Chapter 39: Chapter 39

"Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one's actions or lack of action."

"Yes, baby, he's your grandfather and she's your grandmother and she's your great grandmother," it was morning now in Mussoorie and everyone was already awake. Ayushi was now busy in introducing her kids to the elders as well as Payal. Dhruv was inside the kitchen cooking some breakfast for the family while Alka was in the market, buying some commodities from there.

"Gran...n...Mumma, how will I call this name? It's so big," Aranya whined a little and everyone chuckled at that.

"Okay let me explain again," Ayushi sighed a little and then took her babies near Dhiraj, Pratibha & Payal first and then later called Dhruv out from the kitchen.

"So, Agastya, tell me who's your sister?" she started with a simple question.

"Aranya is my baby sister and I'm bigger than her," Agastya poked on Aranya's cheeks at which she shrieked and everyone chuckled again.

"And, Aranya, who is your brother?" she asked her.

"Agastya is my brother," Aranya replied while pinching Agastya's chubby cheeks.

"They are so adorable," Payal commented at their antics.

"Now, both of you tell me who is your mother?" Ayushi asked them.

"You're our beautiful mother," they kissed her cheeks and hugged her, at which Ayushi smiled in content. Everyone else too smiled at this gesture.

"And, who's your father?" she asked them again and they immediately ran towards Dhruv who was standing a little far from them.

"He's our tall father," they replied and everyone laughed at their answer. Their mother was beautiful but father tall? Dhruv chuckled at his kids. They were hugging his legs.

"Come here," Ayushi asked them to come and they obliged. She gestured for Dhruv as well.

"Agastya, as Aranya is your sister, so your father too has a sister, meet Payal, you'll call her 'Bua' and Arnaya you too," Ayushi introduced them in a loving tone.

"Hello babies," Payal was all excited to play with them.

"Hello bua," they replied back in unison and then later started laughing out loudly.

"Now, as you have me and daddy as your mother and father, your daddy too has mother and father. She's your daddy's mother, you'll call her 'Dadi'," the children mimicked their mother's last pronounced word and Pratibha looked at them adoringly.

They both touched her feet and smiled at her. This action left all of them amazed. The kids were so well-mannered. Pratibha smiled and after blessing them, she kissed on their forehead.

"And he's your daddy's father, 'Dada'," they touched his feet and called with the learned endearment for their grandfather, and Dhiraj was on cloud nine when he heard the word 'Dada' from their mouth.

"And now tell me who's your Dadi?" Ayushi asked them again and this time they ran towards Pratibha and hugged her out of love and said, "She's is our beautiful, Dadi," they replied in unison.

"Similarly, come here, she's your Daddy's Dadi, you will call her 'Badi Dadi'," the children drew their hands together and showed a big space with their hands and then later pronounced, "Badi Dadi" in unison.

"You both are so cute," Gayathri hugged them lovingly after giving them the blessings.

"Badi Dadi, Dada, Dadi, Bua," the children started singing while pinpointing the persons whose name they were spelling with their fingers.

"Yes, she's your 'Badi Dadi, Dada, Dadi, Bua'," Ayushi and others laughed at their antics as they kept saying that all day long.

****

This was the last day of Dhruv's job as a helper. Thirty days have already been completed. He was tired after working for so many hours. But his energy packets aka his babies had always kept him motivated, so he never even thought of giving up the task that his grandmother had given to him.

Their coming to Bhopal was a secret and it wasn't still disclosed to the world and even he was clueless about it.

"You did well, Dhruv, now your task is over," Dadi had finally appreciated him and he was over the moon after hearing this. Finally, he could live his life like a normal person again.

But in the night, when the children were busy playing with Payal and Alka as she too had come for a few days from Mussoorie, Dhiraj had announced that the next day they were to visit Kolkata as there was some work which needed their attention without revealing the motive behind their sudden visit.

Dhruv had asked his father but he had got only a 'Surprise' in reply.

"Agastya and Aranya can be taken care of by them, so don't worry Ayushi, it's just a matter of a few hours," Dhiraj had consoled Ayushi when he had told her that the kids couldn't come along with them.

The next day all of them left the house, except for Payal and Alka who were looking after the babies. Their house was now guarded by the best of the men.

