TO THE STARS THAT LISTEN

CHAPTER 51: Relevations

Ahaan

"When do you leave for the new mission?" Aarav asks. 

"Tonight, after Ira's asleep. It's getting tough hiding this from her. She goes to bed late and wakes up at 5 because she has to reach the hospital at 6 so I need to complete the work in half the time than usual and not make any mistakes." It usually doesn't take me that long to get the actual work done but the real fun is in making it last long and not leave any trace and that's difficult when you are hiding that secret from your wife. It was okay before I married because if anyone saw me coming in late, I could say I was with Aarav, but I can't say that now.

"Hmm...but doesn't she have night shifts too? Why not go those days?" He turns towards me.
"Yeah, but I hacked into her hospital's schedule and she doesn't have any night shifts until Friday and we can't delay this mission." I know, I might be coming on too strong here, but I just wanted to be cautious and not scare my wife away. "Besides, our list is increasing even more. I wanted to tell you this but couldn't because the women were there."


"What happened?" He asks seriously.


"There is some protest going on the internet." I take out my phone and scroll to what I found earlier today. "Remember the group of women that formed a fan group online to support me after my first operation?" I hold up my phone to him. " Many similar groups have been formed. They are supporting their 'S'. They have created fan pages saying I-I mean 'S' is their hero. Someone on that page has written her story."


He takes the phone from me and scrolls through the story of an anonymous victim. "And let me guess, you wanna help her too?"


"Obviously."


"No." He hands back my phone.


"Excuse me? What do you mean no?"

"Ahaan, the entire Mumbai Police is after you. They are forming teams to find Specter. What if this is a trap set up to catch you? Everyone has internet these days. What if this story isn't real?"

I consider his words for a moment seeing that it could be the case, "I get your concern, Aarav. I do. But what if this isn't a trap? What if that girl needs help? Out of 100 cases, 99 go unreported. We can't just rely on police complaints to provide the women here, a safe environment."
He takes a frustrated breath and scrapes his hand across his face. "Ugh Ahaan!"

"See. You don't have to help me if you don't want to. I had to tell you because you are involved with me, but I can do this alone. I did before, I can now. And don't worry if this is a trap and if they catch me I won't take your name I promise. Besides if the police wanted to catch us by registering a fake case, they would have filed it in their records." Frustration crawls up my body too.

"That's not what I meant." He keeps a hand on my shoulder. "I don't care about going down with you if that's the case. But I do care about you. You've started a movement Ahaan and if you are not careful before you've achieved your mission of making this city safe for women, it would mean that the bad guys have won and that would be wrong."

"Ugh! So what should we do?" Aarav isn't wrong. The amount of love and gratitude I have got from women in the city and even outside, for S, is unbelievable. I can't let them down by being reckless.

"I'll track her down." He said after thinking for a while. "We can't talk to her face-to-face and give away our identity. It'll take more time than usual to confirm the facts but I can do it."
The corners of my mouth lift in gratitude. "Thanks, man."


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Ira

I take in a deep breath to calm my racing heart. After Vaani told me, to flirt with Ahaan, my heart's been fluttering like it does every time I'm near him. I didn't tell Vaani about our almost kiss in her kitchen, mainly because I hadn't thought much about it myself. I have no idea how we got in that position and I don't want to think about it until later when I am sitting somewhere peaceful alone.