I was wondering who’s voice is that and then I saw Riddhima lifting her head with eyes widened and shock and fear were clearly evident on her. Sweat beads were forming and her body was turning numb. I was wondering about the change in her when I saw a person coming towards the crowd and as soon as he comes face to face with Riddhima, his eyes widen and then he turn around to see the reactions or as if he’s studying the expressions of everyone and then his eyes lay on us. He shows his suspicion on us and before he could react or say something I hear Angre’s voice
Angre: Riddhima (worried)
I turn around to see Riddhima shivering and getting a panic attack, I rush to her while dadi gives her a tablet which she gulps quickly. I take my napkin and try to brush her sweat but she abruptly flinches back and I understood her condition hand it to dadi and she helps her in composing her back to normal. I was wondering about the change in her condition when breaking my thoughts, I saw that person approaching Riddhima with some expression in his eyes which I was trying to understand but before that he almost approached her if not Aryan and Angre who stopped him abruptly
: Excuse me
Angre: Excused
I was controlling my laughter at how Angre gave him a swift reply
: Look I don’t know who you are but I know Riddhima, let me meet her
Aryan: First of all, none are allowed to get close to her more than this, and would you dare to introduce yourself!
: Am Kabir and who the hell are you to keep any restriction to her life of who she should meet her and whom not?
Kabir, this name seemed known to me. I was observing Riddhima who was nervous or the apt word was panic. She was freaking and the reason was a bit confusing.
Angre: Mr. Kabir, we are Her brothers and we have all the right to make sure of her safety
Kabir: Brothers!!!
Kabir’s eyes had a sought of fear and panic which he was trying hard to cover up, his eyes were all the time on Riddhima and she had panic in her eyes
Kabir: Riddhima never told me about you, she used to share with me everything. I always considered her my sister and now being a brother, I can’t see her in this state, so if you could move I need to ask my sister what happened to her and why wasn’t she answering my calls and messages for weeks
Aryan: Mr. Brother, sorry but whatever may be your stand, you aren’t allowed near her. In fact, none is allowed. So, back off!!!
Angre: Coming to her state, she is unwell so, whatever you want to ask you can from where you are standing not an inch closer
Kabir rolled his eyes in frustration and was glaring at Riddhima as if he’d chew her with his eyes. There was something which I was unable to understand!!!
Kabir: Riddhima, how are you? Why didn’t you answer any of my calls and message? You know 3 weeks back I got one of our videos where we both were having fun in that park, it was so heartful that I have been seeing that video whenever I missed you in these 3 weeks. I wanted to recreate those moments once again. I wanted to share with you but you seemed unavailable. I would have shared it with you now itself but I don’t have that phone with me, it’s vahi where it all began (hahaha)
Me (thinking): What the hell is speaking of!!! Seeing her in this condition how can he speak of something insane!!
Kabir: It’s ok Riddhima, but now you are here right. I’ll take care of you and we’ll have more and more fun and in fact, I was wondering I’d share that video with everyone, and then we shall create many such videos.
Angre: For your kind information Mr. so-called brother, she resigned from the job so this is going to be the last time you’d see her on these premises
Kabir was shocked or smirked, I didn’t get it, among all this I felt he is the one for whom we came here as his behavior and his presence were affecting Riddhima. I felt his talks had some hidden depth in them as Riddhima was having breathing issues all along and whenever he was speaking she was sweating and crying. I did doubt if those tears were of happiness or sorrow but when my eyes laid on her hands and legs I saw them quivering and this gave me a surety that it’s him but to confirm I looked towards Riddhima and she was fidgeting with her fingers and kept her head low and her tears were unstoppable. I had to confirm so bending to her level, I whispered to her
Me: Riddhima, just one nod.
She glared at me as if she understood my question
Me: Haa ya Naa. Nod you head as per your answer.
