Ch46The New Advocate Of Vardhans #3
He was looking for someone whom he didn't even know in this current life, yet his heart insisted that he had known her intimately for centuries.
Viswraaj was thoroughly exhausted from searching for answers to the endless, spiritual questions haunting his mind, but he refused to give up his silent quest.
Deep down, he knew that one day, he would uncover the absolute truth, and his eternal search would finally come to a beautiful end.
Where Viswraaj was as calm and mysterious as still, deep waters, Devaditya was like the bright, radiant morning sun to everyone around him.
To the ruthless outside corporate world, Dev was as hard as an unyielding stone, but to his own family, he was as gentle and soft as a delicate flower.
That was his public identity. Yet, every single member of the Vardhan family knew the dark truth hidden beneath his vibrant laughter.
They knew about the massive, bleeding wound hidden behind his bright smile-a catastrophic, silent grief that had left Dev completely hollow from the inside.
He lived in a perpetual state of eternal waiting, a painful anticipation that he knew with absolute certainty would never end in this lifetime.
Yet, somehow, Dev had trained himself to survive within that very emptiness, turning that endless, agonizing wait into his only reason for living.
He never showed his deep scars to anyone, but everyone knew his heart was shattered into a million pieces broken so terribly that the one person who held the power to piece it back together was never, ever coming back.
Meanwhile, Rivanya did not return to the mansion for the entirety of the day.
And without her presence filling the room, Rudraksh's heart couldn't find a single second of peace.
The powerful billionaire was rapidly losing his absolute sanity as the hours ticked away.
Every five minutes, he aggressively pulled out his phone, spamming Vyom with continuous, frantic text messages demanding constant updates on Rivanya's whereabouts, her actions, and her safety.
Ultimately, thoroughly irritated and distracted by the non-stop bombardment of texts, Vyom decided to shut his phone off completely.
This silent act of defiance drove Rudraksh into a fit of extreme rage, his annoyance hitting its absolute peak.
Strangely enough, he wasn't worried about the massive legal trap surrounding him, nor was he afraid of the impending threat of getting arrested by the authorities.
His entire mind was completely consumed by a single, agonizing thought was Rivanya safe?
Rudraksh couldn't put a name to this terrifying, overwhelming emotion, or perhaps, he was deliberately choosing to ignore it out of sheer fear of his own vulnerability.
But no matter how hard he tried to build his emotional walls back up, he simply could not stop himself from thinking about Rivanya for a single, breathless second.
Rudraksh managed to drag himself through the agonizingly long hours of the day somehow, but as evening descended upon the estate, his patience dissolved completely.
He could no longer handle the restless chaos storming inside him.
The strangest, most frustrating part of his predicament was that he hadn't heard the delicate, rhythmic chiming of Rivanya's anklets all day.
For some inexplicable reason, the absence of that tiny sound had thrown the absolute mood of this ruthless Asian Mafia King into complete darkness the exact moment she left the house.
One look at his terrifying, dark expression was enough to keep the family members and the house staff miles away; absolutely no one possessed the courage to approach him or ask him a single question.
Even Dadaji and Dadi Maa walked on eggshells whenever they had to speak to Rudraksh.
The first reason was his legendary, untamed fury, and the second was his absolute status he was the official head of the entire Vardhan family.
Honoring the title and position of the family head was the oldest, most sacred tradition of the Vardhan lineage.
The moment Rudraksh returned to India, Pratap had officially handed the reign of the Vardhan family down to him, completely forcing the title upon him against his will.
Rudraksh had always deeply desired for all this crushing responsibility and elite status to go to Viswraaj instead.
But being the eldest son, he was forced to take it all under immense obligation.
It was an absolute trap for him because Rudraksh harbored a deep, poisonous hatred for Vardhanpur.
He never wanted to become the king of Vardhanpur, but bound tightly by a sacred promise he had made to his late mother, Rudraksh had no choice but to accept every single crown and shackle he never wanted.
A few moments later, the heavy sound of Vyom's luxury car echoing through the grand main gates broke the silence.
The moment he heard it, Rudraksh marched all the way down to the main entrance, standing right outside in desperate anticipation of Rivanya's return.
But as the car purred to a halt, only Vyom stepped out of the vehicle.
