Abhimanyu took one look at the dilapidated building and swore under his breath. The bloody SoB was going to pay for this with his sorry life. His heart twisted as he thought of little Abhithi in the dark, dingy, abandoned building. The poor child had been through so much at such a young age. In time, she would forget everything, yes. But it was still heartbreaking trauma for a child of her age to go through.
Beside him, Pakhi was sitting ramrod straight. Her legs were joined together and her hands were splayed along her upper thighs. Tension emanated from every pore of her being. Abhimanyu tried to find the words to comfort her but he was petrified too. He’d tried to reason with Shrikanth to let him go along with them. But Shrikanth had refused. ‘From a security standpoint, I can’t let you come with us, Abhi.’
One by one, the cops filed out of the SUVs. Three took their positions outside the front gate. One went to the back of the building, as the wall that covered the rear was not tall enough. There was one cop stationed on either side of the building from inside the premises as well. Abhimanyu was glad that Shrikanth was not taking any chances with the SoB, even though they both suspected the guy was an idiot. The remaining six officers accompanied Shrikanth as he entered the premises. Just before entering the building, he turned around and signalled to Abhimanyu.
The wait had begun.
Pakhi heard the shots first. One. Two. Three.
‘Abhithi!’ She screamed as she got out of the SUV and ran towards the building. But she was stopped by one of the cops stationed at the gate. Abhimanyu caught up with her just as she sobbed, ‘Please, mujhe jaane do. Let me go.’
She turned to him then and pleaded with him. ‘Abhimanyu, please … just tell them to let me go in. Please. Please!’
‘Papaaaa!’ She screamed again. Her voice echoing within the small shrouded alley.
Abhimanyu pulled her into his arms in an effort to calm her down. He was terrified too, but he had to be strong for her.
Had they underestimated the SoB? Had Abhithi been harmed?
Shit!
‘Pakhi,’ Abhimanyu tried to soothe her. But she was squirming in his arms, desperate to get to Abhithi and her father.
‘Pakhi, listen to me, please.’
Her eyes kept darting to the entrance of the building. Her tears were tearing at his heart.
‘Abhimanyu … I … what if…’ She couldn’t bring herself to finish her sentence.
‘Pakhi, sshhh … listen to me.’
He cupped her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. ‘We don’t know what’s going on inside. Let’s wait for Shrikanth and his men to return.’
When she tried to protest, he stopped her, saying, ‘If we go in now, we could put everybody’s life in danger.’
Pakhi stopped struggling and her shoulders slumped in agreement.
‘I can’t fail her, Abhimanyu,’ she whispered, barely audible. ‘I can’t fail Bhaiya and Bhabhi.’
‘Pakhi,’ his voice was equally soft; he didn’t want the cops to be a party to their conversation. But he didn’t steer her away from the gate either. ‘Sweetheart, you won’t fail them. You’ve been so strong. Be strong for a little while longer. Shrikanth will bring them back.’
She nodded. They stood there, holding onto each other and waited.
After what seemed like a long time, one of Shrikanth’s men came out of the building. He walked straight to Abhimanyu and said, ‘Mr Dev, Shrikanth sir has asked for you.’
Beside him, Pakhi began to tremble again. ‘Pakhi, there’s nothing to worry about. C’mon. Let’s go.’
‘No, Mr Dev,’ the officer said. ‘Just you. Ms Mehra has to stay here.’
‘What? Why?’ Abhimanyu was stunned.
‘Ms Mehra has to stay here, Mr Dev,’ the man repeated his words.
‘No. How do I know she’ll be safe here?’ Abhimanyu asked him, incredulous.
Before the officer could say anything, Pakhi interjected. ‘Abhimanyu, go. Please. We have no time to lose.’
Her voice was strong and assertive and Abhimanyu felt pride well up inside him. She was always full of surprises.
‘OK,’ he said to her. ‘I’ll be back soon with your father, Abhithi and Subhash. OK?’
She smiled weakly.
At the entrance to the building, Abhimanyu checked to make sure he had the property papers with him. The worst come to worst, he would throw the damn papers at the SoB and run out with Abhithi, Pakhi’s father and the driver. He was just about to enter the building when he heard Pakhi call him.
