Yo! Good evening!!!
Ugh! This heat!!!
Makes one go 👇

Anyways, Onwards!!!

"Words in double quotes" - Talking

'Words in single quotes' - Thoughts

(Words in braces) - Telephone conversation

Chapter 36 - Unfolding (Part 2)

*flashback*

"Ria, do you ever imagine what it will be like to fall in love? Do you think we will get that amazing feeling like they show in movies and novels?" 😍

Ria snorted. "Well, I've read my fair share of Shakespeare to know that love only leads to misery. You may enjoy a few moments of bliss, but the ultimate truth is that it is nothing but an illusion. Once it breaks, the only thing you are left with broken pieces of your shattered heart."

"I think you just scared me for life. Now, I might not even dare to love because of you! Damn you!" 😣

Ria smacked her head and pointed a finger at her. "Good. I just saved your life. Trust me, don't fall in love. Fall off a bridge instead. It hurts less." 😔

"Okaayyyyy Love guru. Can we now complete our project?"

Ria smiled at her. "I thought you'd never ask."

*flashback end*

Kriti looked towards the sky. "I guess you would have probably chided me right now for falling hopelessly in love. I should have listened to you. You were the one who always guided me, with whom I could be completely stupid with, the one who tolerated my craziness, who didn't mind acting with me like a couple of mentally retarded punks." Kriti let out a bitter laugh, with her eyes brimming with tears. "I'm sorry bestie. I'm so sorry. I should have watched out for you. I should have never ignored you. I got so involved in other matters that...that I couldn't give you enough time."

Kriti felt someone come and pull her into a hug. "Hey, its not your fault, alright? Its not your fault. If Ria would have been here, she wouldn't blame you either." Karan spoke, while patting her head.

He and the Mehra siblings had arrived at the park as Kriti asked. Although he wanted to ask the reason, he knew she needed sometime to compose herself. The reason could wait.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Bulbul and Pragya arrive, along with her brothers and Prasanth.

Abhi and Shabbir looked back and noticed them as well. "Aliyah..."

"Understood, Abhi bhai." she moved forward and went to comfort Kriti, while Karan moved away towards the twins.

"Whatever Kriti has to tell us must be something big. She wouldn't have called all of us here otherwise."

"Not all Karan. Vivek and Purab aren't here." Abhi pointed out, looking around, in case he missed their presence.

Shabbir took out his phone to check if he had any messages from Purab. "Still none? Did the earth swallow him or the sky drop on him? Where the hell is Purab?!"

"You can't reach him either? Now I'm really worried. I hope he isn't in any trouble." Bulbul spoke in worry, as they reached the twins.

"It's alright, Bulbul. You're just overreacting. I'm sure he is fine" Pragya spoke, trying to console Bulbul. She laid a hand on her shoulder. "Besides, I've seen Purab fight. You should be worried for his enemies."

Samay turned to Abhi. "Find any detail on Vivek?"

Abhi shook his head. "No. We didn't find Vivek and neither did we find anything useful in the footage from the courtyard. It only shows a tall, hooded man."

"Enough of all this. Will someone tell me why Kriti called us here? I don't have all day you know." spoke the ever angry being among the gang.

"Calm down Prasanth. Can't you see the girl is in distress? Let Aliyah calm her down." Sumit bit out. "And quit looking at me with that face. Or else it will get stuck. Lets see who marries you then." 😣

"It's alright. After all, he's not wrong. I should tell you why I called without any delay." Kriti composed herself and took out her phone. "That day, when I went to look for Ria's phone, I found it behind a cupboard in the library. When I tried to get it out, I saw blood smeared on the wall."

"So that's where she was killed! The killer must ha-" Abhi put a hand over Shabbir's mouth and nodded for Kriti to continue.

"But it wasn't just that. There was a name written with the blood. Ria used her dying breath to leave this clue for us." she turned her phone towards them and showed them the picture of it. She wasn't surprised to see them look at it with wide eyes.

"Ria wrote Vivek's name. This must mean that Vivek is in danger."

Kriti shook her head. "At first I thought the same as well. That is why I went to her house that night. Being her best friend, I knew where she kept her diary. She used to write her every thought in that diary. That's where...that's where I found out her doubts on Vivek."

On their questioning looks, she continued. "She wrote that for sometime she was having some doubts on Vivek's true intentions. Whenever an attack on Pragya happened, he was present there. The pool, library...everywhere. She wrote how she did some spying on his past, but came up with nothing. He was like a ghost. She also found him holding a knife at Nikhil's house."

Pragya was shocked to hear Kriti's words. She could guess where Kriti was heading.

