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Aaryan continued, “Tiya’s dad told us that your father had been ranting for a long time that our dad had taken everything from him and that he’d lost out on our mom because she’d chosen our dad in college.”
Dev shrugged. “Till date, I find this so hard to understand. Ajayji, my old butler, has told me several times that my parents were happy together. In fact, the reason my dad disliked Sanjana was because my mom had died giving birth to her. He ignored me most of the time too, but he was downright nasty to Sanjana, and I hated that. He could barely look at Sanjana, especially after she grew to be the spitting image of our mother.”
“Dad never loved me,” Sanjana said in a soft voice.
Dev gave her a helpless look. Although he’d tried to protect her over the years, he hadn’t been able to protect her from this harsh reality.
“I remember our mother never seemed to be too fond of your father,” Aaryan said.
Dev shrugged. “Dad wasn’t easy to like. I believe, he became even more hard and difficult after my mom passed away. And he had an unnatural obsession with money; he only wanted more. Maybe, that was the reason your mom disliked him. I don’t know. I don’t remember my dad ever looking at your mom the wrong way. It was so easy for him to kill her and your dad. He never mourned her or even spoke of her after that. That’s why his obsession with your mom never made sense to me.”
All of them pondered over his words.
“Anyway, that night, I finally learned of my dad’s intentions. I saw him for who he was—vicious, vengeful, and so damn greedy. I told him that we didn’t need more wealth, and that Sanjana and I were happy with what he was providing. But he rejected all my pleas. He was furious with your dad, especially since he’d seized the marijuana shipments. My dad was set upon revenge. I protested; I told him I’d stop him and tell Uncle Rushabh everything, but I’d never agree to this plan. He was already so angry, and my refusal to comply with him made him madder. He then asked his men to punish me.”
“Your back!” Avantika gasped. “He made that man hurt you…”
Till date, he’d never been able to forget the horror of that night and the ones that followed. Each night had given him further insight into how cruel and twisted his father actually was.
“I was caught at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Dev said. “One second, I’d been so happy. I’d spent time with you all. And in the next, I was unable to defend myself while my father’s men held me down, stuffed a cloth in my mouth and sliced the skin off my back.”
Avantika neared him. “Show them. They need to see.”
He turned and lifted his t-shirt over from his back. The twins, one gasped and one cursed loudly.
“Oh my…G…God,” Sanjana sputtered.
Dev dropped his t-shirt and turned to face them all.
“These scars are the same as Avi’s…” Sanjana said.
Dev looked at her. “And yours.”
She began to rub her left wrist. Sanjana shook her head, backing away as she began to put two and two together.
“You told me…” She gulped. “You told me I fell in the pool because I cut myself on some glass pieces. That I didn’t remember that incident because I nearly drowned since I’d lost so much blood.”
Aaryan caught her wrist, halting her furious strokes on her skin.
Sanjana looked beyond him at Dev. “Tell me what happened.”
“After they hurt me, I fell unconscious. They left me in my room and called Ajayjito look after me. My father threatened him that he’d take my life if he breathed a word of what happened to anyone or even if he called a doctor. He wanted my scars to serve as a lesson to me.”
“God! I hate him,” Sanjana choked out.
“No more than I do. No more than I have for the last twelve fucking years,” Dev sighed. “He was punishing me for trying to go against him. He wanted my loyalty; he wanted me to side with him. I was unconscious for so long, unable to move, and in severe pain. Ajayjidid what he could to help me heal. But I was in agony. It took me three days to finally wake up and realize that I had to warn you all. I was alone at home when I finally regained consciousness, and I didn’t even have a phone with me. The landline was also dead.”
“Oh God! That’s why you were aloof in the days leading up to that night!” Avantika exclaimed. “I tried calling you, and you didn’t respond. I tried visiting, and I was told you were out. Much later, I assumed that you had deliberately cut me off because of what your father and you must’ve planned.”
Dev shuddered, remembering that helpless time.
“No. It wasn’t like that. I could never do that to you. Dad was trying to cut me off from you all. He didn’t want me to be able to reach anyone outside the house. That day, when I finally felt better, I left my room and went in search of Sanjana, but she wasn’t there. I didn’t know if she’d returned from her trip or not, and I had no way of checking. All I knew was that I had to get her out of there and find one of you. I crept down the stairs, still in pain, and found the house surrounded by my father’s men. I tried to escape through the pool area, but to my luck, the same man who’d cut my skin found me. He called out to my dad, and the two of us had a huge fight again. Dad kept threatening to punish me even more severely, and I insisted I wasn’t scared of him. That I would never be on his side. That I’d never betray my friends. That’s when I saw Sanjana enter the house through the pool area. My dad saw her, and I knew…I just knew then and there that I was going to lose everything.”
Dev shut his burning eyes for a long second. He hadn’t spoken of that time in years, and now it was all coming back. He was reliving that nightmare as if it had occurred yesterday.
Avantika held his hand in understanding. She linked her fingers with his, silently offering her support. God! He was so grateful that she was with him now, finally, after all these years.
Memories of the past threatened to take him under, and he let them as he finally began to recount the past.
