After The Rain

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Storm Rising

Arnav.

The meeting had gone longer than Arnav expected, and he felt his earlier exhaustion weigh on him as he re-entered his cabin.

He rested his elbows on his table and pressed his fingers to his eyes. He needed some coffee. He had barely eaten breakfast that morning, wanting to get to the office as soon as possible to look over the contracts. It was now, as he grew vaguely aware of the hammering at the back of his head, that he was reminded why it was unwise to skip his meals. He groaned and blindly stretched out an arm for his phone with the intent of ordering some food.

That was when the phone rang. The sound made the ache in his head more pronounced, and he swore under his breath before he picked it up. The shrill voice on the other side did nothing to improve his mood.

"Akash," he grumbled, "if you don't start making sense, I am hanging up."

"--you need to come home right now! Bhai, are you listening?"

Arnav frowned. His head was now positively pounding, and he had to strain before he could actually understand what his brother was saying.

"Bhai, you need come home! Shyam is up to something! We found--"

Finally catching up to what was being said to him, Arnav's back straightened. A sliver of something cold shot up his spine. "Shyam what?"

The pause that Akash took to take a deep breath had him almost swear in impatience.

"The camera—do you remember the cameras that NK Bhai had installed around the house to film the wedding?"

He did. NK had seen some online videos of Indian weddings and had wanted to make a similar one. So, he had planted several cameras around the house while carrying one with himself, shoving it everyone's face as they cross his path. Arnav had once almost broken NK's hand in an attempt to break that damned camera. But what did that have to do with anything? With Shyam?

"He put a camera outside too, and it, it captured something—Shyam, he--"

"Shyam what, Akash?"

"Bhai, Shyam was the one who tampered with the breaks of the car. He was the one who caused Khushi-ji's accident!"

It took a couple of seconds for the words to register in Arnav's mind. When it did, the cold that had gathered at the back of his neck shattered down the rest of his body.  After a split second's immobility, he jumped to his feet. His exhaustion laid forgotten in the face of the adrenaline that rushed through him.

"Akash, where's Khushi?" he asked. He was already on his way out of his cabin, his heart hammering inside his chest. "Did she leave yet?"

"She did," came Akash's voice, equally worried. "NK-Bhai is trying to call her but she's not picking up. We just called Payal-ji. She's in the hospital for Babu-ji's check-up with the rest of her family. Khushi-ji is alone--"

"I'm going there right now," Arnav said as he hurried into his car and started the engine without buckling his seatbelt. Something twisted in his stomach, pulling and tugging until he felt a bile rise up his throat. He ignored them all. "I'll look for Khushi. You contact the police and tell them to send someone to Gupta House for security. And go and find Di. Stay with her."

"Di--?"

"Just go and find her, Akash!"

"Bhai--"

"Goddammit, Akash!" Arnav yelled, punching his steering wheel before overtaking another car. His foot pressed on the accelerator harder than ever. "That car was supposed to be for Di! He was trying to—to hurt her!"