not anymore! Listen and listen carefully (wagging his index finger at her) this is not about you or me... this is about my Anu! I might not be as aggressive as Veerji but remember one thing... I'm still a Khurana... and if you dare... dare try to mess up with my sister's happiness... then I won't spare you! I WILL NOT SPARE YOU! Get that straight aur Mumbai jaane ki taiyari shuru karo" saying Dev stomped out of the room leaving a stunned Naintara behind. 

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The hotel staff was running around in a blur. Too many last minute preparations were to be taken care off. "I need the conference room ready by sharp 5 in the evening. Refreshments would be placed by 6 and remember koi bhi galati nahi honi chahiye." Sasha sternly instructed the staff. Sasha was on her toes. Though the project was supposed to be handled by Geet, Sasha was not only guiding her but assisting her completely in the task. It was one opportunity to rectify the blunders made by Dev and Naintara and make East Villas once again a preferred name in the business circle. It was time for the serious damage repair! Besides, she didn't want Geet to face MK's wrath again and so she was double checking all the arrangements Geet had done. As everyone left, Sasha whispered to herself, "I'm so gonna miss you Geet!" and sighed. Just then she felt something being showered on her. She frowned and took her hand to her hair to find silver and pink colored confetti and just then it showered again as she heard, "Geet ko baad main karna miss... abhi toh de do mujhe ek kiss!" followed by the next sprinkle of the confetti. Plastering a grin on her face, she turned to face a widely smiling Vicky holding a small confetti box in his hand. And there he sprinkled a few more, now on her face. She shut her eyes as she tried to maintain her cool and Vicky leaned in to steal a kiss but Sasha held him back. She grinned artificially, "That was so not funny" Vicky made a cute puppy face, "Not fair ek toh main tumhari help karne aaya hoon aur tum mujhe taunt kar rahi ho?" Sasha cupped his jaw, "Help? Is it? How? By showering this confetti over the delegates! How innovative!" she said batting her lashes. He leaned in once again but she glared at him this time, "Vicky seriously! We are here worried about the conference and you are upto your silly frolics." She said now a little annoyed as she tried to remove the confetti from her hair. "Kyun nikal rahi ho? It's looking nice on you. Who knows... you might end up making a statement" he said showering a few more trying hard to muffle the snicker. She squinted her eyes at him, "Style statement??" she shushed and snatching the box from him inverted the whole of it over his head. His amusement died while she began laughing for he looked no less than a classified piece of modern art owing to the confetti that was now falling from his hair and his incredulous facial expressions. He looked at her, placed his hands on his waist and narrowed his eyes... knowing well what was about to come, Sasha turned on her heels and ran while Vicky chased her through the corridors.

 Geet was walking over to review the arrangements at the venue when she saw him. She momentarily stopped in her tracks but then drawing a deep breath she continued to walk. He strode towards her. "Good Morning Sir" she wished him curtly, clearly marking their professional boundaries. "Geet please!" he said as he matched his steps with her. "What please sir?" she asked unresponsively. Not wanting to argue with her anymore, he ignored her implied message and said, "We need to talk!" Though she knew what he meant, she refused to acknowledge it and said, "Sure sir... I'm almost done with the checklist. We have both continental and Indian in menu with assorted deserts and cocktails. Flowers would be in place two hours before the conference begins. We have arranged for a seating accommodation for over 100 delegates. I hope this should suffice" she completed in a pure professional way. He glared at her and then grabbed her arm as he pulled her behind the huge pillar shielding them from everyone's view. "Sir! Please!" she struggled. "Stop it, will you?" he jeered. "It's you who need to stop manhandling me here. You are wasting both of our time" she retorted back. "Geet!" he took a step toward her while he grabbed her upper arm and she yelped. Accidently he had ended up hurting her this time. At once his anger was replaced by his concern as he stepped back. She drew a deep breath and said, "You don't have to worry about me! This is not the first time you have hurt me anyways! And I'm quite used to this pain now" Maan's face contorted with pain as it reflected the hurt in her eyes. He knew what she was referring too. He turned away from her as he began, "Geet... I know I have been inconsiderate all this while... I just want to say I'm sorry... I didn't know..." however as soon as he turned back he trailed off as he realized she had already left. 

Arrangements were done. Guest list was in place. Delegates would start coming in soon. As the caterers were setting up the refreshments, Maan and Vicky glanced through the set-up and were immensely impressed by the work. "Hmm, Veerji, ek baat toh hai... Geet is really very talented" Vicky commented as he popped in a mint from the table. Maan simply nodded in agreement. Who better than he would know that? He smiled as he remembered the days when she had joined the group as a trainee. Her tantrums, her antics, her silly banter... all that had once induced life in his otherwise dull and boring existence. Just then Vicky exclaimed, "Wow!" Maan turned his head to see that same ensnaring beauty making her way into the lobby. She was wearing a deep blue crisp  chudidar with her duppata thrown around her neck in her trademark style. Ever since they had met in Mumbai, this was the first time he had seen her letting her hair loose. A pair of studs in her ears, some kohl in her eyes and finally a tinge of gloss completed her look but none the less, she looked ravishing. Simple yet elegant. She smiled at Vicky but as soon as her eyes met his, she turned her gaze away. Soon Sasha followed. 

As the clock struck 6, the delegates started coming in. Geet was continuously fidgeting with her duppata and her eyes kept drifting towards the door as she checked the watch every five seconds. Though he was exchanging pleasantries with the senior officials he kept looking at her from the corner of his eyes. It wasn't hard to guess that something was bothering her and she was edgy. And then he saw her shoulders droop as she sighed in relief. He found her looking around and then hastening towards the entrance. His eyes followed her vision but from where he stood he couldn't see the object of her concentration. He saw her nervously smiling and then talking to someone. She looked tensed. He excused himself and moved through the crowd to get a better view not once letting his eyes drift away from her. And then he saw... he saw the same man he had seen her within the coffee shop and froze as his muscles clenched.