Blood And Blossoms

Chapter XXXIII

The monsoon doesn't seems to end anytime sooner. The dark clouds are pouring themselves out. The drops hit the ground hard,while Mr. Sehgal sits on the edge of the bed with his eyes widened as his brows touches his hairline and mouth hung open, dropping on the ground. His body stiffened. It was after almost five months of coma that Mrs. Sehgal finally showed a body moment. After taking this in, Mr. Sehgal held Mrs. Sehgal by her shoulder, shaking her up, waking her up.
"Nitya... Nitya... Can you hear me? Please open your eyes, Nitya. Please." His eyes were almost filled up with tears of hope. And then, Nitya opened her nebula blue eyes.

After five months of darkness, the light enters.

The light falls into her eyes and she narrowed her eyes to adjust into the brightness. Mr. Sehgal cupped her face amd kissed her forehead. "I'm glad you are back to life."
And after months of silence, the first words that she uttered from her mouth were, "I want to meet her. The reason our son is dead."
"No Nitya. That's not needed. I'll take care of that. You've just woke up. You must be dizzy and weak. I'll have the doctor to check you."
"Please."
And can you deny the first wish of a person who just woke up after being in an unconscious state for so long? No you can't. But he did put forth the condition to pay a visit to hospital before, and when the doctor gave her a clean chit amd medications, they drove to 401, Shelter Heights, Borivali.
_________________________________________

Ting tong!
Ishika woke up hoping not to find Mr. Martin or Mr. Dark again, and even better option, to find a beautiful face with heavy eyes and messy hair of Parth.

But she was taken aback when she saw that pair of nebula blue eyes standing infront of her. And a tall figure with whitish hair wearing a coat was behind her.
"Mr. and Mrs. Sehgal."
"Yes. May we come in?"
"Sure. Have a seat."
They both sat on the sofa and Mr. Sehgal took in the surrounding with displeasure on his face. Obviously, how would you feel when you meet the killer of your son?

Ishika called Anaya from her room. As soon as she entered the hall, her eyes met the eyes of Mrs. Sehgal.
"Those eyes. They are just like Ayaan's." Anaya whispered to herself while Mr. Sehgal scowled looking at her.
"Genes."
"Sorry?"
"Ayaan inherited my genes, luckily!" She said in a cool manner highlighting the word luckily. And Anaya passed a weak smile to her.

"So you are Anaya. It was you." She tilted her head and looked at her with narrowed eyes and a thin smile on her face.
Ishika interrupted and said "If you too are here to accuse her for your son's murder than you are not welcomed."
To which Mr. Sehgal replied "Who do you think you are to talk to my wife like that? Do you know where you belong to? It's your luck that WE, The Sehgals are sitting here with people like you."
"Should I bring flowers to welcome you, then? When you deserve to be welcomed with thrones."
"And who are you to decide what I deserve?"
"The lawyer who went through the case of 2006." Mr. Sehgal's shoulder tensed and Ishika smirked.

Anaya knew about this case as little as she know the number of galaxies in the known universe. So she questioned "Which case?"
"I asked my friend to look upon the history of Sehgal's and Arora's and also the ugly tattooed man." Mr. Sehgal's finger was fidgeting.
"So?"
Before she can explain any further, the bell rang.

Ting tong!
"It must be Parth, wait."
As she opened the door, she welcomed the problem inside. It was the problem-maker Ahaan.
"Good that you are here. You must be interested in knowing about your family."
"What do you mean?"
"Come in."
When Ahaan entered inside, he was shocked to see the couple sitting of the sofa. "Nitya aunty. You are..."
"Alive. Yes. Back to life. Yes. Moving. Yes"
He ran and hugged Mrs. Sehgal and she embraced him. Tears rolled down his cheeks.
"I'm so happy to see you back."
"What are you doing here?" Mr. Sehgal asked as he broke the sweet moment with his butter voice.
"I... What are you doing here?"

Ting tong!
"What the hell! Who's it now?" Ishika said angrily.
"Whom else do you expect?" Parth's voice came from the outside.
"Finally he's here." She opened up the door for Parth and hit his head with her hand. "Ouch" he said with a wink.
"We don't have time for this. Come in fast."

