Chapter 40 #3
Before he could continue further, Richa suddenly interrupted sharply.
"And why exactly do you think she hasn't experienced that already, sir?"
The moment those words left her mouth, Akansha's eyes widened. Her best friend had promised never to speak about those painful memories to anyone. Akansha immediately tried stopping her, but Richa tightly held her hand instead.
"You know how I met her?" Richa asked while staring straight at Dev.
And slowly, she started revealing the past.
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After leaving Shaurya's ancestral house, Akansha shifted to the capital city.
Alone. Completely alone.
At that time, she was desperately searching for a rented room when she spotted a small hiring advertisement outside a pharmacy. Using her medical knowledge, she somehow convinced the pharmacist that she already had experience and managed to get the job.
During the day, she worked at the medical shop. After work hours, she tutored children just to survive. And throughout all this, she dealt with her pregnancy entirely alone. Those months were among the hardest periods of her life.
She was terrified of using her actual educational qualifications or psychology degree to find a proper job because official employment records, PF details, and government databases could expose her location.
By the ninth month of pregnancy, the kind pharmacy owner granted her paid leave. Around the same time, Shaurya's party came into power and he officially became the Chief Minister. Akansha deliberately tried to avoide every piece of news related to him.
Unfortunately, the pharmacy owner happened to be one of Shaurya Singh Shekhawat's biggest admirers and constantly kept the news channels running.
Shaurya becoming Chief Minister at such a young age, with barely a few years of political experience, shocked the entire state, especially the opposition parties. Soon allegations of election rigging surfaced. The opposition approached the court demanding the elections be nullified.
Within days, protests spread across the state.
Shaurya's supporters clashed violently with opposition workers.
Chaos erupted everywhere. It became one of the biggest crises Shaurya faced within weeks of taking power.
Eventually, most parts of the state stabilized.
But the capital city still remained dangerously unstable.
One day, Akansha ran out of medicines and stepped outside to visit a nearby pharmacy.
She had absolutely no idea what was happening outside because for nearly a week she had stayed indoors due to weakness caused by late pregnancy.
And unfortunately, her rented room faced the inner side of the building, preventing the outside chaos and noise from reaching her.
The moment she stepped outside, she froze.
Men carrying wooden logs and rods were running through the streets, setting fire to shops that remained open. Akansha immediately hid herself in a corner, trembling violently while trying to suppress her cries.
"Don't you people understand what bandh means?" one of them screamed furiously. "No shops will remain open until the opposition withdraws the petition. We want Shaurya Saab as our CM!"
"Only Shaurya is our Chief Minister!"
"We'll burn the entire state if our demands aren't fulfilled!"
Their slogans echoed everywhere while they vandalized shops around them. Akansha somehow slipped into a connecting lane, sweating heavily as her blood pressure dropped dangerously. She collapsed against the wall, struggling to breathe properly.
Just when her vision almost darkened completely, she heard the mob approaching nearby.
"Oyyy, ladki! What are you doing outside?" one man shouted aggressively. "Don't you know today is State Bandh?"
"P-please let me go..." Akansha begged weakly. "I didn't know... I'm pregnant... please..."
"Then you shouldn't have stepped outside in this condition!" another man shouted angrily.
Akansha instinctively moved backward seeing the burning wooden logs in their hands.
"Please... my water broke... please admit me to a hospital..." she cried painfully. "Please help me..."
One of the men actually looked ready to help her.
But at that exact moment, someone noticed a nearby shop owner peeking through the shutter.
Enraged, the mob hurled burning wooden logs toward the shop.
One of them hit the shutter before falling directly onto Akansha.
Her scream echoed painfully through the lane.
And then the mob simply left. Leaving her behind.
Bleeding.
Suffering.
Alone.
That was when Richa found her. She had been covering the violent clashes as media personnel and immediately rushed to help Akansha after the mob disappeared. Using her cousin Jay's contacts, Richa somehow managed to get Akansha admitted into a half-shut hospital.
After an extremely painful labor, Siya was finally born. But due to excessive blood loss, Akansha lost consciousness almost immediately after holding her daughter for the first time.
