Chapter 23

"How did you figure it was me Arnav?" Shyam asked in a mocking tone.

As the rains continued to lash, the skies lit up with flashes of lightning, followed by deafening thunder.

I don’t believe a liar like you Akash Singh Raizada!

Do you think you can do whatever it is that you like -- just because you are rich and influential?

You of all people shouldn’t talk about truth

How can I talk only to you when you have people covering up for you?

For some reason Shyam's words kept reverberating in his head long after his outburst a few weeks ago. He had deliberately exposed Khushi in front of everyone by bringing up Payal's death and his arrest. Even though he had accused him of Payal's death, it seemed like his anger was directed at Akash. It felt like he knew about Akash and Payal. He had begun to suspect Shyam and had asked Rathod to investigate him.

When Delhi police had questioned the security guard for Khushi's kidnapping, he had revealed two names that were oddly familiar. When he had casually asked Anjali earlier in the evening, she had confirmed that they were Shyam's party workers. That was when he had begun to connect the dots.

When there was a knock on the door, Akash stepped in looking completely shaken up as a man with a knife in his hand pushed him roughly.

"Akash?" Arnav was shocked to see his brother.

"I got a call that you had met with an accident Arnav," Akash said, "I didn’t want to alarm the others so I didn’t tell them. They told me you had come to the beach house --"

"Why did you do that?" Shyam asked him, "you should have brought my wife along -- she is so hell bent on getting free from me. I could have helped her."

"Shyam!" Just as Arnav made a move toward Shyam, two of his burly looking men held him. "You are a coward – why don’t you face me alone?"

"Why would I do anything like that?" he snickered.

Arnav saw a man bringing Khushi down to the living room. Including that man, there were five men other than Shyam. He would have to bide his time.

Khushi's eyes widened with shock. "Shyamji?" She turned to look at Arnav.

"How the hell did you find her?" Arnav asked him, "that attic door isn’t easily visible."

"It's because he used to live here," Khushi replied, "I found old family pics in the attic."

Shyam clapped his hands. "There you go!" he exclaimed, "Khushi, you are a true journalist! You are so good at digging into the truth. But curiosity kills the cat."

"Tie the two men with the rope!" Shyam barked out orders to the men.

The men made Akash and Arnav sit on the dining chairs and tied the ropes around them. "Sir, I should warn you– there is a storm coming up. The tide is also rising at an alarming rate --"

"You go and do whatever I have told you to do!" He dismissed two of the men.

He looked at Khushi. "Since you are so curious – let me explain. We lived here when I was younger. My father was a big business man. He built this house for his family -- but his partners cheated him and we lost everything. The bank seized this house. My dad was such a loser!"

"How can you talk about your dad like that?" Khushi asked him.

"You probably had the greatest father on this earth," Shyam said, "when people bring children into this world isn’t it their duty to take care of them?"

When parents are unable to provide for their family the way societal norms dictate, it could be quite hard for children especially at an impressionable age. Though her family didn’t have a lot, they were still financially stable, but her dad had been emotionally absent from her life. Shyam's hard life had made him bitter and vindictive whereas despite having a hard life, Arnav had never let his frustrations get the better of him, had strived to be a self-made man without blaming anyone for his misfortunes.

 Shyam continued. "Do you know how difficult it was when we moved from here to Bihar? We had to lead an ordinary life because dad refused to work. He kept trying to start some business or the other but ended up failing. Why couldn’t he just give up and work somewhere? My mom supported him blindly. I had to work and support myself during my college years. But I still managed to get into law school because I was brilliant. After that I decided I would not fail – because no one would ever cheat me again."

"So, you decided to cheat others first," Arnav stated, "are you trying to justify your heinous actions?"

"Are you doing all this because of what I did all those years ago?" Akash asked him, "please Shyam – punish me -- let Arnav and Khushi go."

"Oh, I have already punished you for that," Shyam's chilling voice filled the room.

"What do you mean?" Akash asked.

"He knew about you and Payal – he was the one who caused the accident that night Akash," Arnav said, "I just found out today from Ajay."

"What?" Akash and Khushi cried out in unison.

"That is what I wanted to tell you tonight." Arnav told her.

Khushi's voice shivered. "Oh God!"

"You could have just killed me all those years ago Shyam," Akash said, "why did you have to kill Payal? I was the one who was wrong."

Shyam looked at Akash, "I did try to kill you too you know – but you escaped the accident. When you were lying in the hospital with that head injury – I thought you might die. But the wretched girl escaped without a scratch. I couldn’t allow that now, could I?"

Khushi's felt dizzy as tears just rolled down her cheeks.

Arnav found it unbelievable that they had in their midst such a sinister human being who had planned a murder in such a cold and calculating manner.

