Mature and sensitive content ahead. Reader's discretion is advised.
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PRESENT TIME
Nandini
I look on as Aastha punches some buttons on the wall behind the bookshelf of the room we were in, wondering what she was trying to do.
Time and again, I also keep looking at the door, desperately praying for Manik to reach here soon so he can get both Aastha and me out of here.
But what if he has not found the clue that Aastha left behind? What if he is still clueless about how to find me?
That thought brings a wave of fear to wash through my body, and I shake my head, willing myself to think positively.
Manik must have found the clue. He must be on the way. He must be.
I kept reiterating those positive thoughts in my mind, pushing the negative thoughts and doubts away.
Looking ahead, I see Aastha still punching the buttons on the wall.
There are nine buttons in total there. When each button is pushed, the blue light illuminates on it, continuing to be lit until the fifth one is pushed.
But once Aastha presses the fifth button, all the lights turn red before they fade out.
I see that happening thrice, my heart thumping furiously against the chest, hoping for Aastha to succeed in whatever she is doing, or to Manik to reach here, before Rishabh comes and....
'No. Don't complete that sentence,' I tell myself.
"What are you doing, Aastha? Why are you punching those buttons repeatedly?" I ask, wanting to know.
"There is a secret room behind this wall, Nandini," she answers. "Rishabh had taken me there two days back to get that room cleaned, so he could keep you there after bringing you here.
"Although he had ordered me to keep my head down and not look at him while he pressed the buttons, I had managed to peek, briefly seeing the pattern before the lights on all the buttons turned green and the door opened.
"I am trying to make that pattern now. Once this door opens, you can hide in the room behind this wall," she explains to me.
"But what if Rishabh checked inside this secret room after finding me missing from here?" I voice my doubt.
"I will try to distract him and tell him that you pushed me and jumped off the window. There are guards outside this room and outside the main gate. But there is no one standing on the ground right below the window of this room.
"They will search for you around the courtyard of the house, which is huge and with various different bushes and shrubs behind which a person can hide. Them searching for you there will give us some more time. Hopefully, Manik and Samrat will get here while they take time to search for you.
"I don't think Rishabh will search for you inside this secret room because he thinks I do not know the pattern to unlock the door," Aastha elaborates her plan, but I am still unsure about it.
Mostly because she has not been able to guess the correct pattern to unlock the door in the first place.
"Even if there is a remote possibility of your plan working, I should at least be able to get inside this secret room. But you are still unable to guess the pattern, Aastha," I tell her, repeatedly looking at the door, all the while fervently praying that Rishabh does not come in.
"Give me a moment, Nandini. Please let me think."
Aastha closes her eyes for a few seconds, her brows furrowing, probably trying to recall the pattern she had seen that day when Rishabh had opened the door.
"Ok. I think this is the one," she says, taking a deep breath before starting to press the button one by one.
As she does that, I hold my breath, my heart beating rapidly in anticipation.
I do not know if this plan will work and give me some time to bid until Manik reaches here, but like Aastha, I also think this is the only one way left.
After pressing the fourth button, Aastha hesitates, her finger hovering between the two buttons, as she tries to figure out which one is the correct one.
"Please, God. Please let this be a correct one," she says, before pressing the fifth button.
We both stay still after that, unblinking, waiting for the buttons to either turn red or green, desperately wanting them to turn green.
I almost slump on the floor in relief when the buttons turn green and the door opens.
"This door will close automatically after one minute," Aastha informs me. "Once you get in, hide inside the cupboard there, so Rishabh won't immediately be able to spot you even if he decided to check inside after finding you gone.
"The room is soundproof, Nandini. While I was cleaning the room, Rishabh had told me he will be making you scream in there and no one will be able to hear it," she pauses for a second to reassuringly squeeze my arm.
"Don't worry, Nandini. I will try my best to misguide him until someone comes here to get you out.
"The only reason I am saying about the room being soundproof is when you hear Manik or Samrat or the police once they reach here, instead of shouting to them about where you are, punch the same pattern on the buttons in the wall on the left side of the door behind your portrait there. You remember the pattern I just punched, right?"
I nod at her. "But what about you, Aastha? I don't want anything to happen to you."
"Don't worry about me, Nandini. Just focus on getting yourself out of here and fulfilling the promise you made to me earlier," she says, and interrupts me when I am about to argue.
"Nothing saying now. Go inside. The door is about to close."
