‘Okay. Thanks.’ Santhosh moved away from the desk already concentrating on the names in the list. I followed him. We sat in the chairs meant for patients who were waiting.
‘See here Meera.’
‘Deepthi.’ I corrected him for the umpteenth time. I had already got frustrated.
‘See here. Deepthi’s name is in the list.’
‘My name should be there right? I was here for treatment. You told me that. I was coming back …’
‘Look at the last column.’ He said and pointed to the column.
I was shocked. ‘Dead!!’ he said. ‘Deepthi is dead. Please understand. You are Meera.’
I couldn’t take it anymore. I tore the paper and said with a huge cry ‘I am Deepthi. Please trust me. I am a dancer. I had dreams of building OOHomes with Nakul.’. I had even started the work…’
‘How did you know that name?’ He asked.
‘Which name?’
‘Nakul?’ he looked surprised.
‘You know him? You have read his books?’ I couldn’t understand what he was asking.
‘I had not mentioned Nakul when I told you the story. How did you get to know that name Meera?’ he asked sounding dull.
‘I am not Meera. I am Deepthi. And what story are you talking about?’ I asked.
‘Never mind.’ He thought a bit and looked at the report again. ‘Ashruth’ he said.
‘What?’ I couldn’t recollect any of the names he was uttering.
He took me to the house we had been knocking as soon as we entered the hospital. He told me we were going to Ashruth’s house. The door was still closed. He shushed me and asked me to stay put. He vanished somewhere. I was tense as I did not know where I was and why I was standing there.
After a few minutes the door opened. The tension deepened in me. I was ready to run away before the person who opened the door could see me. But before the door opened fully a hand pulled me inside. And shut the door behind. I was terrified and was about to scream. But a hand closed my mouth as hard as it could. I turned and to my surprise it was Santhosh, the guy who took me there.
‘How did you come in here?’ I asked with the lowest decibel I could as he warned me not to shout.
‘I climbed through the pipe and jumped in through the balcony from the backside of the apartment.’ He said.
‘Why are we here?’ I asked as he went inside, exploring the house. When we reached the bedroom we heard the front door knob clicking. He locked the two of us inside the bathroom. He looked terrified.
Few seconds passed. We heard the door getting opened, someone entering and the door getting closed. We heard a girl humming a song from the bedroom we were in. He opened the door slightly and the girl was halfway removing her skirt. He closed the door instantaneously which surprised me. I was sure by then that I did not trust a bad guy.
‘What’s happening?’ I asked under my breath.
‘Shu! I don’t understand myself.’ He said.
The humming came closer and closer. She was standing so close to the bathroom. We were drenched with sweat and our faces were dipped in fear. He held my hand. I felt the tension in his hand as well. The bathroom door knob turned. We stood in a position which will make us go behind the door if the door was opened. He was ready to hit the girl. The door was about to get pushed open while a phone rang. The phone kept ringing for the next few seconds which made us draw few molecules of oxygen.
He went to the other side quickly and peered through the small opening. She dropped herself on the bed and put the phone in speakers. ‘Hi honey.’ A male spoke.
‘Hi Ashru. When are you coming? I am all set for a beautiful evening together.’ She said with blush turning her cheek reflected on the mirror turn pink.
‘I guess my Sheela darling is in full mood today. I am struck with an operation, plumpy. I will be back in an hour.’
‘Why do you have to work so hard? Work is more important than the time you spend with me?’ she asked sounding sluttier.
‘Just for few more days Sheela. Wait until I marry Meera and she dies as my wife according to your plan. That idiot Prabhu will hand over his property to me himself. Just wait and watch.’ He said.
‘We needn’t have waited so long if things had gone according to our plan. Never mind we still made it up.’ She said.
‘Ok my darling. I am disconnecting the call now to attend patients. Till I come you have fun watching television. Love you babe.’ He said and the call got disconnected.
