Hello everyone. Let’s get started…
Recap: Rithik and Sesha successfully operated, death of Rithik’s father, a cooked up story to save themselves, distance increasing between Rivanya
[Rithik]
It had been a week since he had been discharged. He pulled out the paper on which he had sketched her out. He held the paper in his hands as he closed his eyes. He put in a small effort as the paper began tearing up. He stopped as the crack in the paper was about to reach her. He kept it back as he moved near the window. He pulled the curtains aside as he flung open the window. Nothing was stable in his life. He stared into the vast sky before his eyes as he was lost into his own thoughts. His eyes fell on a tree as he saw two nestlings resting in a nest perched high on tree. Soon they were under the comfort of the wings of their parents. He closed his eyes as he remembered his father. An affectionate touch on his head made him open his eyes. He turned as he hugged his mother while she was comforting him. She sat on the bed as she placed his head on her lap and uttered, ‘I know you love that girl a lot. Even I love your dad a lot. But you should never lose a sense of righteousness. It was 20 years ago when your father returned home that night drenched. He had never hidden anything from him and so he told me that thing also. Your father and his friend, Suri were involved in an illegal business… exporting and importing drugs. Sesha’s father wanted to uproot this gang from the city. He was successful in finding about Suri and Ankush. One day, he had warned them to stop this. But through this work they were able to make quick bucks and they both decided to bribe Sesha’s father. The night he came home drenched, he was coming from that journalist’s home.
They had decided to go to his home by wearing a mask lest they would fall into something dangerous. They had tried to bribe him but he was a tough nut. He had again threatened them and a tussle ensued between them. Suri grabbed the knife kept there as he stabbed her father. His wife had come running from the kitchen. Suri had pushed Ankush and stabbed her also. When they had tried to escape Ankush’s mask had fallen down and he had tried to pick it up in a jiffy. In this process, the mask was torn and he had come home with only one part of the mask. I never said anything because I didn’t want him to get arrested.’ She stopped as she saw him lifting his head up from her lap. He looked at with her with a clear reflection of pain from her eyes. She gathered courage as she wanted to reveal to him one more thing. ‘He never wanted to kill them but keeping quiet all these years was his fault. He even had left this illegal route a few years ago.’
He was looking at his mother as he asked, ‘Mr. Suri’s death?’ He saw his mother lowering her head as he held her shoulders and turned her face towards him. He removed his hands as he heard her saying, ‘Ankush had hired a shooter as he feared… Even 3 weeks before, he came to know about Sesha and planted a bomb in her home.’ A tear rolled down her eyes as she said this.
‘Please mom. I want to be alone for some time.’ He stood and went back to the window as he leaned there. He heard his mother’s footsteps as she closed the door. He stared up as he muttered, ‘What should I do now? I am neither able to forget her nor forgive her.’ He clenched his fist as he hit it on the wall.
***
[Khushi]
She was standing before a locked door as she touched the lock. She lifted her other hand as she looked at the dangling key. She removed the lock as she unfastened the latch. She entered the room and looked around as she sneezed due to the dust prevalent in every nook and corner of the room. She tied a cloth as she rummaged the entire room. After her brother’s death she had kept his every belonging in this room except an album and had never been here but now she wanted to lays her hands upon anything… anything important to her. She took out a diary as she wiped off the dust with her hands. She came back to her room with the diary. She never used to like his habit of writing every important thing in his dairy but she now hoped that this dairy takes her a step forward. She opened it as she read every line written there. Finally, her eyes caught attention as she read out the event listed out at the end by him, exactly three years before.
‘Today, I and John decided to meet up at his home but when I reached his home it was all dishevelled. They had kidnapped his sister and even they knew everything about my Khushi di. They were the rivals of AR company and they wanted to use me against my boss as they knew my position and reputation. I was helpless. I had already lost my parents but I never wanted to lose my di and so I did what they said to me.’
She turned the page but it was the last thing that he had mentioned. She rested her forehead in her hands as she closed her eyes. It had been a week since she had hired detectives to find out about John but no help came. ‘If I had hired Karan…’ She stopped at this sudden realization as she muttered, ‘I’ll never hire him come what may.’
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