Looking at the rest of them, she knew she wasn't the only one thinking the same thing. "Kriti, are you doubting Vivek? Vivek, who is our friend and...and your..."

"Love?" Kriti let out a bitter smile. "Yes. Yes, I am."

"But he had saved Pragya with his own life at the pool."

"I don't know about that Abhi. Is he the one after Pragya? Did he try to kill Pragya? Was his friendship all fake?... Only Vivek can answer all these questions. That is why I've called him here, although later."

"You were able to reach him?" Prasanth took out his tracker and checked for Vivek's location. He hadn't checked it since they left. "I can see it on the map now. Guess he finally let off whatever blocking he had on his phone."

"If he is the one responsible, we should go interrogate him, right now!"

"I don't want you all to question him Shabbir. I want to question him myself." spoke Kriti, moving to the center of the group. "I called you all earlier to request you to let me question him. After all, I am the one who is betrayed the most. And also, being his girlfriend, I should get the first dibs on him, no?" Kriti tried to smile, although it seemed more like a grimace.

"Oh Kriti..." Pragya looked at her with sad eyes. She knew Kriti was trying to hold back her tears. The worst kind of pain is when you are smiling just to stop the tears from falling. "Its alright Kriti. You can question him if you like. We all won't interfere."

"But Prag-"

"Its okay Sumit. Let her do it."

"You all better hide. He will be here soon."

Samay went near Kriti and placed a device on her. On her questioning look, he explained. "So that we can hear everything."

Soon, they all went out of the park and sat down in a nearby cafe, waiting for Vivek to arrive at the park.

After 20 minutes...

"There he is!"

"We all can see it Shabbir. You don't need to scream my ears off." Abhi spoke in irrtation.

"Let's go and beat him up right now! I'm sure he will spill the truth then."

"You're going to beat him up or come back beaten black and blue yourself? You and I both know you fight like a girl, Shabbir." Abhi remarked.

"Whatever! He deserves some punches!"

"I think this is the first intelligent thing you said in your life Shabbir." Sumit remarked, cracking his knuckles. Both seemed ready to rumble.

"No you won't! Not only you, but none of you will go there. We promised Kriti, remember?"

"You did. Not us. I don't get it Pragya. He may be the one after you, and yet you refuse to let us hit him?" Shabbir asked in disbelief.

"Yes. Because fighting never solves anything. You can't make the world a better place with your fists. If you do that, then what is the difference between the good people and the bad ones? Lets just wait for now, alright?"

#With Kriti#

Kriti turned around as she heard someone approach her.

"Hey! Why did you call me here? Planning a date or something?" Vivek asked with a smile. However, his smile disappeared on seeing Kriti's grim face. 'I guess they found out about Purab.' However, he couldn't tell her that he already knew about it. "Is...is something wrong Kriti? Did something happen to anyone from the gang?"

"You would know, wouldn't you?"

Vivek looked surprised by Kriti's tone. She was speaking with so much hate and bitterness. "What do you mean Kriti?"

"Where were you when Ria was murdered?"

"I...I was..." in the rush to get to Purab, he forgot to prepare an excuse for this question. "I was at the class."

"Don't lie Vivek. You were with her, weren't you? You were the one who killed her! You murdered my best friend!" Kriti was shooting in the dark. She didn't know if Vivek did it or not, but was trying to manipulate him into expose the truth.

"No! Are you out of your mind?! How could you even think I could murder her!?" Vivek asked in disbelief.

"Then what is this!?" She showed him the photo in her phone. Vivek's eyes widened on seeing that. "You thought you didn't leave any proof behind, didn't you? Well boo-hoo! You did!"

"No. Kriti, you're misunderstanding me. I di-"

"Yes you did!"

"I didn't! Believe me!"

"You did! Don't even try to lie!"

"I didn't! It was Kent!" Vivek shouted out in frustration. "He shot her before I could save her an-"

"How do you know his name Vivek? How did you know his name?"

Vivek froze at her words. In his distress, he had blurted out Kent's name. Now, he was caught in between a rock and a hard place. If he told her how he knew Kent, he will have to tell her everything. If he tried to lie to her, she would think he murdered Ria.

"Answer me Vivek! Tell me the truth!"

Vivek just kept looking at her, thinking over things. Finally, he sighed. "I...I didn't want you to reveal the truth to you in this way. I didn't want this." He looked at her with moist eyes.

Kriti felt her heart ache on seeing him in pain. However, she couldn't let herself fall weak before him. She needed to find out the truth. "Speak up!"

"Let me tell you from the beginning."