Then the silence filled up the air with tension. Anaya, Ahaan and Parth were confused. Ishika had a smirk on her face and Mr. Sehgal was tensed. Mrs. Sehgal's expressions said that she knew what is coming ahead and she knows it's necessary.

Mrs. Sehgal sighed and broke the silence. "Okay so I'll start first. You know why am I here?"
"No" said Anaya.
"Well, five months ago when I heard about my son's murder, I had a stroke. And I was in coma since then. Woke up today."
Anaya's brows furrowed. Is she here to inform about her state of well-being?
"You know how this miracle happened? Viraj was talking about how you destroyed our lives and killed our son. And how he will ensure justice. So I'm here for justice."
"What do you mean? She got a bail today. And you don't have enough proofs." Parth said defensively.
"It's Ahaan's job to get the proofs. And dear, you failed." She said as she looked towards him.
"I'm sorry. I know I failed you. I failed Ayaan. I failed uncle."
"Oh no, baccha! You failed Ayaan. You failed me. Not your uncle."

Mr. Sehgal turned towards her with shock. "What are you talking about, Nitya?"
Mrs. Sehgal placed her hand on his shoulder, smiled and replied, "That you are manipulative person."
"Wait! I understand nothing." Anaya said and Parth agreed.

Ahaan stood there silently, waiting for Mrs. Sehgal to continue. She turned towards Ahaan and started speaking. "Ahaan..."

But before she can continue, Mr. Sehgal stood up and said "It's time to go home. Come on." He held her hand with force more than necessary. Ahaan saw that and freed her from his hold. He jerked his hand away and asked her to continue.

"I'll tell you the truth and you have to bring justice to my son. Ahaan, Viraj manipulated you. He made you to believe that it was Anaya who murdered Ayaan. That Anaya appointed that man to shoot Ayaan. And you, you were already out of your mind after hearing the news. So you believed him. You saw him as a person who helped you years ago. You saw him as a father who lost his son. But what you didn't see was the monster behind this man. The man was appointed by him, to shoot Anaya."

Ahaan's eyes were filled with sense of betrayal. Tears of anger and hatred rolled. Anaya's hand flung towards her mouth and Ishika gasped while Parth's eyes almost came out. Mrs. Sehgal continued, "Ayaan loved Anaya. So he saved her life, sacrificing himself."
"How can this be possible? He... how?"

"She's not in her senses. She woke up a few hours ago. She didn't even know what happened after that. About other murders. And the proofs." Mr. Sehgal said and his voice was rough, rasp.

"I said you failed to find proofs, Ahaan. Don't fall for his words again. It's his nature. How do you think he made this empire? He keeps you under the burden of his favours, so that you won't lay a finger on him. It was his vengeance that led him to kill more people and frame Anaya for murders. Any murder for which Anaya is charged is by Viraj." She turned towards Mr. Sehgal "I was in coma but could hear your calls, honey."

"And why would I do that?" Mr. Sehgal asked with a tightened jaw. "You think that I have killed my son?"
"I said that you wanted to kill Anaya. Your son sacrificed his life for her and that made you vengeful."
"And why would I want to kill her?"
"I know you well dear. For you, the only thing that matters is your reputation and class. You didn't want your son to fall for a middle class girl and make her your daughter-in-law."

She turned to Ahaan again and said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stayed silent for so long."
"Don't apologize. You were in coma it's not your fault."
"I'm not talking about five months long time, I'm talking about 17 years long."
"What do you mean?"
"Let me answer this for you." Ishika interrupted. "It was Mr. Sehgal again. The reason you lost your father. That attack with the opposition was by Mr. Sehgal."

"My head hurts. I understand nothing. The man whom I worshipped for 17 years, whose favours I can never return is the one who caused all of this?"
"Yes."
"Please. Please elaborate."

Hey readers! The wait is over. The killer is finally out. Did you guessed it right? Well what actually happened? And what will Ahaan do further? And what about Anaya's and Ahaan's relationship? Stay tuned to know!