Beyond Lies

by Alka Dimri Saklani

  BEYOND LIES

  (A standalone sequel to BEYOND SCARS)

  Alka Dimri Saklani

  Beyond Lies - Copyright © 2019 by Alka Dimri Saklani. All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved with the author. No part of this publication must be copied, reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Photo by Crawford Ifland on Unsplash

  (https://unsplash.com/photos/V2UpdUxiBWI)

  Edited by Paige Lawson

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  1.The News Daily

  2.Samar

  3.Tia

  4.Samar

  5.Tia

  6.The Dark Room

  7.Tia

  8.Tia

  9.Samar

  10.The Dark Room

  11.Tia

  12.Tia’s Mother

  13.The Dark Room

  14.Tia

  15.Tia

  16.Tia

  17.The Dark Room

  18.Samar

  19.Tia

  20.Tia

  21.Tia

  22.The Dark Room

  23.Tia

  24.Samar

  25.Tia

  26.Stalker

  27.Tia

  28.Tia

  29.The Dark Room

  30.Tia

  31.Tia

  32.Stalker

  33.Tia

  34.The Dark Room

  35.Samar

  36.Tia

  37.The Dark Room

  38.Tia

  39.Samar

  40.Stalker

  41.Tia

  42.Tia

  43.Samar

  44.Tia

  45.Samar

  46.The Dark Room

  47.Tia

  48.Tia

  49.Tia

  50.Tia

  51.Tia’s Mother

  52.Tia’s Mother

  53.Tia’s Mother

  54.Tia’s Mother

  55.Kiara

  56.Tia

  57.Tia

  58.Kiara

  59.Samar

  60.Kiara

  61.Kiara

  62.Tia

  63.Kiara’s Recorded Audio Clip

  64.Tia

  65.Samar

  More about Beyond Series

  Acknowledgement

  About The Author

  For

  Arnav and Aryan

  Prologue

  “Loving you was a sin,” the words echo through the dead of the night, mingle with her soul and tarnish it.

  They stare at each other for a while and then…she stumbles down the broken edge of the bridge, she wasn’t prepared for the push, but then she wasn’t prepared for a lot of things in her life.

  After holding on a solid support for a while she lets go…She lives an eternity in the moments of her fall from the bridge towards the river. Her life passes through her, which was nothing but a quest of love. Her hands float in the air trying to clutch anything, but there is nothing to hold except the shattered hope. Her red dupatta dances to the tune of the winds until, finally, the hungry river welcomes her with a roar.

  Only once she is under the dark cold water and the struggle becomes unbearable, she wishes she fought a little more for her life. For her love. If only she can get one more chance, she would undo everything. Everything. But is it too late? She wonders as she blends with the darkness and darkness blends with her until no one can tell the difference.

  Perplexed, the figure on the bridge looks around, but there is no witness to share the secret, the sin, except the night that is too dark to let anything escape this wrinkle in time.

  PART ONE

  1. The

  News Daily

  …Now

  THE NEWS DAILY

  POLICE HUNT FOR A MISSING GIRL

  Tia Bakshi, a 25-year-old girl has been reported missing since yesterday from Mumbai, police said. Her car was found at the secluded area of Juhu with no trace of her or her mobile. Her mother has no idea how her car reached there, for Tia was home when her mother went to sleep. The family doctor said he talked to Tia at 9.45 pm regarding her mother’s health. The last call from Tia’s mobile was to her father at 10.05 pm, but she didn’t communicate anything as per the records.

  A stalker had been following her since few months, but the identity of the stalker is still a mystery since he never approached her directly and left his messages via little notes addressed to her at random places. Police are questioning her friends and relatives for more information.

  2. Sam

  ar

  Then…

  Summer was ruthless in Mumbai. I pressed the down arrow key on AC remote and loosened my tie. Watching out from my window I wondered how the hand lorry vendors managed to work in the scorching heat without any roof over them.

  “Come in” I answered the knock on my cabin and settled on my chair.

  The receptionist entered the cabin.

  “How many candidates are left for interview?” I asked.

  “Only two, Sir.” She handed me the resume, said the name of the interviewee “Simran” and left.

  SIMRAN…the name echoed and suddenly the air got thick. The resume was damp in my hand and the temperature dropped, not in the room, but in my mind. I didn’t even look at the resume.

  I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

  I turned it upside down, digging in deep for courage. There must be millions of Simran in this world, I tried to convince myself, but failed miserably.

  In a desperate plea to focus, I closed my eyes, but the darkness just pushed me back in time.

  She was standing at an arm’s length, her wavy untamed hairs were over her face and her brown eyes stared at me…

  “Samar…” her voice turned to a whisper as my warm hands wrapped her cold ones…desire shot through me… but for once in my life time it was different desire…

  The intercom buzz pulled me from the past like a time travelling machine, and the shift unbalanced me. I fought with the sudden headache and it was a while before I picked up the phone, but I still couldn’t bring myself to speak.