After sometime...

Vivek looked up slowly at Kriti's face. He told her everything from the beginning, not knowing that the others were listening on as well. However, he left out his knowledge about Purab. Kriti looked already shocked. He wanted to give her time to digest the facts before dropping another bomb, which was about Purab's kidnapping.

Vivek expected her to lash out at him, cry, hit him. But all she was doing was standing there, looking completely broken.

Elsewhere, in the cafe, Aliyah was trying her best to hold Bulbul, who looked ready to go for the kill.

"Let go of me Aliyah! I'll scratch his face off!" Aliyah jerked her back and told her to stay put.

Prasanth, Karan and Pragya were trying to calm down her brothers and the twins.

"You can't just barge in there Abhi! Besides, he said he has changed sides, remember? He is our only way of catching the real culprits."

"Move out of the way Karan. I won't leave him today! Move!" Abhi shouted, as he and Shabbir tried to move past the rest.

"Don't you ever use your brains!? If you go and hit him now, he may not agree to reveal anymore information about our enemies! Do you want that? Do you want to forever keep searching for them until all of us die? He isn't the real threat, but Kent and A. S are!" Karan shouted, losing his cool for the first time.

Karan himself was furious at Vivek. However, he knew Vivek had indeed changed. Among the rest of them, he and Vivek had worked together the most. Both have faced many challenges together, worked to find clues, shared secrets which they never shared with anyone else, even their better halves. They were each other's best friend and like brothers. Karan could tell that Vivek wasn't lying about his change.

"Karan is right! He may have tried to kill me, but he's a changed man now. Don't you think that should count for something?!" Pragya spoke in a soft voice, as she tried to calm down Shabbir and her brothers.

"So what?! Are we just supposed just let him walk free? Forget about everything? Act like he didn't try to kill you and become buddy-buddy again?" Samay bit out. He agreed with Sumit and Shabbir in their decision to beat the heck out of Vivek. Sumit almost managed to escape, but Prasanth managed to pull him back by the hair.

"Prasanth, let go! I won't leave him alive!" Sumit was cursing his hair in his mind. 'Should have kept it cropped!'

"I never said that Samay. All I'm saying that he has changed and deserves a chance to be forgiven! Remember all the times he had helped us? He also informed you when I was being chased by some strange man, didn't he?"

"It could have been some trick of him, just so that he could completely gain our trust and betray us later!" Shabbir shouted back. He felt anger towards Vivek. But more than that, he felt fear grip his heart. His mind made him think of all the times Pragya was alone with Vivek. He could imagine scenerios where Vivek swiftly killed Pragya, without anyone expecting him to be the killer. "That...that bastard! I'll kill him!"

Pragya came and stood in front of him. "Shabbir no! You won't ever do anything like that!"

"Get. Out. Of. The. Way. Pragya." Shabbir bit out each word.

Pragya took his and Samay's hand and placed it on her head. "Promise me. Promise me you won't do anything like that. If you go and kill him, there won't be any difference between you and the bad guys. An eye for an eye isn't the solution to anything!"

"Pragya, yo-"

"Promise me Shabbir. No matter what happens,you'll never resort to killing."

Shabbir sighed. "Have I ever refused you anything?"

Pragya smiled at him, glad that he agreed to her.

"Why should we think about his life when he didn't give a damn about yours?! What if he had managed to kill you successfully, huh?" Abhi spoke in anger. He couldn't believe Pragya was defending the one who wanted to kill her. 'Its good that she is a good person. But this is just ridiculous!'

"Even then I wouldn't want you all to do anything to Vivek. Violence is not the answer for anything! Please guys. Try to understand." she looked at them desperately. "Vivek was just a pawn in the game which his boss is playing. He just acted as he was ordered. But he has changed now. His boss is the monster, not he. If you go and kill him, there won't be any difference between you and that monster. You would become one yourself!"

"Pragya is right. Vivek is a changed man now. We should give him a chance. I got one too, didn't I? Shouldn't he get the same?" Aliyah asked, placing her hands on Abhi and Sumit's shoulders.

The twins and Sumit looked towards Samay. Knowingly or unknowingly, they had come to respect his decisions over the rest.

Samay let out a breath. "Alright Pragya. If you think he deserves a chance, then we won't do anything to him. However, I won't let him study in the same college as you. He must leave town immediately."

"Leave that to me. I'll take care of that." spoke Prasanth, already dialing someone's number.

#Central Park#

Vivek had enough of silence. "Kriti, say something. Anything! Scold me, insult me, hit me if you like! But please don't remain like this."

