" I'm sor-"
"DON'T, JUST DON'T SAY IT. YOU DO NOT EVEN DESERVE TO SAY IT AFTER WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ME! I BEGGED YOU, SCREAMED AND PLEAD, BUT YOU DIDN'T HEED MY WORDS. THEN WHY SHOULD I!"
I yelled with tears streaming down my face when witnessing m...
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The events unfolding at the mansion remained shrouded in mystery, a fog of uncertainty that clung to my every thought. I was adrift, grappling with questions that had no answers, and the silence from Rafeeq Bhai only deepened my unease. Despite my repeated attempts to reach him, my calls went unanswered, each one met with the cold indifference of a voicemail. The only response I received was a cryptic text: "Everything will be explained when it clears up." The vagueness of it gnawed at me, leaving me to wonder what it even meant. Was it danger? A plan? Something else entirely? The not knowing was suffocating.
I reached out to Amina, hoping for some clarity, but she was just as lost as I was. Over the phone, her voice carried a quiet frustration as she explained that Rafeeq Bhai had been consumed by work, spending nearly all his time at the office. He rarely came home, she said, and when he did, he was distant, preoccupied. Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. Rafeeq Bhai was sacrificing his time, his energy, maybe even his peace, to protect me from something I didn't fully understand. The weight of that realization pressed heavily on my chest.
When I finally got through to Anjali Bhabhi, the floodgates opened. Tears spilled down my cheeks as her warm, reassuring voice came through the line. She promised she'd come to see me soon, once things were sorted, but her words, meant to comfort, only deepened my sense of helplessness. Everyone seemed to know more than I did, and yet no one was telling me anything.
The mansion itself mirrored my unease. A palpable tension hung in the air, like a storm waiting to break. Uncle Ashok, who had taken me under his wing, was on edge, his usual calm demeanor frayed at the seams. The incident with the restricted room had shaken him deeply. It wasn't that a guard had accessed the room; rather, the room had been left unguarded entirely. Uncle Ashok had taken all the bodyguards with him for Suhail's matter, leaving the area vulnerable. The maids, preoccupied with their household chores, hadn't noticed the guard slip into Sharmila's room. This increased the guilt level of Ashok Uncle as he should have thought twice before taking all the guards from the house.
But despite his self reproach, Uncle Ashok was a shield for me. True to his word, he kept Suhail at bay. I didn't know what history lay between them, but Suhail's presence sent a chill down my spine, and Uncle Ashok seemed to sense it. He had an almost uncanny ability to appear whenever Suhail got too close, as if he could sense the threat from across the mansion.
One incident, in particular, lingered in my mind, vivid and unsettling. I was walking down one of the mansion's long dimly lit hallways when I spotted Suhail approaching from the other end. His eyes locked onto mine, and my heart stuttered. I froze, my feet rooted to the polished marble floor, and he seemed to hesitate too, his expression unreadable. For a moment, the air between us crackled with tension. Then, like a guardian summoned from thin air, Uncle Ashok appeared. I could have sworn he'd been upstairs just moments before, but there he was, stepping between us with a quiet authority that filled the space. His presence was a wall, unyielding and protective. Suhail's lips curled into a smirk, his eyes rolling as he muttered something under his breath and turned away. Uncle Ashok watched him go, his face stern, before muttering, "Nowadays kids," with a mix of exasperation and disdain. I didn't know whether to laugh or feel relieved, but the moment left an impression, a reminder that I wasn't alone, even in this sprawling unfamiliar place.
