Posted: December 1st, 2018

♚ Aarush ♚

2.19 Every Opportunity

          I cannot believe I am sharing things with Annie - someone I barely know. I am not the person who would open up to just anyone. And yet, it feels like I know her. She reminds me of my little sister. She just has the brightness in her eyes that I would always see in Barkha. She has that personality that can get anyone comfortable enough to tell her things.

At first glance, she might come off as someone careless. I did not like that about her and the judgements I had jumped to at our first interaction that day at the hospital. But she is perceptive - something I doubt a lot of people give her credit for. If that isn't enough, she may be one of the most resilient person I have had the chance to meet in life.

The laptop makes a beeping sound and I glance away from her to see the decrypting process is completed. I have hacked into the servers. I can feel her eyes on me still and I can understand her speechless reaction. It's like she wants to say something, but words are failing her. It is not as if I actually expect her to say anything either.

Returning to task at hand, I ask, "Do you remember what time the accident happened?"

"Yeah, early morning. Roughly 6:30?"

I forward the recording to the estimate time and play it. We see the car approaching just as Annie is getting out of a cab. And then, the recording is disturbed with static and a black screen comes on.

"What happened?"

I fast forward it till it will play properly again and comment, "Looks like someone doesn't want to be spotted."

I hear the worry in her tone and from the corner of my eye, catch her body stiffening as she sits up properly, "What does that mean?"

"It means someone was definitely there and you didn't imagine it."

She rolls her eyes, "I never did doubt that, Aarush! You are not telling me anything new."

I look at her teasingly, "Don't underestimate my intelligence, alright?"

She bobs her head to the side with judgement clear on her face. "You are welcome to prove me wrong then."

"Give me a minute," I say and get working on putting together everything I have learned so far so I can explain it to her. Then, I turn the laptop in her direction after I have arranged minimized screens of the video clip as well as the photographs which I had pulled earlier. "Alright, see, this video clip tells us someone was definitely following you considering how they went to the trouble to erase the footage. Now, yes, it does not show that person's face, but if we look before and after, we see this..."

"License plate." She concludes, catching up on the similarity among all the pictures I'd displayed. There were all bits and pieces across the photos in the faint background, but put together, one could pull out the complete license plate number. She picks up the pen to write it in the correct order before pausing and looking up on connecting another piece, "Wait... that means whoever is following me has been doing so long before Milan."

I confirm reluctantly, "It would seem so."

Her expression is blank for a second as if debating how to feel about learning this fact. Then, she chooses what to focus on, "Okay, well then, atleast it proves it couldn't be Shyam. He wasn't out of prison then."

My lips purse together in a thin line.

She frowns noticing that and picking up that it cannot be a good thing, "What? Don't just react. Tell me why you don't think that's good news."

After a quick exhale, I try to put this delicately, "I have no intention of scaring you, but, just because he was still in prison does not mean it couldn't have been him. He could have gotten someone on the outside to do it for him."

The flicker of hope I had caught earlier in her eyes fades as she accepts that alternative.

I go on to offer yet another, "Although, it could also be that it is entirely unrelated. If we take into account that this person messed with the street surveillance, then a) they are resourceful and b) they don't care about messing with governments and c) they'd have to be an advanced hacker to plant a bug and erase the footage. Putting it all together, I doubt Shyam might have the means to hire someone with the expertise and we all agree he has a beef to pick with the Raizada family but I don't think he'd be stupid enough to cross international boundaries and mess with their governments."

Her arms fold over each other as she rubs her shoulder to contain a shiver, "Dude, you are not really making me feel better. It sounds even more dangerous."

I don't truly make a response for it as I myself understand that and yet, I need more proof if I want to comfort her that this is the worst-case scenario.

Swallowing, she thinks aloud, "Okay, if we go off your theory that it isn't Shyam, what would they want with me?"

I only have one answer, "Maybe they think you saw something or that your camera captured something it wasn't supposed to."

She argues, "But as I told you, I haven't done any scandalous pieces recently. You saw through the pictures. It's all pretty basic."

She might have a point but the lack of reasoning bugs me, "For you and me, maybe. But not for them. There has to be something in them that they are after."

What other reason could there be?

She makes another good point, "Okay, let's say I caught something I wasn't supposed to. Why haven't they done anything to try and retrieve it? If they are as sophisticated as you say, they must have had plenty of opportunities."

