🎶 Lovely - Billie Elish
Published on 06.03.2023
❝ oh, i hope someday i'll make it out of here,
even if it takes all night or a hundred years. ❞
🥀
The time in flight together was spent in utter quietness. Inaaya just laid her head on Ayansh's shoulders and closed her eyes giving an impression of being asleep to avoid any kind of conversation. Ayansh had caught her upon it but he didn't say anything; instead, just interlinked their arms and grazed her knuckles.
There was an uncanny calmness that had encompassed her and she didn't know if it was because of his presence or because there was atleast one person who knew her deepest pain and ugliest secret and still stayed contrary to her worst fears of abandonment. He didn't look at her with sympathy or gave her those pitiful glances and she could never express how grateful she was for that tiny gesture. She wanted to feel normal and that's exactly how she felt with Ayansh.
It will never cease to amaze her how easily they always seem to fall in a particular ordeal given the situations. They didn't even need long prophecies to get their point across each other and sound convincing. It was in the looks, it was in the actions, it was in the little moments they shared where they understood each other and acted upon their instincts. It was beautiful, it was them.
Inaaya was dropped off at the spare apartment her family owned in Mumbai after reaching at night. She had extra keys so she didn't have to disturb her Mom or brother. She didn't tell them that she was in the city until morning. It was hard to convince them that she was in the city because Ayansh had a meeting and he wanted to celebrate the deal they've just got with his employees here. That was also something that Ayansh had told her, the work he had here which Inaaya wasn't convinced the least bit. And then, she found herself giving the same reason to her Mom and to convince her, she had to add that things were better between her and Ayansh and that's why she had accompanied him.
It was a mess.
To say Inaaya was surprised to find the arrangements of a proper party at reaching IA would be an understatement.
"Where's Ayansh?" Kartik inquires in a whisper as one of the staff leads them inside.
"He said he'll be here soon," Inaaya answers.
She understood why Ayansh invited Kartik but she didn't understand why did he invite her mother. It was weird. He told he wanted to acknowledge her efforts for the NGO considering he himself visits it often and is quite impressed by it but she could sense it wasn't the absolute truth. It wasn't as plain as it looked on the surface. And Ayansh's absence was just making her doubts stronger.
When they were seated, her eyes took in her surrounding and she remembered how IA stood for Inaaya and Ayansh and the overwhelming rush of emotions were back. She could recognise the feeling she had when she visited the place for the first time, the feeling as if she had known the place for a longer time, the feeling of being familiar with it, of having an eerie connection without any tangible string attaching her to it.
The words he had spoken to her back in Cambridge in her room had also been echoing in her mind ever since. They had put her in a dilemma. A part of her wanted to come clean, be fair to herself, get justice for the manipulated, blackmailed child but another part of her looked at her mother and brother and saw how content they were oblivious to the truth. She didn't want to snatch it away.
The drinks were served and Inaaya was growing more impatient. She tried dialling Ayansh but he didn't pick up her call.
"Everything alright?" Her mother asks when she finds her daughter disturbed.
"Yeah," Inaaya forces a smile before excusing herself to go to the washroom.
On her way, she encounters a couple of employees who engage her in small talks and she ends up asking when will their boss show up to which they simply have a generic answer — "hopefully soon".
Inaaya finds a secluded corner and tries to call him again. When he doesn't pick up, she tries calling his friends, Kabir and Dhruv and when both don't pick up, she knew something was definitely wrong. Something was up with Ayansh and it certainly was in relation to her.
Her hand shakes when she tries the next number. It was a wild guess but also the greatest possibility at the moment. The phone rang and then went silent on its own.
Her Dad didn't pick up the call.
Inaaya gritted her teeth. What was Ayansh upto? And the bigger question is what was she supposed to do? If she had already made her decision and wanted to stick to ot then why did find herself questioning every two seconds?
To my future self, fuck everything! Stop overthinking and take an impulsive step towards what you think is the right thing to do.
Her own words penned down flashed in front of her like an annoying rap song. The urge to end everything for once and for all was high. Not having Ayansh with her and being unaware about his whereabouts was also testing her sanity.
Maybe it was a reckless moment or maybe she had just grown sick of keeping everything to herself and trying to safeguard everyone by putting herself at the last or maybe she realised she wasn't exactly anybody a favour by hiding such a big thing but something in her clicked and snapped and she decided it was enough. She had enough of dealing with this conflict, putting herself in such situations time and again, making herself go through the frustrations and self loathe and pain.
Inaaya got back to her family and told them they were leaving. She didn't give any further explanation, just asked them to follow her. On her way, she called the police and asked them to come to her Dad's house.