  “Sir, have you gone through the resume? Should I send Simran?”

  “No” I screamed. Damn. I was sure I startled her; I shouldn’t have. I took a deep breath and tried to focus, “My migraine is back. Please ask Pritam to finish the other two interviews.”

  “I need to check his schedule.”

  “Then do that.” I tried to keep my tone under control, but I wasn’t sure if I could hide my irritation.

  After disconnecting the phone my gaze moved to a blotch on the table, the shape had taken the form of sinister memory. The receptionist called me in sometime and informed that Pritam was ready to take the interviews. She came in my cabin and took away the dreaded resume. As soon as the resume was out of my room, I breathed not even realising I was holding my breath for so long. But the sound of her name was still floating in the air, and the beige walls of my cabin closed on me. I needed air so I walked out knowing the candidates were taken to different section.

  The hot air outside enveloped me like an invisible demon ready to devour me as I pulled out my car from the parking and dashed out of the office campus. I was trying to shrug off her name from my system when the traffic police stopped me.

  I broke the signal; I didn’t see the red light.

  I didn’t see t
he red signal even then. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

  But I didn’t mind the fine, in fact, I was glad for the distraction. Now I tried to focus on the traffic and thankfully I didn’t miss the other red-light signal. My fingers tapped relentlessly on the steering wheel waiting for the signal to turn green and then, my gaze caught a rose vendor standing at the roadside, and once again the lost time pulled me in a faraway world.

  Roses…damn these roses…it all started with roses.

  When I heard someone shouting from behind me, I realised I missed the green signal this time. I let out a nervous laugh before hitting the accelerator.

  When my phone buzzed with Pritham’s name flashing on it I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take that call. But leaving my office without an intimation was already stupid enough so I picked up the phone, trying to get a grip on the panic still coursing through me.

  “Samar, Simran was not a match, she was a fresher. Though I think Tia is, I have called her for second…”

  A fresher….

  An eerie silence enveloped me and Pritham’s words couldn’t penetrate that silence. I parked the car on the side because I needed to breathe, the sudden relief was too much to handle. It was not her.

  Of course not.

  What was I thinking?

  3. Tia

  I tapped my feet relentlessly, waiting at the reception, my elbows on my thighs and my jaw on my hands. When I came last week, the interviewer suffered a migraine attack and someone else took the interview. To my surprise it was Pritham, my senior in college, he worked from Delhi branch, but was here only for some official work. Though I cleared that round, here I was, again, waiting for the second round of interview with the original interviewer. Why did they even pretend the first round was real, so that they won’t sound unprofessional?

  “Tia,” the receptionist called out my name “you can go inside for the interview.”

  I nodded and walked towards the cabin preparing myself to meet some old balding man with protruding tummy and wrinkled forehead. But I almost stumbled when I saw the man sitting behind the table.

  Drop dead gorgeous.

  Tanned face, chiselled jaw, thin lips, a muscular built wasted under a boring blue shirt. His thick dark eyebrows highlighted the eyes that were focused on my resume. His features were so rugged that I could actually call them scary.

  “Tia” he said in a voice so deep that it did something crazy to my heart.

  Oh my God! NO, this wasn’t possible, the floor beneath my legs shook. I mean, yes, I found him attractive but…but I wasn’t crazy.

  “Did you just feel a tremor?” he asked rising from his chair and a sudden panic in his voice.

  Oh my god, he was so tall and…shit... was I that transparent?

  “Damn, it’s an earthquake.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Run, it’s an earthquake and we are on the ninth floor.” He said with a sense of urgency and dashed out of his cabin.

  Oh, earthquake, I let my breath out. But why was I feeling relaxed? Because I didn’t make a fool of myself, but wasn’t it more worrisome to die under a pile of bricks and cements than to look like a fool. I rushed behind him outside the cabin.

  “Come-on everyone, out in 2 minutes. There’s an earthquake” He pressed the safety buzzer set on one of the walls and the alarm echoed through the premises “Get out of the building and don’t use the lift. Get as far away from the building as possible.” He waited for everyone to leave before leaving himself.

  “What are you waiting for? Out now.” He shouted at me.

  “Oh yeah,” I said and rushed out of the building.

  Within a few minutes, everyone was standing in the compound garden away from the building. The building was new and until now only a few offices were occupied.

  “So, we might get an unexpected leave today.” A girl whom I saw in the office chuckled.

  “Under Mr. Dixit? No ways. He will get us working here in this garden rather than giving us a leave.” The boy standing next replied with a sigh.

  Mr. Dixit walked to us wiping the sweat from his forehead while reading something on his mobile. He was holding his laptop under his other arm. He wasn’t carrying his laptop when he was shouting at everyone to leave. Had he gone back to collect it? What would that make him? A dedicated employee, or a fool?

