Armaan Verma stared at his legal adviser lethally.
The man hasn't yet found the information he needed even after ten months.
He could already see beads of perspiration forming on the older man's brows and upper lip. Any fool could see that the man is terrified.
He ought to be, Armaan thought,after the emotional turmoil Armaan is going through for past 10 months.
"The last anyone had seen her is two months before at a charity gala held at Delhi" Kamal Mishra a fifty year old man who has been working for the Verma Industries for the past 10 years looked at his employer cautiously
"How difficult is it to find a woman. That too one as promiscuous as Janani Trivedi could be" Armaan thundered.
The name brought an acidic taste in his mouth.
"We have got a lead on her ,by evening the private investigators would defenitely come up with information on the lady" Kamal Mishra informed with a conviction which he didnt really feel.
Once Kamal Mishra left Armaan looked at his laptop and the CCTV picture of Janani Trivedi.
His lips curled up in distaste.
She has a pretty face. A doe shaped eyes a dull brown with no warmth. Her eyes are more cold and calculating than any women he had met so far. And he had his fair share of women in his life. All with dollar signs in their eyes. Thats telling something, isn't it.
Armaan Verma never trusted a women since his mother walked out on them when Adesh was a baby and he was barely 5.
He had seen his father hitting the bottle and ruining the family fortune grieving for the woman who left him for another man.
And he would never trust a woman in his life.
Never ever
"Found any information??" Adesh asked looking at the photo of Janani Trivedi, hanging on the arms of a man thrice her age in front of a night club,with distaste.
"Not yet, but I will soon" Armaan said.
"How is Ava?? Did you talk to her today??" Aadesh asked and Armaan sighed thinking about his three year old daughter ,who he didnt even knew existed until three months back.
"I went to the room ,and she hid under her bed as usual. I don't know how to get her to talk to me. You know what happened last time I tried."
Armaan still remember the terror in his little girl's eyes ,the anguish on her face ,how she hid behind her nanny shaking on her little feet.
"If we had known about Ava long before , you wouldn't have to-" Adesh was cut off mid sentence by Armaan
"Don't ,Adesh! Never wish my son away! He does exist and I will do everything in my power to get him back" Armaan said
"I didnt mean it that way Maan. I'm just worried about you. How are you going to cope with two children. They would need a mother " Aadesh said and Armaan let out a dark chuckle
"We grew up without a mother didnt we?? We turned out okay. Neither did we have a father as a matter of fact. My children would at least have a father" Armaan said
Aadesh looked at his older brother who has been a father figure for him.He doesn't remember his mother but his brother still does and that rejection at the early childhood had shaped his character.
His brother is cynical about life and could anyone blame him for that ,when he never felt that kind of love or care when it matteres.He had his older brother to look after him...
Who did his brother have...??
No one..
Aadesh could only hope someone would come into his brother's life for his brother's sake and for the kids' sake.
Armaan saw a notification popping up in his laptop and looked up to see it was a mail from the private investigator.He opened the mail and smiled cynically.
They had tracked her down...at last.
The thieving child stealer, Janani Trivedi.
There were no adequate words to convey his hatred for the woman who had stolen his son and then tried to sell the baby back to him like a product.
It galled him even more that he would not be able to bring the full force of the law down on Janani.
Not only did he not want his private life laid open to the media, but he was also all too aware of the likely long-term consequences of such an impulsive act.
He picked his phone and informed his private secretary to arrange his jet as soon as possible.
It's time he payed a little visit to his child's mother.
"Are you going in person?? You could ask Mr Mishra to deal with the legalities first" Aadesh asked
"I once made a mistake of not getting down the business in person. I'm not going to make the mistake again." Armaan said and walked out of his room.
Would the baby take after its lying, cheating mother? Was there such a thing as bad genes? He refused to accept that.
There could be no taint in an innocent child, merely inclinations that could be encouraged or discouraged.
He reminded himself that on paper his son’s mother had appeared eminently respectable.
The only child of elderly, financially indebted parents, she had presented herself as a trained primary school teacher with a love of growing vegetables and cookery.
Unfortunately her true interests, which he had only discovered after she had run from the hospital with the child, had proved to be a good deal less respectable.
She was a sociopathic promiscuous thrill-seeker who overspent, gambled and stole without conscience when she ran out of money.
Time and time again he had blamed himself for his decision not to physically meet with the mother of his child, not to personalise in any way what was essentially a business arrangement.
Would he have recognised her true nature if he had?
He had not expected her to want to see him either.
When he came to get the child from the hospital after the birth, she had already vanished, leaving behind only a note that spelt out her financial demands.
By then she had found out how rich he was and only greed had motivated her.
"Are you informing the police??" Aadesh asked walking along side him
"No" Armaan said shaking his head in negative.
"But -"
"There is no doubt Janani Trivedi deserves to be behind the bars ,but I wouldn't be the person to put my son's mother there. Surrogate or not she happens to be my child's mother. And you know commercial surrogacy is banned in India, I can hardly go to the police" Armaan bit out grudgingly.
"But the police are already after her.You read the report on her stealing from the men who took her as escorts to those parties" Aadesh reminded and Armaan sucked in a breath.
An escort for rich men....
That's what his son's mother is.
He just hope his son wouldn't find out when he grows up.
"I dont want the police involved " Armaan said and Aadesh shook his head
"You might not want that ,but they are already involed"
"And then what? The elderly grandparents receive custody of my son? And the authorities are forced to enter the picture to consider his welfare. Surrogacy arrangements receive a divergent and uncertain reception here and I will not take any risk that could cause losing all rights to my son."
"But the Trivedi woman has already made it clear that she will only hand over the chd for a substantial amount of money"
"I will find some acceptable and legal way to bring this matter under control" Armaan breathed softly "Without damaging my public image or a court case or sending her to prison."
They stood outside the nursery and Armaan took a deep breath before going inside his daughter's room followed by Adesh.
He saw her scrambling from the floor where she was sitting with a torn doll which had seen more days than her and running away from him to hide under the bed.
Armaan looked around the room and saw the dozens of toys he had bought for her which were all untouched.
The only toy she needs is the one she had when she came to live with him after her mother's tragic death.
'Will you marry me Armaan?? Will you' he still heard that voice as clear as yesterday.
And the guilt would always be there.
He could have saved her.He could have made a difference
"Maan" Aadesh called tentatively and Armaan sighed
Armaan walked towards the bed and knelt down on the floor
"Baby! Ava!! " Armaan called out softly and there was no response. There never was
"Daddy is going away for two days." Again there was no response
"Daddy will bring you new toys" no response.
"Daddy will miss you" Armaan said, the only thing he heard in return was the sound of her breathing.
He stood up to leave and talked to the nanny...
"Take care of her " Armaan said and he felt the hands of the woman on his forearm.
"I know it hurts ,she will come around" the woman said and Armaan shook off her hands from his and walked out rejecting the display of sympathy.
"I dont like her ,there is something not right about her" Aadesh voiced out what had been in his mind all along.
"Unfortunately she is the only person Ava is comfortable with, so we will have to live with it.And Aadesh ,keep an eye on her always" with that said Armaan walked out of the Verma mansion without turning back
