by Sana Shetty
“No, I didn’t.” Tarun denied hotly, his face turning red. “I tried to protect him. I helped him flee from here with all his…evidence. I thought he would get away. I told him to take Misha with him and leave the village. But then…then…I had no choice!” Tarun cried in anguish.
Vedant looked back at him in hatred, “Is that what you tell yourself? How could you? How do you live with yourself? What happened to you?”
Suddenly, Tarun shot off the chair and came towards him, “Don’t judge me! You have no right to judge me!! You don’t know what I have been through, so that you could live a cosy life. How do you think I put you through that fancy college? And the apartment? Where do you think that came from?”
“This is not on me, Bhaiya! This is on you entirely. You chose this! I was happy here. You made me go away, telling me I didn’t have a life here. All I wanted was my love, my friends and my family. You took that from me! I lost everything I ever cared for because of the choice you made!” they were shouting at each other, glaring at each other, anger resentment and despair all mixed into their tone.
Misha watched them numb with shock, “Tell me. Just tell me…Why? Why Tarun? Why?”
Her voice snapped them out and they turned their attention on her.
“Tell her, Tarun! She has a right to know!” Vedant said.
“Alright, I will tell you. I will tell you everything,” Tarun ground out. He turned away from them.
“When our parents died, I came back to take over the reins of the business they left behind.” He began and then laughed, ruefully. “Maybe I should say ‘ruins of the business’ that our father left behind.”
“Don’t you dare insult father like that,” Vedant cried out.
“Our father was a drunk, who wallowed in self-pity when he saw his pet project go to ruins,” Tarun snapped back. “He drank himself to his death and took mom with him. Did you know the day they were killed, he was drunk driving? Our mom had to pay the price for being married to a weakling.” Tarun shot back.
“Anyway,” Tarun continued. “I didn’t know what to do. Who to turn to for help. Dad’s dream of making the place into a heritage hotel was not working. There were not enough guests coming to even keep up the grounds and the hotel standing. Added to that dad’s commitment to the village development was a drain on the resources. I could barely keep up the pretence. The pretence of being a ‘Birajdar’; Tamara’s first family and all that shit,” he said with disgust.
After a brief pause, he continued, “Around that time someone offered me a business deal. Then it looked like a god sent opportunity. They wanted to use this place. I need not be involved. In fact, they told me I needn’t even stay here. All I had to do was look away and they would pay me handsomely. At first I wasn’t fully aware of what they intended to do with the place. Of course, I guessed it couldn’t be anything legal and I was in a dilemma. Besides, I heard the guy was a ruthless businessman and powerful, with connections. The people who brought me the offer said he never took no for an answer and could make my life miserable if I refused.
I confided in Dinkar. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have because Dinkar was too honest and too protective of the family. He thought he needed to protect us. He secretly contacted the police in Mumbai. I had no inkling of it whatsoever, when I went ahead and accepted the proposal. I thought it was the only way forward. I could make some money by just loaning the place to them. I need not get my hands dirty. I was stupid, I know but I thought I could give you a life and also set this place up like father had wanted. Later, I could just walk away from the deal when I wanted.
But as time went by, things started to get more complicated. I couldn’t look the other way. They were making fake drugs and they had roped in Pankaj Goud, too. I was sure they were blackmailing him as he looked pretty reluctant to me. As time went by I got scared and decided I wanted out but it was far easier thought than done. They said I was in this deep and there was no escape for me. Goaded by Dinkar, I decided I would come clean with the police but I wanted you out of here before the dirt hit the ceiling. That is why I started insisting on you leaving this place.
Around the time a guy I had hired approached me. He told me he was an officer from the crime branch in Mumbai. They had got a call for help and he thought I was the one that had made the call. He assured me that if I helped him nail these guys, he would make sure that I would get away from this mess. Dinkar confessed to me that it was he who had contacted the Mumbai police. This was our chance to get out clean. Start over. But they found out, as they usually do and I was forced to tell them who the undercover guy was. They set you and Jay to take the fall for the guy’s murder. It would ensure my ‘cooperation’. That night when you and Jay came to me and I found out who it was you two had killed, I panicked. All the trouble I was going through to keep you from the mess was blowing up in my face. I packed you off to the city. It also ensured Dinkar would shut up. Also the promise of not keeping in touch ensured Jay’s safety. There was no way out after that. I was totally in.”
“But why kill Jay?” Misha asked. “After all the trouble to keep them safe.”
“Two years ago Jay met the guy who was involved in the bar fight and who they had supposedly killed. He came to know about the set up. He came to see me and it was then that I realised that you guys had not killed a police officer. But I had no way out after so many years. I wanted him away from all this mess but he was insistent I should call Ved back. I put him off by telling him that you were happy in the city and had made a life for yourself. I assured him soon we would tell you and you could maybe come visit us but I think he started to suspect something was amiss. He came to visit me regularly and even though I didn’t want him here, I was secretly happy to see someone I could call my own. He spent long hours here. Though he never talked to me about it, the men caught him snooping around a lot. But since I stood up for him, they did not bother him too much.