Santhosh asked me to stay inside the bathroom. I did as he said. He went out and shut the door behind him. I could hear the two talking.
‘Who the hell are you? Take your hands off me.’ the girl shouted.
‘Shut up. Will you?’ I heard San.
I couldn’t contain my curiosity to know what was happening outside and how it had anything to do with me. One thing was clear, I could trust this guy and he was trying to help me. I peered through the door and I was shocked. Santhosh was lying on top of Sheela, stopping her stretched arm from reaching her phone.
‘Meera, come and pick that phone.’ He shouted.
I wanted to bang on his head and say that I was not Meera but he was in danger. I found myself responsible to help him. I ran and picked the phone. He pinned both her hands behind her and asked me to give him my dupatta. With his other hand he closed her mouth very hard. I tied her hands behind her and he stuffed his handkerchief in her mouth.
‘Bring that’ He pointed at the dining table which was outside the room.
I ran to the table and brought the apple tray wondering why he wanted to eat apples in such a tensed scene. He picked the knife and held it against her throat.
‘Hey! Wait. What are you doing?’ the fear trickled deep into my viens.
He ignored me and asked me to sit in a chair that was at a corner. I obeyed like a tamed animal. I did not have the guts to utter the next word or to disobey.
‘Tell me now. Who the hell are you? Why are you with Ashruth? Tell me all that you know.’ He pulled out the kerchief that was stuffed into her mouth. She coughed a few times.
‘You think I won’t harm you? I will do anything for my Meera, even a murder to make her life happy.’ He said and continuously slapped her.
‘You bitch. How could you do something like this to a person like my Meera? You snatched another girl’s boy friend for money. If all that you need is money and sex aren’t you called a prostitute?’ he spoke in anger and slapped her again.
‘Stop it. Don’t call me that.’ She said with tears flooding out and anger brimming in her eyes. Those pair of eyes became red.
‘What else do you call someone who wants to have sex with someone else’s boy friend just for money?’ he slapped her like an angry beast.
‘Stop it. Stop it please. Ashruth and I had been seeing each other right from childhood.’ She cried. I am sure it would have pained her more than what she showed. Even looking at the way Santhosh slapped her, I experienced pain. But I was sure of one thing; she was a bad woman who had ugly plans for money. That much I could fathom from what was happening.
‘Please don’t hit me. I will tell you everything.’ She begged him and began narrating the story.
20: Sheela’s version
‘Ashruth and I were in love right from our high school. I was there with him when he had lost his parents. We weren’t rich enough, not as much as we wanted to be. We wanted money, more and more money. That’s the reason why we studied hard and took medicine. We started this hospital with all the money we had. That’s when your uncle Prabhu, the stupid rich businessman, wanted to enter medical sector and start a hospital. Our eyes narrowed on him. I arranged for the accidental meet ups between Ashruth and him. I made the meetings happen in ways that it impressed him. We just targeted the few crores he wanted to invest in his new hospital project but we were fools. We did not notice the easy way to loot all his property. We did not know about the trump card named Meera.
We laid a trap to get A
shruth married to Meera and later kill her after all the property was transferred to his name. He wanted to marry me once he grabbed everything from Prabhu, after Meera was gone. Everything worked as we had planned. We got to know about Meera and Rohan. We did not have to work a lot on her breakup with Rohan, we just brought his true colours to her notice and we got the needed result. Things were moving the way we wanted; even Prabhu was convinced to have Ashruth as his son-in-law. I was sure Meera would object, but luckily Ashruth read her diary and played a trick on her. I guessed that any girl who was already emotionally shaken would fall for acts like that and for sympathy. My guess was right, she fell for him.
Finally, Ashruth and I were happy after we were sure of living the rich life we wanted to. The wedding was confirmed. Meera was coming to meet him. I scripted a romance scene where he slides the ring into Meera’s hand and makes love to her. That was just to ensure that Meera doesn’t change her mind thereafter. I knew Meera was a kind of girl who wouldn’t even imagine breaking up once this scene happens to her.
