by Amit Nangia
Her mother screamed, her father cried out in agony. Uncle Chauhan was there. Blood dripped down her mother’s stomach and collected in a pool on the floor. “No!” Naina screamed. She wrenched herself free from the memory and stared at the people around her. Her outburst silenced them all.
Naina’s feet pounded the marble steps of the house into the night air. She flew across the lawn, panting and heaving for air. She had to escape. She had to get away from Uncle Chauhan. It had been him and she never once suspected him. She felt the cloud of betrayal breaking her heart. Suddenly someone’s arms caught her, making her stop.
“Naina!” Abhay reached for her, but she pulled away and ran towards the gate. “Naina, wait!” he called out after her.
She fought him, thinking it was Uncle Chauhan.
“Stop running, Naina, it’s me Abhay!”
His calm voice penetrated through her panic, and she stopped and fell limp in his arms.
“Let’s get in the jeep. We’ll talk there,” he said.
When they were in the jeep and driving away, Abhay asked her. “You want to tell me what happened in there?”
Naina was quivering like a leaf in a storm. She took a deep breath. She’d come there to find out who her parents’ killer was, and now she thought she knew. Only it was too hard to believe. Naina waited until the house disappeared from sight. Finally she closed her eyes, hoping the image would disappear too. She had to be wrong.
“Tell me what you saw,” Abhay asked gently.
“Uncle Chauhan,” Naina almost choked on the words.
“What do you mean…Uncle Chauhan?”
“He was there. At my parents’ house the night they died.” She stifled a sob. “I heard them arguing. My mother screaming. My dad. It was him.” Naina covered her face with her hands, and Abhay pulled her to him.
“Kya keh rahi ho Naina? Uncle Chauhan was at your house a lot since he was friends with your parents. Could he have been there another night and you’re confusing the nights?”
Naina shook her head. “I know what I saw. He was the vision in my dreams. Only this time I saw his face.”
Abhay stroked her back. “I don’t think he would have killed your parents.”
“I only know what I saw,” she said quietly.
“Maybe he showed up after the murder. I think it’s someone else in the family,” Abhay continued.
Naina nodded.
“Also, I managed to get Girish and Suchitra Devi Chauhan’s fingerprints.” Abhay said with a smile. “I’m going to drop them off at the lab later tonight.” He glanced in the rear-view mirror for the first time. He’d been so worried about Naina that he hadn’t noticed a black Mercedes with tinted black glasses on his tail. “Hold on. I think we’re being followed.”
She glanced back. Abhay swerved and sped up, turned onto a side road and took a U-turn. He wasn’t the one to run. He headed back down the small road when the dark car came barrelling around the curve. Before they knew it, a gunshot exploded through the windshield.
Abhay groaned and grabbed his shoulder as a bullet pierced his shoulder. He’d been hit. Naina screamed. Abhay tried to steer the car, but a stream of blood flowed from his shoulder, and his vision became blurry. The gun fired again, but Abhay continued driving. Feeling dizzy, he blinked and reached for Naina. She ripped off the end of her sari and tied it to his shoulder to stop the bleeding. He felt weak and lightheaded.
Naina realized that Abhay couldn’t continue for too long in this state. “Pull over. I’ll drive,” Naina said, taking control.
Abhay didn’t want to lose his control. He could handle a bullet. But Naina begged him to stop.
He stopped the car and crawled to the passenger side. She drove like the wind to the nearest hospital. She jumped out at the emergency room entry and shouted, “A man’s been shot! Someone help me!” A doctor and a few nurses rushed to her aid. They eased Abhay onto a stretcher and wheeled him into the operation theatre, firmly pushing Naina aside. Abhay looked at the nurse – the same long-legged nurse he had earlier met. Finally he was in bed with her. Not like he had envisaged. But Still.
An hour later, the doctor returned. “He’s lost some blood and he’s weak, but he’ll be fine now that the bullet has been extracted,” he said.
The doctor looked at her blood-soaked clothes and asked. “Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?”
“No. I think the bullet was meant for me, but it missed. Can I meet him, doctor?”
