"One... Two... Three..." Anuradha was counting Vedant to finish his milk. "You have to finish it before I count five, okay?" She ordered at her son who was shaking his head, holding a glass of milk in his hand. 

"Maa, I want chocolate in it. I don't want this." He made a disgusting face looking at the milk.

"You know milk is much better than chocolate and it's very tasty too." Anuradha squealed for making him get the enthusiasm as she actually meant it. His favorite drink stock had ended two days back, since she was trying to make him drink milk. 

"No! It's not tasty. I drink chocolate milk only. You know, if I drink chocolate everyday, I can be like papa." His lips parted widely as his eyes became smaller when a hearty smile bloomed on his face, talking about his father. 

Anuradha rolled her eyes, tired of hearing his great papa's things. Vedant developed a new habit of talking about his father whenever he had a conversation with her. He did not intentionally do it. It happened involuntarily. She could not understand how this little boy got affected by Rakshit without being for years in his life.

"Maa, I don't want this milk. You drink it, you will get energy." Vedant extended the glass towards her. 

Anuradha narrowed her eyes at her little one who had a million dollar smile, encouraging his mother to consume it. 

"Since when did you start to care about me?" His curved lips dropped, hearing her. 

"Will you drink yourself or do you want me to?" He brought the glass against his mouth, and looked up to her face, watching her reaction. 

"Can I come in?" 

Her head whipped towards the front door where found an expected guest.

"Rinisha!"

Rinisha got inside not waiting for her permission to get in.

"You didn't expect me at all, did you?" Rinisha could not stay back at her home after getting to know about Anuradha's marriage break incident in the temple from her brother, Raunak. 

Anuradha looked down at her son who was sipping his milk, then back at the unexpected guest; Rinisha, who had a frown on her face. 

"Rinisha, what are you doing here?" Anuradha asked to know about her sudden visit. 

"I see, you haven't any respect towards me now. You were calling me, either ma'am or madam those days back you were working in the haveli, right?" Rinisha could see a new version of Anuradha from the old servant who used to be a mute before her unreasonable taunts. 

Anuradha held her chin high as she delivered those words. "I do respect people who only deserve it, and moreover now I am not working in your home, so the word respect needless to hang between our talk." She was not a kitten to scrunch somewhere fearing to face her previous young mistress's wrath. She had gone through too much and faced them bravely that made her amazed herself sometimes. Before those hurdles, Rinisha's glare was nothing but an insect which was hardly able to see with bare eyes. 

Anuradha turned to her son who was keenly observing the young lady's conversation to pick up something favorable to his daddy dearest. "Go to nanny. Don't dare to come out unless I tell you and no eavesdropping, okay?" 

"Okay, ma. I will be a good boy." Vedant pushed his little feet hesitantly to the adjacent room, not before shooting an angry glare at Rinisha.

Anuradha's complete attention turned to the awaiting woman after making sure Vedant closed the door behind him. "What do you want?" She asked it not wanting to beat around the bush. 

"That's really funny, Anuradha. You are playing an innocent card again. Anyway I am not coming here to see your f*cking drama." Rinisha gritted her teeth. 

"Watch your tongue." Anuradha did not hold back her dislike towards her choice of words. "You are not standing in your home, remember it."

"Whatever, let's get down to business." Rinisha muttered as she dipped her hand into her purse to pull out something valuable. 

Anuradha knotted her eyebrow as a paper was holding out towards her. "What is this?" 

"Cheque leaf! 

"I can see that, but why did you give me this?" Anuradha could guess where it was leading to. 

"Take this money and give him back to me." Rinisha demanded as if Anuradha was hiding her so-called fiancè in her pocket. 

"Excuse me?" Anuradha wanted to make sure before jumping into any conclusions. 

"Anuradha, it will be good if you come out of your innocent disguise." Rinisha could feel she was nearly losing her temper, then it would not be a good ending. 