"But I have to let you in on a secret Akash. It was not about you – or my sister --"

"I knew my sister was a nut case," he said with cold voice, " She was just eight years – ten years younger than me when we lost everything. But she took it hard. At first, we thought it was trauma from all the changes. But we soon discovered that she had a mental condition. My parents and I could hardly manage her when she was off medication. No normal man could have lived with her.

"When I found out that you were having an affair – I understood. I have strayed myself. When your wife isn’t compatible to your – needs – you have to find it elsewhere --"

His words left no doubt that Shyam was a psychopath who had no attachments to anyone whatsoever.

"It wasn’t like that Shyam!" Akash exclaimed, "you don’t understand."

"Don’t Akash," Arnav grated in anger, "don’t justify your actions to this b@#$%^*!"

"Mind your language Arnav!" He turned to look at Arnav. "The truth is that – it was really about you."

"What?" Arnav was flummoxed.

"Yes you!" Shyam stared at him. "You had been messing up my business on and off when you played student vigilante for the police! Only problem was I didn’t know it was you until I overheard you talking to Rathod who had come to attend my wedding."

Arnav stared at him. "You are the leader of the drug racket, aren’t you?"

Shyam took a bow. "Took you long enough to figure that out!"

As another bolt of lightning struck, the power went out plunging the room into darkness.

"Light some candles -- quick!" he yelled at his men.

"But you are a lawyer --" Akash pointed out, "you are also in politics."

"Do you think my lawyer's fees would be enough to fund my political career?"

"Did you approach my dad with the marriage proposal of your sister because you wanted this house?" Arnav asked him, "how did you get that business deal for him?"

 "Thanks to my business here, even though it wasn’t all that lucrative then -- I had come across many powerful men. I called in a few favours to get that deal for Mr. Raizada. After all he had something that belonged to me."

"You are pure evil!" Khushi exclaimed, tears running down her cheeks, "you took the life of an innocent girl."

"She wasn’t that innocent, was she?" Shyam stared at Khushi, his eyes reflecting the madness inside. "She was beautiful, naïve and came from a troubled family from her own admission."

He turned to Arnav. " In the first three years of your student life, you had created enough problems for me. When you saved Manav I let it slide even though I had lost a customer. But you had to go and save Payal. I wanted her the moment I saw her!" he exclaimed his eyes wide with anger.

"You mean for your prostitution racket." Arnav said. Ajay had told him how they had discovered a brothel when they had raided one of their hideouts.

Prostitution? Khushi couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

"Of course not!" he denied vehemently, "I wanted her for myself but she hardly noticed me and then after you saved her, she was stuck to you like leech and I couldn’t make my move. After you moved away I tried to get to her again. But what do I find? She was slumming it with my own brother-in-law! That was the final straw!

"It was the perfect opportunity. Two birds – no three – with one stone."

"I thought you were surely going to go behind bars for Payal's death Arnav," Shyam said, "I didn’t think you would end up having an alibi for that night."

He turned to Akash. "I thought you were going to die but you got up from that coma."

"But it was alright. With Payal dead I made sure Akash and Arnav were both out of my way for the past eight years. Wasn’t it the perfect plan?" He laughed eerily. He looked at Khushi. "But you had to come along and ruin everything, didn’t you?

"I should have guessed something wasn’t right the moment my wife introduced you at the Raizada house. But I was momentarily dazzled by your beauty. I am human after all.

"But when you refused to toe the line and went to work for Arnav, I became curious. Luckily, I was friends with you on Facebook. When I checked your friends' list, I saw that you were friends with those engineering juniors of Arnav who happened to be Payal's gang. That's when I made the connection.

"I also received information that you were digging into old police records of Payal's death. I planned your kidnapping. Again, this hero had to come and save you."

"I will have to correct that tonight."

"Don’t you dare touch her!" Arnav's voiced echoed loudly. "The police have Nandita in custody," Arnav said, "She will give them all the details to send you behind bars."

"Nandita will never do that!" he exclaimed, "she loves me!"

"Love?" Arnav scoffed, "she was your mistress! How dare you accuse Akash when you were cheating on my sister you sick b@#$%^&!"

"So what?" Shyam said, "I didn’t force Nandita -- she knew everything about me and was okay with that. She was the one who truly loved me!"

"If Nandita loved you so much – then why did she run away?" Khushi asked him.

"I want to know that too," Shyam said quietly, "that's why I had her kidnapped from police custody. So you see Arnav -- your dear Rathod doesn’t really have a witness!"

When Arnav checked the clock, Shyam said, "if you are wondering when your dear friend Rathod is going to descend on us, you can forget it. My men have blocked the road on both sides. There is no way he can get here."

"What the f@#$!" Arnav swore loudly.

"Do you think you are the only who has a friend in the police force?" Shyam sneered.