“Not right now, but I will let you know when the time is right.” The doctor went away, leaving Naina with her thoughts.
She glanced down at her blood-soaked clothes, then closed her eyes and whispered another prayer. It was her fault that Abhay was hurt. All she did was bring trouble into people’s lives. She had to get away from him. As she prayed, Abhay’s image blurred, and instead of his handsome face, she saw her parents lying on the floor of her house, saw another shadow hovering in the corner. She needed to remember the whole night of her parents’ death. Uncle Chauhan had been there, but there had been another shadow, another person that she couldn’t remember. She had to know who it was. She slipped out of the hospital and went back to her house to see if she could remember the rest of the story. Then she could say goodbye to her past and Abhay. For his own safety.
Abhay struggled to open his eyes, but they felt as if they’d been pressed down by boulders. And the rest of his body felt worse. What the hell had happened?
Then he remembered. The fight at the Chauhan mansion. Naina’s memory. The car following them. The bullet.
He groaned and tried to raise his arm, but one side was taped with a bandage, the other secured with an IV. Damn. He couldn’t move. Then the green walls of the hospital room started closing in on him.
He couldn’t just lie here. Not when Naina was in danger. Where was she, anyway?
He made a feeble attempt to call for help, but his words came out garbled, and his eyes were so heavy he couldn’t keep them open.
Medication. He must still be on the anaesthetic. God, he needed to wake up. He swung his arms and legs, but nothing happened and he realized the drugs were so strong that it was difficult to fight their effects. Heaviness weighed him down.
The minute she opened the door, Naina knew tonight was going to be different. It was already past midnight, and darkness had enveloped her house, so she switched on the lights. But there seemed to be a power cut. She groped her way to her parents’ bedroom, where it had all happened.
Snatches of memories flashed through her mind – her mother’s lullaby and her father’s deep voice calling her name. She heard a sound in the living room. She stopped for a moment and strained her ears. Nothing. She’d probably imagined it.
She passed by her room and knelt beside the place on the floor where her parents had died. Just then, she heard another sound. A faint scraping of steps. A chill went up her spine as a shadow formed behind Naina.
Was it real or a shadow from her memory?
The shadow, framed in the doorway, slowly turned, and squinted in the heavy darkness.
“It was you,” Naina said softly, recognizing the shadow, the one from her nightmare. Except this time, it was real.
Abhay pushed the doctor away and snatched out the IV, wincing in pain.
Uncle Chauhan rushed. "Where’s Naina? Was she hurt? I came as soon as I heard."
Abhay saw the worry lines on Uncle Chauhan’s face. Naina had suspected him, but he still couldn’t believe her Uncle would hurt her. "I am not sure where Naina is, though I have a hunch." Abhay snapped. "And if I get out of this god-damned hospital, I am sure I can find her."
"You’ve just had a surgery, young man. You’re not going anywhere." The doctor folded his arms and blocked the way.
Abhay snarled. "I do what I feel like. When I feel like. And never forget that!”
The doctor stepped back seeing the daroga seething in anger.
Abhay dressed quickly, and Uncle Chauhan slid his shoulder unde
r Abhay’s arm to give him support. When they were in the jeep, Uncle Chauhan looked at Abhay for directions.
“If you want Naina to be safe, then take me to her house this minute,” Abhay said. “I have to save Naina.”
Uncle Chauhan stepped on the accelerator. “Abhay, you really care about Naina, don’t you?” he finally said.
“Yes, I care about every case that I need to solve. Koi shak?”
“Then that gives us something in common.”
“But do you care about her?” Abhay asked, wincing in pain.
“Yes, I do,” Uncle Chauhan said quietly. “I love her very much. And I have to tell you something. I should have made this public years ago…but I was a coward. The truth is, Abhay, Naina is my daughter.”
A torrent of scattered, painful moments came crashing back to Naina. The realization was too much of a shock for her.
“Tara, it was you! You were here that night. But why?”
