Hi!

You know, I remember talking to AkshayaKannan2 and Nishabhigya few days back, and I was saying that this fic will probably have only 11 or 15 chapters in total. They said I should extend it. I was like 'is that possible?' But its crossed 30 chapters now.
(Yay!🙌🙌🙌 )

All because of the support of my readers! Love you buddies!!! 😘😘😘

Anyways, Onwards!!!

"Words in double quotes" - Talking

'Words in single quotes' - Thoughts

(Words in braces) - Telephone conversation.

Chapter 30 - Shattered Trust

Aliyah paced back and forth outside the closed room. Purab, Vivek, Karan and her elder brothers had gone to find Pragya. She wanted to go but her brothers didn't want anything to happen to her. They had told her to stay and guard Prasanth. However, they hadn't called and neither had they come back. 'I hope everything is alright.'

"Are you attempting to drive a hole through the floor by pacing?" spoke Kriti, as she reached near Aliyah. Bulbul went home early, which Kriti was sure had something to do with those stubborn cousins of hers. Nevertheless, Kriti decided to search for the rest. "I've been searching for all of you. What are you doing here in this secluded section? That too alone?"

"Kriti.... Kriti I'm really worried about Pragya and the rest."

On Kriti's quizzical look, Aliyah explained everything. Kriti tried to calm down Aliyah. "Hey, chill girl. I'm sure they will be able to save Pragya. If something had happened they would have called Bulbul or you. But they haven't called either one of you. I'm sure they just forgot to call, too busy chatting on their way here."

"I hope you are right Kriti. I don't know why but I feel really restless."

Kriti pulled Aliyah into a hug. "Like I said, chill." she looked at the closed room behind Aliyah. "You told me about them, but I still don't get why you're here."

Aliyah sighed in frustration. "My stupid macho brother and Purab kidnapped Prasanth and put him here. I'm guarding him."

Kriti blinked..... And blinked again. Slowly a smile formed in her lips, which soon turned into a full blown laugh.

"Shhh! Don't be so loud Kriti. He might recognize your voice. Kriti! Kriti stop gaffowing damnit! Kriti!"

"Ahahaha... Too good. He deserves it! All those boring maths classes he made me attend. Karma is paying him back." Kriti moved towards the door and started unlocking it.

"Kriti, what exactly are you planning?"

Ktiti turned to her with a smirk. "I want to see his pissed off face."

Once the door opened, she went in.

Aliyah was about to follow Kriti inside, to make sure she doesn't cause any trouble. However, the sound of a car approaching caught her attention.

Karan, Vivek and Purab came out of the car. "Guys, where's Pragya? Where are my brothers? Are they fine?"

"Aliyah they ar-" Karan's words were interrupted by Purab's shout.

"Why is the door open? Did Prasanth escape?!"

Aliyah shook her head. "No Purab. Kriti is inside. She wanted to see his state for her amusement"

Purab and Karan looked at each other with wide eyes. They knew how obnoxious Kriti could be. She may end up revealing their identities by mistake. At once, they both rushed inside.

Aliyah went near Vivek and shook him. "Please tell me! Are they alright?"

"Aliyah, we couldn't catch the person who wanted to kill Pragya. But don't worry, Pragya is safe. You can calm down now." He said with a smile.

"And what about my brothers?"

Vivek's face scrunched up in worry. "Abhi and Pragya are both alright. But Shabbir..."

Aliyah felt her heart still. "W-what about Shabbir? Nothing can happen to Shab-bear! Tell me that nothing happened to him!"

Vivek looked away. "Aliyah... Shabbir was the one who saved Pragya. The killer tried to stab her, but Shabbir took the hit."

Aliyah gasped. "N-no... No no no!"

Vivek looked at her tear-filled face. "I'm so sorry Aliyah. Shabbir risked his life to save Pragya. That's why he couldn't be with us now."

"No.. No! He can't leave me. We just became a family, he can't leave us!"

In the background, Aliyah could hear Kriti being chided by Karan as he pulled her away from the room. Purab came out as well and noticed Aliyah's state.

Vivek looked at Aliyah in confusion. He was about to speak, when he saw Purab approach them. "Aliyah, why are you crying so much?"

Aliyah turned to Purab in anger. "Why? Why?! My brother is gone and you're asking me why Purab?!"