The men who were holding Arnav left his side and stepped into the bedroom and brought a girl, her head and face masked by a scarf, barring her eyes.

"Nandu," Shyam went up to her, "I am really sorry for everything – but why did you run away?"

The girl remained silent.

Arnav began to work on the ties that bound him as the two burly men were now standing by Nandita.

"I know it has been 8 long years but I did try to look for you," Shyam said, "you haven’t told the police anything, have you sweetheart?" Shyam persisted.

When the girl refused to answer, he yelled. "Why won't you talk to me?"

 "Payal?" Khushi called out in a tremulous voice.

"Payal?" both Shyam and Akash said in unison.

Arnav looked at Khushi, his eyes wide with shock as he tried to comprehend what was going on in her mind.

The house shook with the sound of deafening thunder. One of the men stood near the sliding door looking outside. "Sir, I think we should leave now. The tide is rising! I can see the water getting closer to the house."

"Shut up fool!"

Shyam looked at Khushi. "Have you gone crazy?" Shyam asked her, "Payal is dead! If you think by some miracle she didn’t kill herself that night let me assure you -- my men killed her that night – they threw her body in the sea."

He walked toward the silent figure slowly. The girl began to step back, as she held her hands up, shaking her head. "Please!" she begged.

Shyam stood in front of her and ripped the scarf from her face.

The girl screamed as she turned her face away from them.

"Is that Payal?" Akash was flummoxed.

"Khushi saw an old picture of Nandita where she looked exactly like Payal -- " Arnav said.

"No!" Khushi shook her head. "It's not just that," she said, "After you left me in the attic I found an old picture of Nandita and Shyam. She was wearing a gold chain with a unique shell pendant. I remembered that my mother told me long ago that when they came here to claim Payal's body the officials gave her Payal's jewelry which was a gold chain but my mom didn’t recognize the pendant as the one Payal wears is a different one that belonged to my grandmother."

"I gifted Nandita that gold chain with the pendant." Shyam said listlessly.

"I called my mom and asked her to describe the chain and she told me. I realized that the body they thought was Payal's wasn’t really hers. I asked her if she recognized Payal's face when they came her to identify and she told me that she had been so sick when she went to the morgue that she had fainted and had to be hospitalized. Even my father couldn’t recognize her because the body had been under water for a week and was bloated. They only concluded it was her because of the clothes she was wearing. Even I wasn’t allowed to see her face. At the time, we had no reason to think it was not her. Of course, I didn’t get the suspicion until I saw Nandita's picture and noticed the shell pendant."

"Am I not right didi?" When she tried to move toward Payal, the goon held her back.

The girl began to cry.

"No!" Shyam yelled as he approached the girl and turned her around and stared at her tear streaked face. "You have a strong resemblance to her -- but you are definitely not Nandita!"

"Payal?" Akash called out.

"Did my men kill Nandita instead of you?" Shyam asked her, his tone laced with menace, "how is that possible?"

As the girl shook her head Shyam went up to Akash. "If you don’t start talking I will complete what was supposed to happen eight years ago. I will kill Akash!"

"No!" the girl screamed, "I will tell you the truth. I am Payal -- and that night -- the girl who died -- was Nandita."

"How could they make that mistake?" Shyam as visibly shaken, "Tell me what happened!" He was screaming.

"In the hospital -- after I spoke to Arnav I was very upset. I walked aimlessly in the corridors and I must have fainted because I found myself in ward with other patients. I noticed the nurse coming in and taking girls one after another. When I asked the girl next to my bed what was going on, she said the girls were being taken in for an abortion. I knew I had to get out of there soon but they had put a hospital gown on me and I couldn’t find my clothes. When I asked the girl next to me, she said it was possible that the girl on the other side of my bed had taken my clothes. She confirmed it to me when I told her it was a pink kurta and jeans. She told me that the girl had changed her mind and walked out just before I woke up. I quickly searched for her clothes and found them on the stand next to her bed. I changed into her red salwar suit in the washroom and made my escape before the nurse could come back.

"When I ran out of the hospital, it was still very dark but I found the girl and I was just about to call her when two men dragged her away into the wooded area. It happened so fast---" she paused.

"I saw – I saw them strangle that girl until she stopped struggling." Tears streamed down her cheeks as she recalled the horrific incident, "I ran from there to the main road and it was a miracle that I found a taxi. I begged him to take me so I could go somewhere far. The driver took me to the railway station and put me on train to Dehradun."

"The driver told me they checked the ID," Arnav pointed out, "he even confirmed it when he saw Nandita's picture."

"I don’t think the driver saw my face clearly because it was still very dark, he only saw the ID and gave the name to the ticketing agent who didn’t even glance at me," Payal explained.

"Unbelievable!" Arnav shook his head.

"Didi!" Khushi cried out but as she tried to run she was held back by one of the men.