Riddhima had some glow of hope in her eyes and as if she understood my point of view, she just nodded her head with difficulty in approval. That’s it, I got my answer and the beast in me was awaken. I clenched my hands into a fist and saw him arguing with Aryan and Angre, I saw tears of Riddhima which boiled my blood. I went and stood in between Angre and Aryan and gave death glares to Kabir who was looking at me in confusion while Angre being my confidant for years understood my body language and his eyes widened in shock and I just nodded my head. Before Aryan could understand anything Kabir was on the floor, I punched him hard on his face that he fell off. I could sense that he might have seen stars in the broad daylight. He was flabbergasted, so was everyone in the staff including dadi, Aryan, and Riddhima. I was boiling with rage while Angre explained everything to dadi and Aryan. I could feel Aryan was waiting for his chance to show his skills of kicking his ass while dadi hugged Riddhima consoling her. Kabir stood with the help of his staff and was about to hit me but my bodyguard was not that weak, he can save me, himself, my family, and his sister (smirk). Angre kicked him hard on his knees that he once again fell. Now the staff were losing its cool too
Staff 2: What the hell!!!
HR: How can you hit someone on our office premises? Just because he was worried for her you are hitting him? What’s this inhumane act?
Staff 3: You might be the great VR but this is our office and you are hurting one of our employees and that’s not taken
Staff 1: We won’t sit calmly if you do this
We trio rolled our eyes and one sign and the whole staff was covered with my guards so that they couldn’t help Kabir again. This time Kabir burst out before getting up
Kabir (anger): How dare you hit me without my mistake?
Angre: Mistake (rolling his eyes) It’d be better if you don’t speak of that
He was about to hit us once again and taking the charge me and Angre bashed him without giving him a chance to defend. We heard shouts of his staff which obviously we didn’t bother as our whole concentration was on kicking the hell off that bastard Kabir. I vent all my anger which I had stored in me for the whole 3 weeks as I didn’t get my target to vent my frustration but when he is in front of me how can I back out!! He was bleeding but how can that stop me from bashing him. Whenever I saw Riddhima, I could experience the pain she had gone through, she is going through and she will go through maybe forever. I have to take all this from him. Angre was punching him hard and I was bashing him by kicking his abdomen & legs. We were continuing to put our hatred over him when I heard a voice and that gave a break to our bashing as me and Angre turned to see what that person now wants
Aryan: Bhai, Angre that’s not fair… (making a face)
Angre (rolling his eyes): Seriously Aryan!!! Now, what happened that in this serious situation you are behaving an idiot?
Aryan: Angre, even I need a chance to hit him.. how can you both do this injustice with me? Remember, am attached to Riddhima more than you so I have more right and I demand my rights
Listening to that staff’s eyes widened as they thought he was trying to stop us but he was actually asking for his share while dadi just nodded her head in disapproval as if “Iska Kuch nahi ho Sakta”. Riddhima was giving him glances as if “am I close to you” while I and Angre laughed heartily confusing everyone.
Kabir (pain): Wh…at the…. Hec…k!!!
Aryan (irritated): Oh hello Mr. So-called brother… you have no dialogues in this situation so shut the f**k up and receive your share of beats and bashes and what did you refer to as!!!! Yea… Brother!!!! Oh, just shut up you call yourself her brother!! Do you even know who a brother is and what does that word mean?
This was once again epic making me and Angre once again laugh as if we lost our minds. I nodded at Angre and we backed out as Aryan took the charge and meanwhile Angre informed the cops too as Aryan kept kicking, punching, and venting his anger over Kabir. Cops arrived and they handcuffed Kabir shocking him and confusing the staff.
HR: Officer it was VR and his men who bashed Kabir, Kabir is innocent
Staff 2: Why are you arresting him and on what charges?
Me: Innocent (rolled my eyes)
Cop: We know what we are doing and why so don’t teach us our duty
Staff 1: If you arrest Kabir without any proper complaint and on basis of power and money then we’d call the media
HR: Yes we’d tell them how you are disrespecting your uniform by working for the rich and are arresting an innocent when he didn’t even raise his hand on them. Can’t you see his condition? How can you be inhuman and arrest him?
Angre: Woah!!! What a coordination bhai (sarcasm)
Aryan: Seriously Angre, their this useless coordination is only for that bastard who is everything but not any innocent
Cop: Look Mr, whoever you are. Kabir isn’t innocent and we aren’t working for the rich, in fact, we got a complaint on him so we are arresting him. We have an arrest warrant too.
Staff 1: Arrest warrant!!!
