7:00 PM, 25th March, Anant Mhatre's Office
Anant Mhatre froze for a second seeing the news with goosebumps taking control of every part of his body. With trembling hands and quivering lips, he called someone and spoke in a terrified manner, "Did you see the news? Come quickly to my cabin, it's very urgent"
The person whom Anant Mhatre had just called was not any ordinary person. He was Parimal Roy, an old friend, and business partner of Anant. Both of them were partners for more than twenty years in multiple industries, colleges, hospitals, restaurant chains, pharma companies, but that's not all, to make such that their business stays within the family, Anant and Aruna's daughter Mishka was arranged to marry Parimal's son Mahesh Roy.
Parimal entered Anant's room and saw him sitting still. Striding towards him with baby steps he feebly said, "I saw the news..."
"This should not have happened... How did it happen anyway? Didn't you tell me that you had taken care of what happened back then? And also three weeks back you said there will no investigation, then how? How? Listen, we have built this empire through many sacrifices. I just can't let it go because of him", Anant said in a serious tone with his voice clearly smelling of horror.
Parimal gripped his palm and replied in a comforting manner, "Don't worry the situation is under our control, the case is already very old and a case twenty-five years old is very difficult to investigate"
"But they have formed a special team to investigate the matter... What will happen if the truth comes out?" Anant fumbled while shaking his legs impatiently.
"I know I told you that the case won't be investigated, but it was before... When this idiotic Joint Director had not intervened" Parimal gritted his teeth in anger while Anant was still not convinced by his words.
"That man is a stringent fellow who can't be controlled by money or power, but I am trying my best. Don't worry, you already know that no one related to that person is alive, there is no way they can prove his identity... And even if they proved his identity somehow, then what? No one has the faintest idea about the incident. The skeleton was found in an area that is in no way related to us" Anant nodded on hearing his words but his brain was full of concern and his face pale was decked up in extreme terror.
All this conversation was heard by Disha who had hidden a voice bugging device in his office room. She smiled as she thought, "What is this? Mhatre is in so much fear, but why? Whose skeleton is that? Anyway, it's really nice to hear him shivering in fear"
Disha!
Words are not enough to describe her, she is like the lady Macbeth from Shakespeare's play... Highly manipulative and knows how to turn any situation in her favor. A brilliant student, she joined the Mhatre Group as the Legal and Financial Advisor last year.
Her tactics and works were so brilliantly orchestrated that it didn't take her long to go into the trusted books of Anant Mhatre. Although she efficiently clears all the mess the company creates, Anant doesn't have the vaguest idea of her real motive behind joining the company.
Sabarmati Old Age Home
26th March, 2:30 AM
Amna was shifting her position, again and again, in a half-sleep mode on her bed and her mind wandered like a wild horse about the pathetic situation she was thrust into, with the only possible solution in her sight, was, to tell the truth. A truth of which she was a very small part... Then why she? But to whom she could say? Whom she could trust?
She was feeling extremely agitated and unable to sleep reflecting on the next step. She was in a situation where she couldn't even share her real feelings with someone... Her fear, her worries. She was lying down on the bed and staring blankly at the glowing light above her head quietly.
She moved out of her bed and walked towards the window gazing outside at the dense and foggy atmosphere of the night. The moon was up in the night sky and partially concealed by the grey clouds lurking around it.
Just then she heard the soft moans of someone clearly against the dark and silent night. She rolled her eyes outside to find the source of the sound and saw Shreekant sitting in a corner of the bench in the garden, silently weeping, taking Anna's name. His wailing was clearly audible against the soundless atmosphere.
As she stood standing near the window, she was scanning the visible condition of the person who had saved her life. For ages men were taught to hold back their tears and emotions by portraying themselves as the race immune to pain but this man was different. He had no hesitation to accept his vulnerability. He didn't abide by the age-old useless teachings made by the great men of our fantastic society who not only oppressed women but also pressurized their own clan to be tough and strong in every way.
Seeing him in his mists of agony, the wall of distrust she had by now in her heart towards everybody came crashing down and she felt a twinge of sympathy within her. Her conscience and emotions urged her to tell him everything. The situation was punching her heart at the weakest corner and she could feel the sincerity in the actions of the same man who was so badly pinpointed by the media.
She observed him speechlessly standing near the window till he went away, "He is in a lot of grief... He has all the right to know what happened to his wife. Should I tell him everything? God give me some hint, what should I do? I really don't know...", she then started feeling chilly and went back to her bed.
With infinite thoughts scrambling in her severely perturbed mind, she tucked herself under her soft blanket and put herself into a forceful sleep. It was as if she was in a sinking ship of titanic with no way out left for her.
26th March, 9:00 AM
The next morning as she woke up she wished genuinely for a miracle to happen that would show her the next step she should take. Her heart somewhere wanted to tell Shreekant everything but her subconscious brain was stopping her lips from uttering anything that could put her into more problems than she was already in.
Taking a quick bath and changing into loose clothes that Ratna had given her, she carefully came out of the room and looked around the place. As she was going down the staircase, she saw the back of a person quietly standing in one corner of the staircase and gazing intently onto something. She had thought so many times about this person that she could recognize him from the back, from the front, and even in a crowd.