****

Ten years back, when Ayushi was still in her college, something bad had happened with her and the one behind that was her ex-boyfriend, Arjun who had abducted her and sold her to a bar and later he was debarred from his favourite college from where he wanted to complete his dreams. Later, after two years, due to agony and depression, he had died of drugs, but it was not the complete story.

He was not dead, but he had plotted his death to save himself from his father and sister, who wanted nothing but his dead body. He had heard them talking against him. He was not bad, but the environment in which he was grown up, surely was.

From childhood only, he along with his sister were taught to hate, to avenge someone, although he had always tried his best to restrain himself from all these dirty politics. He could still remember how bad his mother's words used to be for the Rajputs and how she used to teach his little sister about the things a small kid should forbid from knowing. He could still remember his mother's words.

"You have to avenge them Chandani, only you are our hope," his mother used to tell this to his five-year-old sister, Chandani.

"Maa, it's not right to manipulate a kid, making them learn all these revenge games of yours," ten-year-old Arjun had always disliked the business that his father used to had, 'the dirty business', he used to call with that adjective only, and then his mother would slap him or hit him because no one was allowed to speak in the favour of those Rajputs.

"You are a disgrace for us," his mother had always abused him, because unlike his 'Monstrous father', Arjun had a good heart, he was a noble boy and he disliked all the legacy that his father had inherited, starting from the Mafia, then honour killing, then prostitution business and the list never ends.

Arjun was a bright kid as well, computers and gadgets, were always his topic of interest and that's how he landed himself in an engineering college in Delhi which was his dream college as well, far away from his hometown, Kolkata.

Life was going good and then in the first year of his college only, he fell in love with Ayushi, who was like a fresh river in his barren life. He had never felt so happy before in his life, it was like the whole world was now a better place to live. But unknowingly, everything changed. Because of the feeling of 'love' for the first time in his life, he started becoming possessive for Ayushi, every time he wanted her to be with him. He couldn't tolerate any boy with her, it enraged him so much.

And when his possessiveness turned into obsessiveness, even he didn't know. And finally, the final blow, when Ayushi broke all ties with him. That's when Arjun was shattered. He started having drugs, alcohol, and whatnot, for sure he loved Ayushi dearly, but his method was completely wrong.

Love is a feeling of companionship, it is to know your partner from the inside, to stand with her in hard times, to support her in every difficulty. But Arjun's love was controlling, he wanted to control her to quench his thirst for 'his understanding of love'.

Lost in his grief, agony, and alcohol, Arjun hadn't even realized how his 'shameless' friends had stolen his newly launched smartphone and used that to upload one of the private moments he had with Ayushi, on his Facebook timeline. It was a funny thing for them, but the worst for both Ayushi and Arjun. His friends even captioned, 'The first year with my slut girlfriend'.

Ayushi was shattered facing the repercussions of this heinous act of Arjun's friends. And when she tried to confront him, Arjun had slapped her and even mistreated her, in his intoxicated state of alcohol.

And that's when his 'jealous yet deceitful' friend executed their last plan. They abducted Ayushi after drugging her and later left her in a bar, knowing very well that she'd run away as soon as she'd regain her consciousness, as they had bribed those bar workers as well to let her go.

And exactly that happened, she ran away from the bar and now, the whole blame came on Arjun, the brightest student in the whole first year, who had won most of the coding competitions held in their college, and the luckiest one as well, because he was the only one in his whole class who had a girlfriend as beautiful as Ayushi, both from inside as well as outside.

Arjun was debarred from the college, the police were involved in this, and everyone was the witness of the scene when Arjun had slapped and mistreated Ayushi, his timeline also spoke against him, and his love as well, and that's how he was sent into rehabilitation as he was a minor, just seventeen. His entire career was destroyed, his dreams were brutally butchered, his love had moved on and his life spoiled.

After returning from rehab, Arjun changed a lot. But it was already too late to get back to his career, to get back his love as even Ayushi too was married but he had decided one thing, that he'd ask for forgiveness from her for whatever wrong he did to her. Feeling that his family would accept him, he had turned to their doors but they were changed so much. They despised him, although he didn't show that. Except for his mother, his father, as well as his sister, were behind his life, he had concluded after hearing their conversation.