Saying that, she pushes me inside the room. Before I could turn toward her and tell her anything, the door closes, enclosing me inside the private room with my life-sized portraits occupying every inch of it's walls.
I stagger back in shock, looking around at my photos everywhere.
Some were from before my wedding in my parents' house.
As I walk toward the other photos to peer closely at them, I realize they were taken after the wedding.
In the street on my way to the office.
The time I went out shopping with Aastha and Riya.
Continuing to look at them, I also find one with me walking out of Manik's house.
I gasp loudly in shock, wondering how Rishabh knew where I lived.
This must mean he knows about my marriage with Manik. But how?
Lost in my thought, I continue walking back, immediately stilling when my back hit something.
I turn around and see a huge table in front of me.
There were also different things over the table.
Ropes, handcuff, whips, something that looked like clamps, and various other things that I did not even know the name of.
"Aastha said Rishabh was planning to keep me here in this room. Are these the things he would use on me if I am not able to escape from here tonight?"
I tightly clutch the edge of the table, my eyes watering due to fear and my heart hammering against my chest.
"Manik, please come soon. Please. Please get me out of here."
With everything starting to overwhelm me, I start walking toward the cupboard to hide there. But on my way, I bump with the TV placed at the center of the room.
I immediately step forward and catch it before it could fall to the floor.
Aastha had told me this room is soundproof. Still, I need to be careful. If even a squeak got out of the room, Rishabh will found out about me hiding here.
Adjusting the TV safely over the table, I am about to walk toward the cupboard, but I still when the TV gets switched on by itself.
I must have pressed the button somewhere while adjusting it.
I start searching for the button to switch it off, but I stop when I look at the screen.
It showed the room I was in with Aastha earlier.
Now, it was only Aastha in that room, pacing around.
"Is this the live footage from the room outside?" I wonder.
Before I could ponder on it more, each thought in my mind freezes when I see Rishabh entering the frame.
"Is my other slut ready?" He asks, and I feel disgust rising within me.
"S-she ra-ra awa-yy, S-ss-irr," Aastha stutters, and I could see her shaking in fear.
"What the fuck!!" Rishabh steps ahead and strikes Aastha across the face. "When did this happen? Where the fuck did she go?"
Folding her hands, Aastha sinks to her knees in front of Rishabh. "I...I wa-was about to dr-dress her. B-but b-before I could, s-she...p-pushed m-me and j-ju-jumped off the wi-window," she tells him.
Rishabh clutches Aastha's hair and yanks it up, making her stand.
He then repeatedly slaps her across the face, each strike louder than the other.
I fist my hands, looking at Rishabh's cruelty, my heart crying for Aastha as I hear her pitiful sobs.
He pushes her to the floor after a while and takes out his phone from the pocket.
"Nandini has jumped off from the window in my room. Look for her in the courtyard and bring her to me.
"I know she has not ran out of the mansion yet because there are other guards by the main gate. She must be hiding somewhere in the courtyard. It should be easy to find her because she must be hurt after jumping. Get her to me soon."
With that said, he turns his attention to Aastha and my heart starts beating erratically against my chest.
"You will pay for this, slut," he tells her.
Slumped at the floor, Aastha bows her head down, as if accepting her punishment.
"You will keep receiving a whip on your body until Nandini comes to me," Rishabh says and walks toward the cupboard.
"Hmm, which belt should I choose to make welts on you today?" He wonders aloud, peering inside the cupbord. "I think this thick leather one will do."
Getting the belt, he returns to where Aastha was lying on the floor.
He crouches beside her and clutches her jaw, tilting her face up to make her look at him.
"Do you have any fucking idea how much work and effort I had put into bringing her here with me?" He says.
"After returning to this city, I even went to Nandini's parents and tolerated them shouting at me, calling me their son's murderer.
"Hearing them talk in that attitude with me, it had taken every ounce of my self control to not end their life there and then," he continues.
"I knew if I did that not only would I have to go into hiding again for some more time, but I will also have to wait for some more time before having Nandini.
"I first sweetly talked with them, giving them my fake apology. But when they did not calm down after that too, I threatened to kill them. Well, that shut them up.
"And when I asked them to bing Nandini to me, to my surprise, I found that they had already married her off. I did not think they would get her married so soon after the tragedy of their son's death. That is why I had told my men to only find out about Nandini's parents whereabouts, assuming she would be with them.
