Lavan was worried about his family.
He lost his mother, Preethi earlier. His dad was an industrialist and so he went to various places often. His dad, Henry hardly spends time with his sons. Moreover, his brother, Greyson, was also jobless and ineffectual in his life. He fought with his father since he had compelled him to join in his industry. Greyson wanted to become a software engineer. He decided to move to Karnataka. He stayed in a place called, Minjur. He stayed in his own house and he rarely visits Chennai. Lavan missed his brother a lot.
But, right now, he was excited to celebrate Marin's birthday. Lavan requested Greyson to come to the party. Though Greyson refused to come, he accepted. He would bring a gift to the party. That was the gift which was told by Lavan to Marin at the coffee shop.
He was in his dressing room. He got dressed and decided to depart. His father, Henry, who came to the house earlier, had left once again for an urgent meeting. Lavan knew that Greyson would be on his way. He took his mobile phone.
When he closed the room door, he received a text message. He expected that it would be from Marin or Greyson. But, to his surprise, the message came from an unknown number. He read it;
Marin is in my control… If u want her alive, do what I say!
Lavan laughed out loudly. He thought that Marin was making fun of him. But, there came a call from the same number. He attended it.
"Did you read the message?" a man asked in a croaking voice.
Lavan smiled and said, "Don't do prank calls with me, Marin". The man at the other end grinned and said, "You fool! I've kidnapped her!"
Lavan felt sick. He cut the call and tried to call Marin. But there was no response from Marin. The wave of reality hit Lavan.
His bestie was kidnapped by someone.
He was frightened. Many questions circled in his mind. After all, who was this man? Why did he kidnap Marin? Again the man made a call. He attended it. Before the man could speak Lavan spoke, "Hey who are you? Where is Marin?" He yelled in tension.
The man at the other end laughed and said, "I can't answer both the questions. Now, go to your garden. You'll find something there. Then, I'll ring you."The man cut the call.
Lavan couldn't believe anything. But, Marin was important to him. He believed the words of the man and went to the garden with uncertainty.
*********
Go to your garden.
You'll find something there.
Those sentences stirred Lavan's heart. He couldn't make out the things happened in his life for the past ten to fifteen minutes. He wasn't sure that the man would leave Marin. If the man wants ransom or something, why didn't he approach Franklin's family? What did Lavan do? He became the scapegoat.
Lavan reached his garden. There were variety of plants and trees. He found a rectangular box at the middle of his garden. He moved towards it. The sun had drowned between the mountains. He prayed to God that the box should not contain any explosives. It looked like a gift box, wrapped by a black paper. He took it in his hands. He found a label, with a few words written on it. He read it:
"ORDER OF YOUR FATE"
He barely understood it. He was confused. The man told him that he wound ring him. After a few seconds, the same man called him. Lavan grew angry at this man.
He wanted to yell at him. But, his bestie was with him. He controlled his temper and attended it.
"Open the box." the man ordered. Lavan obeyed and opened it.
Waves of astonishment and fear hit Lavan. Inside the box there was a gun and a bangle. Lavan recognized the bangle at once. It belonged to Marin. What was the purpose of the gun?
"Do what I say." the man went on, "Take the gun with you and go to the building which is opposite to the Harry's restaurant. You have to kill Franklin."
Lavan was dumb struck on hearing those words. To save his bestie, he has to kill his bestie's grandfather. His face turned pale. He remained silent. The man on the other end continued, "Your phone will be hacked by me. You can't use it any more. To save Marin, kill Franklin. If you fail to do that, Marin will be found dead."He cut the call. Though his mobile was useless, he slipped it into his pocket and made his heart hard as a stone and decided to kill Franklin to save Marin.
He headed towards the building opposite to the Harry's restaurant. He remembered those words on the label and told himself that it was his fate's order to kill Franklin.
*********
The time was 7:10pm, when Franklin came back to consciousness.
He found his sons looking at him sadly. He was lying on the bed. Someone would have kept him on the bed. His sons expected him to talk. But Franklin reminded himself not to say about the return of his daughter, Paigne. He said that he felt sleepy and so he slept on the floor. Though it looked unbelievable, he made it look believable.
Milan said that Marin had left the house a few minutes ago to the restaurant.
Franklin got to his feet and washed his face. He as well as the others decided to leave the house. While going through the stairs, Franklin took out his mobile phone and typed a message to a person. The message was,
Paigne is gonna kill me…
He asked his grandson, Cole to keep his phone in his room. Cole obeyed and kept the phone in his room.
Franklin gazed at the photo frame, with a garland, which was hanging on the wall. It was Paigne. His daughter.
The family headed towards the Harry's restaurant.