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{4}

It had been two weeks since Lahar entered Jhalak's room. She tried to forget him, but his sweet words kept etching her thoughts, and now, she was scarred.

How could she have been so stupid to blindly believe a stranger?

She tried to stop thinking about him, but every time a man thrust themselves inside of her, Lahar's words echoed continuously in her head.

Pari, I can help you.

I'm getting you out of here tomorrow. I promise.

I promise.

He promised.

Tonight, she had a new client. He seemed younger than twenty-five, with greasy black hair, a strange swirly tattoo over his right bosom, and a thick cigar in his mouth.

He talked too much, and as usual, she was expected to pay attention. It was difficult to focus when it was nearly three in the morning, but she tried her best. He rambled on about how his politician father was going to send him off to the U.K. for medical school next week, but he wanted to experience a prostitute before he left.

On my bucket list, is what he had said.

For ten minutes, he decided to shut up and forced himself into her.

Then, he went back to talking.

He shifted the topic to Jhalak and degraded her, complaining about how expensive she was and how she must have had everyone in the whole city inside of her. Draping her saree loosely around her, she had no choice but to listen quietly.

The client crawled back on the bed, preparing himself for round two, when the battered door flew open and five police officers scurried inside - three of them women.

The blood in Jhalak's veins froze and she did not know why. She had nothing to lose, but she could not help but feel uncomfortable under the scrutinizing eyes of the police.

The two male officers grabbed the client and one of the female officers stared at her directly.

"Jhalak, you're coming with us."

* * *

Lahar was really bad at organizing his thoughts. His brain was scattered with ideas, so much that they often came off as broken and he could be easily misinterpreted.

He knew he should not have promised Pari that he would come tomorrow because that was far too soon. The word slipped out of him before he could control himself, and he did not have the heart to tell her otherwise after he had witnessed the sprinkle of hope in her eyes.

He was surprised at how simple it was to get Pari to tell her life story to him. It matched up perfectly with the information he had gotten about her prior to their meeting, which made things much easier.

He had been much too excited about his plan that he should have waited until he was back in his apartment to call up his father, the influential police commissioner, who would be interested in Pari's story. Soon after that, he rang up the director of a women's shelter, who would also help him out with his idea.

Luckily, Roshan was immensely gullible and also fell for his plan.

Poor guy.

Roshan's chest must have swelled with pride, believing he had dragged Lahar into a brothel against his will.

Little did he know that it was Lahar himself would had created the Halkat Jawaani flyers and posted them along the hallways of their apartment building, knowing very well that it would peak Roshan's interest as a site for his bachelor's party.