The police had already reached there. And the state was complete chaos. Inaaya's forehead creased in apprehension as she walked deep. The security staff of the house laid on the ground, half unconscious with the police trying to wake them up. Rahul, Dhruv, Kabir were present too with handcuffs around their wrists.
"What's going on here?" The question falls from her mouth as she stares at them, baffled.
"Dad!" Kartik's shriek makes her head turn to him as he rushes ahead to hold his father who laid in one corner, bruised and battered and struggling to breathe.
Anita was so shocked that she couldn't even move. She stood rooted and frozen at her place.
Inaaya's heart thumped in her chest for an entirely different reason. Where the hell was Ayansh? She looked back at the boys and saw how unbothered they looked. She squinted her eyes ever so slightly in question and noticed Kabir shrugging.
One of the policeman came to her. "The staff was drugged— "
"We anaesthetized them with the help of a gas," Rahul cut him off, "only enough so that they could lose control over their movements and it would've been easy for us to tie them up."
"Y'all did this?" Kartik asks in a small voice, his eyes burning.
"They didn't." Their Dad croaks, stopping Kartik.
Anita comes forward and crouches in front of Durvesh. "Who did this?" Her hand trembles as it reaches out to touch him.
Inaaya looks away, her heart aching at the scene. She's supposed to confess the truth but how is she supposed to do that? Her eyes fall at a distance as she watches Ayansh walking towards them, adjusting his cufflinks.
One of the policeman comes to her. "We're arresting the guys for drugging the staff but we don't exactly know who did this to your Dad," disappointment drips in his tone, "he says that it isn't one of them and the guy was wearing a mask, he was taller and it was dark so he couldn't see much. But thank you for calling us. We'll soon find out the person behind Durvesh Rai's condition."
When Kartik sees Ayansh, he's immediately on his feet. Ayansh stands beside Inaaya.
Before Inaaya could say anything to the police, Kartik almost pounces on Ayansh. "What the hell is wrong with y'all?"
Ayansh blinks.
"Why are you doing all this?"
"I haven't done anything," he simply states and Kartik snorts.
Inaaya just takes in Ayansh's look. He looked fine, normal. He wore a grey shirt and black jeans. His face looked clean, nothing indicated that he was present here before and then, her gaze drops to the watch on his wrist and the small torn fabric of blue colour that stuck out. It was the same shade of his Dad's shirt.
"You— "
"Bhai!" Inaaya intervenes, coming between Ayansh and Kartik, sneakily holding Ayansh's wrist. "Stop this," she grits out while simultaneously taking out the stuck fabric. "I didn't call the police here for this."
Kartik frowns.
Inaaya looks at Ayansh and he gives her a nod, assuring her.
She looks at the police, tucking her hands in the pockets of her blazer, hiding the fabric away. She takes a sharp breath. "I've a complain to file and it's nothing related to what's happening here at the moment."
"Inaaya, what are you trying to say?" Kartik grabs her by her elbow. She gently frees herself from his grip.
Inaaya walks up to her Dad. "Mom, please get aside."
"Inu, what's happening?" Anita's already teared up eyes look up at her daughter with glazed vision.
Ayansh comes upto them and helps Anita to get up.
To even look at her Dad was a task. It brought back memories and pain and anguish. If she could forever delete that incident from her memory, she would've done it in a heartbeat but life's cruel and its pain beats within you like an echo. She didn't even realise when the pain was turned into rage and it poured through her when her hand flew across her Dad's cheek, the sound of the slap echoing in the closed space, like a whisper and a thunder all at once.
The police were quick on their feet but Ayansh blocked them. "Don't touch her," he says calmly.
Kartik and Anita didn't know how to react. Durvesh coughed, another stream of tears falling from his eyes.
"I want to reopen a case," Inaaya says. "Mr. Patel's case. And I want to add another victim's name, Ms Inaaya Rai."
It took a few seconds for her mother to understand but when she did, an agonizing gasp left her lips.
"And I want to file a case against Mr. Durvesh Rai," she adds, "for selling his barely adult daughter in exchange of a business deal to a pedophile."
Deafening silence spreads in the room. Nobody moves, nobody speaks.
"Sexual assault."
Inaaya clenches her jaw when she looks at the policeman who voices out before giving him a curt nod.
When Kartik makes her turn, she doesn't meet his eyes.
"Inu?" He calls out, his voice strained and scared. "Look at me."
She bites her lower lip, the tears threatening to spill and shakes her head.
"Inaaya," his voice cracks and she curls her hands into fists.
"I'm sorry for not telling you earlier," she murmurs brokenly.
Kartik looks at their Dad who had his head hung low in shame. He steps towards him and grabs him by the collar, forcing him to look up. "That's the reason she hated you all these years?"
Durvesh doesn't answer but his silence gave away everything and a hard punch lands on his jaw which makes him spit blood.
