Mine, To Hold And Behold

Chapter 6

Present...

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The alarm woke me from my dream of memories. I rubbed the sleep off my eyes. I was still wearing the last night's wedding's clothes. The glass of brandy that I have been emptying last night was lying beside my bed. I lifted the glass and placed it on the bedside table. After calling the room service, I walked into the washroom.

I grunted at my reflection in the washroom. The hotel room had an en-suite bathroom, with a Jacuzzi, a king-sized bathtub that could easily accommodate three people and also a couple shower, with two shower heads. I turned the shower on and set the required temperature. I let it warm up and walked to the sink to brush my teeth. After rinsing out the previous night's alcohol stench, I walked into the hot shower. I stayed in there for almost an hour, trying to gather my thoughts. Only one question haunted me, What now?

After showering I walked back into the suite in a towel. The room service has already made my bed and cleared the mess I created. My phone beeped, indicating a text message, I opened it.

BREAKFAST MEETING IN MY SUITE WITH A CLIENT. TEN'O CLOCK. BE ON TIME.

I checked the time, it was already ten past ten. I smirked. It would be so much fun to watch a scowl on my dad's face, early in the morning. I took my sweet time getting ready. When I thought I was sufficiently late for the meeting, I left for my dad's suite.

KNOCK KNOCK.

The door swung open and a smiling maid opened the door. "Good morning Sir", She said in an American accent.

"Morning, beautiful' I grinned at her and she blushed. I walked into the living room, without wasting any time. My father and Mr.Mr. Sharma was already there, as expected. Other than them, there were two other white people and another Indian, whom I didn't recognize. They were having American breakfast, omelette and toast, with typical orange juice and coffee. I grimaced at the sight.

As soon as I walked in, everyone stopped eating and turned their heads, "Good Morning Gentlemen" I said, with a fake accent and sat on a vacant chair beside my father and opposite to Mr Sharma. "I hope I am not late," I said while helping myself with breakfast.

"No, you are not. You are early than usual, to be honest," My father said in mock sarcasm. I ignored him and looked up, to meet Mr Sharma's gaze. s**t.

If looks could kill, I would be dead and buried sixty foot under the ground. I recalled last nights incidents. What? Now I can't even ask how she is?

She is as fine as she could get married in a month.

She is getting married.

Damn! The hell she is getting married. I looked away from his penetrating gaze and tried to keep my cool and not squirm under his scrutinizing gaze, and my gaze connected with that of my dad's. Double Damn! Seriously, God must be hating me for landing me in between these two glaring senior citizens. My dad was shooting glares towards me. Mr Sharma must have shared last night's events with him. I didn't look away though. I met his challenging gaze with a lazy smirk.

He finally looked away and I mentally sighed. "Gentlemen! As some of you already know, This is my son, Raghunathachary Chary". he said emphasizing 'son' and my name. I cringed at the name. That's the best you could come up with? Couldn't you come up with something better than that? Low blow, Dad! Low blow!

"I prefer Raghu, or Rags is fine" I added quickly.

"Krish!" one of the white men said, "We will send you a copy of the deal as soon our attorneys deliver it. And then we can meet up and make this deal official. How does a month from now sound?"

"Andrew!" my dad wiped his lips with the napkin, ever so gracefully and continued, "Don't you think a month is too much?" he raised an eyebrow.

"What do you suggest then?" Andrew asked, clearly being intimidated by my dad. Did I tell you, he can be really intimidating if he wants to be.

"I am here for a wedding. And I have a week. If you can get the papers ready, we can seal the deal right in this week", my dad said.

"A week?" the other white man exclaimed,

"Noel can assist you with the details if you may. He has been working as the Marketing head for more than three years with our company" my Dad said. The two men looked at each other and conversed with their eyes, and with a nod, they finally gave in.

"Great, Noel" My dad turned to the other Indian, whom I have never seen before. He looked around my age, maybe a year or two, older than me. He was tall and lanky, with high cheekbones and fairly attractive looks. "You will be working from the Gill's Head office this week. Assist them and get the papers ready. A briefing will be scheduled at the end of the week and we will finalize it then. Mr Gills, I hope you are okay with this" He said, turning towards the second White man, whom I assumed to be Mr.Gills. Since he was not on the first name basis with my dad like his friend Andrew, I considered him a threat. Without waiting for his reply, as I thought, Dad continued, "Well, it's settled then, Gentlemen, We will be meeting next Saturday. Thanks for joining us.", he said, silently telling them, to get out.