"Get lost!" Anuradha badly wanted her out of the home before she reacted to Rinisha's bidding.

"Tell me how much you want. Five lakh or ten lakh... you can ask me how much you want to get rid off from my Rakshit." Rinisha put forward her offer. 

"Get. Lost. From. Here." Anuradha said calmly, deliberately showing a warning. Her tone was calm as if calm before the storm. 

Rinisha did not want to be a genius to recognize the hidden meaning behind her words. Since she was in somebody's home she could not order around, so decided to let it go now. 

"You are going to pay for this." It was the last words Anuradha heard before shutting the door on her face. 

Both of them knew that it had not been done here by just saying "get lost", especially the one who was wounded like a snake. The insult she had faced now was not something which could easily be forgotten. It deeply imprinted her mind. She did not even remember the last time she got insulted. 

While throwing words at each other, nobody saw the little spy who was listening to everything with his sharp ears and made a mental note to pass the message to his father, making a call with the help of a neighbour. 

~~~

Next day

"RINISHA!" 

"RINISHA!" 

"Where the hell are you?" Rakshit barged into the haveli, not waiting for anyone to welcome him inside. 

"Rakshit beta!" Mrs Vikram asked seeing an angry Rakshit who was shouting at his ex fianceè not caring about anyone's presence.

"Rakshit beta, please calm down." Mrs Vikram placed her hand on his shoulder to make him aware of her presence.  

"Where is she?" He asked not to even glance at the direction of the woman. 

"You meant Rinisha?" Mrs Vikram asked. 

"Did you have any other daughter?" He scoffed. 

"First take a seat, then we can talk about what makes you upset." Mrs Vikram tried to cajole him. 

"It's your daughter who made me upset. Where is she?" He made her effort fruitless as he went into a bad temper. 

"She is--" Mrs Vikram was about to tell, then Rinisha came out of her room listening to Rakshit's shout. 

"I am here!" Rinisha was striding down the stairs gracefully. 

"I know you will come back to me. You can not leave me just like that, right Rakshit?" She had a smirk as if she had got a positive result from the last night encounter. 

"I am so happy to see you again--" she was about to lean on him but it was stopped by a hard slap. Her face twisted towards the other side, tears rushed to come out of her eyes.

"RAKSHIT!" Mrs Vikram screamed her eyes were double in size, not able to accept what she had seen. 

"I have swore before not to raise my hand on a woman again, but you did not let me keep my promise." He could only know how much he was controlling himself from breaking her bones. If it was an old version of Rakshit, something else would have happened. 

"What do you want to know? Ask me!" He shouted. "What do you want to know about? Huh? Ask me, I will tell you."  

"You-you slapped me?" Rinisha stuttered, not able to form a sentence. It was too much for her to take. 

"Rakshit, what have you done? It was your way of talking to a girl?" Mrs Vikram questioned him, holding her daughter close. 

"Trust me it was nothing, if you look at my history." He kept his gaze on the crying woman. 

Rinisha wiped her tears and stood in front of him courageously for the answers. "What's going on between you? What relationship did she have with you that made you leave me? Tell me Rakshit, who is she?" 

Rakshit wanted to tell the whole world as Anuradha was his woman and Vedant was their son. But he was forced to withhold himself from revealing, until he got an acceptance from her. 

"First you slapped me for that bastard kid and now you have done it for that bitch!" 

Enough was enough! He could not take this anymore. His fingers clasped her long neck before she could even think. 

"RAKSHIT!" 

Vikram ran to his daughter's side before Rakshit could have his way. Rinisha was grabbed by her mother when Vikram pushed Rakshit away from her.

"How dare you touch my daughter?" Vikram roared. 

"I won't think twice about strangling her neck, if she makes any attempt." Rakshit gave his last warning as he walked out, because he was afraid to return to his past as he would have stayed longer. 

"You raised your hands on my daughter. I will make you hold her feet." Vikram swore to the retreating figure of Rakshit who did not pay any heed.