"This rascal Arjun had come to destroy all the wealth that we had acquired over these years, I won't give him a penny, he had always been a rebel. Everyone is calling him a mental bastard, I cannot tolerate his presence anymore, his presence reminds me of his sick father. Yes, he is not my son, his mother had conceived him from his deceased father, after which, I had married his mother because I had fallen in love with that widow. I tolerated him because of his mother only, but now, not anymore," Probhakor disclosed the biggest truth of Arjun, the truth of his existence, which he didn't even know about.

He wanted to cry out loud after hearing the lie which he had lived since his childhood. His mother didn't even care for once to tell this truth to him, how could she!

"Yes, Baba, he had been a shame to us and our family, better he dies, our rivals will also ridicule us because of him," Chandani exasperated out and Arjun was shocked after hearing his little sister's venomous words against him.

"Well, call Sujoy then, our best fighter, he'll kill him without leaving a trace of any evidence," his father laughed humorlessly.

But what they didn't know was that Arjun was a good friend of Sujoy. He had been a great help to Sujoy and his family. He had always helped him, and because of him only, his wife had survived that night when nobody was there to help her deliver her baby. He had only rushed them towards the hospital as everyone was busy partying.

When Sujoy was asked to kill Arjun, he just accepted that in front of Probhakor but in reality, he asked Arjun to run far away from this land and never come back. Sujoy didn't kill Arjun but he managed to show the proof of Arjun's death to Probhakor, there was another body with all the ornament of Arjun on it like his chain, the ring which he wore from childhood, which they had burnt thinking that it was Arjun. And Probhakor trusted him.

Arjun ran away after Sujoy gave him some money to a faraway land. And there he started working in call centres as no one wanted to give him a job as he was not even a graduate. But with time, he gained some monetary funds and that's how he started investing them in learning more and more courses about different languages of coding.

In between all this, he had even tried to contact Ayushi to ask sorry from her. With the help of some local, harmless goons, he had kidnapped her. But they brought someone else, Payal, Ayushi's sister-in-law. And he just lost all his hopes, he surrendered and poured himself in the betterment of his life. And that's when he decided to start his start-up. An IT-based small start-up.

But now he was back. Back with the police support as well as those of the Rajputs.

"IPS Makshik Chandra, Bhopal Police. Probhakor Thakur and Chandani Thakur, we have a warrant and proofs against you, you both are under arrest for murdering Arjun Thakur, who was your son and brother, I guess," Makshik, aka Kunal, smirked at the shocked and tormented faces of Prabhokar and Chandani, who thought that the ground under their feet had slipped.

All the guests were shocked as well, who had come to attend the wedding of Probhakor Thakur's daughter, the king of Mafia. Many MLAs, bureaucrats, and big names were there to attend the wedding but now they were busy enjoying the 'Drama' that was upheld in front of them. The few of the A-list media houses were already busy in shooting the 'Controversy of the Century'.

"No, we didn't kill him, he had died because of drugs and we had even burned his body, you can ask our workers," Probhakor tried to defend himself while Chandani eyes poured out the tears of being betrayed and cheated. Now she was realising the feeling of being betrayed by the same person whom she had loved once. Her eyes glared at Kunal aka Makshik but he was busy giving disgusting glares to her as well as her dirty father.

"Well, I think we need to call the person who was told to kill Arjun," Makshik commented in a boring tone and Sujoy was called there.

"Yes, I was told by sir to kill Arjun," he accepted his sin and put his head in shame.

"Makshik, just arrest him already, why are you wasting time?" Rahul Dutta, the IPS officer of the Kolkata region restlessly spoke to Arjun.

"No, that will not be worth watchful," Makshik chuckled without any humour.

"Call that guy, already," he ordered and that's when Arjun entered with a glorious look on his face in his suit.

Probhakor and Chandani were shocked after seeing him, whom they had thought was killed long back. How could he come back again! Probhakor looked at Sujoy in an accusing way but Arjun saw that and instead thought to reply for him.

"Well, he had not killed me that day, giving me a new life and that body you burned was actually of a rival whom you thought was me," Arjun laughed out loud while keeping his hands in his pockets, carefully. Probhakor gritted his teeth in anger, how could his worker disobey him, cheat him.

"Well, you both will be jailed for planning to murder a person but there are many heinous crimes as well that you both had sinned together on our list," Makshik seethed out with his blazing eyes, directed at both Probhakor and Chandani.

"Dhruv & Ayushi," Makshik called them and Gayathri, Dhiraj, Pratibha, Dhruv, and Ayushi arrived, with their eyes filled with just abhorrence and disgust for the father-daughter duo. Chandani was shocked to see Dhruv and Ayushi together. Probhakor knew Dhiraj and even he too was shocked, seeing them here.

