by M. V. Kasi
“Was Dr. Kranthi notified?”
“No. There are no phone or internet signals in those areas. It will be a good couple of weeks before anyone can notify him or reach him.”
“The truth pills from pharmacy?”
“Already shipped to the postal address.”
“Good.”
Listening to Ajay and Harsha, Sia felt hope.
Maybe there was a third option. An option other than going to jail or being a lifelong fugitive.
There was now a fighting chance to be free.
After the update, Harsha left, promising to stay in touch with updates on the ongoing investigation.
As soon as she closed the door, Sia asked Ajay a burning question. “Why did you do it?” she asked.
“Get in touch with you as MafiaBoy?”
“No. Harsha gave me some of the details. And I don’t care about it anymore. But everything else, Ajay. Why did you risk your freedom for my sake?”
He didn’t hesitate to reply. “Because I love you,” he said.
Those four words made her insanely happy and also incredibly sad at the same time.
“I don’t know if love if really worth one’s freedom,” she told him softly.
“It is definitely worth for me. Don’t ever doubt it,” he said.
Her heart leaped at his words. Since the time she could recall, other than Ajay, no one had ever displayed that kind of unconditional love towards her.
“I love you too, Ajay,” she said, giving him the words. She only wished she had repeated them more often.
But this time, Ajay remained quiet. And she could literally feel the waves of his disbelief.
Her heart clenched at the knowledge that she made a man such as him doubt his worth to be loved unconditionally in return.
“I have always loved you, Ajay. Desperately. How could I not?” she asked. “You were the only one who made me feel safe and well-loved. You have the power to make me feel worthy. You still do.”
“Then why did you leave me? Why didn’t you stay to fight together? Why do you want to do everything alone?” he asked.
In his words, she heard the pain of rejection and heartbreak.
“I wanted to protect you. I had to distance myself from you and Anika. So that if and when I was caught, you both wouldn’t be dragged in it,” she said.
He stared at her for a second and laughed out loud. And it wasn’t in amusement. “We both make quite a pair,” he said.
“Why?” she asked softly.
“You had murder on your mind, Sia. I knew it. And I tried my best to blackmail you emotionally to discourage you from that path. I wanted to protect you. Because I knew that if you go ahead with it, then I would lose you completely. You would have been killed or arrested or worse, haunted by it all your life.”
When she didn’t reply, he continued. “I knew right from the day your uncle and the others were caught during the child trafficking bust, they would be released from the jail using their political influences.”
She reared back and she stared at him with widened eyes.
He smiled sadly. “Yes. I knew right then, that in order to finish what you started; your uncle and maybe a few other pedophiles had to die. I just didn’t want you to be the one to do it.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I was planning on doing it.”
“What?” she asked in shock.
“Yes. I was putting together a premeditated plan to assassinate your uncle and the others without any suspicion. It was to happen after I had baited them with a possibility of having willing children for them to corrupt. Then suddenly, you dropped a bomb on me by wanting to divorce me. If I had told you of my plans, you would have stopped me with your misguided attempt to protect me. Even then, I tried my best to make you change your mind, asking you to choose between family and your revenge. It was unfair, but I felt compelled to do it.”
Heartbreakingly, she had chosen revenge over her family or happiness. “I’m sorry,” she whispered,
“Don’t be,” he said. “Believe me, I understand. You wanted to stop him from destroying other children’s lives at the cost of your own happiness. Not many women or men can make that call.”
“I still feel that way, Ajay,” she confessed.
“I know. I’m proud of you for your determination. But lucky for us, we don’t have to sacrifice our happiness or freedom. Your uncle is going to lose everything. He’s going to jail and then he’s going to lose his life,” he promised.
She nodded. When they began to eat, she asked another thing that had been haunting her since that morning. “What about Jyothika? This is the second time I’ve come in between her engagement to you,” she said.
Ajay looked amused. “I was never engaged to Jo. Harsha was,” he said.
“What?”
“I knew what was running through Varun’s brain that day when he followed Jo, Harsha and me to the jewellery store. I didn’t correct him and I deliberately let you think I moved on.”
She felt relieved that he didn’t jump into another relationship even though she had practically pushed him towards it. “So Jyothika picked Harsha over you?” she asked, unable to believe it.
He smiled. “Yes. Because she finally knew that he was crazy about her, and also because she loved him back equally.”
“Really?” she asked, looking unconvinced.
“Yes. Jo told me that the love she felt for me until recently was simply a longing for a childhood fantasy she had for a very long time since she was a little girl. She just wanted to love a boy who had desperately needed it at that point. And I did need her friendship and love,” he said, smiling fondly. “But over the last few months, she realized that a woman’s love was vastly different from a girl’s. Harsha was the one who showed her that. Jo’s family is thrilled. Especially her mother.”
“I see.” Sia was still skeptical. How could anyone not remain in love with Ajay?