  A gorgeous fool, of course.

  “Damn.” He again ran his hands through his hairs; he kind of looked cute when he was tense. “It was a strong one. A few more are expected within the next few hours.” He let out a sigh and gazed at the sky and every other eye gazed at him, including mine.

  “Devansh, you go and meet Mr. Taneja today, discuss the details and inform me on what he says.”

  “Yes sir,” Devansh replied and left.

  “Sakshi, you go and meet our latest client Mr. Ahuja. Discuss with him what he expects from us.”

  “But sir, last time he said I can’t see him without an appointment.”

  “Call him, take an appointment, if he doesn’t agree, you still need to convince him to squeeze in a little time for you. Go.”

  She looked at her watch, opened her mouth to say something, but when she looked back at her boss, she decided against it, and nodded. One look at Mr. Dixit and I was sure nobody ever argued with him. He talked with a sense of finality, without leaving any scope for disagreement. There was an air of authority about him.

  In no time, he’d assigned tasks to everyone and we were alone.

  “And you,” he looked at me, “follow me.”

  And without waiting for my answer he strode towards the farther end of the small garden. I had to almost run to match his long steps.

  The strong heat of the afternoon had begun to fade, and the sky was tinted with hues of golden and orange. I paused to admire the white lilies and red roses lined in a row toward the corners of the garden. The quietness of it at the outskirts, far away from the crowded lanes of Mumbai was a breather and I vaguely heard a cuckoo singing before I sat at the bench under the mango tree with Mr. Dixit.

  Wasn’t the day bizarre? I was having an interview in a spectacular garden decorated with a myriad of colourful flowers to the most attractive man I’d ever seen in my life. Someone looking from afar wouldn’t guess us to be interviewer and interviewee, we would look like lovers stealing some alone time. Gosh, where was my mind leading me?

  “Tell me something about you Tia.” What a boring question from this interesting man! But then, what was I expecting?

  “I’m Tia Bakshi. 24-years-old. I passed my MBA in marketing with a distinction and have two years of marketing experience.” He looked up from my resume to and my voice stuck in my throat. His eyes were so colourful…yeah yeah, I know that’s an odd way to define eyes, eyes are either black or brown or hazel or blue…but his eyes were hazel at the rim, black as they travelled towards the centre, and brown somewhere where those two colours merged…so, I was right when I said his eyes were colourful.

  And colourless…

  I mean lifeless…

  Stagnant.

  Cold?

  “You were saying something about you, Tia.”

  Damn. Wasn’t it the worst time to study his eyes? My palms instantly reached to my cheeks; I was sure they’d turned red. The shade changed every time I was embarrassed or happy or scared…or under scorching sun… yes that was my excuse.

  “It’s too hot.” I wiped the imaginary sweat from my forehead, immediately realising my blunder when the calm breeze stroked my face.

  He rolled his eyes and turned the page to check my address. “But I guess it’s better to spend 15-20 minutes in heat rather than travelling an hour just for an interview.”

  “Yes, yes, definitely. I wasn’t complaining.” I quickly replied and without giving him time to say anything, I continued to speak about my experience.

  The interview continued for almost an hour. Apart from the first boring questions, his other questions were quite interesting and gave me a lot of scope for brainst
orming. Mostly the questions were about case studies and I love questions that challenge me. But still, the blunder I made at the start wasn’t lost on me.

  So, since the interview was over, I thought he would say - Thanks for the interview, we will get back to you if you are selected, blah blah, blah… What a fool I made of myself!

  “Tia, you are selected. Can you join from tomorrow with 40% hike?”

  What? 40% hike? I wasn’t expecting anything more than 20%. And what a relief that he didn’t call me for another round of interviews with HR. In my last company, HR discussed the salary and all, but didn’t I say he had an air of authority about him? Well, a migraine attack in the first interview, earthquake in the second, did he fear what I might bring in for the third interview? I smiled at my own humour but then immediately controlled my silly smile from showing. “But I need to serve my notice period of two weeks with my present company.”

  “Ok, then join after two weeks.”

  And then I smiled freely, not even sure if I was happier for getting a job with a reputed firm or having a chance to work under the hottest boss in the country.

  4. Sam

  ar

  Tia.

  The girl was brilliant. She possessed the kind of intellect that came from a lot of experience, but she definitely didn’t know her worth, otherwise she wouldn’t be working at a meagre salary at her present company.

  But… when she looked into my eyes, for a fraction of second, colour washed off from her face and then flushed back. Did she read something she wasn’t supposed to?

  What did she notice about my eyes? Was it how different they were from her own?

  Why did that difference unsettle me?

  Because her eyes were full of life?

  Or

  Because they didn’t seem to hide anything?

  5. Tia