Everyone got up, as the Americans left. Noel waited for a while and discussed some business stuff with Mr Sharma. He turned towards me and gave me an 'almost-glare' look. He didn't appreciate my presence, and I could clearly see it in his eyes. He left soon after he completed talking with Mr Sharma and he followed right after him.

I was left alone with my Dad. Great!

"So. You finally decided to show up. For a minute there I thought, you were still getting over the hangover from last night" He said. The usual sarcastic greeting. Yea! Another normal day!

"I don't get hanged over dad! My body is well acquainted with alcohol" I said smirking.

"That my son is a trait you acquired from me," He said, actually smiling. Okay! Now I am scared.

"Why did you want me in this meeting?" I asked, coming straight to the point,

"I want you to lead this project," He said and paused turning to face me. Even though I was shocked, I didn't show it on my face. I maintained a stoic expression on my face. Taking my silence as a signal to continue, he removed his reading spectacles and continued to explain whatever this idea he had in his mind, "You are twenty-four already, soon to be twenty-five. Its high time for you to step into the pavilion" he said.

"I'm sorry. Would you mind enlightening me? 'cause I'm definitely missing something" I said, completely serious.

He sighed. "You are my only son. My only heir, wouldn't you want to get involved in the business you are going to inherit. You are done with whatever you wanted to study, it's time for you to get serious now" he said with a finality in his voice.

"Okay, what's the catch?" I asked, still trying to process everything, 'cause suddenly my brain decided to go into the 'sleep' mode. It's not working.

"there is no catch. Can't I want my son to get settled in life?" he said with a hint of innocence, but I was too old to be fooled. I knew there was some inner motive for him to offer me a job, let alone the entire business. He didn't trust me, as much as he trusted his driver. The hell, he will make me his heir. He would rather donate his wealth to an orphanage than give it to me. Then what motivated him for taking such a huge decision.

'I will think about it" I said. A different feeling crossed over his features, something that said, that he would be damned if I declined his offer. I didn't give him time to make another comment or attempt to persuade me. I turned on heel and walked away, making a very quick and needed escape.

My next stop, Alcohol!

******

Four hours and two drinks later, I was back to feeling like s**t. The alcohol wasn't helping as it did before. where did the sun come up from, today? What did my dad have for breakfast? What has gotten into him? Why? These are the only questions I could think of. And I was too close to have the first migraine of my life.

Sitting in a Bar and Restaurant, 'Miles and Stones' of New York suburb with my friend, Salim, I was desperately trying to figure out my dad's mysterious change of behaviour. Salim Sheik, an Indo-American, was my school friend. He hailed from the same background as mine. And we shared the same 'father-son relationship' problems. That was something which brought us closer in a short period of time. His father, Abdul Sheik was a renowned jeweller of Hyderabad old city, who eventually got richer and richer over the years and migrated to New York. Salim took over his business two years ago. The only difference between us was that Salim was always passionate about his father's profession, but I was not about mine. Whenever I came to New York, Salim was my only way to up float from the drowning and drowsing business overflow.

"Do you really think there is something fishy about your dad's proposal? He might genuinely want to make you his heir. After all, you are his only son" he stated the facts, still sipping his first beer

"huh? Dude! He isn't your dad, he is mine. I know him. He is definitely planning on something" I said drowning the remnants of my fourth.

"Well, my sources are working on it while we are here. If there is something like you imply, I'm sure they will find out" he said. In the past two years, Salim has escalated his business to new levels with his unique ideas and hard work. He even developed many connections abroad. He is the first one I would turn out to if I needed any kind of information, that involves affairs including abroad. "Dude! Chill. You are making it seem as if your dad is planning an assassin mission against you", I didn't even realize I was sulking until Salim pointed out.

"You don't know my Dad man! Don't get surprised when you hear it from your sources, what he is planning against me" I said.

"Damn! Did anyone tell you, you sound like a whining wife when you get drunk" he exclaimed with an expression of mock horror.

After sipping a few more beers, Joseph, Salim's trusted man entered the bar.

"Evening Mr Sheik" he greeted. Salim grimaced at the greeting. Did I mention that one of the traits that we share is our hatred towards our full names? We both hate it and prefer only our first names. "Mr.Salim is fine" Salim growled.

"Apologies, Mr.Salim" Joseph shifted on his feet, uncomfortably.