He pulled her close, chuckling. “Even if Jo wanted to pick me, I wouldn’t have agreed.”
“Why?” she asked softly.
“I already told you why.”
“Tell me again,” she said. She would never be tired of listening to those words from him.
“Because, I love you,” he said, smiling.
And then she remembered something else. “What about me? Don’t you have any questions about me living with Varun? Or him staying here with me for a while? Won’t you ask if I cheated during that time?”
He didn’t even before for a second, before he answered. “Frankly, no.”
“Why not? Especially with a past like mine. You must know that by most people’s standards, you’d be considered crazy to get back to someone like me.”
He nipped her ear playfully, “You did have quite a wild past,” he said.
When she didn’t comment or react, he pulled away to look at her. Slowly his expression turned serious. “Sia, what you and I have... no one can understand it. And that’s okay. It might be crazy, but it’s real, and it’s how we both are. I’ve already told you this. We’re going to be together, no matter what.”
Listening to the conviction in his voice, her mind began to ease and she began to believe in what he was saying.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
Jagadish Naidu was arrested on the murder charges of Judge Sundaram.
It was utter chaos inside the police office where he was being questioned. Mindful to his status, he was offered a glass of juice which he drank owing to the heat in the overcrowded room. Also upon special requests, they let Ajay and Sia stand outside the room where they were visible to Jagadish Naidu.
“It’s a clear cut case Mr. Jagadish Naidu. Your DNA and fingerprints were found around the victim’s house. We also feel, there is enough evidence for your motive as well. Videos of you molesting young children were found in Judge Sundaram’s safe box at his house. I’m sure there must have been some sort of disagreement or blackmail attempt by the judge, due to w
hich you were driven to murder. And we also found large financial transactions made to Judge Sundaram’s account from yours.”
“Is that true, Mr. Naidu?” one of the officers questioned.
“I’ve told you several times! I’m innocent! They framed me!” Jagadish Naidu pointed at Sia and Ajay.
“Framed you how, Mr. Naidu?” the officer asked in a condescending manner.
“I don’t know. But I know she must have killed Judge Sundaram.”
“What would be Mrs. Manthena’s motive?”
“She hates me. She wants to ruin my reputation until I’m left with nothing.”
“Mr. Naidu, there is no need to be dramatic. Did you or did you not exchange several calls with Judge Sundaram before visiting him on the evening of his murder?”
“I didn’t call him! And neither were those pictures or videos sent to me on my phone by him that day. I don’t know how the calls or the messages—”
“Mr. Naidu, that’s for the investigation team to decide. And we haven’t found any strange anomalies—”
“That’s because of him!” Jagadish Naidu pointed at Ajay. “He’s capable of anything. In fact I think he must have killed Judge Sundaram.”
“Mr. Naidu, first you blamed at your niece. And now her husband, who was also not present at that time. They both have no motive to kill Judge Sundaram. It was your car, your DNA, your call logs, and last but not the least, your gun with your fingerprints! And aside from murder, the videos of you and the children are criminal enough to—”
There was a manic light in Jagadish Naidu’s eyes. “I’m being framed. They are in this together!”
“Why? You niece was even getting divorced, even though she knew she would lose the vast property from the Naidu Estate. What would motivate her to frame you if she already had the money and was willingly to give it all up?”
“I know it’s her.”
“That’s not enough. We want to know why!”
“Because I touched her when she was a child. And now she wants to pay me back.”
“Sir—” Jagadish Naidu’s lawyer protested. “Please don’t say—”
“What do you mean touched? Touched her how? Can you please be clear?” the officer pressed, cutting off the young defense lawyer. None of the competent defense lawyers were available to take up the case. The one’s Jagadish Naidu used to have on his payroll, had mysteriously remained silent. Maybe because they knew he lacked funds to pay them and also because there was no way in hell, anyone could get him out of this case.
“I had sexual relations with her!” Jagadish Naidu said, ignoring his lawyer.
There was a stunned silence. Even Jagadish Naidu’s lawyer was shocked as well. But he composed himself. “Sir, that’s enough. You don’t have to say anything.”
“I have nothing to hide now. I’m being framed for a murder I didn’t commit!”
“Mr. Jagadish Naidu, can you please elaborate on what you mean by sexual relations with your niece when she was a child? From the information we have, your niece left the country when she was nine. How can an adult have sexual relations with a child? Unless it’s rape.”
“It was consensual,” Jagadish Naidu immediately answered, brushing it off. “All the relations I’ve had, they have always been consensual. But after all these years, she remembers it differently. They all do!”
“They? Who else apart from your niece?”
“A few over the years. But there is another man who wants to get back at me for the same reason. He was with her when they tried framing me during the Citizen Hotel event. So even now, he must have been with her, planning all along to frame me.”
“Sir. First you said it was Mrs. Manthena, then her husband. And now, you are accusing another man. I’m not sure—”
“They are all in it together. And that man—” He pointed at Ajay. “He is quite capable of killing a person in cold blood!”