"Again, a very good question that I don't have the answer to." I reply and in the silence that follows, I try to think of an explanation.

She is right. They've had months. If they go to the trouble of erasing the entire footage of the hit and run just to account for the possibility that a face might have been captured in the camera, then surely they wouldn't wait around. They would have made some attempt of an attack to get rid of the photos. But, then again... whoever that person was, they pulled her out of harm way. So, did they want to save her or was it just a necessary means in order to get what they truly wanted?

We got a partial answer today, but that just opened up an array of questions. Curbing them for the time being, I assure her, "Alright, look, this is what we can do. I can ask a friend to run this plate. See what pops up. Meanwhile, if you don't mind, I'll take your memory card with me and go through it all again to see if I can find something that might have been missed at first glance."

She shrugs, conveying she didn't care if I took the card or what I did with it. "But what do I do in the meantime?"

"Have a bonfire," I comment to lighten the moment in hopes to lessen her worry.

Even though she gives me a scolding look again for my attempt of a joke, a smile does eventually break out. Then, she genuinely says, "Thanks, Aarush."

I nod back then proceed to ejecting the memory card and closing the laptop. Turning to her afterwards, I assure her again, "Don't worry; I really don't think there's a threat or anything to your life."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Like you said: if there was, they had plenty opportunities by now."

"You have a weird way of assuring people, you know?"

"You know what I mean," I stand up and safely place the memory card in my pocket. "Anyway, I should get back. I'll let you know when I find something."

She nods, standing up herself to see me till the door. Just as I step out of the doorway, she calls. "Hey, Aarush?"

I turn to face her, "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry," she says after assessing something on my face for a second.

I don't understand where the sudden apology comes from. "For what?"

She leans into the door as she replies, "For being disrespectful on our first meeting, you know?"

Ah. She is talking about this kiss - with a silent understanding of why I had reacted the way I had.

It was a mindless action and I briefly smile at her to convey it was forgiven. I couldn't hold that sword over her head all our lives because truth is, she did not mean to hurt me intentionally or intrude on my personal memories that she had no way of knowing. I would have left it at that, but I give in to the compulsion of replying, "If you're really sorry, you'll think about what I said."

If anything good can come out of it for her and Aarav, then atleast it wasn't for nothing. Because I stick by what I said. It is silly to not embrace the rare chance she is being bestowed with for in this life, many people fall in love but not everyone's love is returned. There are many missed chances. There are many stories of unrequited love. There are many broken hearts.

And, it does not have to be this way. We may not be able to control the process of life and death as that is beyond us but we can control what happens to our lives and those of others around us. We can control how to live the moments we do have. We can choose to fight, as Jhanvi said. It would be a fool's work to let others dictate what happens in our lives.

The look on her face isn't promising, but she still nods back. Atleast she'd consider it. I would take that compromise for now.

. . . ∞ . ∞ . ∞ . ∞. . .

          My normal stride into the house falters as I take in the appearance. I was gone only for a few hours. What the hell happened in that time being? No, it's doesn't look haywire or a mess. If anything, it is decorated as if celebrating something. Out of nowhere, there are all these people in the house working, putting up lights, strings, flowers, drapes, balloons and whatnots.

"Catch," I blink at the word and thanks to good reflexes, I catch the centerpiece before it could have fallen and shattered to pieces on the floor.

"Are you crazy?" I comment with eyes widening slightly towards Jhanvi.

Laughing, she twirls around, "Notice anything different?"

She's looking a lot happier for some reason but it's not like she is wearing anything out of ordinary that I should be noticing. "Uh..."

As if she doesn't have the patience for me to figure it out, she exclaims, "My cast is off!"

The second she mentions it, my eyes dart to her feet and sure enough, it's off. However, that doesn't explain what is going on. "That is reason enough for you to decorate the house?"

"Ofcourse not. Well, it's one of the reasons but not really." Perhaps noticing my confusion, she pauses to ask, "I'm not making any sense, am I?" I shake my head and she takes it down a notch with the hyperness in her tone and behavior, "Sorry, just very happy today. Okay, let me explain all the reasons we're having this party. One, obviously, my cast is off. No more limping around. Two, Arnav uncle called and told us how everything with the will is sorted without any hiccups, surprisingly. There was supposed to be all this backlash, you know? But anyway, I am not going to question it. And that leads to the third reason, they're all on their way here since we don't have to hide anymore! I mean, sure, there is still that radical group but they can't really do anything to me anymore right? So, yeah, Aarav is super happy about that since he's missed his family and all. I missed them too - got used to having them around, you know? And..."