‘Abhimanyu?’
‘Yes, sweetheart?’ he called back.
‘Come back in one piece.’
His heart did a back flip then.
Damn right he was coming back in one piece. Except for the SoB. I’m going to rip you apart, you bastard!
Abhimanyu didn’t need to do anything. He reached the topmost floor of the building to find the SoB sprawled on the floor. Unconscious? I hope he’s dead. The officer he’d come up with went over to Rajeev.
One of his Shrikanth’s men had been shot in the leg. Two others were helping him tie a makeshift bandage on his swollen limb. The remaining two officers were untying the ropes around Pakhi’s father and those around the driver’s wrists and ankles. Her father was injured, as was her driver. But they seemed to be responding well to the officers’ questions. They were going to be OK, Abhimanyu deduced.
Relief washed over him, only for it to leave him the very next second. Shrikanth stood in the far corner of the room. In his arms, Abhithi lay limp, bloodied. She wasn’t moving. Abhimanyu’s world seemed to collapse around him.
Shit!
‘The ambulances are on their way, Abhi.’
Abhimanyu barely registered Shrikanth’s voice. His legs had turned to lead. He stood rooted to his spot in the doorway. He could only stare at Abhithi’s seemingly lifeless form in Shrikanth’s arms.
‘She’s fine, Abhi,’ Shrikanth’s voice rose above the deafening silence that engulfed Abhimanyu. ‘Her pulse is weak. But it’s there all the same.’
Something inside him snapped, as his legs carried him to where Shrikanth stood. He gathered the little girl in his arms and crushed her to his chest. She was safe. His little heart was all right.
‘I wanted you to know beforehand what Pakhi is going to walk into. Shall I send for her? You think she’ll be able to take it?’ Shrikanth asked Abhimanyu.
Abhimanyu looked around him. The SoB’s unconscious body had been removed from the scene. Pakhi’s father and his driver seemed to be getting their voices back as they gave their statements to Shrikanth’s men.
Crushed to Abhimanyu’s chest, Abhithi struggled for breath. Abhimanyu felt her tiny legs move and his sanity was restored. Finally, he eased his hold on her. That’s when he noticed the blood on his t-shirt. Her face. His heart broke into a million pieces then. Oh, my little darling. You’ve been through hell, haven’t you?
The left side of her face was completely bloodstained, and her left eye was swollen. There were black and blue bruises that ran down her neck and on her arms and legs. Her uniform had bloodstains and was in tatters. Even her white, frilly socks had stains of blood and dirt. Her curly hair had escaped from the pigtails and was now plastered to her forehead and bloodied cheeks.
Abhimanyu saw her right eye flicker open. He tensed, hoping she did not have a concussion or worse. But his little doll smiled at him. A half-smile only. But she actually smiled. To Abhimanyu, it was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.
‘Abhithi…,’ he said softly. She was just like her name. Fearless. His little fearless angel.
She spoke then. Her voice was gruff but Abhimanyu understood. ‘Abhiloveyou.’
His heart swelled in his chest. This was love in its purest and most absolute form. And this was also the first time Abhithi had articulated the letter ‘B’.
‘I love you too, my baby girl,’ he whispered back to her. But she’d lost consciousness again.
‘Abhi?’
Shrikanth’s voice cut in.
‘Hmmm?’ Abhimanyu looked at his friend quizzically.
‘Should I send for Pakhi?’
‘No.’ Abhimanyu replied. ‘I don’t want her to see this. She’s strong, yes. But there are some things I want to protect her from.’
19
‘M s Mehra, the surgery will take at least a couple of hours. We suggest you get some rest while you can,’ Dr Reddy told Pakhi.
‘I will wait right here, Doctor,’ Pakhi insisted.
The older man gave her an understanding look and walked into the operating room. Within a few minutes, the light above the door was turned on, signalling that the surgery had begun.
Pakhi sat down on the bench opposite the operating room and prayed that Abhithi’s surgery was successful. She had suffered severe injuries to her head and her maxillary bone had also been dislocated. She had a deep cut on her forehead which had been responsible for all the blood that was at the scene, and on their clothes.