The woman Naina had thought was her friend walked into the room, her body as sleek and cunning as a leopard. When she spoke, her voice was wild and razor sharp. “You knew it all the time. You never lost your memory. You played this stupid game so you could come back and get daddy’s money.”
“What are you talking about, Tara?”
Tara’s eyes blazed with hatred and she waved a knife in front of her.
A cold feeling crept over Naina. Yes, she had seen it before. Those eyes. She’d seen that crazy look on Tara’s face the night her parents had died.
“You wanted Daddy’s money,” Tara hissed. “You came back to destroy our family. You wanted to take him away from me, just like you would have years ago.” She paced the room, the knife gripped tightly in her hand.
“That’s not true,” Naina said.
“But you’re not part of our family. And you will never be!” Tara yelled, kicking the end table and sending the lamp crashing to the floor. It shattered into pieces at Naina’s feet. “I was Daddy’s little girl. All he thought of was you or about having a son who could follow his footsteps and be a minister like him. So he adopted that useless Girish! It was bad enough that I had to share Daddy with you and then that Girish came along and he thought he was Daddy’s favourite. But he wasn’t. I am using his car tonight and I have his fingerprints on this knife. After I kill you, and he too is wiped out from my life, I will be Daddy’s girl once again.”
Naina froze, afraid to say anything that might make Tara angrier.
“I was Daddy’s favourite. I should have all his money. Not Girish. And definitely not you…his illegitimate child!”
“I know I’m not part of your family,” Naina said, fighting her own emotions. “I never–”
“Shut up!” Tara screamed. “You were there that night when daddy came to ask for you.”
“Tara, I don’t know what you are talking about,” she lied. It was all coming back to her. The fight between her parents had started when Uncle Chauhan burst in.
Pradeep Chauhan was her father. A shudder racked through her at the realization. That was the reason her parents had fought.
Her father was crying. “What do you mean she’s not my baby?” He asked in disbelief.
Her mother said through sobs, “I was pregnant when we got married.”
“With my baby!” Uncle Chauhan yelled. He then yelled at her mother. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”
“Because you were running for elections. And your mother threatened me. She warned me that if I didn’t keep this to myself, I would ruin your career and my life.”
“I don’t believe that,” Uncle Chauhan shouted.
Her father stood quietly in disbelief. Naina watched all of it from her hiding place. She watched her family fall apart. Her father had accused her mother of lying to him. Her mother had cried till she couldn’t talk. Uncle Chauhan had been furious. He had said he’d just found out the truth and wanted to claim Naina as his own. Her mother had yelled that he would never get her. Her father had threatened to leave her mother. Then Uncle Chauhan had stormed out.
But her parents had still been alive when he had left.
She looked at Tara, and the memory of her sneaking into the house came back vividly.
Tara had been young and beautiful, but the evil she’d possessed had caused her to attack Naina’s mother. She had run in, yelling that she wanted to see Naina. In a wild rage, Tara managed to grab the kitchen knife and fought with her mother. Her mother had been trying to protect Naina, to keep Tara from finding her. Then Tara stabbed her mother, and her mother had fallen to the floor with a scream. Her father had rushed in, and Tara had spun around and lunged at him with the knife. Even as a child, she’d been amazed at Tara’s strength. Tara, all wild-eyed, had come looking for her but she couldn’t find her as she couldn’t be in the house for very long or her crime might be discovered. All the while, Naina had hidden under the bed and watched, holding her breath, knowing she was going to be next.
Just like now.
“Tara, I didn’t remember,” Naina said. “All this time, I didn’t know.”
“Liar! You didn’t know he was your father?” Tara spat the words at her and held the knife to her neck. “Well, you remember now. I can see it on your face. When Daddy first learned that you had come back to Allahabad, that’s when he changed his will to include you. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that, you greedy bitch!”
“But…but I didn’t,” Naina stammered.
“Then he started inviting you over, wanting us to get to know you. I knew the truth and I hated you.”
Tears streaked down Naina’s face. The situation was slipping out of control, but she knew that she had to distract Tara a little longer, to try to talk some sense into her. “So you shot Abhay.”
