𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬

CHAPTER 45

Chris trying to hold it together above.

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter talks about suicide and the aftermath of death so please proceed with caution and sensitivity!

absquatulate

(v.) to leave without saying goodbye

Late last night, Vijay Kapoor had polished an entire bottle of bourbon off before taking one of his numerous expensive cars out for a spin. Late last night, Vijay Kapoor had drunkenly swerved off the highway and wrapped his car around a metal pole. Late last night, Vijay Kapoor was wheeled into the hospital as he bled out in the operating theatre. And early this morning, Vijay Kapoor was declared unresponsive– time of death, 4:30AM. The sequence of events felt so quick. So insignificant in the grand scheme of things. As if those few hours trickling by hadn't just tilted Kiara's world off its axis, carelessly battering her heart in the process.

Kiara didn't remember much of what happened after she heard those words. Only that she was standing one minute and the next, she was on her knees and clawing at her chest as if her heart was too large to fit. It felt as if someone had ripped her heart out, held it in their fist and just squeezed. She remembered Chris rushing to her side, nothing but pure panic in his eyes as he simply held her to his chest and let her scream. Then there were hands all over her as everyone tried to console her as best they could but nothing seemed to work. She just kept screaming. They didn't understand– couldn't understand, that the devastation was physically hurting her. She remembered him scooping her up in his arms and carrying her to the car as they made their way to the hospital.

Grief was a living and breathing entity, shadowing every move with harrowing eyes as it drained the life out of everything it touched. Kiara felt its spindly fingers wrap around her as she took in the cold, lifeless body of her best friend. There were no tears despite the overwhelming sorrow in her heart, but the time for tears would come.

Gently guiding Kiara away from the morgue, Chris observed her worriedly before turning to speak with Kabir in hushed tones. As per usual, the police had chosen the worst time to begin their questioning and demanded she come down to the station immediately. Letting Jimmy take over, he watched as the bodyguard firmly held her close and directed her into the car.

After four hours of gruelling interviews and interrogations as the LAPD discerned any possibilities of foul play in Vijay's death to eliminate other causes of death, Kiara was well and truly exhausted. An older gentleman wearing an unforgiving scowl and an intimidating air of authority introduced himself as sergeant Kennedy before diving into the details of her best friend's death. As expected, he had been abrupt and thorough in his descriptions, ensuring there was no room left for doubt before dutifully asking for any additional information but she couldn't stand to be there for any longer.

Barely registering the thousands of cameras shoved in her face, Kiara drifted through the chaos around her like a ghost as her security detail pulled and pushed her in various directions. She remained uninvolved with her surroundings, blankly staring into space as she refrained from interacting with anyone. She didn't care for the hundreds of condolence messages blowing up her phone. She didn't care that everyone she walked past shot her pitying looks. She didn't care that with each painfully long second, Chris was growing more and more fraught with concern. She simply didn't care. Not when the world kept moving without Vijay– he was simply a stop before the train carried on. She could already feel the numbness settling in her bones after reading his final journal entry: