Loving The Liar

Chapter 37

Aadhya's POV

Dream

"Veer." Aadhya sobbed, tightening her grip over the file, hiding behind the tree. She never never thought that, all the frustration of the last twenty months would lead to her breakdown at such a moment. Sensing her cheeks were wet, she wiped the tears with the back on her palm.

She had always prepared herself for a run, a long run and a tough fight. But never for a breakdown in tears, in dark, in the darkest part of the alley surrounded by trees.

It wasn't pitch dark, but dark enough to help her camouflage. This made it impossible for her to open the file in her hand and read the name of her Papa's enemy, who wanted him dead. Good for her, there were streets lights around, giving her a good view of complete road.

"Aadhya? What happened?" His voice was full of concern and worry. She reminded herself to get a grip over herself but shuddered when she heard one of those yelling to others to check in the direction where she was lurking. She was to start panicking.

"Veer. Please. Help me out." She choked. Even the thumping of her  heart was audible. Sound of a bike approcing startled her. Jay, she mumbled. She could've asked his help only if she'd not killed his girlfriend the previous day.

He sped past her and directly went inside the compound of the godown, where the others were now going.

Unconsciously, her hand went to her back, to get her weapon. That's when she realized she'd lost it somewhere. There were already only three bullets in them left, and now she was completely weaponless, troubled and disturbed. Her weapon would've given her some sort of feeling of safety.

Pull yourself together, you idiot.

She inhaled and exhaled, slowly, deeply in order to even her breathing.

"There are four people behind me, may be five. I'm sharing my location. Try contacting the police. I have what I wanted and I'm ready to hand it to them." Words flew out of her mouth in hurry. She didn't have any time to care about the fact that if the police caught her, they might do the same thing to her. She immediately sent her location details.

"I'm coming." He said, making her slap her forehead. Why did she forgot that her man had always kept the doors if his brain shut when it comes to her. Today, she completely believed in the saying that love makes person blind.

"Veer, you are not. Hello? Veer?" She was too late to stop him. Why did I even called him, she thought.

All her fear were converted in worry, worry for her man who had no I idea where she's got herself into and where could he land for acting on impulse.

That's when, she saw a shift in her peripheral vision. She saw a woman, old one, proceeding in her direction.

Sudha Aunty! Aadhya recognized when the woman came under the street light. Sudha was clutching her handbag tightly and kept an eye on the complete surrounding. She kept looking back, over her shoulders while walking on the empty road with large trees by both the sides.

Aadhya waited for her to come closer, so that she could pull the woman in dark and advice her to go back.

But, why on the earth would a neurologist be walking on a dead street at this ungodly hour of the evening, in dark? Did she mistook it as a park to stroll?

When Sudha nearly few feet away, Aadhya leapt out of the darkness, onto the street forgetting about the five people she was hiding from. Sudha jumped back, frightened by Aadhya's sudden appearance out of darkness. Sudha's hand was over her heart, feeling the abruptly increased heartbeat.

"What are you doing here?" Aadhya asked while looking around since she was standing close to the street light. If any of her followers came out of the compound now, they'll spot her in a second. Her worries were starting to get converted into fear again, as she heard the rising snappy voices and snarls.

If they caught me, everything I worked for will be wasted, she thought and opened to file, searching for her Papa's photo.

"I'm her to meet my friend." Sudha said, but made a mistake of saying it aloud. Engrossed in the file, Aadhya missed note the loudness of woman's voice.

"No sane person would arrange a meeting here." Aadhya hissed, flipping through the pages of the file. Sudha snorted, disliking being advised by Aadhya.

Aadhya, then found the right page, with her Papa's photo stuck over the top. She slided her finger down the page to see the who's name was written, ignoring the confused look of Sudha.

'Sudha Sharma (spouse)' was written in black. This made Aadhya gasp. Her legs were to give put, but she managed to pull herself together.

Slowly, she looked up at an irritated and confused Sudha, appalled. There was no anger in Aadhya, but shock and confusion and disgust.