"That unexpected news shocked as well as frustrated me because I realized I would again have to tell my investigator tofind Nandini and then make a plan to get her away from her husband and his home.
"But I was saved from doing one thing and that did cut the time off my chase of Nandini by a few days. Her parents told me where exactly I could find their daughter. So, I did not have to put my investigator on it. They gave me her location because apparently they wanted her to get the same pain by my hands as Vivek got.
"I also assured them that Nandini will suffer at my hands. Although not exactly as Vivek because I won't be killing her as I killed Vivek. But she will be suffering nonetheless. So much so that she will beg and plead to submit to me only to make the suffering stop.
"All the plan I made with you, from making you go to Samrat's house with your fake parents with the marriage proposal to organizing everything properly in the party venue to get Nandini abducted, do you have any idea how much thought I had to put into it so I could bring Nandini home with me and make her mine forever?" Rishabh glares at Aastha, slapping her one more time.
I slump on the floor, closing my eyes to let the tears fall as raw pain washes through me.
Maa and Papa gave him my address? They wanted me to suffer at Rishabh's hands?
A wave of anguish clenches my whole body as I realize to what extent my own parents hate me.
No. They cannot be my parents. They cannot be.
My thoughts get interrupted when I hear Rishabh's voice again.
Looking up at the screen, I see him now standing beside Aastha, who was still lying on the floor.
"I want to start with your back, slut. Lie with face down on the floor," he says, and Aastha immediately assumes the position.
"Count each strike, whore," he tells her and starts slashing her body with the belt.
Aastha screams in pain as the slashes rain on her body, begging to stop, pleading for mercy.
"This won't stop until Nandini walks inside this room," Rishabh says, continuing to whip her.
Unable to bear it, I immediately walk toward the door and remove my portrait from the left side of the door.
As Aastha had told me, I could see the nine buttons exactly like they were on the wall outside this room.
Remembering the pattern Aastha had made, I start to press the buttons.
After pressing on the fourth button, my hand hovers over the fifth one, my mind screaming at me to not press it.
But I could hear Aastha's screams coming through the screen as well as the whipping sound of the belt slashing her flesh.
"I need to do this. I need to save her. She cannot suffer on my account."
But no matter how much I will myself, I am unable to bring myself to press the button.
'Even if you press it now, there is no way you can save Aastha when Rishabh will imprison you too. If that happened, both Aastha and you will suffer. But if you got out of here, you will have a chance to save Aastha from Rishabh and will also be able to punish that man for his deeds,' my mind reasons.
Agreeing to the reason, I lower my hand for a brief second without pushing the button, but hearing Aastha's painful wail, I again raise my hand.
No. I won't let her suffer. I cannot be so heartless.
I am about to press the button, but I stop, when the whipping sound as well as Aastha's screams cease, and I hear a new voice.
"Sir, we need to get out from here. Now."
Turning to the TV, I see a new man in the screen.
Probably his guard.
"Why, Hitesh? Why should we get out?" Rishabh asks the man.
"The police has somehow found out that we are the ones who abducted the girl from the venue. They have also gotten our location and can reach here any moment," Hitesh says.
"How the fuck did they get our location? And how the hell they knew I was the one who abducted Nandini? I was sure not to leave behind any trail."
"The men we sent to keep an eye at the venue told me that the police got a clue from the washrooom. The clue was the letters of your name written by someone around the sink with their lipstick. They were able to figure out your name through that clue," Hitesh informs Rishabh.
After a few moments of silence, Rishabh tightens the belt in his hand and walks to where Aastha was lying on the floor, still whimpering in pain.
He rains down more slashes on her body. Her screams tearing at my heart.
"It was you, wasn't it, you worthless pathetic slut?"
He whips her repeatedly before turning to Hitesh.
"I will deal with this slut in our new location," Rishabh says. "Tell everyone that we will be getting out through the secret passageway in the basement, Hitesh. We cannot risk goint through the main gate as the police will be arriving through there.
"Also, make some men stay back, so they can continue searching for Nandini. If they find her before police arrives, tell them to do everything they can to bring her to our new location. Relay to them that I will reward each of them handsomely if they will succeed in doing it."
Saying that, Rishabh walks out of the room, and Hitesh also follows him out, carrying Aastha's almost unconscious body in his arms.
"Please come soon, Manik. Please come soon," I repeat it over and over again, hoping they will reach here before Rishabh can get out.