"Eh? Who said he's gone? He's in the hospital. The knife went to his side and so it wasn't fatal. He should be fine. Abhi and Pragya are with him right now."

Aliyah looked shell-shocked. She felt happy as well as confused.

"But... But Vivek you said that he isn't among us anymore." 😕

"Oi! I said that he isn't with us right now. He isn't dead or anything! He's at the hospital. How can he be with us then?" He looked at Aliyah with a frown. "You misunderstood such a small thing? Sheh...how immature." 😔

Aliyah's face turned red in anger. "You made me believe that... That.. Grr! Die you!" she at once grabbed Vivek's neck in a chokehold.

"Ack! Let go! You'll kill me *cough* Let go let go! Bloody murder!" 😨

Aliyah would have continued choking him, if it wasn't for Kriti who came and removed her hands. "Calm down Aliyah. And you Vivek! Can't you ever speak in normal ways?!" 😑

"*cough* Thanks! *cough* I thought she would have killed me." Vivek spoke, sucking in deep gulps of air.

Purab rolled his eyes. "Quit being dramatic. You weren't dying."

Vivek glared at him. "Doesn't screaming bloody murder mean anything to you?" 😒

Karan sighed in frustration. He looked towards the sky and closed his eyes. 'How did I end up with these idiots? Hei Bhagwan! Uthale mujhe!'

"Did you find out any information about who was trying to kill Pragya?"

"No Aliyah. But Pragya told us one big detail. We were all thinking that Pragya was the leverage that they planned to use to get Bulbul. But the truth is that Bulbul was never in danger. It was Pragya all along."

Aliyah's eyes widened at Purab's words. "But...but why?!"

"That's what we will find out now." spoke a male voice from behind them. They turned to find Pragya and Abhi standing there. Both must have come in Abhi's bike. However, too busy in their argument, they didn't hear them.

"You both here? What about Shabbir?" Karan questioned.

"Shabbir told us to come here and not waste time with him. I...I wanted to stay with him. B-but he said that finding the truth was more important." spoke Pragya. Her jacket had blood on it...Shabbir's blood. However, she seemed too lost in her misery to notice it. Her eyes were puffy and red. It seemed she had been crying profusely. Aliyah and Kriti came to comfort her. Kriti removed the jacket and threw it away, while Pragya kept standing without a word.

"Let's go inside. This time Prasanth has to tell the truth!" saying that, Abhi walked forward, followed by the rest.

Inside...

Prasanth was currently trying to free himself.

Earlier, he was confused as to why his captors had run out like bats out of hell. Nevertheless, he decided to look for ways to escape. As he sat there then, he heard some dripping.

Soon he realized that there was a leaky pipe nearby. Although he was tied to the chair, years of training helped him move himself and the chair towards it. He managed to completely wet the ropes that bound his hands behind him on the chair and soon, moved back to the original place to avoid suspicion. Now that it was slippery, he struggled to free his hands from the ropes.

Prasanth had heard some girl's voice earlier, taunting him, but he kept quiet. Soon she was pulled away by someone. He wished he could at least get some hint on who they were.

However, it was good that she left. He could work on his plan to escape. He was busy trying to slip his hands through the ropes, when he heard them re-enter.

He felt someone come and grab his collar in a vice grip.

"Tell me why you are after Pragya! Who else is working with you?" Abhi spoke in a fake accent so that Prasanth doesn't recognize his voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Besides, it looks like you are the killers who are after me. Ironic that I'm being termed the bad guy here." Prasanth taunted. He could tell his captors that he was actually protecting Pragya. But he didn't think he could trust his captors with that information and thought of keeping them in the dark.

"Don't act smart!" Abhi decided to take a different approach. "If you don't answer me, then your two partner in crime, Samay and Sumit, will be next on my hit list!"

Both Pragya and Prasanth gasped at that. Pragya turned to Karan. "What is he saying?! My cousins would never do anything to harm me! How could Abhi think this way?" she whispered.

"We've seen them meeting secretly with Prasanth. And with how they have been acting recently, we have doubts on them."

"But that doesn't mean they would harm me! I refuse to believe it."

"I think we will find out the truth soon. And as for Abhi accusing them?....Abhi isn't 100% sure if your cousins are responsible for it or not. He is just talking like that so Prasanth reveals something."