"Sit" I ordered, rather impatiently. He obeyed me and sat opposite to us.

"Evening Mr.Chary" he wished me, pronouncing my name as, she-aurey, the leftover respect that I had for my last name also vanished with this.

"Information" I demanded.

He cleared his throat, "Apparently Mr Krish is trying to keep Mr.Chary-", Great! I am Mr Sha-aurey, whereas my dad is Mr Krish. WOW!, "-away for six months".

I exchanged a confused look with Salim. "Explain" Salim ordered.

"Sir, the project he has been assigned to is being operated from Cairo, Egypt. You have to move to Egypt for six months, during the project. And you can't come back once you step into Egyptian soil for the next six months", he said.

"What do you mean, 'he can't come back'? He is the son of a billionaire, he can come back whenever he wanted" Salim said. I was too confused and engrossed in sinking in the information, to react.

"Certainly Sir, he can come back. But I'm afraid, he won't be able to. Your father pulled some strings with the Egyptian embassy and made your VISA into an unbreachable something. Which will prevent you from coming back to India, during those six months". He finished.

"Why the hell would your dad want to banish you to that, desert-country, for SIX months?" Salim exclaimed.

"Apparently, My dad must be Hitler in his previous birth and I must have been one of his assassins, so he is taking his revenge on me in this life", I said slamming my head on the table. I think my head will burst with this overloaded information. My dad always wished to teach me a lesson, but this, banishing me into a country of the desert is the worst thing he could do to me. And that too without return, for six months.

Joseph cleared his throat and it caught our attention, "No Sir, there is more"

"WOW! There is more" I cried, lying my head on the table, "Just say it. Just say that my dad hired a sniper to take me down. Just say it, buddy"

"Relax man," Salim said.

"I don't think it is any kind of punishment or revenge" this caught mine and Salim's attention. "It is something else". We looked at each other, "Spill" I demanded.

"From the last one year, Mr Krish has been maintaining an account in Canadian International Bank. Every month, a large sum of money is being deposited in that account. And someone is actually operating the account and it isn't your father or anyone from the company nor family. Next month, when the project starts in Egypt, the same day, your father has booked flight tickets for Canada. He is taking an official leave for fifteen days. And he is travelling along with Mr Sharma and no one else. It hardly seems a business trip, because if it was, there would have been some news about it, somewhere. But there is nothing. So, whatever it is, your father is trying to keep you away from it. He wants you to stay away from it at any cost. That's the only explanation I could come up with". Joseph finished.

There was a silence for an entire minute. My mind raced with several thousand possibilities. What could be so secretive? I don't know.

"You can leave," Salim said. Joseph stood abruptly and left. "Man! He is definitely gay" Salim's comment broke into my thoughts.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"What? He is clearly gay" he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Bro! Does it matter" I said with a pained expression? Salim raised his hands in surrender and remained silent.

My dad is hiding something - well! I don't know what my dad does, most of the time. So everything he does, is a secret, for me.

Something that involves money - He is filthy rich, so everything he does involves money.

And Mr Sharma knows about it - he is my Dad's best friend and knows everything about him so obviously, he knows about it.

I can't draw conclusions like this. What could it be? Something he wants me to stay away from, 'at any cost'. What could it be? And Canada? Who lives in Canada? I can't remember anyone important living in that part of the globe.

Is he having an illicit relationship there? Probably a son or daughter too? But why the hell will he hide it from me? No, It can't be. He loved my mother too much to have another woman in his life. And he can't have any illicit children because he clearly said, that I am his only heir, so he had to keep up with me. If he had another heir, he would have given up on me a long time ago, wouldn't he?

What else could it be? "Wants you to stay away from it, at any cost". "Send you away". "Canada". "Money". "Only Mr Sharma knows".

*******

"She is fine enough to get married in a month".

I woke up. I don't know when I fell asleep. I was still in the same bar and restaurant. Salim must have left me there some time ago. I woke up, all high that I got from the alcohol vanished as soon as I remembered the dream. Pari, she is in Canada. That must be it.

She is the only one, that my dad and Mr Sharma tried to keep me away from, at any cost. Because they knew, I would definitely sabotage their plans of Pari's marriage. And they have been keeping her location a secret from me and also everyone. Dad must have opened a bank account for her in Canada and sent her away. And only him and Mr Sharma know her location.

Now, I know where to find her. She is in Canada.

"Babe! I'm coming for you"