He peered in through the window by the driver's seat, and saw her. Her head against the steering wheel, blood was pouring over her beautiful face from some wound on her head. He cursed at the air bag that had failed at its job, carried her to his car and drove to the nearest hospital.

Alex was in deep thought. John was slightly shaking his head. Mary looked a bit revolted.

Listening to the first hand explanation of witnessing what had happened to his daughter, John couldn't wrap his head around it. Ted's words had painted a vivid image in his head and his insides churned just thinking of what Ruby must have gone through.

"You want us to believe this?" Asked Alex. "So are you saying that you had nothing to do with the accident? That you were just casually following her, like you always do," Alex added with much revulsion, "and witnessed it happen?"

"If you didn't do anything to cause the accident, why did you escape that day after I came to the hospital? Why would you run today?" Asked John.

"Because I knew you'd react this way. None of you understand my love for her. I'd never hurt her. I admire her. I made sure she was safe, I made sure Lee paid a small price for how he treated her, I made sure she was happy and motivated. I want her to have all the happiness she wishes for," said Ted, his eyes gleaming with devotion. "But not with ass**** like you," he added looking at Alex.

"He is like an obsessive fan," said Mary, more to herself than to the two with her. She said to him, "But you said that she had gone to Sara's house that night."

Ted nodded slightly.

"But Sara spoke as if they hadn't seen Ruby in months, as if she was out of their lives after the scholarship incident," answered John.

"What's this scholarship incident?" asked Mary, puzzled. "Sara said that Ruby had tried to steal Lakshmi's scholarship," said John.

"I can't wrap my head around all this," said Mary rubbing her temple.

"Does this mean that Ruby was possibly drugged at Sara's house?" asked Alex. "Only one way to find out," said John.

**

Day 5

The small cute face with big eyes that usually was cheerful and smiled, the face that John had recognized from the photograph in Ruby's bedroom, the one with the beautiful pink flowers at the back, was now sitting in front of him rather nervous. Lakshmi kept glancing around, avoiding eye contact. She took a sip of water from the glass in front of her.

"Thankyou for agreeing to meet me, though I'm surprised to see that you are alone," said John. Lakshmi gave an unwilling smile. She said, "You threatened about having proof that we were lying to you about that night. You said you'll let slip to the college authorities that we have supplied weed. You didn't really leave me any choice now, did you?"

"Is Ruby still at the hospital?" She asked. John nodded, but did not know if Lakshmi was relieved or worried by this information.

John got into the matter immediately, "I need the whole truth this time. I need to know what happened the night of her accident. Why was she at Sara's house?"

"I'll tell you. But you have to stop asking everyone around college about this. And Sara doesn't need to know about this little meeting," she replied, her voice stern.

John nodded, though he had no intention of stopping until he found the truth.

"We had planned a party that night for a few influential friends and a few faculty. It was more of a classy gathering really. Sara would find calling it a party, rather inappropriate.

She had arranged it all and we were inviting very few students. We had heard that due to Ruby's low scores, she wasn't getting the scholarship she had tried to steal once from me. Ruby was passing by and Sara challenged her, as a joke, to come to the gathering that night, and try and steal my scholarship again...

Laksh opened the door and there stood Ruby, wearing her dark brown jacket and a boring sling bag across her body.

"Can't believe you actually showed up," said Laksh raising an eyebrow.

"How could I have missed it? Sara had invited me so dearly after all," said Ruby as she slid in through the door half blocked by Laksh. Laksh immediately moved back, avoiding any physical contact with the new guest. Not waiting around, Laksh walked away to avoid talking to Ruby.

The whole apartment was well lit. Shiny glasses of champagne were being passed around. Classical music playing in the background, it felt like a scene from an old play. Sara had managed to pull off the event of the year, the purpose of which was purely to make connections.

A few minutes later, Sara came to Laksh and whispered, "Did you know Ruby is here?" Laksh nodded.

"The audacity of that girl!" Sara continued, "I saw her cozying up to Tom. When will she learn? Jeez."

"Tom will put her to her right place. She will not be getting his scholarship," Laksh said as she sipped from her glass of champagne.

"Does Lee know she is here?" Asked Sara. Laksh shrugged and Sara smirked, "I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees her."

Just a few more minutes into the party, Lee came to Sara, limping. Holding her arm tightly, he said, anger evident in his voice, "Why the hell is she here?"

"Don't get mad at me! I didn't think she'd show up!" Sara defended herself.

"And I'm not one of your girlfriends that you can treat however you want, you scum," she said as she freed herself from his grip, "If you don't behave I'll pay someone to run over your other foot as well."

Lee looked away tightening his jaw. He said, "I'll kill that b**tard once I find him."

Sara flipped her long hair back, attained a posture of composure and said, "She'll leave soon when no one will pay her any attention. So chill."

"She came to me and asked if I missed her," said Lee, still hyper. Sara snorted, "Who on earth would miss her?"

Suddenly there was a commotion from the adjacent room. Sara and Laksh hurried to the source of sound and found a glass shattered on the wooden floor, the champagne that was within it, spilled. Professor Sloan stood closest to it, but his own glass firmly in his hand, his eyes were towards another figure that hurried off towards a bedroom.

Laksh followed Ruby immediately, in rage. While Sara got her help to clean up the spilt, Laksh entered the bedroom. Ruby was nowhere to be seen, but a sound emerged from the washroom. Closing the bedroom door behind her, Laksh banged on the washroom door, and the sound immediately ceased.

"Ruby! Open the door!" Laksh yelled. There was no response. "Open the DAMN DOOR!" Laksh shouted as she banged again with all her might.

Suddenly she heard a bang from the other side of the door causing her to stop. In a swift move, the door swung open and Ruby stood on the other side, her one hand on the door knob.

Her eyes red, cheeks wet with tears and mouth in an upside down frown. Her hair disheveled and the contents of her bag spilled in the basin.

"I want you to leave immediately," said Laksh after she took it all in, her face contorted with anger, "You are no longer welcome in our lives. Let's make that clear."

"I don't care about your stupid lives," Ruby said through gritted teeth, supressing a cry, as she collected her things from the basin and filled her bag. Laksh once again, took a step back to avoid touching Ruby or any part of her as she hurried out of the washroom.

"That's right. Don't care about our stupid lives. Just go live your pathetic cheating one. Or don't, considering there isn't much left for you anyway," retorted Laksh.

Ruby stopped at her tracks. She turned around, hesitated for a second and said, "You'll learn your lesson soon enough." She walked out of the bedroom.

Laksh followed after her, but Ruby had left the apartment as fast as she could...

"That's what happened that night," concluded Laksh. "She wanted to teach us a lesson. That's why she had come to the gathering. But she wasn't a saint either. But I know that when she wakes up, she'll blame me for causing her emotional stress, leading to her accident."

John didn't understand what to feel. He simply gazed at the girl trembling in front of him. He felt Laksh was stupid to think that she had caused emotional stress leading to the accident, but he did consider her point. He felt anger towards her for treating Ruby so horribly.

"Ruby will wake up soon," he hoped as he said it, "and she will rejoin college. If you want me to keep this under the cover, you have to promise me that you will stay away from her. Pretend she doesn't exist."

"I was pretending that she doesn't exist. It was she who came barging into our lives that night," Laksh retorted.

John ignored her, "I have recorded what you said." Laksh scowled.

"So don't even try to cause her harm or I will release this audio clip to your college authorities. You and I know social positions are hard to achieve, but very easy to lose."

Laksh glared at him. "Can I have your word?" He asked.

She hesitated as she took in a deep breath and then said through gritted teeth, "Fine".