Cop: You wanted to call media right! Well call them, even we’d like to drag him in front of the whole world so that devil’s like them would know what’s it to commit such heinous crime
HR: Crime? Officer, what are you speaking of? What complaint and what crime!!!
Me: Officer you are here to drag him not answer their KBC questions (rolling eyes)
Dadi: Vansh I think we need to go now. It’s Riddhima’s medicines time and before that, she has to have something
Me: Yes dadi. Riddhima chale?
Riddhima just nodded and we were about to go when that bastard opened his filthy mouth
Kabir: But what’s ….. my mistake?
Listening to his voice my blood raged and I gave him a tight punch on his face making him lose his balance and fall on his face.
Cop: Mr. Rai Singhania, please hold on! We’ll handle him now. We need him alive to answer all the other questions and to catch the other two
HR: How can you be so insensitive!! Even after seeing the VR punching him, you are hell-bent on arresting him
Staff 1: Now, we won’t let you leave the premises unless you leave Kabir
Staff 4: We know Kabir, he is innocent. Riddhima, why aren’t you speaking anything? How can you let these men drag Kabir?
HR: You had a great bond with him more than us right! Then how can you let them hit him and hurt him?
Aryan (rolling his eyes): Ho gaya? Can we leave?
HR: Not before you leave Kabir
Me: Forget that! That won’t happen until am alive. In fact, thank his stars as am handing him to cops and not killing him with my bare hands
Staff 1: You are threatening to kill a person and I think we better call Media now… the police are also working for them, not for us …. a common man
HR: I think you are right and now this issue should be taken to media who’d take it into public
Aryan: Hehe Media (sarcasm)
Cop: Definitely why are you waiting for? Call the media now… or else shall we do the needy? We’ll call them and then the whole world would know what Mumbai Police would do for the Justice of a poor soul. And also let me tell you, if media comes here then your office reputation is going to go at stake for irresponsibility over their employee’s safety and it’ll be in talks and your stocks are going to dip
HR: You are threatening us about consequences?
Aryan: Oops no, they are showing you the reality
Staff 2: But why will our office face consequences when Kabir is innocent
Me (irritated): Oh, just stop this innocent drama
Cop: This bastard is not INNOCENT!!!! We have a complaint on him and now we aren’t going to leave him until the law kills him.
Staff 1: Kill him!!!! What’s his fault? Can we know the reason? And who complained about him?
The cop stared at me and I nodded in disapproval as I didn’t want everyone to know what happened to Riddhima at least not before he is dragged to court. But we have to handle the situation so I decided to take the initiative
Me: He is the prime culprit in a rape case. He is the damn rapist (anger). He has 2 more associates
Everyone: WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!
Kabir (panic): No…. oooo…!!!! Th….is is…..nt ……t…. rue!!!!! (Warning tone) Riddhima…. Riddhima…. tell them this isn’t true. Do you remember the video we had fun of….
Before he could complete his sentence he received a blow on his face and it was Aryan
Aryan: Dare you to take her name off your filthy mouth.
HR: But how is that possible? How can Kabir who is naïve rape, anyone!!!
Angre (rolling his eyes): Naïve, innocent bla, bla, bla……. Aren’t there any other words to describe him? He is not what he shows he is!!! He is a devil in disguise.
Staff 2: He never misbehaved with any female till today and none can tell that as damn as Riddhima. Riddhima why aren’t you taking a stand for him!!! He can’t do this…. You know that right!!!
Cop: The prime witness of this rape is Ms. Riddhima. She is in this state because of him. She is the primary witness.
Total silence was what we felt for few minutes. I could see their jaws dropped while Riddhima was shivering in their glares which was making her uncomfortable. She was afraid of the consequences and pity they would show on her if the truth of her being the victim is out. But she didn’t trust me yet so how will she understand that I won’t let anything happen to her!
Kabir (shock): Witness!!!! If she is the witness then who’s the victim?
Angre: Don’t you know what you have done 3 weeks back?
