Apricity

Part 19

Ranveer Dhoopar rolled his left shoulder, then his right, to relieve the stiffness that had built up from the lengthy meeting he'd had to endure. His heavy eyelids drooped as he placed his sweaty palms over his eyes and uttered a curse at the miniscule font of the documents that had caused them to sting.

Staff members wandered out of the room, chatting to one another and dispersing throughout the workplace. Ranveer's office was surrounded by glass on all four sides, allowing an unobstructed view of the cubicles as well as a clear overhead perspective of the capital.

Avinash looked up from the file, shaking his head. "Ranveer," he said, "you need to go home and rest for a while. It's been more than 24 hours since she was admitted and all you've been doing is running back and forth between work and the hospital. Go take care of yourself!"

Avinash's words would have made Ranveer chuckle, had his head not been pounding from the lack of sleep. The couches at the hospital were anything but comfortable and ergonomic, yet he'd been stuck there for the past thirty hours or so.

He spoke gruffly, saying, "She needs a companion and she is too proud to admit it". His mind filled with the sight of her tear-streaked face before he dashed off to his office.

"She has her father and her sister at her side!"

Ranveer's frustration was uttered in a huffy sigh. "Her father?" He scoffed, his laugh filling the room. "She needs someone to help her out of this mess, not drag her deeper into it," he continued, "and her sister is almost ten years younger than her."

Ranveer rose from his plush revolving chair, straightening his shirt. "If there's anything I can do to help, let me know," he said before placing a hand on Avinash's tense shoulder for a brief moment. Then, he made his way towards the exit without waiting for a response from his bosom friend.

Avinash tossed the documents onto the desk and spun around to Ranveer, his hands resting on his hips. "You are only asking for heartbreak," he said in a stern voice. "If she was in your situation, do you think she'd stay up all night and not eat just to be by your side? Would she even come to the hospital? I don't think so!"

"I developed strong feelings for her, not the other way around. It would be wrong to demand that she does things in return like I do for her, and I never intended to add to the already unreasonable expectations placed upon her," said Ranveer with a sense of finality in his voice that made Avinash sigh with resignation.

Ranveer's response was curt, "I know what I'm doing, Avinash. It's not like that. I just want to be there for her. I want to make sure she's okay."

Avinash exhaled a deep breath, realizing that Ranveer was unlikely to budge on the matter. "Fine," he said, "but promise me one thing. Promise me that you'll take care of yourself too. You can't help her if you're so exhausted that you can barely stand."

Ranveer nodded, gratitude in his eyes. "I promise," he said, before turning and leaving the office.

The hospital was only a few blocks away from Ranveer's workplace, and he found himself walking there without realizing it. His mind was preoccupied with thoughts of her, of the way she looked so small and fragile in the hospital bed. He couldn't shake the feeling that he needed to be there for her, no matter what.

****

To ease his throbbing headache after the nurse informed him that Suhani wasn't in her room, Ranveer opted to order himself a double espresso. He assumed she had been taken for further testing to uncover the cause of her strange illness.

With a piping hot drink in his hand, he turned to face the rest of the canteen and caught sight of Yukti Malhotra, sitting alone in the corner with a sullen expression. Frowning slightly and squinting his eyes, he felt compelled to approach her. Before he knew it, he found himself making his way towards the young lady.

As he got closer, he called out her name: "Yukti?" Seeing the dried tear tracks on her face and the redness in her eyes made his heart drop and his blood run cold. His anxiety only grew when she stopped crying and hurried into his arms for comfort.

Caught off guard, Ranveer silently thanked his lucky stars for not spilling his coffee on either of them as he placed it down on the nearby table. It was where the younger Malhotra sister was sitting alone, looking desolate.

"Yukti, dear, is everything okay?" he asked, his voice strained with worry. The tears soaking through his shirt only added to his fears about Suhani's well-being.

"It's nothing... everything is not alright, Bhaiya!" His throat clenched as he tried to speak. "It never has been! Di... Didi..."

Her chest heaves with violent sobs as she grips his linen shirt in a tight, shaking grasp. Yukti's desperate hold on him sends a chill of fear down his spine, coiling tightly around his heart like a constrictor. He struggles to keep his balance, feeling his legs weaken and wobble uncontrollably like a loose stone being swept away by a raging river. They both need to sit before they collapse, but with each passing moment, the chances of that happening grow slimmer.

His panting breaths stuttered out as he pleaded, "L-let's sit..." But she tore herself away from his grasp, her eyes brimming with fiery tears. "I can't... I won't sit and watch anymore, Bhaiyya! I refuse to stay silent and do nothing!"

Yukti's explosive outburst pierced through the bustling cafeteria, sending everyone into a momentary freeze. But for Ranveer, it was just a distant echo compared to the thundering of his racing heart and the deafening screams inside his head. His senses were numbed, unable to register anything else but the trembling figure in front of him. The hollows under his eyes were sunken deeper as he stared unblinkingly, haunted by the ashen features of the subject of their conversation.

The silence between them is heavy with unspoken words, seething with the weight of a secret kept for far too long. She raises her voice, her words biting and sharp as she finally breaks her vow of silence. "I let my fears consume me, and in doing so, I protected that vile creature," she spits, her tone laced with venom and tears running down her flushed face. "He paid too little for the pain he inflicted on us both!" Her voice rises to a scream, full of rage and regret as she unleashes years of pent-up anger and hurt.

Her voice trembled with raw fury as she unleashed the painful truth. "I couldn't even muster the strength to speak up, to confront my deepest fears. I was paralyzed by the thought of being labeled as a rapist's daughter- the very thought that I was violated by my own father, who also violated my cousin for years. Allowing her to stay silent only shielded that vile monster from justice." Her voice dripped with bitterness and venom as she spat out the words, her face contorted with a mix of tears, anger, and agony.