"You killed papa !."  It wasn't a question, but a statement, Sudha noted as she paled and her body went stiff. But her eyes, they suddenly turned from dead to alive. This told Aadhya that she was right, crumpling her expectations to be wrong. She shut the file.

Aadhya wasn't sure how to react when Sudha smiled, a smile that predators direct to their prey and yelled "I did". But Aadhya was sure if one thing that it had caught her seekers attention, since their chattering stopped.

Right now, she just wanted to slap and yell and even kill the woman in front of her who once had blamed her for her Papa's death.

"Why?" Was all she could utter and got an enraged reply "because of you". Aadhya couldn't register anything, because the images of Vivek Sharma hanging down the ceiling clogged her mind.

Her vision blurred just as her thinking, which therefore failed to hear Jay's voice, directing his friends in opposite direction and notice the small pocket knife in Sudha's hand.

"All because of you." Sudha whispered, now shaking in anger with a look of vengeance and stabbed Aadhya witg her pocket knife in the stomach, making her scream and catch the attention of her seekers which made her blood run cold. She pushed Sudha hard, out of her way and ran in the direction Sudha came from.

*_*_*

"No." A loud screech left my throat as I felt the pain of the knife stabbed in my stomach. Sweat beads were all over my forehead, dripping down to my eyelids. For some time it felt like air couldn't reach my lungs.

It was a great relief to know that I wasn't in that dark alley but in my room, lying on my bed in an awkward position without any knife, blood and pain.

Then it hit me. Oh God! Sudha had paid Thomas to kill her own husband. That ungrateful woman, what did she had against Papa. At least, she could've thought of Ishika.

For whole two years, I kept wondering who had such a huge grudge against him. I had listed all the people who could think of doing this to him, even his distant relatives, long ago fueds. But I forgot to consider the saying that we always keep our enemies closer.

Without my own acknowledgment, I was already out if my bed, on my legs, my breath infuriated, my body shivering in rage. I marched towards her door, which was shut on my face sometime back.

When I was in front of the door, my fist banged on the door, making the woman inside shriek. The pain from my fist was easy to bare as compared to the pain erupted in my stomach some while ago or the pain in my head.

In no time, she opened the door and greeted me with a shocked and annoyed face. When out eyes met, may be it was my looks or the fire in my eyes made a take a step back.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She hissed, but sounded like she was confused.

"Let me come straight to the point. Why did you killed papa?" My direct question was answered with a gasp and then paled and went stiff. Just like last time. But, she didn't loose her composure, like she was prepared this. Like she had expected me to remember everything and confront her.

Then she gave me a smile, that same smile, that same expressions. This time, she was holding a vase in her hands that were behind her. But, this time I was alert enough to register her movements quickly, of raising the vase in air to hit me.

Before it could come in contact with my skull, I jabbed my elbow onto her wrist, making the vase go off her hand and shatter. She instantly pulled her hand back before I could get a hold of it. She inspected it, since it went limp. I hoped that at least four of those eight bones in her wrist might be damaged.

Her distraction was enough for me to take her down, but instead the vibration of my phone in my pocket distracted me. It gave the extra alert Sudha enough time to bring her unharmed hand to my face and hit my head against the doorframe.

At first, I didn't feel any pain but saw two sudha standing in front of me, with the wicked smile pasted on both of their faces. I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear out my vision and even hit the side if my head. But then, suddenly everything blackened out as I collapsed, hitting my head again on the floor.

*_*_*

Ishika was sitting in her cabin, analyzing the report of the experiment she'd conducted over chemical neurotransmitter. She pulled out one more chocolate stick from the packet beside her and held it between her teeth, playing with it and thinking about the changes needed in the experiment.

It was already late, nearly an hour after she called Aadhya. Ishika just wanted to go back home and drop on the bed, but her work was too much important, and she had to finish them off if she wanted the vacation of two weeks for her wedding.

When she was placing the packet back on the desk, her eyes stuck on the file, it accidentally dropped, spilling all her favourite chocolates on the floor. Ishika pouted, watching her chocolate sticks rolling and spread all around on the floor

Then, she got off her chair and kneeled down to pick up her wasted treasure when she spotted a box under her table. Clearing the mess around her and putting all the chocolates in dustbin with a heavy heart, she pulled out the box.