Me: Maybe he has partial memory loss due to the shock of the incident…. Officer, why don’t you help him? (smirk)
Cop: Of course, sir, we are here to help our citizens so why not him….. once you reach the station, you’ll get your memory back and you yourself will confess of the victim and your associates too. I assure you…. NOW NO MORE DISCUSSIONS!!!!! I’LL DRAG YOU OUT YOU BASTARD
Cops dragged him off the building premises with Kabir arguing that he is innocent and staff seeing everything trying to understand what’s true and what’s not. Riddhima was tired of all that happened, and the medicines affect was now evident in her body as she turned weak, sensing that she needs rest I asked Angre to get the car
Me: Angre, Riddhima needs rest, get the car. We need to leave
Angre left to get the car while we all moved towards the exit while the staff tried to communicate with her but Aryan being an Aryan, he didn’t let anyone come near her. Once Angre was here, she got into her seat with the help of dadi while I folded the wheelchair and set it behind. All the way, she was crying in dadi’s arms piercing my heart. At that moment if I had any wish then that was to capture the other 2 culprits too and send them to hell and another wish was to get my old Riddhima back, that bubbly, full-of-life Riddhima who didn’t know the meaning of tears in her life.
We reached Riddhima’s place and as we got off the car I saw many of those gossip women standing near the parking lot giving suspicious looks to Riddhima and us. Being least bothered we went to her flat and dadi led her to her bedroom while I and Angre decided to show her our cookery skills in the kitchen as we all were hungry. As soon as we turned the stove dadi called us, turning the gas off we left to see what happened
Me: Yes dadi
Dadi: Where were you trio?
Aryan: Dadi today our Riddhima will have food of our hands (proudly)
Dadi: Oh god!!! She is here after many days and you are hell-bent on sending her back to the hospital?
Aryan (pouting): That’s not fair dadi…. I cook pretty well
: Yes, who knows more than me
All turned to see Siya,
Siya: Riddhima di, I tell you…. Aryan bhai is such a great cook……
Aryan (proud): That’s my Angel
Aryan was having excitement in his eyes while me, Angre, and dadi were giving her confused looks as Aryan is the worst cook in our house
Siya: Once me and Aryan bhai were alone in our house and I was hungry so bhai went to cook food and almost burned the whole house
All burst into laughter while Aryan was making faces
Siya: From then dadi never allowed him in the kitchen… and if you ask the best cook then that’s Vansh Bhai and Angre too. They cook all yummy dishes of all sorts, all varieties. Bhai why not today you both cook something yummy for di?
Me: We are up to that… so, ladies what do you like to have?
Aryan: I’d like to have some Italian (excited)
My foodie bro, I tell you he’s such a foodie that if given a chance he’d eat 24*7 without getting off the spot
Siya: Are you a lady?
We laughed at his plight
Dadi: Vansh I’d suggest we need to eat Indian and light as that’s preferable for Riddhima in this condition. She isn’t fit yet so having too spicy and unhealthy isn’t preferable for her
Me: Dadi don’t worry I won’t feed her anything unhealthy. So, today it’s fixed that the menu has healthy Indian food but yea yummy dishes
Angre: Chale bhai
I and Angre were in the kitchen cooking while Siya, dadi along with Aryan were chilling with Riddhima trying to light her mood. After some time when everything was done, we took lunch for everyone into her room as she couldn’t walk. We served the food and led it forward for her, dadi took the plate and fed her a morsel. I and Angre were waiting for her to react. It was the first time I cooked for her and her reaction was what for which I was waiting, but to my bad, she didn’t respond. But my sissy is the best
Siya: Di, how’s it?
I widened my eyes and glared at Riddhima waiting for her to respond when she passed a small smile with nodding her head. This was enough for me to get on cloud nine. We had our lunch, dadi gave her medicines and she slept. We all reached the living room when Angre received a call from the cops who informed us that Kabir isn’t ready to accept the crime but they are hellbent on gathering information by torturing him. After the call, I asked Angre to
Me: Angre I think even we need to gather information on the other 2 as we can’t purely rely on cops, we need to help them
Angre: Boss, my employees are already on that. We are checking Kabir’s call logs
Me: Umm… I think we can check as to if anyone of Kabir’s friends has any farmhouse in Lonavala and the persons who were on that farmhouse after 11 pm along with Riddhima
Aryan: But bhai how will we get that?
Me: Aryan that can be figured if we get permission from the telecommunications department and if we get the location of the house then we can check the active networks there. For all that first we need to identify the house which belongs to Kabir’s friend
Angre: Bhai I’ll get that information soon and now am going to the station to help the cops