The Lines of Fate

24: Unexpected

Radhika kept her eyes forward, her gaze fixed on the streetlights in front of her house as she stood on the balcony of her room. The newfound information was too much to reign in.

All these years, lies after lies...how much did her parents hide from her? Why didn't anyone say such an important thing to her?

"Can't sleep too?" Keshav's hushed voice reached her ears, making her whirl around. Her mind was so blocked up in thoughts that she neither heard the soft knocks on her door nor the bedroom door being pushed open and a figure slipping in.

"Keshav," she breathed as she saw him leaning on the balcony door, arms crossed; the messy strands of his hair falling over his forehead as it waved in the cool night breeze. The light from the lamp framed his features, accentuating the gentle smile on his lips.

"Looks like that." She replied remembering what he said.

He took her answer as a welcome and made his way to the place beside Radhika. "Me too."

Radhika sighed before turning back her gaze to the streets. "I had never been an insomniac. There were nights that I couldn't sleep but not being able to even close my eyes....it didn't happen before."

"I know..." Keshav hummed in response remembering the same things that he had gone through. Maybe this was the similarity between both of them...this suffering.

"It's hard you know," Radhika said leaning her head against Keshav's shoulder. "First these murders, Ishaan's arrest, finding you, and now this. It had been always in my room but still, I never found it.

No one knows how much betrayed and broken I felt when ma left me, I had never been able to speak to her properly after that. Every time I saw Ishaan, I was reminded of baba but thought it was my imagination...I stopped all of those thoughts and what did I find out at last? T-That he had always been my brother....

Why do you think everyone betrayed me like this? Why didn't baba ever tell me? You saw how much astounded everyone was at the dinner and what will I tell Ishaan?"

"There has to be a proper reason behind this, Rai..." The way Keshav said her name, with a prominent honey-like undertone made Radhika lift her head from his shoulder to look at him, only finding his face a lot closer than she anticipated. So much that she could even see the shadow of his eyelashes on his cheek.

Keshav himself was surprised too at the unexpected intimacy, he could hear his heartbeat slowly rising, as his eyes sweetly scanned her face, from her deep brown eyes to the faint freckle lost in the pink of her upper lip. The dimmed light of the lamp was not helping either....

Radhika felt something she had never experienced before. Keshav was someone who stayed beside her every fall, shared his vulnerabilities, and reminded her of what she was. He was not just a friend to her. He could never be.

She didn't notice his hands until his fingers brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Radhika," her name escaped his lips before she saw him leaning in....

But before anything could happen a sudden smashing of glass pushed both of them apart.

"What was that?" Radhika yelped, her mind still a little foggy as she moved to the edge of her balcony to take a better look, only to see a dark figure running out of their gate.

"There was someone...." Radhika muttered measly before rushing out of the room, grabbing her revolver from the shelf. As she hurried down the stairs followed by Keshav, she saw all the lights flickering on. She met Rishav at the door and both of them ran out of the door to catch the intruder.

Keshav was about to go out of the house but the screaming from Mrs. Sengupta made him turn towards the rooms on the ground floor. He saw Mr. Sengupta holding his wife when he reached there, but he froze in his tracks the moment the dining room wall came into his view.

Radhika's name was scrawled in bold capital letters with a red color that looked like blood and a cross mark was made over it.

"A-Ami bolechilam tomai Rai ke atkate.... porsu din e oh 25 years er hoye jabe. Ebar ki hobe? Ki kore bachabo amra oke??? (I-I told you to stop Rai...day after tomorrow she will turn 25. What will happen now? How will we save her???)" Mrs. Sengupta was sobbing.

Keshav was confused as hell but remembering that Rishav and Radhika were outside, he ran out of the house instead of asking questions to the older Sengupta.

On the other hand, Rishav and Radhika had come a little far from their house searching for the intruder.

"Did you see his face?" Radhika asked stopping at the corner of the road. Her pants are visible as small puffs in the cool night breeze.

"I couldn't," Rishav puffed bending over and placing his hands on his knees. "He was wearing a black hoodie."

"Are you sure it was a man?"

"I am 100% sure it was a man. I would never mistake in recognizing a body of a man and a-"

A revving sound of an engine interrupted Rishav, making both of them run towards the source of the sound. A motorcycle came at a fast pace making both of them back away on the opposite sides.

But before the man could escape Radhika shot at the tire making the motorcycle skid and fall. Rishav went and yanked the person up by his collar, "How did you think you will be able to escape?"

Radhika walked up to them and the moment she removed the mask from the man's face, her eyes widened in surprise. She just couldn't believe her eyes, all the puzzles fitting in....

"Why the hell did you do it?" Radhika yelled pointing her revolver at Aditya Sen's head. Her fingers tightened thinking of all the damages, all the sufferings everyone experienced. Ishaan's not being his son and his existence in the Arc from the time of her grandfather strengthened his position to be acquainted with the murders.

"Did you kill my father?" Radhika's voice raised in an uncontrollable rage. "Why are you not speaking anything? Did you cause all the murders? Speak or I will shoot!!"

"Rai!"

A voice from behind made her freeze in her place. A voice she recognized too well, a voice she was dying to hear again......

She felt as if her legs had been chained, making it hard for her to move. She feared never being able to hear the voice again if she turned. She couldn't believe her ears. Did she hear correctly?

"Leave him, Rai...He has nothing to do with these murders."

Hearing once again, Radhika slowly turned around praying in her mind to see what she was thinking. The hairs on her arms stood at the end, the moment her eyes landed on the person standing behind her.

"BABA!!!!"