Pakhi played the moment of her reunion with her father and Abhithi over and over again in her head. Papa had seemed fine, with just a gash on his forehead. He had sprained his spine, but the doctors had assured them that he would be OK within a week. Even Subhash had not sustained too many injuries.
When Pakhi spotted Abhimanyu walking towards her with Abhithi nestled in his arms, her world had righted itself at last. She’d sprinted towards them, tears running down her face. It was only when she’d come closer that she’d spotted Abhimanyu’s bloodstained t-shirt and Abhithi’s blood-spattered clothes and battered state.
She had broken down then. All her pent-up fears whooshed out of her as Abhimanyu made room for her in his arms and whispered softly, ‘It’s over, baby. We’re going to be OK now. She’s fine.’
The three of them had stood like that till they heard the sirens of the approaching ambulances. In the hospital, Abhimanyu had insisted on a full body check-up for Pakhi as well. Only after he’d heard from the doctor himself that she was well did he finally relent.
He was at the cafeteria now, picking up some coffee and sandwiches because one had to keep oneself strong for what’s to come.
And she knew he was right. She was going to have a tough time trying to bring Abhithi out of yet another trauma.
According to Papa and Subhash’s statements, they had reached Abhithi’s school ahead of time. When the gates opened, Papa had been standing right in front so that Abhithi could easily spot him. But Abhithi was nowhere to be seen. Papa saw all the children from her class go home with their parents. But there was no sign of Abhithi anywhere.
‘Mehra Saab!’ Subhash called out to him from the other side of the road. He turned around to see Subhash pointing to a man running towards a battered Omni. At first, Papa could not understand why Subhash was drawing his attention to the man. But when Abhithi’s glittery, pink Barbie school bag flashed in the sun, Papa finally put two and two together. He ran as quickly as he could towards the man.
‘Abhithi!’ His screams were lost in the piling traffic. Subhash was trying to turn the car around, but the traffic was too thick for him to move. Papa saw the Omni pull out of its spot and blend into the traffic. His legs were getting tired and his knees were beginning to give way. But he continued to give chase, and did not let the Omni out of his sight. His breathing turned laboured and his muscles were aching. The squealing of tyres alerted him to Subhash’s arrival. He quickly threw himself into the car and told Subhash to follow the Omni.
As they sped past the lanes and alleys, Papa had frantically called Pakhi. But he hadn’t been able to get through to her. Just as he was about to call the cops, the Omni had turned into a small street. Subhash made the sharp turn so suddenly that the phone slipped from Papa’s hand and fell onto the car floor. The impact was so jarring that the screen was smashed and Subhash’s own phone had seven per cent battery.
But they didn’t have time to think of all that. The Omni had pulled outside an old rundown building. They rushed out of their car and sprinted across to where the Omni stood. When the peered in, they found Abhithi’s school bag and water bottle on the floor. But she was nowhere to be seen. They quickly ran into the building and at the foot of the stairwell, they found one of Abhithi’s shoes on the dirty floor. Her other shoe was on the sixth step.
Papa and Subhash looked up to find a man running up the stairs, Abhithi’s unconscious form in his arms. When they ran up after him, he turned around and hit Papa hard, causing him to lose his footing and fall down the flight of stairs he’d just climbed. Next, he attacked Subhash, almost knocking the life out of him.
The next thing Papa and Subhash remember was waking up in a dark and filthy room, with the smell of cockroaches, urine and vomit assaulting their senses. The two of them had been tied to a pillar. Abhithi lay unconscious in the far corner of the room. There were splotches of fresh blood all across the dirty floor.
As Pakhi waited outside she wondered what would have happened if she had never broken up with Rajeev. She had always known that he was cunning to the point of being ruthless. But she had never thought him capable of plotting something so sinister, and even now was unable to reconcile the man she had known to the man he had become. The very fact that he had involved Abhithi made her blood boil. Abhimanyu was right to call him a bastard. He was more than that.
She spotted Abhimanyu walking towards her. He was carrying a tray laden with two cups of coffee and what looked to be two plates of sandwiches.
He sat down beside her and she raised a single brow at the sight of the tray’s contents.
‘I know,’ he sighed. ‘This is our curse, Pakhi. We can seldom appreciate food made by others.’