Aadhya's possession, she recalled. That day, they didn't go through the whole box completely, as they found her locket with four photos. It wasn't good manners to go through other's stuff, but something, may be her sixth sense told her to do so.

Ishika went through Aadhya's clothes and found a half burnt file kept below them. 'This the file Aadhya was talking about?' She questioned herself and thought that the only answer was to open it. So she did.

She silently went through first few pages with few details visible, few burnt, until one page turned up with her father's half burnt photo. But what had really caught her attention was the name of her mother written with black ink in the section of 'contract given by'.

The words in black had swept the ground beneath her. She gasped and let herself fall, hitting the floor with a thud. There were tears in the corner of her eyes and gaze was so lost.

Kabir walked in the same time, confused to find her not on her seat but on the floor.

"Ishika?" His voice didn't reach her ears so he called her out again, softly curiously glancing at the burnt file lying in front of her. She slowly lifted her eyes from the file to her love.

Kabir, who was taken aback by the look on her face, immediately rushed to her and kneeled in front of her, putting his hand on her shoulder. Her expressions were similar to the once when she saw her father's dead body, and this made him worried sick.

"Om." Ishika whispered, in an emotionless voice. "Call Aadhya."

*_*_*

I woke up feeling the constant vibration on my thigh. My head was hammering. When my sleepy eyes opened, the sudden exposure to light made me close them again.

I tried to lift my hand, to get my phone but couldn't. My eyes snapped open with some uncertainty as I felt my hands to be restrained. Indeed it was. My both hands and ankles were chained with those silver chains and were locked. Even my mid body was chained to the back of the wooed chain I was sitting on.

The place where I was sitting made my breath hitched. It wasn't a place that I'd like to come anytime. This place gave me nightmares.

It was the same library where I used to spend my free time. It was the same library where I used to hide my designs. It was the same library where I found Papa hanging from the ceiling.

"You are awake. Good." Sudha's voice made me realize that I wasn't alone here. Of course, she'd brought me here and chained me up. There she was, at the doorstep, grinning at me.

How badly do you want to punch her and slap that grin off her face?

So badly that I this time I won't even care that she was an elder.

Bile rose up to my mouth as I struggled to pull my wrist of the chains, to see if there was a loophole, so that I could help myself. But they were hell tight and impossible for me to help myself. I bet is was a nice show for her to watch me struggle. She placed the keys on the table besides her.

I wanted to yell at her, call her names and curse her, but couldn't because of the tape over my mouth. My phone was constantly vibrating.

"Don't strain." She advised, taking a plastic stool and sat in front of me. My raged expressions were quite hilarious to her. My jaws clenched as she smiled at me.

Then I saw the kitchen knife in her hand, which scared me a bit. But I did put up an unaffected face. She saw where my eyes were stuck and laughed, holding it in air.

"Don't worry, I'll give you a painless death." She gushed, making me feel like puking. Painless death, my foot.

Wasn't she a doctor?

Right now, she's a pyscho. People like her are more dangerous. She's a lunatic person, a nutcase.

Then, I took a deep breath and decided to leave the situation in the hands of my destiny and watched her. She looked same, yet so different.

The sophisticated lady in her was long gone. Now who was sitting in front of me wasn't a woman I know, she wasn't a mother or a doctor but just a nutcase, a madwoman. And her expressions resembled those of the vampire's thirsty for blood, just like she was, for my blood.

Suddenly, she got up, took two long steps to reach in front of me and held my hand. Even before I could register, her knife had already pierced through my skin, slitting my wrist. Immediately, blood started seeping out of it.

I should've been used to this by now, since I've done this for a long time. But just like the say, you won't understand the feeling unless it happens to you. Watching the blood pouring out made me break out in cold sweat.

I could feel the quickened pulse of mine even though the cut wasn't that deep. She had deliberately slit my wrist not that deeply, because she wanted me to stay alive as long as possible. She wanted me to endure pain, of approaching death. She wanted see me go nuts because of this. But I wasn't going to give her what she wanted.