"Thank God you are alive!" Akash exclaimed with joy.

"Shyam sir, Chidu just called – he says the storm had worsened and they are going back home!" one of the men spoke up, "I think we should leave too!" He sounded nervous.

"Shut up all of you!" He walked to Payal, "No – no –no!" He looked at her with rage. "You were the one who was supposed to die!" Shyam said, "I will correct that now!"

Payal fell to his feet. "Please allow me to hug Akash and Khushi once before I die – please."

Shyam looked at her. "Why not?" he sneered, "Akash will understand what it is to hold someone you love and then lose them right in front of your eyes."

Payal walked to Akash and hugged him until Shyam yanked her away. Then Payal hugged Khushi. The two men walked toward Arnav and flanked him once again.

"I won't let you harm my sister again." Khushi blocked Shyam, "let her go!"

Shyam's face changed. "You escaped from me once but I won't let you get away with it this time." He caught Khushi's hair and yanked it.

"Shyam!" Arnav's voice echoed against the walls of the house.

It all happened so fast that no one saw it coming. Arnav used all his body strength to kick the man next him hard on the legs. The man fell on the floor, "I think I broke a bone!" he screamed in pain unable to move. Arnav swung hands in the other man's face and kicked his stomach, knocking him unconscious.

"How did you get free?" Shyam began to panic.

"Your men tie knots like amateurs," Arnav chided Shyam. The next moment, Arnav kicked Shyam's hand, so that the older man released his hold on Khushi and staggered backward and fell. Arnav kicked him hard on the side of his ribs. As Shyam cried out in pain, Arnav lifted him by his collar and started punching his face into a pulp. "Do something!" Shyam yelled at the only able man standing, looking scared.

"Leave him or else I will kill your girlfriend!" Arnav saw that the man was holding a knife to Khushi's throat. When Akash tried to help, the man slashed his arm with the knife.

Arnav stepped back with his hands raised.

"Shyam sir!" Two injured men limped toward the door. "The waves are almost reaching the house. We are leaving – we don’t want to die here!"

As the man, next to Khushi watched his friends, uncertain about what to do, Shyam limped toward him and took the knife from him and held it to her throat. The man quickly followed his friends abandoning Shyam.

"They are all cowards but I have nothing to lose now!" He exclaimed as he looked at Arnav, "I can have the satisfaction of watching your face as I kill Khushi. I don’t care if the next wave hits this building and kills us all."

"Shyam," Arnav said, "Just let Khushi go. You haven’t killed anyone yet. I will try to get you a lesser sentence."

 "Are you kidding?" Shyam asked him, waving his knife at him.

"No!"

Shyam didn’t know what hit him as Arnav hurled a candle at his face as he had noticed Khushi ducking her torso away from Shyam giving him a clear target. As Shyam staggered back in pain, he dropped the knife and let Khushi go. Arnav picked up the knife and was immediately on him. He held the knife up high ready to stab him.

"Please don’t kill me!" Shyam whimpered.

"Arnav no!" Khushi screamed in horror.

Arnav stood up slowly and looked at Shyam. "You are not worth it."

"I can see water!" Payal exclaimed as water began seeping into the house.

"I guess it is coming in through the louvered windows in the utility area," Akash said, "and from the gaps under the door. It will fill up in no time!"

"Let's move upstairs." Arnav said.

As they were about to ascend Khushi said. "I hear a helicopter!"

The rescue team had finally arrived.

An hour later, Arnav, Khushi, Payal and Akash sat in Mrs. Rai's living room after having taken a hot shower. They sipped on hot tea that Anjali had prepared for them. They had forced Mrs. Rai to go to bed as she had been waiting up to hear news about them.

"It took you long enough to send the choppers!" Arnav told Manav.

"Don’t be so rude –thank you Manav!" Khushi smiled at him in gratitude.

"Akash didn’t tell us about the accident so it took us a while to figure it out," Manav said, "Anjali and I realized something was wrong when we tried calling all your numbers to warn you about the storm. Then we called DCP Rathod who told us that you had sent him an SOS and he told us he couldn’t get to the beach house because of a road block. He said his department wouldn’t give him permission to use the police chopper. Then I had to call a private company in Bangalore who rented out the choppers."

"Alright alright —thanks buddy!"

"And you too brother!" Arnav told Aarav who was dressing Akash's knife wound.

"Didi," Khushi told her sister who looked extremely tired, "Why don’t you get some sleep? We can talk in the morning."

"We have to fly to Dehradun tomorrow," Akash said.

"Why Akash?" Arnav enquired, "is it something important?"

"Very important –" He paused, "-- I will be seeing my son for the first time."

When everyone was speechless, Akash revealed that as Payal had hugged him at the beach house she had whispered into his ear about their child Akshat who was studying at The Woodland residential school in Dehradun.