Chapter 34: All
She Noticed
Anjili had managed to limp up the stairs all the way to the
roof. She peered over the edge to see Arnav dragging a suitcase to one of their
cars. His ear was glued to his mobile and as soon as he put his suitcase in the
trunk, he got in the car and drove away.
He’s off to chase
Khushi like he should’ve done all those years ago if it wasn’t for me. She
thought bitterly.
She stood on the roof for a while just taking in all of
Luckow. Living in Delhi all these
years had made her forget how beautiful her birthplace is.
She sighed. She had made a right mess of things and Arnav
was right this was her fault. She knew that he loved her but he would never
forgive her, especially if Amba was hurt in any way. She really wasn’t much use
to anyone, all she did was arrange poojas and shop.
She clamoured on to the edge of the roof. She was content in
dying now. Her eldest daughter was married off to someone who can take care of
her every need, maybe Raj might even learn to love her. Her husband would
probably get over her death quickly, he was barely around these days anyway,
always so busy with work. She had tried to knock some sense into her youngest
daughter but she was hopeless. She loved Priti, she really did but that girl
was a lost cause.
She’ll probably get
pregnant by next year or take up drugs or do more things to bring shame on to
the family. I don’t want to live to witness that. Maybe my death will finally
make her see reason and turn her into a decent human being.
She closed her eyes and braced her self before throwing
herself forward. Something caught on to her saree and threw her backwards. She
opened her eyes in a daze and stared up at a furious Priti.
“What the hell are you doing?!” she shouted at Anjili.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you the same question?” replied
Anjili as she brushed herself off and stood up.
Before she could go to the edge again, Priti grabbed her and
hauled her away. “So you’re not going to tell me why you were going to kill
yourself? Fine, let’s see what Mamu and dad will say.”
“Priti let go of me. And I don’t think your Mamu will care.”
Priti looked at her in confusion. “You think because Mamu’s
angry at you that he doesn’t care? Are you stupid or are you just a drama
queen?”
Anjili slapped her. “How dare you speak to me like that?!”
“You can slap me all you like but I will tell the entire
family what you tried to do. And don’t even think about struggling, I will kick
you on your bad leg.”
Anjili was speechless. “You’d do that to your own mother?”
“If it means she won’t try to kill herself and she’ll stop
acting like a child, then yes.”
Anjili fumed. “You don’t understand!”
“Yes I do! You feel guilty about everything you have done.
You feel bad that Mamu shouted at you. But you deserve everything that he could
possibly say to you because you are responsible. Stop trying to escape your
responsibilities by trying to kill yourself. You have a family for God’s sake!”
Priti said desperately.
“Priti-”
Priti had had it up to here with all this drama. She was
exhausted. “No! First Didi, then Mamu, now you. Can people in our family please
stop trying to kill themselves? Do you know the amount of psychological damage
you people are doing? These past few weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster
and I’ve had enough. I’m going to ask one of the servants to lock the door to
the stupid roof so no one tries to throw themselves off it.”
“I never knew about your Mamu trying to kill himself.”
Anjili said in a quiet voice.
“No one’s meant to know. I only know because I’m extremely
nosy. The point is that Mamu was strong enough not to throw himself off the
roof and try to get on with his life. Mum I know you are just as strong as Mamu
so please let’s go.” She begged.
But Anjili wasn’t listening. “Arnav tried to kill himself.”
Priti grabbed her mum by the shoulders and shook her. “Yes
but he didn’t!” she sighed. “Come on mum let’s go.”
Anjili allowed herself to be lead away from the roof. She
mused on what Priti had told her and decided since she had nearly driven her
much loved brother to committing suicide, she was going to do everything in her
power to make it up to him.
A week later
A week ago, Arnav had arrived in London
and managed to convince Khushi, Karan and Logan
that he wasn’t trying to win back Khushi and that he would help any way that he
could to try and bring back Amba safely and put Shyam back in jail. Shyam had
said no police but Matt got accidentally involved in this and that meant the
police were already involved. The police had agreed to keep the investigation
quiet and discrete. Arnav proved his usefulness by hiring people to find out if
the press knew anything about Amba’s kidnapping and if they did, he paid them
off to keep them from publishing anything that could danger Amba’s life.
Anjili had called 6 days ago claiming she could help too.
Everyone had slammed their phones down on her, not wanting the help of someone
who was just as responsible for Amba’s condition as Shyam. But then Priti had
called and talked some sense into Arnav. Anjili was then allowed to talk to the
police and tell them everything she knew about Shyam, after all, she had been
married to that psycho for 3 years.
5 days ago Shyam texted Khushi with an offer; Khushi in
exchange for Amba. Khushi was ready to say yes but Logan
suggested trying to pay off Shyam. No matter how much money they offered Shyam,
he would say no, he was adamant in getting Khushi. Eventually, Logan ,
Arnav and Karan let Khushi say yes to Shyam’s offer. He texted back a time and
place for them to complete the exchange.
Since then, the police had discreetly cased the place out
and formulated a plan. They knew that Shyam was unstable and that made him even
more dangerous, they didn’t want to put anyone else in danger. They agreed that
they wouldn’t move in to arrest Shyam until the trade had been done and Amba
was safe.
It was exactly 4:25 am
when Khushi entered the abandoned warehouse that Shyam had texted her about. As
soon as she entered her heart sank. Her daughter was tied to a chair, she had
blood stains all over her clothes, she was badly bruised and she looked like
she hadn’t eaten or slept in a week. Amba raised her head and smiled at her.
Khushi wanted to fall to her knees and weep but she held herself together for
Amba’s sake and also because she didn’t want to give Shyam the satisfaction of
seeing her so weak. She had nothing to fear, the police were in place if
anything went wrong.
She walked in with her head held high. “Shyam! Where are
you, you coward?”
Shyam stepped out of the dark and stood behind Amba before
putting a hand on her shoulder. She flinched from the touch and Khushi narrowed
her eyes, this just made Shyam smirk.
“So Khushiji, you came.” He said after a while.
“Of course I came.” Snapped Khushi. “Now let’s do this
trade, I want my daughter back.”
“Not so fast. I have waited 20 years for this moment, you
can wait a few minutes.” Khushi wanted to shout at him but she held her tongue
for Amba’s sake. “You know when I was in jail, I thought about many ways to
make you suffer, the way you made me suffer. You were always such a tease
Khushiji, you knew how much I loved you yet you’d throw yourself at other men.”
Khushi had to bite her tongue to make sure she didn’t correct him. “Eventually
I came up with a way to make you pay.”
It all seemed to happen in slow motion for Khushi. Shyam
took out a gun, aimed it at Amba’s back and fired. Khushi didn’t notice that as
soon as Shyam fired the shot, the police burst in and fired at Shyam. She
didn’t notice that people were calling to her. She didn’t notice when they were
taking Shyam’s body away. All she noticed was how loud the gun shot was and how
it still rang in her ears. All she noticed was the blood that began to stain
and spread along Amba’s chest. All she noticed was the way Amba’s eyes
expressed surprise before rolling to the back of her head. Khushi finally came
out of her frozen state when she noticed that her baby was no longer breathing.