So, I stayed silent, still, watching myself bleed. As expected, she wasn't satisfied with my reaction and pulled the tape off my mouth. I still refrained from showing any reaction. If I were to die, that's okay if I could make her miserable, make her loose her mind.

"You are not going to say anything? Your Papa said a lot of things before he died." If she thought that she could shake me up by using him a bait, I'd to say, its a flop plan. She grunted

"Not even a last message to your dear Veer?"

I sucked in a deep breath as soon as she mentioned him. My poor Veer, I don't have any idea what he'll go through when he'll find me.

So at least for him, use your brain. Manipulate her. You can do it. Just keep talking, confusing her. Let her loose her mind.

I'll try.

"You think I'll beg for my life? But I won't." I challenged her. People like her, pyscho, had to be handled this way only.

"Why you won't?" She asked, and I could say that I was driving her mad.

"Why?" Was all I said, just to see her reaction. I knew that this word 'why' usually drove her to the edge. And that's what I wanted.

"You are the reason our happy family broke. You came, and then just everything went downhill. You snatched my husband.

You broke my little girl's heart. I've seen those days, when she cried for not having her father by her side. I've seen her wait for hours to hear her father's voice. You were an orphan, you should've known how much children crave for their parents love and time. But you snatched my little girl's happiness.

Then, he wasn't so blind always. I know he did it purposely, to give me headache. He never loved me, but always was in love with his died wife. He didn't care about me or my daughter. At last also, before he made that will, he made that will, he called me, to tell me about it.

This was what ticked me off. I was silent for a long time. But I won't anymore. I couldn't give away my rights to anyone, just because she was close to him. I couldn't. I told him this, then he threatened me saying he'd divorce me.

Was I a toy to him? No, I wasn't. Then, I decided to end his story and all my and my daughter's miseries. Thomas was my friend, who helped me with it. You know, if you didn't came in our life, he would've been still alive and we would've been a happy family."

Her accusations made me laugh. I broke her little girl's heart? I know I didn't, instead it was them and their never ending ego problems that broke her heart. I didn't snatch away her father, but she handed him to me, so that she could escape from the daily torture that their fights gave her.

Again, happy family, my foot.

My pant had soaked much of the blood it could and the rest made its way down my leg. I smiled sadly at the sight of my wrist still bleeding.

Was she trying to make me believe that it was my fault, so that I'd die in guilt. Or she was trying to justify her actions. Because it seems like she was trying to convince herself more them to myself that she did all this for her daughter.

If I'd succeed in provoking her more, there might me a way for me to try my luck and ask her unchain me. Before I could say anything, the door opened with a bang. Veer rushed in with Kabir and Ishika behind you.

Sudha went stiff as Ishika's heated gaze landed on her. Veer, ignoring everything, walked towards me, without a word and glanced at the locks and the slit, from where blood was still oozing out.

Kabir passed the keys to him, and he silently kneeled down, opening each and every lock. But I still noted the scared Veer behind his tough act, by the way his hands were shaking.

Ishika walked to me with glassy eyes and mumbled a sorry before joining Veer. Kabir stood at the doorstep, may be to prevent Sudha from leaving.

"You killed papa?" Ishika asked, without moving her eyes from the lock over my ankle. Sudha's eyes went wide.

"I'm sorry, baby. I.." She stammered. With the look on Ishika's face, I concluded that this was the only question she wanted to ask. Her mother, now was in tears, realizing that her daughter was no longer with her.

"I hate you." Ishika whispered in a very low determined voice. Yet her whisper was audible to everyone present in the room. She stood up walking away from me and stopped in front of her mother.

Sudha's eyes went wide at Ishika's declaration. This was the first time I saw Ishika shiver in anger. Veer, unaffected by the chaos around, continued to unchain me.

"No, you..you don't mean it. Yes, you don't mean it. I know.." Sudha was shattered and the pain of her broken heart was reflecting in her voice.

"You heard me right, Sudha Sharma. I HATE YOU." Ishika's voice echoed, filling the silence dispersed in the library. Sudha flinched. Kabir and I gasped at the same time, feeling the seriousness in her voice, feeling the hatred in her voice.