I raise a brow in amusement before commenting with a chuckle, "Alright, I get the gist. You can breathe now."

Chuckling herself with a sheepish look, she inhales deeply. Then she resumes, "And..."

I interject once again, "There's a fourth reason as well?"

From the first three itself, I understand that they indeed are a cause of celebration.

"Mhmm." The smile on her face sobers as she takes careful steps towards me. I wait for her to say it but instead, I find myself wary when she is standing right in front of me. Before I could question what she was up to, her arms wrap around my neck. My body stiffens with the unexpected hug but more so at her words as well, "Happy birthday."

Perhaps noticing from my rigid stance that I wasn't going to hug her back, she parts. I can only manage to speak, "How...?" Then, I answer my own question, 'Eva." There is only one way she or anyone else here could have found out.

Jhanvi goes on to reprimand, choosing not to focus on the lack of response to her hug, "Yeah, Eva. Why weren't you the one who told us? We've been holed up in here for almost a month now and you didn't even once mention it's coming up?"

"It's not a big deal," I mumble. Given I hadn't mentioned it, she should understand I didn't want anyone to know.

Honestly, there is no reason for me to celebrate it anymore. Birthdays are meant to be celebrated with friends and family... loved ones. That is when it has a meaning. But who would I celebrate it with? After 7 years, it's just another day on the calendar.

She comments, "Okay, I get that you are the mysterious, secretive type who is way too focused on his job, but come on, it's your birthday!"

I mention walking over to one of the tables to place the centerpiece she had thrown my way on the surface. "You are more excited over it than I must have ever been."

She follows and pulls out the chair to sit, "Confession: I'm really looking forward to the cake. Have the biggest craving ever."

I look over at her to gauge if she is serious and realize she is very serious. Ofcourse, I cannot blame her at the moment if she only wants to care about the cake - but I also get the feeling that cake is not all she cares about even if she puts it as such. No matter the hormones, she is not a shallow person. She seems genuinely excited for my birthday.

"Alright then, you shall get the first piece."

She laughs taking it lightly, "I better."

I exhale forcing a smile on my lips. If only she knew how I have spent the last birthdays which I did celebrate. That first piece had always been reserved. It's always the most special one, isn't it? As children, we offer it first to our parents and as we grow up, that may change when someone special enters the picture as we want to share that happiness with them.

I mark my exit by saying, "I'll go check on Vikas unless you need me to get your something?"

She shakes her head informing, "Nope, I'll just be here supervising. Apparently His Highness has passed an order to everyone restricting me from doing anything else."

For a moment, I find myself confused until I realize she means Aarav by His Highness and is speaking sarcastically. She should not be using such words around me.

"Now that you are legally a Queen, it makes sense for you to have some practice ordering people about." I make a parting comment just to fill the silence at her words before going on to find Vikas.

. . . ∞ . ∞ . ∞ . ∞. . .

          The family reunion is one of a kind. Upon seeing Arnav, Aarav was almost moved to tears. I could feel his helplessness he must have felt on knowing he had been far away from his dad when he needed help just from the tight hug the two shared. Despite not being the recipient of that hug, the warmth and love was evident. I do believe that there isn't nothing Arnav wouldn't do for his children and vice-versa.

After Eva takes her turn hugging Aarav and Jhanvi, she makes her way to me as I stand to the side away from them to give them their personal space. "Hey, you." She greets with a hug and wish, "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," I reply returning her hug.

When parting, she comments, "Glad to see you made it another year." I simply smile for I understand her meaning. There are those who would rather see me dead. "How's your arm?"

"Fine," I had almost forgotten about the bullet wound.

She nods and doesn't push me into admitting honestly if it is healing or not. With a sigh, she turns to stand beside me and looks out at her happy family. A smile on all of their faces as they interact with each other as if it hasn't been a month they had been apart but years. I imagine this is one rare family filled with so many people and so many relationships where everyone gets along even if they may have small tiffs in daily life.

A rare one indeed considering love keeps them bound to each other and not just blood relations.

She exhales a deep sigh as if content when hooking her arm with mine. "I owe that to you."

"You don't owe me anything, Eva. I didn't do anything." I reply for honestly, since we've been in Australia, we haven't been in any grave situation in particular.

