Tangled Ties

Walls Have Ears

Siya had barely recovered when a soft click echoed from the far corner.

Renu Bua smirked and pressed a button on the old-style audio player.

"Let's turn up the drama, shall we?" she said with eerie amusement.

Static buzzed for a second, and then—

Aryaa's voice.

Live, vulnerable, raw.

"I don't care what the elders say, Veer! I am her sister! Siya's been missing for FOUR DAYS and no one is even looking for her, no one has even said a word or mourn over her her disappearance, especially him!..... You know who I mean!"

Veer's voice came next, calm but growing sharp. "Stop it, Aryaa. Not a word more against Bhai. You don't know what he's going through. Neither you nor me nor anyone in this family can feel what he is feeling right now."

"I do!" Aryaa cried. "I do feel everything. She is my sister for god sake Veer!! She is my sister and he....he's drowning in his guilt, hiding in her room like a coward, clutching her dupatta and doing nothing! absolutely nothing! He should be out there looking for her! He should be fighting the world to find HIS WIFE as he calls her!" Aryaa said wearing a disappointed hurt expression on her face.

"He's hurt, Aryaa! More than anyone!....He is blaming himself for everything that happened! He is trying to look for her in whatever way he could! He loves her—"

"Really!? Then where is she, haan? Why can't I see my sister or him blaming himself? He is just sitting like a coward instead of searching for her. Why didn't he protect her? Why didn't he stop her before she slipped away if he loved her so much?" Aryaa's voice cracked. "My sister is out there somewhere, scared, alone... or maybe not even—"

"Don't!" Veer snapped, voice rising. "Don't you dare say something like that! She's alive. She's strong. She's Siya. He'll find her no matter what, we all will find her and nothing's gonna happen to her."

"Then prove it! Tell him to go find her! Save her! Bring her back home, instead of just clenching to her dupatta in her room!....or admit you and your perfect family failed her, especially your so called brother!"

"Enough Aryaa!" Veer thundered, the sound of a glass crashing filled the room. "I'm not saying anything to you that doesn't mean that you have the right to say anything about my family and my brother. You want someone to blame, right? Blame the people who took her! Not my brother. Not our love for her!"

A long pause.

Then the slam of a door.

Bang.

The recording cut off.

Silence returned — except for the trembling in Siya's breath and the thundering of her heart.

Her sister was breaking. Veer was breaking. And between them... lay her.

Renu clapped slowly, mockingly, as she stepped forward.

"Well...." she drawled, "That was dramatic. I should sell tickets."

Siya turned her head toward her slowly, disbelief flickering in her eyes. "You installed a mic... in their room?"

Renu smiled, tilting her head. "Oh sweetheart, not just theirs. Everyone's. The walls in that palace have ears. My ears."

She ran a finger across the dusty player.

"See, I didn't just plan your kidnapping. I planned the cracks. I knew who would break first. Who would fight. Who would turn on whom. And I've been listening... to every scream, every whisper, every falling tear."