Shadows Of Yesterday

part 8

TWO DAYS LATER — NIGHT

The case had closed.
The culprit was arrested.
The team had dispersed.
Mumbai had sunk into its usual blanket of humid darkness and distant city noise.

But inside a small apartment lit only by a soft bedside lamp,
Purvi sat frozen.

Her phone lay pressed to her ear, her heartbeat loud — too loud.

Informer’s voice (over phone):
“Purvi madam… I got news. Your brother… he’s alive. Here. Somewhere in Mumbai.”

The call ended.

Silence swallowed the room.

Purvi’s hands trembled as she lowered the phone to her lap.

Alive.
Alive.
Alive.

The word echoed in her chest like a forgotten prayer finally answered.

For the first time in years…
her belief wasn’t just hope —
it had a direction.

She stood up abruptly, walking to her small bedside drawer.
From inside it, she pulled out the old, worn-out photograph —
crumpled at the edges, faded with time,
but still holding the faces of the family she lost 22 years ago.

Her mother’s bright smile.
Her father’s gentle eyes.
Her own little 7-year-old self.
And beside her—

Jai bhaiyya.

Her protector.
Her constant.
Her world.

Her voice shook.

Purvi (whispering):
“Bhaiyya… I knew it. I knew you weren’t gone.”

A tear slid down her cheek, falling onto the photo.

Next, she reached for the small bracelet —
the one with A engraved on it —
the one Dhruv had given her when she was a child.

And finally, she unclasped a chain hidden beneath her dress…

A half-heart locket.
With the letter J.

She held it close to her chest.

Purvi:
“I’ll find you, bhaiyya.
No matter what… I will.”

Her heart fluttered with a pain she had carried alone for 22 long years —
the night her family left their home in Uttar Pradesh, happy, singing, moving to Mumbai for her father’s transfer.

Her last memory before darkness:

Her mother laughing.
Her father humming along with the radio.
Her little self singing.
Jai bhaiyya teasing her.
A sunlit car.
A cliff road.
A sudden impact.
And then—

Silence.

She woke up in a hospital.
Parents — gone.
Brother — missing.

The police said he must have fallen off the cliff.
No body found.

But Purvi never believed them.