Meera arrived. He tried to stage my script. He slid the ring in her hand and went close to kiss her. But Meera was very stubborn not to get physical before marriage. She did not even let him go beyond hugging. But she was so full of love FOR HIM.
He was happy that our efforts for so long ended fruitfully. He wanted to celebrate it with me. He compelled Meera to get back home immediately. But she refused to. So he took her for lunch and compelled her to leave for the airport directly from there. She left and I was so eager for him to come back.
I was waiting for him here. Both of us had a key to this house. The moment I opened the door, I pulled him in and hugged him tight. He swung the door behind him and kissed me deeply. I escaped from his grip and ran around the house. He chased me. We had fun running around. Finally, he got a grip and I was on his couch, under him.
Suddenly, the door swung open and there she was, Meera. Meera had forgotten to give him the ring that she had bought for him. She had come back all the way to give him the gift. We got up quickly and pretended like we had fallen on each other accidentally; as if nothing was happening between us. But Meera told us that it was too late and she had been looking at us running around.
She knew that it wasn’t love but money that was the motive behind the wedding. We were sure she would stop the wedding. She picked her phone to call you. We snatched her mobile. We had no other option but to make her unconscious with medicine till we could come up with an option to escape. We did not want to get caught by the police and didn’t want to lose the money at the same time. We were thinking about ways to escape and my phone rang. It was from the hospital telling us that there was a huge fire accident at the airport and people were to be brought here. Before I could finish tying her to the bed Meera’s phone beeped. It was your message asking her if she had boarded the flight. That message made it clear that you were informed that she was leaving and that you were expecting her to be at the airport.
Only then, the news channels started flashing the news about the fire accident. I switched off Meera’s mobile and broke it into pieces. Ashruth had to be there at the hospital to avoid people from coming here in search of him. He left Meera with me and headed to the hospital.
He treated a few patients with the thoughts about tricking Meera to believe in him again and finding ways to get the money we wanted. He couldn’t resist beyond a few patients. He came back home. His mobile phone rang and it was your uncle. Ashruth and I were terrified. We put the phone on speakers and attended the call.
You spoke with a tensed voice. You were asking him about Meera. You were sure that Meera was at the airport during the accident. He was thinking what to say but I was spontaneous. I put the phone on mute and told him the script, as usual, quickly.
He spoke with a sudden tone of panic, telling you that Meera had met with an accident and her face was fully burnt. He also warned you not to bring uncle quoting his heart problems. You said you were already ready to come but you did not get tickets to any flight. So you said you were coming here by car, Santhosh.
We went to the hospital planning to fake a dead body to be Meera, burning the face and placing oxygen mask. We managed to get a corpse and set it up like it was Meera being treated. You came, saw that and stayed here. Two days passed and we still had no clue what we had to do. We kept giving Meera anesthesia over and over again. We finally planned to kill Meera and at least escape from getting into trouble, if not the money. Even if Meera was dead, he could create sympathy and build another hospital in her name with her father’s money. Her name and a few tears would be enough, we thought.
That is when a girl named Deepthi came into the story. She was at the airport when the first accident happened. Her face was burnt a little and she was of the same height and age as Meera. She was hit by a heavy iron rod that had fallen on her head. We were too lucky as she had forgotten her past due to her injury. She was mentally unstable. No one recognized her and we found out that she was an orphan. We had not reported her medical status to anyone till then. See how lucky we were, she was treated by me, of all doctors in my hospital.
We killed Meera and burnt her face completely. We swapped her with Deepthi. I am a plastic surgeon. I reconstructed Deepthi’s face to be like Meera’s. I know you guys will trust Ashruth and will not suspect it even a wee bit if he told you it was her. We took advantage of that. Deepthi was already mentally too unstable and she had forgotten her past. Having read psychology a lot, I was sure that we could make Deepthi believe that she was Meera. Even if she regains her memory, she wouldn’t believe it herself. All this was just for a few months; after that she would become Ashruth’s wife and get trapped in our territory.