"To avenge against my family for what I did with him twenty-five years back, he plotted his disgusting plan to break my family and they chose my son, Dhruv to start from. This girl manipulated him, drugged him to do whatever they wished for him to do. And that's how they even assaulted my daughter-in-law. For two years, freaking two years, my son and daughter-in-law were living a life away from us all and even away from each other, with my daughter-in-law having the load of two babies on her head, handling them all alone. We couldn't even see the faces of our children, our grandchildren, for two years just because of these two pieces of God's cruellest creation," Dhiraj's words were calm and calculated as he knew the media houses were here too, he didn't want to disclose anything more, they could start another scandal out of it.

Probhakor's eyes were down in shame, along with that of Chandani's.

"You cheated me and used me so well, I didn't know your upbringing was this awful. I wish you rot in hell along with your father," Dhruv barked at Chandani and she had just put her head in shame.

"You thought that if you'll throw me out of Dhruv's life then even he'll feel the pain as the same as your father did and your revenge will be completed? How dumb and deceitful you are, Chandani. You deceived the whole women community for supporting your father for the crime which is so shameful & heinous. Even you are a girl, how can you sell another girl's virtue for some money? I pity the mother who had to endure the pain of giving birth to such a disgusting girl," Ayushi spat out in anger, with all the time Dhruv holding her hands in his.

"For those who don't know what crime Mrs Ayushi Rajput is talking about, let's call another witness," Makshik called out for the girls who were sold in the foreign lands or even inside India by none other than the Thakurs.

Many of the girls came and the whole people were shocked seeing the amount of these rescued girls.

"This man and this woman, they had promised to give me a job to my ailing parents but instead of a servant's or a slave's job they made a sex slave, I couldn't return to my parents as their goons were always there to keep us all in check," one of the girl, with her face hidden under the scarf spoke out in a crying tone and others' heart bled as well after hearing her tragic story.

"I was only eleven when his goons abducted me. On the first day only, they injected me with something which snatched away my childhood from me. I was a woman in a month and pregnant in four months," another girl spoke out while sobbing. Her face was also hidden under the scarf.

Ayushi's eyes too were wet along with others, hearing the heart-wrenching stories of these girls who were called 'Prostitutes' in our society.

"I was a widow with one daughter to take care of. Because of a lack of education, I couldn't get a good job. Then one of his goons came inside my life as some knight and instead of the promise of marriage, he gave me this brothel," a woman cried while holding the hands of her small daughter.

"And I was a newly married woman who had many dreams of marriage. But it turned into a nightmare when my husband sold me to this Chandani Thakur for some money," a lady cried out in agony of her shattered virtue. They all had their faces hidden inside their scarfs.

"I don't know from which things you are made up of, but one thing is for sure, if the ancient times' demons were present now, even they'd have kept their head low in shame, after hearing all this. You are worse than a demon, and you're a shame on the whole women community!" Ayushi's venomous voice was enough for Probhakor & Chandani to put their head in shame as well.

"So, we have many proofs and shreds of evidence against you, better you surrender yourself to police, otherwise these women had pledged today to at least kill two demons as its Navratri (Goddess Durga's nine nights) nowadays," Makshik threatened and gestured the constables to hand-cuff them.

"It can take time but evil can never triumph over good," Ayushi smirked at Chandani when she saw them being taken to the police van. Chandani just glared at her and sat inside the van.

The media started running after Probhakor and his daughter but they were restricted by the police. Finally, the media persons were thrown outside by the police as they were being too nosey now.

Chandani's mother and other relatives were just a mute spectator to all this. They couldn't do anything. Other guests too left the place, while the rescued ladies were taken in Police custody for the proofs, leaving only a few persons behind. Arjun too remained near while observing Ayushi's family.

They had already met a few hours before and he had asked for his forgiveness after explaining his side of the story. Ayushi had forgiven him after hearing him, even his life was destroyed because of some jealousy and competition. They were friends now; they had decided and even Dhruv didn't have any problem with it. He had also learned a lesson to give freedom to his wife along with the love that he's already giving her.

"Thank you so much, Rahul, you had supported me so much," Makshik thanked his friend Rahul, who was the IPS of Kolkata region and had helped him in doing all this. They knew each other because they had spent their IPS training at Hyderabad together and they were fast friends.

