|The secrets we take to grave|✔︎

24|It is over|

Song for the chapter: Alvida by KK

I thought I was lying to Anubhav's grandfather, when I told him I was driving to Rangat tonight. I just wanted to run away from his house. Maybe have some hotel food, get some nap, and start for my home town at dawn.

But reading the last bit of Anubhav's literature has drained me of my appetite and sleep.

I ain't crying.

I have seen the worst of the nights- the night of my parents' accident, the night Gaurav and I broke up, the day Anubhav passed away and so much more. But never before had my own tears ditched me. It is numbness that crawls all along the left hand side of my chest and extends to the whole of my ribcage and ends at the pit of my stomach.

It is numbness that dictates me to leave the hotel that is being paid for me by the Sharmas. It is numbness that guides me to rev the engine of my car and write the epilogue of the story that they have started.

My watch says it was a little past 6 in the morning when I parked in front of my house at Rangat. The sky was starting to break into beige blue dawn, I knelt down to collect the spare key of the locked gate of my house that was lying under a flower pot. The usual spot for nights like this,when either Jijaji or I are late and stranded outside.

I reminisce about the mobile hidden under the artificial grassing. I wonder if the original gun is hiding at the same spot or closeby. Maybe if I had searched more that day, the truth of his death would have been out without letting me travail through the hauntingly painful lanes of the past.

But at least, I wouldn't have known who helped in the execution of this post planned murder. The wolf in the lamb's clothing, the nemesis in the form of a family also disguising as a house help.

Neena Fernandez is the daughter of Abhinav Bhattacharjee's own sister who ran away with a Christian man and alas he was an alcoholic to the extent that he could barely even think about bearing the education of his only daughter. The poor girl comes to her uncle only to serve as a helping hand of his mute cousin. The cousin who loved her to life. The cousin whose only son's death has been framed and she knew that.

And now I know it all. I know what was the rough surface brushing my hand as I dug up the phone.Maybe that is one perk of being a lawyer, you do know where to get the correct information from and how to use the same.

The police would know today. Just not now.

As soon as the gate opened, I parked my Jiju's car in the driveway and stepped in, slowly undoing the latch and the bolt of the main door. I know they are home and Jiju has taken the day off, for something more important has lined up his calendar.

I lie down on my bed. My mind going back to the day the marriage thing got re-asserted. It was early morning when Gaurav texted me to meet him.

I wondered if it was a closure for sure. I took the day off on grounds of illness. He said he wanted to meet at the same spot where we went on our first blind date. Maybe, he wanted to end things where it all began.Symbolism, I thought. Both the brothers were too poetic for my liking.

"I had talked to Maa about you," He said, clasping his hands together. "Yes it did miss my point, the last time I was at Rangat but she came to visit me here. I told her"

"Why now" I exhaled sharply. His mother did visit him twice in a span of three years and once my didi and Jijaji were here. In case of the former, I shifted to Safeena's place for a few days and for the latter, he would move in with Anubhav temporarily.

"She saw our photo frame. The one after the proposal, when you knelt down with me for the kiss"

Oh, that was recent. He ensured that it was captured by a professional camera for my liking. Gaurav lived more in moments and hated curating the emotions for the photos.