“Mr. Naidu—”
“He killed his father!”
There was absolute silence.
“What?”
“Yes, he killed his father who was in the military.”
“As far as we know, the investigation did not show a prior arrest record for Mr. Manthena. When was this?”
“When Ajay was seven,” Jagadish Naidu replied.
There was silence.
“Sir, I know you are under severe mental stress. With your wife passing away, your political career on hold. Your family and friends are also concerned about your erratic behavior. Would you like to plead guilty due to mental illness? Your sentence will—”
“I’m not crazy!”
“Then how do you think a boy of seven can kill a grown man who has been in the military? That too his own father? And why wouldn’t there be a record of any such thing happening?”
“He... he...” Jagadish Naidu shook his head. He began to squint in an erratic manner and shake his head. “It’s true. My wife helped him cover it up. I didn’t see the need to oppose her.”
“Sir, even if what you are saying is true. You will be considered an accomplice to a murder that happened when Mr. Manthena was seven.”
“I don’t care! They took everything from me. I want to see them get punished!”
“So to punish them, you are trying to place the murder you did on to them?”
“Yes!” he shouted. And then, he thought and shouted. “No! They are the murderers!”
But, by then it was too late.
They got everything on record.
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
“I think his fate is pretty much sealed,” said Ajay as soon as he and Sia arrived home.
Sia shook her head. “Until he is behind the bars and remains that way for a while, I don’t trust the system,” she said.
“This time, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure he is not released under any circumstances.”
“What if they realize there are chemicals in his bloodstream making him speak the truth?”
“They won’t. It’s not like he slurred or anything. There is no reason for them to do it.”
Listening to his statement, she let loose her biggest fear. “I sometimes still wish you had stayed away from all this, Ajay. You got involved with me again, and now... you lost your innocence by killing a man for my sake.”
She took a deep breath. “I was mentally prepared to take a life. Even then, I hesitated at the last minute. Now... his murder is going to haunt you, Ajay. I didn’t want that.”
“I lost my innocence a long time ago at the age of seven, Sia”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“When I killed my father,” he said.
“What?” she asked stunned. When her uncle was accusing Ajay for his father’s murder, she had thought it was a mad raving from man who has been pushed to the limits due to the chemicals pumped into his body.
Ajay’s face turned into a stone, revealing no emotions. “I killed my father,” he repeated. “I deliberately pushed him into the water and let him drown. Even though he begged for help until he was dragged down into his watery grave.”
Sia was quiet, trying to digest the revelation.
“And you know what the most disturbing part is?” Ajay asked. “That I still have no remorse. Not even for a moment have I felt bad about killing my father. Given another chance, I would have done it again.”
“But, why?” she asked him softly.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, she could see the darkness of his past that still haunted him.
“Because... when my father was drunk, he turned into an animal that attacked my mother and beat the shit out of me.”
She didn’t say anything. She simply waited until he finished before she could offer him any kind of comfort.
“My father was in the Army. My mother had told me that it was the war that had messed up with his mind. That made him drink and be violent with his wife and son. Apparently, he wasn’t like that before. She told me th
at he loved us both. But after a while, I didn’t care about the reasons. I just wanted him to stop. I wanted to protect my mother from his abuse.”
He watched her with a vulnerable look on his face. “When I was seven, my father visited us during my holidays. And by then, I already began to dread his visits.”
“On that particular day, my mother worked hard. She cleaned the house thoroughly, prepared all his favorite dishes... But when he came home, he hit her because there wasn’t enough salt in some dish.”
He scoffed bitterly.
“I still remember that there was nothing wrong with the dish my mother had prepared. My father just needed an excuse. When I intervened, he turned on me. My mother tried to protect me, and in the process, she was hit so hard that she lost conscious. There was so much blood from the cut on her head that I thought she was dead.”
He turned to look at her with a devastated look of a small boy who was recalling the incident clearly. Her heart broke that Ajay had to witness such violence at a young age.
“And guess what he did next? After knocking his wife unconscious?”
“What?” she asked.
“He went out for a smoke,” he spit out. “I was so angry and mad thinking that he killed my mother that I marched towards him and I pushed him into the well in our backyard. The well was the kind that had a very short wall around it and offered little safety. He was sitting on it and smoking.”
“He was so drunk that he couldn’t even shout much. I didn’t even bother to get help. I wanted him dead.”
“What did your mother do when she gained conscious?” she asked softly.
“She knew I was responsible. I confessed to her as well but she decided to take the blame.”
“Then why wasn’t she arrested?” Sia asked. She also didn’t think the school in the village would have hired a murder suspect.
“Your uncle’s wife helped us,” he said quietly, shocking her. “Our neighbor, an old woman knew what happened and she told your uncle’s wife. Mrs. Geetha Naidu made sure the police thought it was an accident. She even got my mother a job as a teacher in the local school.”