"Now don't be so formal, by the way, you played the role of that Chandani's lover so well, nailed it," Rahul hugged him and later got inside his government vehicle, moving towards his office. After bidding his friend adieu, Makshik went towards the Rajput family who was now witnessing the agony of a son.

Arjun went near his mother and saw how badly she was crying. Although he just wanted to go away from her, because in all these revenge games and plots, even she was involved but he was a son, a good son to his somewhat evil mother. How could he leave her in this state where she had no one to turn to? Her relatives had left her. She was completely alone now.

"Come Maa, let's go to Bhopal, we'll start a new life there, your house will be sealed because of your husband's bad deeds," Arjun tried to touch her but she moved away from him.

"You're not my son, you spoke against your father, how could you?" she shouted at him.

"He spoke against his father because he was wrong, he was a sinner, and you need to accept the fact that your husband was a demon in the body of a human," Pratibha spoke for the lost-kid, Arjun who was looking so helplessly at his mother. Pratibha's heart pained for this boy.

"Leave me, you are not my son anymore, I'll not go with you," Arjun's mother was too stubborn and went away from the marriage hall.

"Don't worry son, sometimes in the process of fighting against evil, we have to sacrifice, and this time you are sacrificing your mother who's blinded so much in your father's and daughter's love," Pratibha whispered to Arjun in a motherly tone, his eyes had tears by now. No one was there with him; he was a loner.

"Arjun, why are you crying? Look, sometimes it's not in our hands to have the things the way we wanted it to. Accept this and move on son, this life is too short," Dhiraj too came to his side and tried to make him understand.

"And you're also living in Bhopal, right? So, why don't you come with us? Then even you will forget about your pain, with us," it was Makshik who spoke out generously.

"No, it's okay, I'll manage on my own," Arjun tried to go from there when Gayathri held his hand and stopped him.

"Son, please don't mind but as a request from our side, come with us?" Gayathri spoke out in a kind tone, even she could see how disheartened this boy was right now. She didn't want him to take any disastrous step because of loneliness & depression which he might be feeling now because of the rejection of his mother.

Arjun couldn't say no and nodded his head.

Pratibha smiled at him and others too smiled, finally he was ready.

"I've some work in the nearby place, I'll come to your house for sure when I'll be in Bhopal," saying this, Arjun went away from the marriage hall.

"He's a stubborn man," Dhiraj whispered to himself, and then his attention turned to Kunal aka Makshik.

"My boy," he smiled at him proudly and moved towards him.

"Thank you so much son, you put off a lot of burden from my shoulders, I am proud of you," Dhiraj hugged Makshik tightly, his chest puffed, in full proud for having Makshik as his future son-in-law which was a secret between him and Makshik's father.

"Uncle, don't say thanks to me. It was my duty as a friend also as a responsible and dutiful police officer to eradicate such demons from society. And thanks for sharing all this to me, uncle, otherwise I was not even aware of this case," Makshik spoke out while staring at Dhruv. Dhruv was at a loss of words, what to say to his friend who had warned him long back about Chandani when Makshik was in his training academy.

"I am sorry for not believing you," Makshik immediately hugged him and shushed his friend, who had just gotten back his life on track now.

"Don't be, everything is rectified now, so no sorry, no thank you, please," Makshik spoke out dramatically and everyone chuckled at him.

He took blessings from Gayathri and Pratibha too and they hugged him lovingly.

"So, you are the girl who's currently ruling my best friend's heart?" This was the first time that Makshik was talking face-to-face with Ayushi. She smiled at his comment and nodded her head at him.

"No doubt my friend has chosen you out of all the girls out there, you're really beautiful," Makshik commented and smiled at her.

Dhruv felt a bit jealous but he didn't try to show it.

"Thank you for all this, you've given us a new life," Ayushi thanked him whole-heartedly and Makshik just smiled at her in adore.

"You're my best friend's wife, means even my friend and friends don't say thank-you," Makshik cleared and Ayushi accepted his friendship, smiling brightly.

"Let's go to Bhopal, I cannot wait to meet my niece and nephew," Makshik spoke out in excitement while others joined him in his laughter after he shared one of his jokes.

Finally, the evil was eradicated & broken, with the birth of something good and positive.

~**•**~

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