Tale of Silent Longing

18 | Mariah's Confession

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"Hmm... there is nothing to worry about. Due to exhaustion, weakness, and lack of sleep, she fainted. She will be fine in a few minutes. Once she gains her consciousness then give her something to drink. Some energy drinks would be good. She will be perfectly alright" the doctor affirmed while picking up his things and his bag and then he left.

"Mariah, now we need to talk to you. What went so wrong that you thought of taking such a drastic step?" head asked.

She kept bawling her eyes out. Professor Anna tried to calm her and looking at everyone, she said, "Sorry to interrupt you sir but she is not as innocent as she appears to be. Before we ask her anything further or inform her family, we need to call the cops".

"Cops? Do we really need to do that? If the cops come here, the college's reputation will be tarnished" the principal intervened.

"But Sir, at this time, a person's life is more important than the college's reputation" Anna spoke up while looking at Mariah.

Before the principal could say anything further, Mr. Mehta  spoke in his baritone voice, "She is right. We need to inform the cops. Such a huge thing has happened and students have even made videos out of it. Those will go viral over the internet in no time. So, there is no sense in covering up from the cops. Professor Anna, go ahead and call them".

After a while, Tanya  started to open her eyes slowly and the first person she saw was Jahaan . He was looking at her and the moment he saw her gaining her consciousness, his face lit up. She looked around and realized she was in the principal's office. This made her leap onto her feet and sit straight.

"How do you feel now?" Professor Anna asked.

"Uh... I am fine" Tanya  responded when Alaric entered the office with a few cops.

He asked his team to wait outside and he shut the door from inside. He walked up to the principal and shook hands with him.

"Hello sir, I am officer Alaric Baldwin," He introduced himself.

"Hello, please have a seat" the principal replied cordially.

Alaric walked up to Tanya  and asked, "Hey, are you fine? Did you hurt yourself?"

"No, I am alright," Tanya  replied with a smile.

Illahi , Jordan , Jahaan , and all the other students present there were  taken aback on seeing the two being familiar with each other.

" Tanya , you know him already?" Illahi  asked.

"Yes, we had met earlier in the day," Tanya  replied.

On seeing everyone confused, Professor Anna intervened.

"Let me tell you guys everything. He is Alaric, my fiancé. I had told him about Mariah's strange behavior a few days back. That is when he told me this case could be very serious. So, I spoke to Tanya  about it because  at that time she was always around her. I tried to find out all that she knew about Mariah. That is why I introduced her to Alaric today."

"And all that Tanya  told me today made my doubts turn strong," Alaric chimed in.

"What are you talking about? What is going on Professor Anna?" the Principal asked.

"I will tell you everything. Please calm down," Alaric answered.

He narrated everything in front of all those who were present in the office. He explained all that Tanya  told him about. The person who was the most shocked in the room was Mariah.

"That means Tanya  knew everything," Mariah thought to herself.

Jahaan  too figured out that the man from whom he saved Tanya  the other day was not a random crook.

"But who is this shardul  and why is he after Mariah's life?" the principal asked.

"I don't know anything" Mariah replied shortly and ran towards the door.

"Stop right there, Mariah. If you run away right now, you will spend the rest of your life the same way and your family will also have to suffer," Tanya spoke to make her stop.

On hearing this, Mariah started crying again and sat down. "Tell me everything, Mariah. I can really help you," Alaric spoke to her gently.

She wiped her tears and started speaking, "All of this started three months ago. We were very new to college and one evening, I was going back to my apartment and then a child came to me. He offered me some balloons. I started talking to him when suddenly, a 16-17-year-old guy walked up to him and whispered something in his ear. On hearing him, the child started to walk away quickly. I don't know why but I started following him. He went into a narrow lane where a guy was distributing tiny packets to a few kids. That man was none other than shardul and that was the first time I met him. I had a hunch that something fishy was going on so I walked up to them and snatched the packets from his hand. That is when I realized that the packets contained drugs. Shardul used these kids to sell drugs to college students.

When I got to know all of this, shardul got me kidnapped. When I woke up, I found myself in room number 204 of a hotel. Before I got back to my senses, he found out all my family history and made his gang members stand outside the school in which my twin brother and sister study. He even started sending threatening letters to my house. He used to set things on fire outside my house. By doing all this, he wanted to force me to sell drugs to college students. When I refused, he started torturing me and he also got my dog Pluto killed. After getting him killed, he said, "Now I will get your siblings killed, then your parents, then you. All of you will be dead," Mariah elaborated.

I had no other option than to surrender to his offer. He keeps calling me up at odd hours and comes to meet me too. But every time he comes, he brings more drugs with him. Apart from our college, he also sells drugs to school kids. On seeing young kids getting addicted to drugs, only I know what I go through but I can't do anything," Mariah revealed. She tried hard to hold back her tears but they kept flowing like a river. Finally, the mystery to Mariah's action was out in the open revealing a big scandal.