Unknown to me, he was setting up cameras all over the place, which he was accessing and recording on his laptop at home. I think that is when he came to know about all the people involved. He realised who the kingpin was and that put him in danger. They also found out that he was trying to get in contact with Ved and that was when….they…” He stopped and looked at Misha.
“I swear I didn’t have a choice, Misha. When the whole thing blew up, I helped him to run away. I made him promise not to come back, leave the village with you. But they made me call him back. They couldn’t risk the evidence falling in the hands of anyone else. I begged them to let him go and even told them, he had promised to destroy the evidence. But they wouldn’t listen. They told me it was either him or Ved. I couldn’t let them do anything…” he looked away, looking ashamed.
“Don’t justify it, Bhai. It sounds pathetic,” Vedant said.
“What would you have done, Ved? What would your choice have been?” Tarun asked him.
“I would have not taken the deal in the first place and protected Dinkar. You should have taken the deal the police officer offered you, instead of the drug dealers’ deal.”
Tarun looked back at him with tear filled eyes. “I guess I made some bad choices, huh?” In spite of herself, Misha pitied him.
“Tarun, who are these guys? Can you name them? Who is the kingpin? That guy, Raut?” Namita asked.
Tarun looked at Namita sadly and said, “I am sorry about Hriday, Miss Patil. But I cannot tell you.” He glanced at Vedant and Misha and then back at Namita, “Will you be able to protect my brother and Misha, Ms Patil? Can you guarantee their safety? No you can’t. Your own department does not support you. I know you have defied your seniors to come here, Ms Patil. And as far as the cops here are concerned, you don’t know who to trust. You alone cannot guarantee their safety, Ms Patil.”
At that very moment, the door burst open and in front of them stood Divya. “Ah, a family gathering,” she mocked.
She was dressed in jeans, a buttoned down shirt and boots. Her hair was tied in a high
ponytail at the back of her head. She looked nothing like the shy, gypsy that Misha had heard she was. Behind her stood four men, all holding guns. “Why don’t we take this outside? The rest of your family awaits you.”
“The rest of the family?” Vedant looked at Tarun in confusion.
“Please Divya, let them go. You have me,” Tarun pleaded.
“You knew this was going to happen, isn’t it? So why beg? Though I like to see you beg. About time, huh? We all have to pay for our sins.”
“Tell me you did not marry her?” Vedant said through gritted teeth to Tarun.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Good, because when I get my hands on her throat, it will be a pleasure. She is the one that killed Dinkar, didn’t she?”
“Yes. That first night you were here, I tried to protect you by locking you in your room. I thought if you did not know what is going on…” he shrugged.
“And the next day?”
“Oh, that was me,” Divya winked. “We did not get you to come here so that you could sleep peacefully in your room. We needed whatever it was that Jay left for you. We tried to search for that laptop but couldn’t find it. And only you could have a free entry into Jay’s house. And after all the trouble Jay went through to leave you that message, we knew only you would find it.”
“Who are you?” Vedant asked her.
She pretended to think and then laughed, “You could call me family.” She mocked.
Vedant and Misha looked at her incredulously. “Come on,” she snapped her fingers at the men, “Get this party outside.”
Raunak slipped out from his vantage point and retreated a few steps into the ruins. Surprisingly, there were a lot more men here. They were carrying out sealed boxes and piling them up. Thankfully though, they were working with small lights that only lit up the area they were working in and that helped Raunak stay in the shadows. Also the rustling of the boxes and their footsteps covered his. He watched, trying to find a way around these men. Where the hell was Nagral? As if in answer, his phone vibrated and he looked at it. The message read, ‘will be there in a few minutes.’
Raunak slipped the phone back into his pocket and started towards the functioning part of the hotel. This was taking time, but that was the only way.
*****
As they were herded out, Vedant asked Tarun, “What family is she talking about?”
“That,” Tarun nodded in the direction of the foyer. Namita, Misha and Vedant stared at the woman sitting in front of them. “Amma?” Misha whispered loudly.
Amma got off the couch in front of them and stood straight.
There was no sign of the tiredness or the slouch that they had seen in her, a few hours ago. Her grey-black hair was neatly tied into a bun at the back of her neck and her sari looked neatly starched and pinned in place.
“I’m sorry, dear. If you had just accepted the suicide theory, you wouldn’t be in this mess. I had warned Jay too to stay away from all this. I swear. He wouldn’t listen. He thought Tarun needed saving. I had nothing against you two. All I wanted was to destroy the ‘Birajdar’s’.”
Vedant stared at her in shock. “Destroy us? What did we ever?” “You don’t know who I am, do you?” Amma looked at him in contempt and then turned to Tarun. “You did not tell him? Of course not, you are ashamed of me like your father,” she spat out. “Except to be fair, you have a very good reason.”
