AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Vihaan exchanged a quick look with his brothers.
“Uncle.” Shaurya pressed a hand on Tiya’s dad’s shoulder. “Please help us understand what you’re saying.”
They all sat around him as he began to speak.
“Twelve years ago, I was planning to move to Dubai,” the older man said. “Pritam Luthra was my friend and I’d borrowed a large sum of money from him to start my cement business here. Construction was booming in Dubai and my business grew fast and well. I was able to repay his money within a few months itself.”
Vihaan’s breathing quickened. This was the moment of truth, one they all had been waiting. And Jatin Sood had himself come here to tell them.
“Some months went by and then I learned about the fire that I assumed had destroyed your entire family.” He looked at Vihaan. “That is what I believed. That is what the world was made to believe. What no one knows, however, is that Pritam Luthra called me two days before the fire and asked me to transfer money to his account as further interest to what I’d owed him in the past. I’m afraid he may have used that money to hurt your family.”
“Mr. Sood.” Aaryan leaned forward. “You just said that the whole world assumed a fire destroyed us. Why do you assume that Pritam Luthra used your money to hurt our family?”
“Because he’d been complaining about your dad to me since years. He held a grudge against him ever since he married your mom.”
“What does that even mean?” Vihaan said in as a calm voice he could muster.
Jatin Sood squinted. “You don’t know?”
“Know what?” Aaryan queried, looking confused.
“Pritam Luthra was in love with your mother in college. But she chose your dad over him.”
Vihaan’s eyes snapped to his twin. Aaryan looked as shocked as he felt. Now, it finally made sense to Vihaan why his mother had never seemed to be fond of Dev’s dad.
“While I was never close to your parents,” Jatin Sood continued, “I assumed they’d figured it all out as they were back to being friends with Pritam. Years passed, all you kids were born and everything was normal. In fact, both, your mom and Pritam’s wife, were friends too. But after Pritam Luthra lost his wife, he began obsessing over your mother again. He’d mentioned several times to me how he regretted never fighting hard for her. I never quite liked the way he spoke about your dad. He was always complaining about him and his unwillingness to take risks. Years passed and his complaints worsened. But soon I was busy traveling between Dubai and Shimla. My family was still there. Tiya was just a kid and I had too much on my plate to pay keen attention to Pritam. But I did tell his brother in-law about it, especially when Pritam started talking about the marijuana smuggling.”
“Brother-in-law as in Dev’s maternal uncle,” Vihaan clarified to his brothers. “The one I mentioned to you.”
“Yes, Dev’s maternal uncle, Raj Chauhan, has been my good friend since years and I’d gotten to know Pritam through him. After Raj moved to the US, Pritam and I grew closer. Anyway, Raj promised to look into the matter. But then one day, Pritam asked me to pay him the interest he hadn’t asked until then on my initial loan. He kept saying he was going to finally get his vengeance. He was going on talking in circles, behaving unhinged. He kept telling me how your dad had cut off his access to the company accounts and that he was planning on cutting ties with him because he’d gotten involved in the illegal drugs business. Pritam told me his own money was stuck in that new venture of his and he insisted that I send him money immediately…so he could get his revenge. I refused… I tried so hard to tell him I couldn’t give him the money. In my heart, I knew, I just knew that he was planning something bad. But then he indirectly threatened Naina and Tiya. They were in Shimla and I was in Dubai. I panicked and called Raj, but he told me to just wire the money to Pritam, and end my association with him. That he'd handle everything, and Pritam wouldn’t hurt anybody, and my family would of course be safe. So, I sent the money. I sent it knowing in my gut that he may just end up hurting your family. Two days later, I heard what happened to your family and I was horrified. Later, when I learned that Pritam Luthra took control of all your assets, all my doubts were confirmed.”
Pin drop silence followed. Vihaan shared a shocked look with his brother as finally they had more pieces of the puzzle in place.
“Why didn’t you talk to the police?” Shaurya asked. “Why tell them all this now?”
“I had no proof, and Luthra had become too powerful in a few days. The Rajpoots were all assumed dead and I had to protect my own family. I moved them to Dubai with me soon after that.”
“Mr. Sood, you correctly surmised everything and yet you continued to remain friends with Pritam Luthra,” Aaryan said, his voice thick with emotion.
“What was I to do? Since I was already in Dubai, my interaction with him became limited. I never asked him or his brother-in-law where my money was spent. I had already told Raj to ensure Pritam never involved me in any situation ever, business or not. Thankfully, Raj kept his word and, over the years, Pritam never got me involved in any of his activities again, nor did I ever ask him what he’d been up to. I was certain he’d destroyed one family; do you think I wanted to get his eyes on mine? So, I maintained limited contact with him until he passed. But I held my breath each time he visited or called. He was a psychopath and I was afraid of him.” He exhaled a shaky breath. “God! That was such a relief to know he’d died. I could finally breathe easily then. Do you know how tough it is knowing that someone you call a friend could actually be a murderer?”
Vihaan stood and began to pace as he thought through everything he’d heard. One thing struck him above all.
“Why didn’t you even try and warn our dad?” Vihaan asked. “You said you knew him. You could have spoken up. Our lives could be vastly different now.”
“Would your father have believed me? We hardly knew one another and Pritam was his closest friend.”
Vihaan’s fists clenched in fury. Here was a man who’d known that their family was in possible danger and yet he’d done nothing to stop it.
“You should have done something,” Vihaan growled. “They could’ve been alive today.”
The older man stared at him for a long beat, looking distraught.
“You’re right…” Jatin Sood sighed. “In hindsight, I could have done something that may have prevented their deaths and the aftermath that followed. For not doing that, I deeply apologize. In my defense, I was only driven by pure instinct and there was nothing definite I could present to anyone to believe me.”
“But—”
“Vihaan, enough,” Aaryan said. “In retrospect, all of us could have done things differently. How can we blame him when we, the closest to Dev, never saw the signs ourselves? How can we blame him for wanting to keep his family safe when that has been our number one priority since years?”
