SAING Hospital
The next morning
At around 6:30 a.m., Aniruddh woke up. He knew that Rudra hadn't slept all night, so he didn't think it was right to wake him. He got up quietly and started drinking coffee.
After a while, Rudra also woke up. Aniruddh handed him a cup of coffee, and the two of them sat down and began talking.
Aniruddh: Brother, why were you sitting quietly yesterday? Why didn't you say anything?
Rudra: To whom?
Aniruddh: Brother, you know whom I'm talking about.
Rudra: Aniruddh, you won't understand. Sometimes staying silent is better than speaking.
Aniruddh: If anyone says anything to you, I won't stay quiet.
Rudra's eyes filled with tears, but he didn't let them fall.
Rudra: Leave all this. Tell me—did you find out anything yesterday about the person who leaked the information?
Aniruddh: No, brother. I'll definitely find out, but today there's a meeting with the shareholders. You should cancel it.
Rudra: Yes, you're right.
Rudra looked at the time. It was almost 7:45 a.m. He stood up, opened the ward door, and went inside. He saw his grandfather, who had also woken up. His grandfather called Rudra closer and said,
Grandfather: Son, Romit was telling me that you have a meeting with the shareholders today.
Rudra: Yes, Grandpa, but I've canceled the meeting.
Grandfather: Son, you should go. Work is important too. Once everyone else arrives, you can leave.
Rudra wanted to say something, but after his grandfather insisted again and again, he agreed.
When Rudra came outside, he saw that his uncle Abhijeet and his father had arrived. The previous day, when his father heard that Rudra's grandfather was unwell, he was in Delhi, but he immediately came to Indore on the first available flight. He had left his wife, his stepmother, and his sister Rishika at home.
Uncle: Rudra, you and Aniruddh should go home. Rohit has been trying to call you for a long time, but your phone was switched off. So he called me and told me about your meeting today.
Rudra: Yes, Uncle. I do have to attend the meeting. Yesterday my phone switched off because the battery was low. Uncle, Aniruddh will go with me as well.
Uncle: Okay, son. You both go. We'll take care of things here.
Aniruddh leaves for home with Rudra.
Rudra's father said, "Look, Suresh still didn't speak to us today. We aren't his enemies—we're his parents."
Suresh: Yes, brother. Time and circumstances have made him like this. But you'll see—one day everything will be fine. He himself will come and talk to you. Until then, you'll need patience.
Rudra's father: When will that day come? For the past nineteen years, he has been angry with us, and with time his anger has only grown. We are desperately waiting for the day he comes and calls us 'Papa.'
Uncle: He will say it very soon. Don't worry.
Rudra's father: Okay, I'll go meet Dad.
Uncle: Okay, go ahead.
Abhijeet (thinking to himself): How will we ever become one family? Mom and I will never let that happen. They've wronged our entire family—especially that father and son. They will have to pay the price.
Mahesh goes inside and sits beside his father.
Mahesh: Dad, what happened? We can't see you in this condition.
Mr. Pratap: Nothing has happened to me. I'm fine. Don't worry about me.
They talk for a while, and after some time, Rudra's father comes out.
---
SAING College
Meera had been topping her class continuously for three years, so she was selected for one month of training at SAIMS Hospital. For now, the training would be only as a nurse. Meera was very happy. Her training was starting that very day, so she left for the hospital.
---
Pratap Group of Industries
All the shareholders were seated in the conference room, waiting only for Rudra to arrive. As soon as Rudra entered the room, everyone's eyes were fixed on him. He walked in like a king and sat on the CEO's chair.
His PA, Romit, began speaking:
"Good morning, all of you. Thank you all for coming."
Then Romit stopped speaking.
Rudra's gaze fell on a girl sitting in front of him, around 26 years old. Rudra was looking at her with anger, because he knew that somewhere, she definitely had a hand in everything that had happened.
The girl spoke, "Mr. Pratap, why have you called us here?"
Rudra: By now, all of you must know that our biggest project has slipped out of our hands.
The girl replied, "Yes, we know. And we also know that this is your fault, because some information was leaked—and only you could have leaked it."
Rudra replied angrily, "So what are you trying to say? That I leaked all this information? That I deliberately let this project go? Miss Aarohi Sinha, think before you speak—who you are talking to and what you are saying."
Rudra spoke so loudly that his voice echoed through the entire room. All the shareholders were stunned. Aarohi stopped mid-sentence; she didn't even have the courage to speak.
Rudra continued, "My grandfather built this company with his hard work and dedication. I won't let it go to waste like this. And do you think I won't find out who made the mistake? Let me make one thing clear—whoever is responsible for losing this project, I will punish them so severely that no one can even imagine it."
Gathering her courage, Aarohi said, "Mr. Pratap, are you accusing me?"
Rudra: No, I'm not accusing you. It just seems like you're accusing yourself. I'm only talking about the person who made the mistake because of which this project was lost.
Aarohi said, "No, I haven't done anything."
Rudra felt extremely angry at her words, but he remained calm. Looking at his expressionless face, no one could tell what was going on in his mind. Aarohi also couldn't understand what he was thinking.
Rudra placed some project files in front of all the shareholders, selected a few, and said, "We will work on these projects. If you find them suitable, you can invest your shares in them."
Aarohi: How can we trust that there won't be any mistake again and that we won't suffer losses?
Rudra: Something may happen once, but it doesn't have to happen again. That's why I'm telling you about these projects. You have earned profits on every project I've proposed so far. Just because one project failed doesn't mean every project will fail.
Mr. Iyer, who was present there, said, "Yes, Mr. Pratap is right. We should trust him. Everyone makes mistakes once. We may have lost money, but not our trust."
Rudra felt good hearing this.
Mr. Iyer continued, "Sir, I will definitely invest my shares in this project."
Rudra left the decision to them and said, "Now I must leave. My grandfather isn't well."
Rudra came out of the conference room, took his personal lift downstairs, sat in his car, and the driver started driving. He remembered a conversation from about six months ago between him and Miss Aarohi.
Aarohi had proposed marriage to Rudra, but Rudra had refused, saying that he couldn't marry her. Aarohi became furious, because everyone wanted a beautiful woman like her, but Rudra had clearly rejected her.
At that time, Aarohi had said, "You'll have to pay a very big price for this, Mr. Pratap. One day you'll come to me yourself to say yes to marriage."
Rudra had looked back at her once and said, "Only time will tell. But Rudra Pratap can never do something like that."
Since then, Aarohi had been looking for an opportunity to prove Rudra wrong in front of all the shareholders and seize the CEO's chair. Rudra had known from the very beginning that Aarohi was involved in this project loss, but he had no evidence. That's why he remained silent. He had secretly assigned people to gather proof against her.
The car stopped, breaking Rudra's thoughts.
The driver said, "Sir, we've reached Gayatri Mansion."
Rudra got out of the car, entered the bungalow, and about fifteen minutes later came back after changing his clothes. He told the driver to go to the hospital. About ten minutes later, the driver said, "Sir, we've reached the hospital."
Rudra got out of the car and went inside. When he reached the second floor and stepped toward the lift, he collided with someone. Seeing the face of that person, Rudra said,
"You…."