‘You call this food?’ Pakhi teased him. Now that he was by her side, she felt a lot more positive for reasons she didn’t want to explore just yet.
‘Yes, well,’ he smiled, his dimple twinkling despite his thick beard. ‘Hospital food, Memsaab,’ he shrugged.
‘Memsaab? Really, Abhimanyu?’
He only winked as he took a sip of the pitiable excuse of coffee.
They polished off the coffee and sandwiches in less than five minutes despite the awful taste. They’d last eaten more than eighteen hours ago.
Pakhi slipped off her sandals and tucked her feet to her side. She rested her head against Abhimanyu’s shoulder, grateful for every second that he’d been with her.
‘Abhimanyu?’ she whispered sleepily
‘Hmmm?’ his eyes were half closed, sleep finally making its presence felt.
‘After all this is over, I want to meet Rajeev.’
Abhithi was shifted from the OR to a private room on the children’s floor. Her surgery had been successful and the doctors had assured Pakhi and Abhimanyu that she was making good progress. They’d taken care to ensure her facial structure hadn’t been altered. It was going to be a long road to complete recovery but she was going to make it.
Sleep had finally overcome Pakhi and Abhimanyu. So when Daji entered Abhithi’s room, he found the two of them fast asleep. Pakhi lay on the single bed meant for family, and Abhimanyu was half-sitting and half-sprawled on the armchair placed between the two beds. Daji was glad Abhimanyu’s obscenely loud snoring was not causing enough of a ruckus to wake the girls.
Daji had spent the last decade or so worrying about his grandson. At nearly forty-three, the boy had nothing in the name of family except for a grandfather who had reached the fag end of his life.
But now, as he took in the scene in front of him, he realized he wouldn’t need to broach the subject with his grandson anymore. Things were going to change. There was going to be a shift in the status quo soon.
He just wished he would be alive long enough to witness his grandson smile a genuine smile that reached his eyes.
He also sent a silent prayer that Pakhi would convince Abhimanyu to shave off his beard and cut his hair. God knows he’d tried. But he had a feeling that just this once, the girl would not be on his side.
‘Don’t you have a hotel to run, Chef?’ Pakhi teased Abhimanyu one morning two weeks after Abhithi’s surgery. They were sitting in the hospital cafeteria but with their own thermos of coffee. Pakhi had been home that morning and had made salmon and tomato sandwiches. They’d taken turns to go about their work over the last two weeks, but one of them would always stay behind with Abhithi. And no matter what, they both would spend the night with her. She was back to her bubbly self already and chattered nonstop. Her medicines had disrupted her sleep pattern, causing her to stay awake well past midnight. Abhimanyu and Pakhi would find new ways to entertain her every night before all three of them would fall asleep exhausted.
Wolfing down another sandwich, Abhimanyu shrugged and said, ‘You see, Ms Mehra, I’ve been spending some time with a young lady who’s stolen my heart. So the hotel has taken a temporary backseat.’
Pakhi’s breath caught. What had he just said?
‘And who is this young lady?’ she prodded. She had to know.
‘Ah! A gentleman never kisses and tells,’ he replied smoothly. ‘But if you must know,’ he added, ‘She is quite the doll. If only she was a couple of decades older.’
Pakhi threw a paper napkin at him. Incorrigible!
Two days later, Abhimanyu and Pakhi walked out of the hospital with Abhithi in his arms. He strapped her into the car seat he’d installed a couple of days ago and got behind the wheel when he noticed Pakhi staring at him.
‘What?’ he asked, confused.
‘You have a car seat.’
‘I also have a car.’
‘Shut up, Abhimanyu,’ she muttered. ‘When did you have the car seat installed?’
Abhimanyu eased out of the hospital parking lot and manoeuvred the car into Mumbai’s thick traffic. In the rear seat, Abhithi gurgled happily. Her bandages had come off last evening. A longer and deeper scar now ran down the left side of her face. But she was the happiest little girl Abhimanyu had seen. The doctors had told them that because she had been unconscious through most of the ordeal, she wouldn’t remember much of it. He had prayed that this meant there wouldn’t be any additional nightmares. But the doctors had also warned that Abhithi could recall what had happened in flashes, and so nightmares couldn’t be ruled out.
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