Prasanth, on the other hand, was thinking over the things. 'He said he knows about Samay and Sumit working together with me. But.... But maybe it's just a trick of his to find out the truth, to make me talk.'

"I don't know who they are. Only thing I know is that they are technicians."

"Is that so?" Abhi took out Prasanth's phone and checked the messages. "You've messaged them more than I can count. And there are message which had been sent months ago! How do you explain that?"

'Looks like the cat's out of the bag.' Prasanth looked at Abhi's direction in anger. "Fine. We're working together. How did you come to know about us? Who told you?!"

Abhi paid him no attention. Instead, he turned to look at Pragya and his sister. He wasn't surprised to see their devastated looks.

Pragya loved her cousins so much and yet...yet they are the ones who wanted to kill her. He couldn't imagine how much pain she was in right now.

And as for his sister. He already had a hunch that she loved Sumit. And now, looking at her heart-broken face, he knew he was right. Kriti was trying to console both of them, but with little success.

He got up and moved towards them. "Pragy-"

"No! I still refuse to believe it. They can't be the ones to do this. They just can't!"

Abhi grabbed her shoulders and made her look at him. "All those times....how they were at the pool after you almost drowned the previous day, them visiting the library... it all makes sense now. They were the ones who caused it. Don't you see? Why are you trying to deny the truth?!"

No matter how much Pragya wanted to drown out Abhi's voice, his words kept ringing in her head. Even though she didn't want to believe it, everything was pointing towards Sumit and Samay as the culprits.

"I... I need to leave. I want to ask them why they did this. Why did they break my trust like this?! How... How could they do this to me? I trusted them with my life and..." Pragya couldn't continue amidst her tears.

"You can't reveal the truth Pragya. They might attack you at that instant!" Purab pointed out. He would have continued speaking if it wasn't for his phone ringing. He went aside to attend the call.

"I don't care! I need to know why they betrayed me, my family! I want to know why they played with our emotions!"

Karan tried to calm her down. "It's not only that Pragya. It might have something to those people wanting the chip. If you confront them, they might form some new plan which will cause more trouble."

"Fine! I won't reveal the fact. But I need to meet them. Please let me go."

Abhi nodded and loosened his grip on her. He watched her go out of the room. 'Stay safe. Shabbir will kill me if anything happens to you.'

Abhi sighed and looked at Aliyah. It seemed that Kriti would be the best person to comfort her at that moment. He signaled Kriti to take her away. Kriti nodded and moved out with Aliyah.

"Abhi. There is a problem." spoke Purab, approaching them. "Your father said that someone was trying to hack into his database. I'm sure it is Samay and Sumit, trying to find out details on Prasanth."

"Samay and Sumit? I thought they were ordinary technicians." spoke Karan in confusion.

Abhi shook his head. "No Karan. We did some digging and found out about them. They are programmers like us. We thought we were the best out there, but they surpass us by a long shot."

"Shit! Let's go."

#Central Park#

Pragya turned as she heard the sounds of bikes approaching. Samay and Sumit got off their bikes and came near her.

"What's up Cuz? Any problems? Found a new crush?" Sumit asked with a playful smile.

He and Samay were busy finding details about Prasanth's last location. However, they got a text from Pragya to meet her at the park urgently. They came as fast as they could. Their sister came first before anything.

Pragya looked at both of their faces. It took every bit of her will power not to break down in front of them and question them.

She held both of their hands and placed them over her head. They looked shocked at her action. "Samay, Sumit...you both say that I'm like a sister to both of you, don't you?"

"Of course Pragya. Is that even a question you need to ask?"

"Then look me in the eye and tell me that you aren't hiding anything from me. Tell me the truth and I want no secrets!"

Pragya kept looking at them, desperately hoping for them to tell the truth. 'Even if you want to kill me, please tell me the truth. If killing me brings you happiness, I will give up my life. But I'll make you promise me that you both will continue to be the people my Maa and Bulbul thinks you are. They won't be able to handle your betrayal. Please tell me the truth!'

Samay and Sumit looked at each other. They seemed to have a silent conversation, just through their eyes. They finally looked at her with a smile.

Samay was the first one who spoke. "We won't ever hid anything from you Pragya. Trust me."