As soon as Veer finished unchaining me, he took out his white handkerchief and tied it around my wrist.

"Ishika." Her mother, who was in tears, stepped in front, forwarded her hand to take Ishika's. But she slapped her mother's hand away rudely. From her expressions, I could say that Ishika was furious, furious enough to hit anyone. I eyed Kabir to take her out.

Veer helped me to stand up. I could feel my legs giving out, so gripped his biceps tightly. He gave me a worried look, before pulling me out. But I stopped him.

Kabir took slow, calculated steps to reach Ishika and placed his hands on her shoulders lightly, just like a feather. She turned to him, looked into his eyes. I couldn't understand what message passed between them, in silence, but it made Ishika leave the room with sparing a glance at her weeping mother.

Sudha, at last, broke down and hit the floor, sobbing. Her eyes were stuck at the door, from where her daughter just left. May be, she was still hoping for her little girl to come back tell her that she was just kidding.

It was a bad sight, a sight I didn't appreciate. I know that I should've been cursing her for the miseries I and Ishika faced, but I couldn't. Instead I pitied her. Veer helped me to walk till her.

She looked up, at me. This was the first time she looked at me without anger or disdain. She was torn apart, by her own daughter. But she deserved it.

I went down to her level and said something, that I should've told years back.

"I never wanted to be an intruder, Sudha. I never wanted to break your family. Instead, I just wanted to be a part of your family."

Saying this, I got up and let Veer take me out. Ishika and Kabir were standing at the doorstep, with two car parked in front. Suddenly, dizziness again  hit me, making my vision blurry and stumble. Veer's eyes widened, realising that blood was still flowing from my wrist.

He swept me off my feet before I could've hit the ground. My eyes had already started to drop and I was feeling so sleepy, that I put my both the arms around his neck and closed my eyes.

"Ishika, Kabir, hurry up. She's loosing her consciousness." Panic was evident in his voice as we reached out to one of the car. Kabir, along with Ishika hurried to the car. Kabir opened the back door and Veer slided in with me on his lap. Both of them got into the front seats.

"Don't let her loose consciousness." Ishika warned.

"Aadhya?" Veer patted my cheeks while I just hummed in response. Sleep was so important to me. But he made me to sit up straight and tightened the kerchief around my wrist.

"Veer, I'm not gonna leave you. Don't worry." I said, as I noticed a small tear drop running across his cheeks.

"You always scare me by putting yourself in such situations." He complained, in a childish voice and sobbed. Even at that situation, a smiled and wrapped my arms about his neck.

"I have promised to marry you, and be a good wife. But I'll always annoy you too. And I'll love chocolates more than you" I said, trying to cheer him up. It worked as he looked up and smiled.

"Lucky chocolates." He mumbled.

"Why are you back so soon?" I asked, realizing that he was to come back tomorrow.

"I just wanted to surprise you, but instead got a surprise for myself." I laughed at his words and then only noticed that the other two were very much silent.

Of course, it would take time for Ishika to accept whatever she heard. Who could've believed that a famous neurologist would such a pyscho.

"How did you found me?" I asked, aware of the fact that if I stop talking I'll sleep.

"I found that half burnt today and saw  my mo..Sudha's name and then asked Kabir to call you. But you didn't received. So we called Veer, who lucky tapped your phone and we found your location." Ishika replied, just like how a robot would say.

"Ishika, its okay to let your emotions overpower you for sometime." I advised, knowing that she was holding everything inside her.

"And I'm sorry too." I whispered, but she heard it and turned back.

"Its not your fault. And I know its neither mine." She smiled, and made me smiled too as I realized that she understood my unsaid words. I yawned, feeling sleepy

"Here we are." Kabir said and hurried out of the car.

"Don't worry you'll be okay." Veer said, trying to convince himself more. I put my hands into his before getting down and sitting on the wheelchair.

"I'm okay, as long as you're with me." I said kissing his knuckles, before my eyes finally dropped.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

4445 words.

I'm thinking my next book. So I want you're opinion, should it me completely romantic, or like this one, mystery thriller and romantic.

Vote "comment" follow

Aruvi❤