Till The Count Of Five ✓

Chapter 54

Chapter 54

I've planted you and watched you grow. I don't believe your roots wanted more water than they could absorb.

Vee

16th May 2019, Thursday
7:00

I stared at the wall and turned slightly when Rishab and Roy came. When he had said early, I did not know this early. Roy nodded at me and Papa got up to shake hands with him.

"I hope you're fine meeting here," he said to them.

Roy shrugged and Rishab looked more than relieved. They sat down opposite to me and Papa sat next to me. I looked at Rishab, silently asking if he was okay with Papa here or if he wanted him to leave.

He simply stared at me and blurted out, "I helped Kiara."

"In what?" Roy asked.

I leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees. "In lying to Shay and promising her entry into a competition. Why?"

"You know? Wait, how much do you know?" He looked at me in surprise.

I raised an eyebrow. "Less than your involvement."

Embarrassed, he looked away. "She knew about me since March 2018, not Sameer's part but just who I am. At that party you threw, there, she saw. And–" He looked up.

"She blackmailed you?" I asked, unsure of my own words.

He shook his head. "There was this guy there, a waiter and she saw and–"

"A waiter?" Papa asked suddenly. I could see the chains in his mind moving, planning to talk to the staff. He'd handle it, I knew.

"What role did you play?" I asked.

Rishab sighed. "Vicky, please try to understand things first and then react. I did not know what she actually meant. That doesn't make me any less responsible but I thought she was doing the right thing. Ash had–"

"–copied Shay's painting and asked her to not participate, I know." My eyes slid to the clock. There was enough time.

"Ash was wrong. I've seen her do things wrong so many times. I just thought one interview done anonymously won't hurt. People don't even read the magazine. It'll give Ash a warning and out of caution, she'll stop."

"The article was never going to be printed," I remarked.

"We were talking to Shay on the phone when Ash came to her. She cut the call and as far as Kiara told me, she never heard from Shay until after things had already messed up."

Now that he had said this, I had to acknowledge Shay was equally wrong, if not more. Kiara wanted a fake interview but Shay just took it to another level. My own words echoed in my ears when I had told Ashiamma No one will remember. I didn't know about others but I remembered. I was not forgetting this any soon.

"That's why I ran," he said. "She had jumped and I began to freak out that the blame would land on me."

I narrowed my eyes. "Did you guys have contact after all of this happened?"

He looked guilty. "She blamed me just as much as she blamed Kiara for lying, and Ash of course for, well, everything. She was the one who added my photo to the school's system."

Roy's mouth fell. Papa muttered something under his breath and I was thankful when his phone rang and he left the room to take it. I, on the other hand, wanted to laugh. I really was friends with revenge seekers.