TRUTH

Amla and the Roys

Vishal shocked all of us by saying this, but it was too late to discuss all these things. I had had so many things today that I could not take any more of it now. So, I said, "Anna if you don't mind it's very late, I must leave now."

"No; you are not going anywhere, sleep here only." But I knew if I would stay here I would be reminded again and again of Amala and everything else, I had to go back home. "Anna, I can't sleep anywhere other than my own bed; please."

"Don't worry anna, I think I should also leave now and I will drop her home." Said a very tired Vishal and anna agreed. We took anna's car as I had come by my bike and anna didn't consider it safe for us to travel in it. Vishal was very silent, there was sadness surrounding him, or rather it was nervousness that you usually see in a criminal. When I reached home, I thanked him and went away.

It took me a lot of time to sleep that day and at around six I woke up. I was called by anna that Vishal would come to pick me up so I got ready; at seven when we reached there Bhavika was in the kitchen and the maid was cleaning the house; Vishal said he would go and see anna while I sat on the sofa examining the file when Bhavika came to me and sat beside me. It was the first time I saw her so full of emotions.

"You know Aasha, Amala was my best friend and I shared everything with her, I thought she also did so, but her death made me realise that she did not. It is not the first time that this happened with me, when I was young, I considered my parents to be my best friends and thought that like me they shared all their problems with me, but as soon as I got married to Charan, they also committed suicide due to the loans they had on them. Now I feel that it is the same with Charan as well, last year he was so stressed that he took sleeping pills but he didn't tell me and I came to know about it yesterday night. Why can't people rely on me?" and she burst out to tears, I really felt sorry for her. By this time Vishal and anna came out, anna had guilt in his eyes but Vishal was confused on noticing her tears to which she quickly said,

"I, actually, I, suddenly thought of Amala."

"It's okay dear. Let me make breakfast today I can see all preparations are already done for my favourite dosa, today our guests will have a breakfast made by me."

"There's no need of it you will spoil everything, stop Charan!"

"At least let me help you."

It was really an unique way to apologise for your mistake thought I, however I could also not get the reason why Charan anna didn't tell her about it, but as now everything was fine; I didn't care about it much. Amid all this I had forgotten something, I suddenly realised, yes! The phone call, who was on the phone was still a mystery.

Well, I had to cancel all my other appointments for the day so I was busy with calls at the reception when anna called me for breakfast which really looked delicious. After breakfast came the time for the real discussion and this is where the entire game and plot of the story seemed to change.

"Amala never wanted to do any common job she was more interested in solving mysteries and crimes, I had told her a several times not to get so much involved in all this." Started Vishal.

"This file that you have in your hand was on tips of Amala, she knew each detail of every unusual case of this city, be it the unfortunate train accident at sector 35, the story of smuggling through the dock yard or this The Roys and the cursed mansion. She investigated all these cases unofficially. She considered me a confidant of hers so she told me about this case as well." My eyes couldn't help shifting to Bhavika who was hurt listening to this.

"Well, now I think that it is important for me to tell this to you; perhaps it has some relation to her death as well, had you not already known about it I would have never disclosed our secrets to you but now it seems impossible. First, I will tell you what all Amala had told me about the case of the Roys. So, this Roy family was one of the most prestigious families and one of the richest too in this city; however, every heir was not as talented as his previous generations. Keshav Roy was basically interested in other things but he was forced to take care of the business of his father which he ruined completely and when it even started to come on track, they purchased this mansion which was called cursed by people; it also  has an interesting backstory but we'll talk of it later. So, there was this myth prevalent at that time that the Roys have adopted a daughter whom Mrs. Roy hated but because of her husband she never spoke anything. She showered all her love on her sons, the daughter was also mistreated by her in the absence of her husband she had even tried to poison her daughter once as it was said by the neighbours."