Ayansh and the police are quick to separate them.
"She is your daughter. She's my sister. How could you do this to her?" He yells but it all falls on deaf ears.
On the other hand, Anita could physically feel the pain in her chest. It kept growing with each passing second making it hard to push in air into her lungs. She couldn't even call for help, she felt so weak. She collapsed, right there and a shriek went out from someone which made heads turn.
"Mom!"
"Mom!"
Inaaya and Kartik both screamed together, rushing towards their mother, holding her in her arms, watching her struggling to stay awake and then, giving up as her eyes flutter close.
"Mom," Inaaya's voice is barely a murmur as she shakes her mother to wake up, her eyes tearing up, her heart getting lodged in her throat.
"Mom, mom, wake up please," Kartik pleads like a child, patting her cheek but no response.
"We need to rush her to the hospital." Ayansh says and the police are quick to help her carry to the van. CPR is performed by one of them.
Another van is called to take Durvesh Rai, Kabir, Rahul and Dhruv to the police station. Durvesh kept begging to let him be with his wife but nobody paid heed.
Anita is immediately admitted on reaching hospital. Kartik, Inaaya and Ayansh wait outside with Ayansh trying to console the siblings.
"It's all my fault. I— I shouldn't have said that." Inaaya rambles, her breathing uneven.
Ayansh makes Kartik sit on the bench before coming back to Inaaya.
"None of this is your fault. She'll be okay."
She shakes her head as another sob breaks through her. Her body shivers and Ayansh holds her by her arms.
"Inaaya," he calls her out softly. "She'll be fine, I promise. It's not your fault."
Her muddled up mind doesn't pay attention to his words. She goes and sits beside his brother who was weeping quietly.
"I'm so sorry," she whispers.
Anita had got a sudden cardiac arrest. She was provided with CPR and since the hospital was nearby, she was admitted in the ER as soon as possible. After few hours, they got the news that she was out of danger and was shifted to the ICU. Alisha and Nikita came to the hospital too. Nikita sat beside Kartik and Alisha bought coffee for the three of them. Inaaya politely declined and excused herself from the place. Ayansh followed her.
Ayansh brought her a glass of water and slid down beside her on the chair in the lobby.
"Water?" He forwarded her the glass.
She shook her head in denial but when he refused to pull back his hand, she sighed agitatedly and took the glass from him.
"It has hardly been a day since we've been in India and look what's happening," she mused, weariness lacing her voice.
"Your Mom's out of danger."
"The same danger she was in because of me."
"I don't know how many times I've to repeat so that you believe it but none of it is your fault."
She heaved a breath and threw her head back, covering her face with her hands and when her body started trembling, Ayansh knew she was crying.
"Inaaya," he tried to remove her hand and then gave up. "She's fine. By evening hopefully, she'll be conscious and you can even meet her. The bottom line is she's fine, she's out of danger and that's all that should matter. Stop berating yourself. Some things are out of your control, you can't help if they go spiralling down— "
"How can you be so chilled?" She cut him off, complaining and looking at him with envy.
"I'm not," he answers in a monotone. "But what am I supposed to do? Panic like everyone? I'm just... just holding onto the hope that everything will fall in place in the end. That's the best I can do and I'm trying to do it."
"Your friends and brother are in the jail," she states, disbelief etched over her face.
"We had it all planned. Sarya and Neha will get them out. They must have too maybe."
"All because of me," she grits out.
"It was our choice. We knew what we were doing," he counters. "Your Dad deserves worse and I'm not sorry for what I did. I would've done worse if I could."
Inaaya stays quiet. "I need to go to the police station in sometime to file an official statement."
"I'll accompany you."
Tears trailed down her face. She didn't make a noise but she was crying. It was difficult. The night hadn't been particularly kind to her. Her mother was in the ICU. Her Dad was in the jail. Her brother was miserable. Her ex boyfriend's friends were in the lockup because they did something that was related to her. And then, there was her ex boyfriend who just stuck up to her and was being her rock and she didn't understand why and how.
Ayansh took her hand in his as if understanding her dilemma. He gently brushed his thumb over her knuckles. "When you love someone, you love them for everything they're," he murmurs. "And it's not just the good parts, the happy parts. You don't be with them for the smiles and laughs. You don't leave them when things get hard. You try to help them and if you can't do that, you just stay by their side and let them know that they can always lean onto you. You can always lean on me, Inaaya," he gives her a small, sincere smile and it's enough to take the weight off her chest.
***
Goodness me, still wrapping my head around the fact that the next chapter will be the last one and then there will be the epilogue and that's it? THAT'S IT. Hope y'all liked this chapter and don't forget to vote and comment. The story is literally on its last stage, be generous. Love to all ❤️
• Thank you for reading •