From the past several minutes Abhimanyu was pacing in his cabin, trying to calm down himself.
She was just sitting on the side couch, looking at the ground and not even once at him.
He was looking every now and then at her, sitting calmly, no reaction, nothing, not utterly a single word, and this for sure was irritating him.
Giving up on maintaining the cool, he spoke and his voice came out louder than he expected it to be.
"How can you be this unaffected? How can you stop me from reacting?"
She looked at him through lashes and met his eyes.
"I am not stopping you from reacting, I just want you to keep your reactions under check infront of Nishtha."
Rubbing his forehead he said.
"I can't, I just can't imagine something was about to happen with my sister."
Standing up she moved towards him.
"Abhi, listen, something bad has happened with Nishtha, I don't know the extent of it, but there's something."
"How can you be this sure?", he asked in disbelief.
"I know because, I have also....", she bit her tongue before she could blurt out.
"You what Akshu?", concern lacing his voice.
Avoiding his gaze, she turned around.
"I....Abhimanyu I....its just that I have lived alone in various cities, firstly those three years and now the past eight months, and people out there are not nice, they are just.....they are bad, evil, monsters and I know that for sure."
Placing his hand on her shoulder he asked gently.
"Tell me, please."
Turning around she again faced him.
"Its....its nothing like that. Let's focus on Nishtha for now."
Taking in a understanding that maybe she doesn't want to share anything with him right now, he kept this conversation for later and she told, right now his prime focus was his sister.
"What do we need to do now?", his brain wasn't able to process all of it.
"We'll have to talk to Nishtha. Calmly. She already is scared, we can't let her be more scared."
"Alright. Let taiji leave the room and then we will talk to her. As politely as I can.", he kept his focus on the last line, more like assuring himself of that.
<>
An hour later Nishtha gained her consciousness. On insistence of Abhimanyu, Mahima Birla took the leave to take rest after her hectic, long operating surgery.
Opening her eyes Nishtha tried to almost jump out of the bed, but soon took in the realisation of her surroundings, it was Birla hospital.
"Nishtha, bacche, how are you feeling now?", her brother asked creasing her head lovingly.
"I am fine bhaiya.", she said and then her eyes fell on Akira standing in the corner, smiling at her.
"Di thank you so much for bringing me here.", her eyes welled up recalling today's incident.
"There's absolutely no need of any thank you.", Akira took a seat beside her.
"Nishtha I know you are fine, still you are not fine. I just want you to know that you are in a safe space and you can tell us everything."
"What happened today Nishtha, tell your brother, why weren't you in school? I promise nothing is ever going to happen to you.", Abhimanyu added assuring.
"Noth....nothing happened bhaiya. I just....I just...", She started breathing heavily and Akira tried to calm her down.
"Listen Nishtha, whatever happened, nothing, I repeat NOTHING of it is your fault. Now, take a deep breathe and tell us everything. Okay?", these were the words once Akshara wished someone would tell her, but here she was pouring the same to this other girl.
Taking the advice from Akira, Nishtha started telling the tale.
"Bhaiya, actually I and my friends just decided to bunk today, I am sorry for that, I just thought it'll be fun.
But we were soon caught by the faculties and were brought to the principal Sir's office. Everything was fine till there, he decided he'll call our parents, although the new trustee interrupted him to do so.
He asked whose plan was this and all my friends turned their backs on me, they all told it was my plan, when we all decided to it together.
He...bhaiya he...."
"He what Nishtha? HE WHAT!? Just tell me I'll kill him with my bare hands.", his anger rose.
Seeing his anger Nishtha started sobbing when Akira asked him to calm down and let his sister continue before arising at any conclusion.
Gaining some relief, Nishtha continued.
"Bhaiya we always found him a little shady, he would always call girls to give punishment in his room and they would exit crying very bitterly, we always used to find this odd.
When today the girls took my name, he said he'll punish me and called me to his office.
When I reached his office, he said he has some urgent work and needs to leave and asked me to accompany him as he'll drop me home and meet my family.
I agreed and went with him, soon I realised he took a very unfamiliar road and took me to his house even when I questioned him several times.
He said if I'll say anything against him then he'll frame all this and put the accusation on me that I was trying to do all this because he punished me, he said no one will ever trust me and will only listen to him because of his sources.
I became very scared and he grabbed me by my neck, that is how I got the scar.
He stopped when he received a call from his sister I guess and asked me to leave and never tell anyone anything otherwise he'll make me pay."
Due to exhaustion Nishtha drifted to sleep.
Abhira left for Abhi's cabin after Mahima came back, although they decided not to disclose anything to her now.
<>
"I'll beat him blue and black, he'll beg for his life and will be completely on my mercy.", Abhi roared as he started throwing stuff of his office here and there.
Unable to stop him after constant efforts Akira just back hugged him, resting her head on his back.
Once he was calm, breaking the hug she stood infront of him and cupped his face in her palms.
"Abhi, I am here, please control yourself. Hmm?"
"Akshu, how could? How could he do that? How could I let this happen to my sister? How can I fail as a brother?", his words wobbled.
"You are the best brother. Okay? Never ever question that. We should be thankful to God that Nishtha is safe, something so harsh could have happened. And the one who thought of doing so needs to be punished."
"You are right. ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! He'll pay for what he thought of doing to my sister.", he said with clenched jaw.
"Ofcourse, and for that we need a plan."
"Plan? What kind of plan?"
"You can't just beat him up, he'll recover soon and will never accept his deeds. We need to collect proof against him, not only for Nishtha but for the other girls also."
Letting out a grunt, he spoke.
"I so want to kill him but will lead to more harm of mine. You are right we need to out him. Do you have anything on your mind?"
"Yes, I have. We'll out him infront of the public, infront of the media.
In a few days there is woman's day and like every year I know Birla hospital funds some events, for this year do invite him, till then we'll collect enough proofs against him if we enter in his good books."
"What if he declines my invitation?"
"Then I'll enter and plead him, telling him as the music therapist I'll be grateful if he attends this musical event."
He straight away went against it.
"No way in hell I am letting you put yourself on display to bring him to attend this event."
Placing her palm of his right cheek she said.
"Abhi, its necessary, I'll do this only if you won't be able to persuade him and that I am 100% sure you'll do without any difficulties. But only in case, I'll do it for Nishtha and all the other young girls and plus you'll there, nothing will happen to me in your presence."
He agreed half heartedly, making a promise to not let his girl come in presence of this man.
<>
Standing outside the trustee's office were Abhimanyu and Akira, waiting for there given time to meet him.
As the clock struck the time they were called inside, Abhimanyu didn't let Akshara come along and told her to wait here only.
Walking back and forth for the past 20 minutes, Akira was feeling a different kind of restlessness as if her intuitions were telling her something, something that she was not able to figure out.
Giving up on Abhi's demand to stay back, she moved towards the office to have a sneak peak.
Abhimanyu was shaking this man's hand, sure he was able to make him agree.
Abhimanyu's back was covering this man completely, the moment he took back his seat before the trustee could sit, in that fraction Akira saw the man that was her biggest nightmare, all the colours of her face faded away.
Nishtha words rang in her head again,
"He stopped when he received a call from his sister."
His sister, that means 'Maya'.
Unable to take this fantom just one name escaped from her mouth before exiting the premises.
"Dr. Kunal Khera."
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A/N
Again unedited, sorry, forgive me for any mistakes.
Do drop your views and likes.
Until next bye-bye.
Signing off.