“Tell me what?” Vedant looked from her to Tarun. Tarun was watching the old woman as she went from anger to amusement within minutes. Without looking at Vedant he said, his voice devoid of any emotion, “Ved meet Saraswati Birajdar-Raut, our father’s sister. Our aunt!”
“Aunt?!” Vedant looked at Tarun as if he had lost his mind. “Surprise!!” Amma mocked.
“How come we never knew..?”
“Because…your father was ashamed of me!” Amma ground out.
Vedant, Misha and Namita stared at her in disbelief.
“I don’t get it! How could we have never known you were our
aunt? Why would he keep such a thing from us?”
“Your father valued the family name more than relations, my dear
nephew. He wiped out every bit of evidence of my existence. Even though I have lived just a few feet away from you all, my whole life,
he refused to acknowledge me.”
“But why, Amma. Why would he do that?” Misha asked. Her
head was spinning from all the revelations now.
“When I fell in love with Adinath, my father believed I had
brought ill-repute to the family name. Adinath was the son of a thief
after all. My father refused to see the goodness in him. He judged him
for his family. He told me that the son of a thief would be a thief. He
was not worthy of this great family. We eloped and got married and
my father disowned me. The whole village merely looked on. They
were not going to cross the mighty Birajdar’s. We were forced to live
in penury but even that was okay with me. What hurt the most was
my own little brother looking down on us. He refused to acknowledge
us and did what my father asked him to do. When my son fell ill, I
needed his help. We couldn’t afford the treatment and I begged
Vikrant to help us. After all, my little boy… he was a part of this
family too. But Vikrant refused. He told me, he had promised father
that he would never accept me into the family again and my son died,
painfully. I promised myself that day that I would bring real ill-repute
to this family. The Birajdar name would be spat upon and I would
show the whole village that only a name wasn’t enough to make an
honest person out of you.
“I waited for years to get my revenge, looking for an opportunity
and got it when Divya got in touch with me. Oh by the way, meet
Divya, Ishan’s sister and my sister-in-law’s daughter. When my sisterin-law and her husband died, I adopted Ishan and Divya stayed with
her paternal uncle. He worked in this large pharmaceutical company
and he could make fake drugs. He could get all that was needed to
make it work, but what he needed was a proper place from where he
could do it. That gave me an idea. And as luck would have it, my dear
father-in-law, Raut, came to us sick and penniless. We nursed him
back to health. And in return, he introduced us to his contacts in the
underworld, I exploited it. He became our face for the business. We could walk away whenever we wanted, without anyone knowing it was us. It also gave me the opportunity I was waiting for. The fall of
the Birajdar’s.
Once I got Tarun involved everything else was easy,” she laughed.
“My plan was perfect, Imagine, one brother tried for murder and the
other for making and selling fake drugs. And yes, all the people who
would testify to that. No one suspected me. Not even Ishan. We were
going to use this place till we could and then clear out leaving you two
to clean the mess. Nothing could have been traced to us and who
would believe a drug trafficker, if he did give up our names. That was
until Jay decided to interfere. I tried to give him a friendly warning
but he just wouldn’t listen. He set up cameras all over this place
secretly and filmed us. Collected evidence of our involvement and we
couldn’t let that happen, could we?” she looked at Misha. “Yes, it was the perfect plan. We never suspected you,” Namita
said. “But you did make a mistake. You killed a police officer. So the
police will dig till they can connect the dots.”
“Oh, but you forget. Vedant and Jay killed him, not us.” Namita smiled. “They know it wasn’t them. So…” she
shrugged. “But they will not be able to prove anything. All this businesses
etc. is run by my father-in-law. Everything is his.”
“Except now, you are not going to get away. Jay made sure of
that,” Vedant mocked.
“So Ishan doesn’t know,” Misha said. From the look on the old
woman’s face she knew she had hit a nerve. “Do you think he will
approve of this wealth that you are accumulating for him? Will he still
love you?”
“Oh I made all the arrangements for that. He will never know. I
am taking him away from here once all this is over. He will inherit a
fortune from a grandfather who died suddenly and he will meet his
sister,” She winked. “Maybe later, I will claim this place for both of
them too.” she grinned, pleased with her thoughts.
“So all this is about the money after all,” Vedant said in disgust.
“For all the claims of righting a wrong, you are nothing but a petty
thief. I wonder what Adinath would have said had he been alive.” “But he is not,” the old woman snarled. “Thanks to this family,
my only son and husband died in penury. So why should I not use
them to make things right for myself and the children. They have
suffered enough too.”
“Is this a right Amma?” Misha asked.
“Enough!” Divya said impatiently. “What do we do now?” She
had been pacing about as Amma had been gloating about her plans. “First we need them to tell us about those videos that Jay hid. We
cannot clear out without them. So who is going to start talking?”
Amma asked, her gaze running over the four of them.
Raunak picked his way through the ruins. It was darker in the
ruins and he let his instincts guide him, hoping he wouldn’t be
stepping on anything that would bite. The stench of the rotting wood
and cement was overpowering. He kept behind the rotting pillars, his
gun ready in front. He did not run into anyone but could still hear the