She tilts her head sideways sparing a knowing glance. "Aarush, I know who you are, remember?" She nods towards the rest talking animatedly in the distance as she continues, "They may not know it but you are the reason the will was processed without any hiccups."

I remain silent, not admitting to anything but I doubt I need to say it verbally. She already knows and won't believe it even if I attempt to deny that.

Looking back at me, she expresses, "I don't know whether to thank you or scold you."

I smile down at her concern, "I would prefer you not yell at me on my birthday."

She chuckles back knowing full well I just don't want her to lecture me and that I don't truly care that it is my birthday and hence she shouldn't dampen the mood. "How did you manage it anyway?"

"I have my ways, Eva. You know that." I cryptically answer but I imagine she knows better to read between the lines. She knows the danger associated.

"And you trust them to not give you up?"

I place my hand atop hers in assurance, "Money will only keep their mouths shut for so long, but don't worry. I know what I am doing."

Her eyes widen at first before she tugs me a few steps away and speaks in hushed voices, "You bribed them?!"

I bob my head to the side for the judgment in her tone, "Eva, I never claimed to be morally virtuous and all. I do what is necessary and I make no apologies for it."

I am not looking for her approval in my actions, but she still continues to express her disapproval, "Still, Aarush! If Aarav finds out... or even Jhanvi."

Yes, I imagine they wouldn't approve of my methods either. Nevertheless. "My conscious is clear, Eva. Whatever repercussions there will be for this, it will be directed at me, and I can handle it."

"Aarush..."

I cut her arguments short by pulling focus on what matters, "Eva, the important thing is that power of attorney is now in Jhanvi's name. They know better now than to attempt another attack on her life. She is relatively safe, considering. By the time they manage to catch on and realize the documents are incomplete and their marriage isn't legal, she'll be 25 and have delivered her child. Then it won't matter either way as they can't challenge it."

She acknowledges everything I say but still adds, "You are forgetting something, Aarush. The people there will not just sit by and let an unmarried mother be their Queen."

Unintentionally, my gaze on her sharpens as I respond in a clipped tone, "I haven't forgotten, Eva. But there is also nothing I can do about that, is there? Until yesterday, I didn't even know signing the marriage papers was a charade. If I had known... if you had told me..."

"I know, I know." She speaks with a voice of regret, "I'm sorry I didn't mention it. But I also didn't think you'd be stupid enough to interfere."

"I was only trying to expedite the process without bringing it attention as it would have otherwise received if it had gone through proper channels!"

Instead of getting caught up in the heat of the argument, she takes a moment to close her eyes and exhale. In a much calmer tone than she would have otherwise pulled, she says, "I know you only meant well, Aarush. I'm not accusing you here. It's just... Aarav and Jhanvi, they think there is no danger now that POA is in her name but they have no idea what is waiting for them in Jaipur."

Speaking reasonably myself I attempt to offer some comfort, "But you know, Eva. You'll be there with them. So, I'm not worried."

"But I am." She chuckles san humor. "I don't think I'm capable enough, Aarush. I left the army years back."

"You left the army. The army didn't leave you. You are as capable as you were. I believe in you. You just have to as well - and if you ever doubt yourself, just remember you are fighting for your family. That itself draws your biggest strength. You of all should know no one fights like family."

She smiles up at me, her shoulders rising and falling as if grasping every word of mine and instilling it in her heart to gather courage for what is to come. "I wish you'd be there too."

My smile back is small, "I can't."

"I know," she quietly replies.

In this matter, I am helpless. The feeling of powerlessness is not one I have been raised with but in this difficult chapter of my life which seems to be unrelenting and unending, I have had to face it quite often. It does not mean I have grown to accept it or like it any better.

As much as I wish myself. I made a promise to Jhanvi that I would make sure she survives this. After today, or even after her delivery, she may believe that I kept my word but I know it would have been incomplete. Alas, with my past, for me to stay around her would be inviting danger to her and her newborn; and that is the last thing I want.

There is enough blood on my hands to last my soul an eternity.

. . . ∞ . ∞ . ∞ . ∞. . .

∞ author note ∞

Some more about whatever's going on with Annie and more cryptic-ness between Eva and Aarush. Hope the chapter was interesting!

QOTC: Any guesses on what the 'stalker' wants from Annie? Hint: it's time we learn something of her past, yes?