Rivanya was nowhere to be seen. The absolute absence of her petite form sent a sharp, painful jolt of pure irritation straight through Rudraksh's chest.
His temper flared dangerously, and he demanded in a fierce, biting voice, "Where did that Panch foot ki butki (five-foot-tall dwarf) go?
Where on earth did you leave her?"
Vyom walked up the marble steps, stopping right in front of him.
He glared directly into Rudraksh's dark eyes, his own voice laced with sharp, unyielding anger as he spat back, "Haram ke pille, you better watch your tone and speak with some damn respect! Do not forget for a single second that she is my sister. If you dare utter another insulting word against her,
I will pull your tongue right out of your throat,kutte (you dog)."
Rudraksh shot him an arrogant look, his jaw clenching. "Oh, so what exactly did I say wrong? She is a Panch foot ki butki (five-foot dwarf). And you didn't accidentally lose her somewhere, did you?"
Vyom let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "Your mental balance has completely deteriorated, Rudraksh. You seriously need to go get yourself checked out by a doctor. Is Rivanya some cheap object that someone can just casually forget somewhere?
She chose not to return to this house out of her own free will, and she isn't coming back for the next two days. She has some work to finish."
Rudraksh's eyebrows snapped together into a tight, aggressive scowl. "What? What possible work does she have that requires her to stay away from this house for two entire days? And if she isn't staying here, where on earth is she planning to live?"
Vyom crossed his arms, looking completely unbothered by the billionaire's rising fury.
"You seem to be forgetting a very basic fact-she owns her own private apartment in Mumbai, the exact place where she lived completely independently before she married you. That is exactly where she has gone. She explicitly told me that she has some highly critical,
sensitive work to handle and needs to study this corporate case with absolute precision. She demands total, uninterrupted silence, which is why she is staying there for two days. She will meet us directly at the courtroom on the morning of the hearing."
Rudraksh's jaw dropped slightly in sheer disbelief, his shock quickly morphing into dark, possessive anger. "If she needed to study the case, she could have easily done all of that right here in this mansion! Who on earth would have dared to disrupt or bother her here, huh?"
Vyom leaned in slightly, his eyes narrowing as he pinned him with a direct, accusatory look. "You. You are the one who constantly disrupts her peace and teases her day and night. That is the exact reason why she left to live completely alone to get some well-deserved distance from you."
Rudraksh's chest heaved as his possessiveness flared out of control. "How can she just pack up and leave like that? She is my wife! This mansion is her house. If she had just told me once, I wouldn't have bothered her at all."
A brilliant, deeply wicked thought flashed through Vyom's mind as he analyzed the trapped expression on his best friend's face.
"Look at this caged lion," Vyom thought to himself, a triumphant smirk hiding beneath his features.
"Rudraksh Vardhan, I am going to twist and manipulate your arrogant mind so badly tonight that you will completely lose your sanity. Just wait and watch."
Aloud, Vyom gave a mocking shrug and fired a lethal question right at him, "Wait, why do you care so much? You don't even consider her your real wife, do you? She is just your so-called wife on paper only, according to your own legendary rules.
So why are you suddenly screaming and calling her your wife now, huh?"
Rudraksh's face turned an aggressive shade of crimson as he was hit by his own medicine. Thoroughly irritated and unable to find a single logical answer to counter Vyom's words, he snapped defensively, "I don't have time to answer your absolute garbage questions. Get out of my face!"
Deliberately brushing the conversation aside to hide his severe discomfort, Rudraksh turned around and stormed up the grand staircase toward the isolation of his master bedroom.
The moment his heavy footsteps disappeared down the corridor, a wide, thoroughly satisfied smirk broke across Vyom's face, knowing he had successfully set the billionaire's heart completely on fire.
The next morning arrived with a blinding, harsh sunlight that did absolutely nothing to clear the dark storm brewing inside Rudraksh.
He sat at the head of the massive, polished mahogany breakfast table in the grand dining room, looking like a ticking time bomb.
He was dressed in a crisp, dark designer suit, but his tie was slightly loosened, and his eyes were bloodshot from a complete lack of sleep.
His fingers were wrapped so tightly around his porcelain coffee cup that his knuckles turned white.