"Yes Cuz. You're worrying for nothing. We're being completely honest. I mean, why would we hide anything?"

Pragya gave them a fake smile. They may be speaking with confidence, but Pragya saw how their eyes had adverted when speaking. It showed her the truth. "Okay guys. I guess you're right. You can leave now."

"Hmm.. Are you sure you're okay, Pragya?" Samay looked at her quizically. He seemed worried about her.

'Only if that worry was real.' She smiled and nodded at Samay, although inside she felt shattered.

Once they left, Pragya fell down onto her knees, finally letting herself cry. "How could you do this to us? How could you!? If you wanted to kill me, you should have done it right. Even that would be better than making me believe in you, trust you, accept you as family."

On lookers looked at her with pity as they passed by. However, Pragya paid them no heed. Finally, when she was able to calm down, she dialed Abhi's number.

"Where are you?"

(I came to help father in some matters.)

"I met up with my cousins, although nothing of use happened."

(You met up with your cousins? You didn't reveal anything, did you?)

"No. I didn't say anything. But its time to expose their truth. I want to question Prasanth why they are after me. I need to know the truth. I must know the truth!"

(Okay. Let's go back to Prasanth. I'll be there soon.)

Pragya cut the call and got up. "I don't know why you did this to us, but I won't let you hurt my family. I have to find out your reasons and make sure Bulbul and Maa doesn't find out your true intentions. It will break them."

#Later, Mount College#

Pragya stood before the room where Prasanth was being kept. She heard someone approach and saw each of her friend standing there. Aliyah, who wanted to find out why Sumit betrayed them, Abhi and Purab who wanted to protect her, and Karan, Kriti and Vivek who were willing to face these dangers for her and the Mehras. 'On one hand, my family is falling apart. But on the other hand, I'm getting these wonderful people as siblings I never had. I guess it's true. Blood doesn't define relations.'

"Let's find the truth once in for all!" saying that, Abhi pushed open the door. However, once he was inside, he was shocked to find the chair empty. Prasanth was sitting with his back to the wall, with a broken pipe in hand to use as weapon. "Impossible!"

At Abhi's exclamation, the rest of the boys went inside, telling the girls to stay out.

Prasanth looked up when he heard people enter. He looked wide eyed at Abhi and the boys. "So it was you guys who brought me here. Abhi, I could expect, since he is one of those good-for-nothing Mehras. But you three- Karan, Purab and Vivek? Never expected this from you boys."

"How did you manage to get out of that chair?!"

Prasanth chuckled. "I have my ways Purab."

"Enough! Now get to the point and tell us why you and Pragya's cousins want to kill her." Karan spoke in anger.

Prasanth got up and came near. "Me? It is you Mehras who are after her, not leaving one chance to kill her!"

"My family would never do something like that!" Abhi shouted back. "Tell us the truth. We had you locked up and yet, you managed to hire a killer to kill her today. How?!"

At that, Prasanth looked shocked. "What!? Who was it? When did it happen?!"

Purab rolled his eyes. "Don't give us the innocent act. Tell the truth!"

Prasanth was about to speak, when a sight shocked him to the core. He saw Pragya head in and stand beside Abhi. 'She... She's working with the Mehras!? Her killers? No no no!'

Pragya had rushed in despite being told to stay out. She had heard the commotion and couldn't keep standing outside anymore. "Tell me why you want me dead. Why Samay and Sumit want me dead?!"

"I don't want you dead and neither do they!"

"Then how do you explain the stalking that you did in college. You always watched over Pragya's every move. Why is that?" Abhi asked.

Prasanth looked at Pragya. "That's because I wanted to protect you. Protect you from the ones who want you dead. And you're standing right beside him!"

Pragya looked at him in anger. "How dare you try to accuse Abhi of such a thing. He and his siblings are the ones who are trying to save me by putting their own lives in danger. It's you and my cousins that want me dead. Just tell me why."

"No I don't. And neither do they. Trust me!"

"That's the thing. I don't trust you!"

"Believe me Pragya. Samay and Sumit would never want you dead! They would lay their lives for you!"

"Why!?"

"Because they are your brothers!"

************************************

To be continued...

If you like this chapter, please consider giving your vote. Thanks!
~ 🌹 Mona 🌹