“That bullet was meant for you. Just like the knife.”
“And it was you who broke into my house and tried to kill me.”
“Of course. All it took was a little help from my friend Ria.”
She flashed an evil smirk and continued, “Do you remember the lovely tea that Ria always made for you? Well, she was drugging it all along.”
It dawned on Naina – how easy it had been for Tara. “So Ria was helping you? But why, for money?”
Tara laughed, “Obviously. Such people have no principles in life. They would sell their soul for pennies. I even hired a goon to assassinate you, but he failed, and I had to get him killed. The bastard died in a pool of piss, which he rightly deserved.”
All made perfect sense now. “And she had my keys….”
Tara looked triumphant. “It was a great plan. I thought we’d succeed in making you go nuts before I had to kill you. But you’re stronger than I thought.”
Naina was too shocked to react, and Tara too indifferent to her fear. “When Ria drugged your tea at the office before our lunch, I was hoping you’d fall asleep in your car and have an accident.”
“But I showed up for our lunch meeting and got sick.”
“Right,” Tara pressed the knife into Naina’s neck, laughing.
“And the brooch?
“Oh, that was just to confuse Abhay. To make him believe that you were crazy.” Tara narrowed her eyes. “And now…you’re going to die just like your parents.”
Naina took a deep breath. Everyone had thought that she was the crazy one, when Tara had obviously been unstable all her life. She was not going to let Tara kill her. She was not going to die before seeing Tara rot in jail or a mental ward. Tara licked her lips like a predator coming in for the kill, and Naina knew the time had come to defend herself.
“Hurry!” Abhay bellowed as Uncle Chauhan sped down the road. The traffic lights glowed an angry red in the darkness but Pradeep Chauhan ignored them, speeding the car straight to Naina’s home.
“Are you sure she’ll be there?”
“No, but it’s my best guess. She would have gone there to try and regain her memory.”
When they turned the corner to Naina’s house, they spotted a bla
ck Mercedes parked in front of her house.
“Girish’s car?” Uncle chauhan said. “What the hell… Is he the one trying to kill Naina?”
Abhay didn’t think so, but he didn’t tell the old man that. As they got out of the car, Abhay called in for backup. They padded up to the door and Abhay put a finger to his lips. Just as they made the last step, Abhay heard a scream.
He bolted through the door, sending a fresh wave of pain jolting through his shoulder. He’d probably undone his stitches, but he didn’t care. He never did.
He raced through the living room toward Naina’s parents’ room. Uncle Chauhan hurried behind him.
Naina was struggling with Tara. Their heavy breathing and scuffling filled the air. Tara pushed Naina down to the floor with a kick to her stomach and climbed over her, lowering the knife to Naina’s neck.
“Tara, stop!” Uncle Chauhan shouted.
Tara turned to see her father and Abhay rushing towards her. Abhay took the opportunity to grab Tara’s arm. Tara struggled, clawing at him. Naina took her chance and slipped out from under Tara. Abhay managed to lock both of Tara’s hands behind her and pried the knife from her fingers. Tara glared at him with fury. She kicked and screamed. “She has to die! She has to!”
Abhay pulled her aside and gave her one tidy slap on her face.
“Agar bachpan mein tumhare pita ney aisa jhaapad mara hota, toh aaj yeh din na dekhna padta.”
Abhay turned towards Chauhan and continued. “Mr Chauhan, your daughter Tara murdered Naina’s parents and assaulted Naina,” he showed them the injury on Tara’s arm that Naina had inflicted. “She’s going to be charged and she will rot in jail. Had you not been busy in your shit politics and been a bit more responsible towards your family, you could have saved two lives.”
“Tara, my God, what have you done…” Uncle Chauhan said, choking on his words, and falling to his knees.
Shuklaji peeped in from the main door with backup.
“Badi jaldi aa gaye aap Shuklaji,” Abhay said sarcastically.
“Sirji, woh baat nahin hain na. I actually tried my best, I promise, but still couldn’t reach sirji,” Shukla said as he motioned the team to take Tara into custody.