Kriti let out a wry smile. "I guess people are right. We should be careful of who we trust. After all, the devil was once an angel."

"Kriti I..." Vivek didn't know how to continue. What could he possibly say to comfort her?

"Congratulations Vivek. You've managed to completely break me. All this time... All this time were you lying about your feelings for me as well? Was I just a means to your goals?"

"No! I never lied to you about my love. I meant it when I said I loved you. And always will!"

"You were never meant to mean this much to me. But I let myself fall for you Vivek. I ended up loving you. You made me feel special. But now...now I feel like a fool!" Kriti pushed him back with all the strength she could muster up, looking at him with utmost hate.

"Kriti don't say that. You aren't a fool. I was the one who wronged you and I'm sorry for that. But trust me, I never lied to you about loving you. Its for you that I changed!"

"Your words mean nothing to me! Your actions spoke the truth about you."

"Kriti I-"

"If I could show you how awful you made me feel, you wouldn't be able to look me in the eye. I didn't know what love felt like until I met you. But now, I know what it feels like to have a broken heart as well!"

Vivek looked down in shame. How could he look into her eyes when he didn't think he could face himself in the mirror?

"I hate you Vivek! I hate you and myself! For loving you! For trusting you! For believing in you blindly!" with each word, she kept pushing him back. Vivek didn't speak anything. After all, he deserved it. He stumbled on a stone and fell back on his side, where he was still injured. Yet, he remained silent without making a sound.

Kriti let out a bitter laugh. "I'm so pathetic, aren't I? Even after all this, I still care for you. It still hurts to see you trying to hide your pain."

Vivek looked up at her with moist eyes. "I wish there was something I could do to ease your pain."

"There is."

"Then tell me. I'll do it, even If it costs my life."

"Leave. Leave this town, this college...just leave! Never show me your face ever again. Maybe...maybe then I'll be able to forget you." saying that, she left without looking back at him.

Vivek slowly picked himself up from the ground and looked longingly towards the direction Kriti went. 'Very well Kriti. If that is what you want, then that is what I shall do. I'll go so far away, that I'll only be like a bad dream that you had. I wish you would find someone who deserves your love. But remember, I'll always wait for you. Forever and always.'

The gang had heard their argument over the device. Even though they weren't physically present with Vivek and Kriti, they could feel their pain in the words. However, there was little they could do in the matter.

#8 pm, Arora House#

Pragya flicked on the t.v and sat down to pass the time. However, her mind was elsewhere. She was thinking about the day's events. After Vivek left, they had parted ways as well. Prasanth agreed to her request about not informing Shekhar of Vivek's involvement. The Mehra siblings left to find more on Kent and the so-called A. S, while also trying to locate Purab. Vivek didn't mention about him and so they guessed Purab wasn't with his boss. Karan had left to check on Kriti. 'Only he can console her know. Maybe he will be able to make her give Vivek another chance to make things right. I wish I could make my siblings understand the same.'

Suddenly, she heard some noise from her room and got up to check.

However, before she could go in, she found Samay and Sumit appear there, looking ready to hit whoever was in her room. Samay even had his gun with him.

Slowly she opened the door and gasped. "You!"

Vivek looked at her with a sheepish look. "Um...Surprise?" 😅

After sometime...

"Here."

"Thanks." Vivek spoke while taking the ice-pack from Pragya. Turns out, they all knew the truth. He should have known that Samay and Sumit would welcome him with a punch. Well, at least they agreed to listen to him.

"So you're saying that you had only 24 hours to guarantee Purab's safety? And in exchange for him, they want to see Pragya dead, and want her eye scan and finger prints as well?" when Vivek nodded, Samay looked at the wall clock. "If my calculations are correct, which by the way always are, you only have 4 hours left."

"And you chose to tell us this now?! We've got only 4 hours to save him! Bhai, lets beat him up again." Sumit grabbed Vivek's collar.

However, Pragya pulled him back.

"You can beat me all you want later. Right now, we need to save Purab."

"Vivek, can't we just barge into your boss's lair with arms?"

"No Pragya. They've changed locations. But if I tell them I have your dead body, A. S will send a vehicle, which would take me there."

"There is no way I'm letting my sister die!"

"If it means Purab's safety, I'm ready to give my life." Pragya turned to Samay. "Samay please. We need to save Purab."

Samay closed his eyes, deep in thought. Suddenly, he got up from the couch and turned to Pragya. He took out his gun and pointed at her. "A. S wants your dead body, eh? Then we shall give it to him for Purab."

*******************************
To be continued...

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~ 🌹 Mona 🌹