Things went on well. You believed her to be Meera. Ashruth recommended that you stay with uncle and aunt. He also made sure that you guys did not come here by threatening you that Meera’s mental state was unstable and she might go into coma if she strained herself. Everything went on perfectly fine.
Damn! You should have called Ashruth before coming. You would have never figured out if you had given us a clue. Ours was such a perfect plan.’ Sheela said. Santhosh had to threaten her with the knife on her throat, now and then, when she tried to stop it abruptly in the middle. He managed to get the whole story from her.
That’s when we heard the door opening. It was Ashruth.
‘Darling, where are you?’ he looked for her and entered the room. He was shocked. I quickly went to a safe spot behind Santhosh. The knife was still on her neck.
‘Santhosh, what are you doing here?’ Ashruth asked.
‘If you dare to take a step I will push the knife into her throat.’ Santhosh threatened.
‘Please…Please don’t harm her.’ Ashruth said. ‘I will explain everything. Don’t mistake us. She is like my sister.’ He added.
‘Shut up, you cheap. She told me everything.’ Santhosh said.
‘What? What did she tell you?’ Ashruth asked.
Santhosh played what he had recorded when she narrated the story and said ‘I will mail this to uncle. You know the power of money, don’t you? If he gets to know that you have done all this to his daughter he will send you behind bars for the rest of your life.’
Ashruth laughed and said ‘You won’t send it. You know well that your uncle is a heart patient. This case might cost you your uncle’s life.’
‘But there is more. See this.’ He showed the pictures in which Ashruth and Sheela were intimate. He had loaded Sheela’s memory card into his phone. I had no idea how I missed seeing him do it.
Ashruth tried to snatch the phone from Santhosh but the knife ensured that he did not reach anywhere close to us.
21: Back to the room
I took a long time to fathom what she told us. I thought to myself point by point to understand and clear the confusion.
‘He called me Meera and he wasn’t wrong. To him, I was Meera. But I am Deepthi, I know. Why should someone tell me? I know I am not Meera a
nd I am Deepthi. So Meera was in love with this doctor, Ashruth. She had come here to meet him. After she had left, this fellow had brought Sheela home. She had come back to give him the ring that she had forgotten previously and found him cheating on her. She wanted to stop the marriage but this moron, Ashruth, didn’t want her to mess it up. He had wanted to marry her for money.
But Meera’s family had thought that she was at the airport when the fire accident had happened. This fellow had taken advantage of the fire accident and the trust they had had on him. Since I had forgotten everything due to the accident, Sheela along with Ashruth, had operated on my face to make me look like Meera.’ I realized that my face was deformed from how it looked throughout my life, only then.
I wanted to touch my face and feel it but I didn’t know why I wasn’t able to lift my hand. I had been seeing complete darkness for a long time. I opened my eyes. I was in a car, resting my head on Meera’s cousin, Santhosh. I instantly withdrew my head away from him.
He was asleep and I could understand we had travelled for long. The moment I lifted my head from his shoulder he woke up. His eyes were puffy and red making it evident that he had cried for long. ‘He had lost his love, Meera, he must be in great pain.’
‘What happened?’ he managed to say. His throat got sore. Phlegm all over his respiratory system was make it difficult for him to breath.
‘Where are we? How did we come out from there?’I asked. I had no idea what happened to me when Ashruth and Santhosh were quarrelling with the photos. ‘I must have fainted in fright.’ I thought.
‘I will tell you.’ He just signaled me to stay silent.
I did not know where we were going but, again, I had no other option left but to trust him. A few minutes passed and he asked the driver to stop at a hotel. He paid the taxi driver some money and asked me to follow him. I did as he said. We lodged in a room. I was waiting to enter the room and I immediately went into the wash room. I badly wanted to look at my mirror reflection.
Just You, Me and a Secret Page 13