Trying to avoid any unnecessary conversation she tried to go away from the place noiselessly. But her incredible fate never failed to give her surprises. She slipped near the third last stair and pranced forward, throwing her unsteady limbs down right into Shreekant and felt his strong arms encircling her to prevent her from falling.
Withdrawing her almost immediately, he narrowed his eye on her and uttered, "What are you doing? Are you planning to go back to the hospital with a new problem?"
Realizing what had just happened, she mumbled in an unclear fashion shaking her head vigorously, "Sorry Mr. Mhatre... I just slipped." She was stammering more than normal.
Before he could say anything, he got a phone call and turned himself away from her to answer it. Seeing him busy over the phone, she ducked in time and went into the garden area heaving a sigh of relief.
"Come sit with us... ", Nimmi gestured her to sit on the elevated step near the bench and she went there like an obedient child.
"Did you sleep comfortably yesterday, after all, it was your first day here" Nimmi asked in a cheerful tone while accounting the expenses carefully in a register while Mini was busy taking selfies on her phone.
"I slept very comfortably, thanks for asking..."
"Did you remember anything?" Mini asked with a lot of curiosity staring at Amna.
"No..."
"Mini! Why are you perturbing her by asking this? She already had a terrible accident... Yesterday Shreekant was interrogating her and now you. Mamma has told me strictly that no one should ask her any such questions" Nimmi instructed Mini while Amna looked at them with confusing guilty eyes.
"Hmm... About Mr. Mhatre... Why is he here? I mean yesterday Aunty told me that he is a big businessman in Mumbai" Amna asked in a low voice thinking she may be bothering them with her silly questions.
"Actually, Shreekant lost his wife just a few days ago... As his mind was not at peace after the incident, he came here to his Aunt with whom he is very close since childhood after his own mother passed away due to some terminal illness, So don't feel bad if he asks or enquires anything from you, he has still not recovered from his pain," Nimmi said in a compassionate voice trying to make her understand.
She spoke again, "I have not seen him smile since the day he came here. He may look tough and irritate you with his absurd inquires but trust me he is not a bad person at all. Whatever the media speculates about him is just trash, I have known him since childhood and I know what a heart of gold he possesses. It's just that his wife's death has broken him from within but all he needs is some time." Amna's eyes gleamed with an unknown fear of guilt and she let out a breath of extreme uneasiness.
Just as the conversation was going, suddenly an elderly person comes running to them and said nervously, " Nimmi! Vinod was having chest pain after coming from the market and now he is unable to breathe"
"Where is he now?" Nimmi asked in a grave tone
"He is lying near the staircase...come quickly"
"What!! We are coming, Mini call 102 and give them the address, also call Maa, oh, I forgot she is not at home, call Shreekant immediately" Nimmi instructed in a loud voice and they all rushed to Vinod.
All of them, including Shreekant, reached near the staircase to find Vinod in a semi-conscious state, struggling to breathe and surrounded by numerous other people of the Old Age home.
"Please don't crowd the place" Shreekant ordered and stealthily went near Vinod to give him CPR manually. Just as he was opening the shirt, Amna saw a huge bruise mark on the right side of Vinod's chest.
"Stop! Don't give him compressions" She blurted without thinking for a moment while all others look at her totally stunned.
She went near Shreekant and leaned to see the bruise mark on Vinod's chest and thought, "This area is moving in the opposite direction to the rest of the chest, paradoxical breathing... This is not a cardiac arrest... It's flail chest"
She checked the pulse and shrieked, "His pulse is dropping where is the ambulance...?
Mini called again and informed everyone that the ambulance is stuck and will take some more time.
"We don't have time to waste as it can lead to complications. Yeah, I remember I saw a Mobile Medical Unit around two kilometers away from here on my way to this place. We can go there. But how will we take him there?"
"I have a car... Please help us transfer him carefully" Shreekant said while gazing at Amna.
They carefully transfer Vinod into the back seat of Shreekant's car and Amna places his head carefully on her lap trying to monitor his condition every minute as he was driving speedily along the road.
5 Mins later, Near Mobile Medical Unit
As the car stopped near the unit, she rushed out of the car and shouted, "There is a serious patient, get the stretcher immediately." The doctor and nurse dashed towards the patient.
Putting the gloves on, she continued to brief them, "It's a case of flail chest, pulse unstable and dropping." The doctor immediately connected a pulse oximeter and told the nurse to make the portable ventilator ready.
Do you have a Venturi mask?" Amna asked and the nurse replied, "No..."
"Okay... No problem, give the patient oxygen support immediately. Get me one ampoule of Tramadol IV, 10 ml syringe, and Lidocaine... We will do an intercostal nerve block to tame the pain first"
The doctor saw oxygen saturation decreasing, "intubate him quickly and connect the ventilator"
As the doctor finished intubating, Amna increased the inspiratory pressure of the ventilator from fifteen to forty. The doctor interrupted her and said, "This is too much pressure, please lower it"
"This patient has fractured ribs, which are moving against the normal ribs so he needs a lot of positive pressure every time he inhales... Check his saturation and pulse now"
The doctor checked and replied, "It's increasing and stabilizing now. I will do an X-ray and transfer the patient as soon as the ambulance gets here, Good work Doctor"
She then came out and took a deep breath of satisfaction and smiled. Just then someone called her from back, Dr. Amna!
She instantly turned around and saw Shreekant standing behind her. She halted then and there while her palms ran cold on hearing her name from his lips.