Just seconds before she fainted, Richa clicked a photograph of the mother and daughter together. Even in that picture, Akansha's forehead and arms were covered in bandages. Yet despite every injury... there was still a smile on her face while holding Siya.
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"You still think she doesn't know how dangerous Shaurya Singh Shekhawat's supporters can become?" Richa asked after narrating the past.
Dev's eyes filled with tears hearing everything.
"Not just that... she—" Richa started again.
But Akansha immediately tightened her grip around Richa's hand in silent refusal. Without another word, Dev suddenly stood up and pulled Akansha into a tight hug.
"I'm so sorry..." he whispered brokenly while kissing her hair softly. "I wasn't there for you... I'm so sorry..."
Akansha immediately pushed him irritably.
"Leave me, idiot. I don't like all these emotional hugs."
But Dev simply hugged her again stubbornly.
"I don't care", he muttered emotionally. "I'm still sorry."
Richa chuckled softly watching them while Akansha glared at Dev in annoyance.
"I didn't value your help properly when you first tried helping me... so it wasn't your fault either", Akansha said quietly.
Then her expression turned serious.
"Don't tell Shaurya."
Dev instantly looked conflicted.
"I can't promise that", he admitted honestly. "But yes... I won't tell him right now." His face darkened thinking about his best friend. "That man is already drowning in guilt. I genuinely can't imagine what will happen to him after learning all this."
Dev's chest tightened painfully thinking about everything Akansha suffered.
At that moment, he genuinely wanted to kill every single person responsible for hurting her like that.
And if hearing this shattered him internally.
.. he couldn't even imagine what Shaurya would go through after learning the truth.
The man already blamed himself for almost every suffering in Akansha's life. And to some extent, maybe he really was responsible. But Dev could never completely agree with that either. Because unlike others... he knew both sides of the story.
"That's enough for now", Akansha said tiredly. "I know you, Dev. No matter what, you won't be able to hide anything from Shaurya forever. Eventually, you'll tell him."
Dev let out a dry chuckle.
"Akansha... please think about what I said. This is genuinely the best way out of this mess."
Before Akansha could respond, Richa abruptly spoke up.
"I seriously can't believe you." Her tone was sharp with anger. "Even after hearing everything she went through, you still expect her to stand beside him? She almost lost her daughter. She almost lost her own life because of that man."
Her eyes burned with fury.
"No. She won't do this. He deserves the destruction he's about to bring upon himself tomorrow... and much more." Then she looked directly at Dev.
"Till today, I followed your instructions out of respect for you. But from tomorrow onward, my only focus will be on destroying Shaurya Singh Shekhawat."
Dev's expression instantly darkened.
"Don't speak about things you barely understand, Ms. Upadhyay", he warned coldly. "Shaurya didn't cause those riots. He shed blood trying to stop them. He got severely injured while visiting one of the violent locations, and only after that did his party workers finally calm down."
Dev narrowed his eyes at her.
"You should already know this information. I'm sure you covered it."
Richa scoffed bitterly.
"Oh please. Maybe he faked those injuries too just to stop the violence."
Dev instantly turned toward Akansha, almost expecting her to shut Richa up. But Akansha only stood there silently, exhausted beyond words.
"Don't tell me even you think Shaurya could stoop so low as to fake injuries and manipulate the public?" Dev asked in disbelief.
"What's so impossible about that?" Akansha replied coldly. "Maybe he did it for a larger cause."
"But he didn't fake anything, Akansha", Dev said, genuinely stunned. "You really don't believe him?"
Akansha laughed humorlessly.
"Why exactly should I believe him, Dev? I know Shaurya too well.
" Her eyes turned distant. "That man was obsessed with protecting his health because he believed he couldn't afford to fall sick.
He used to take care of himself so carefully that even a scratch on his skin irritated him. " Then she looked straight at Dev.
"And now you expect me to believe the same man got brutally injured while trying to control riots?"
She shook her head.
"Anyway, I don't want to continue this discussion anymore. We've already spoken enough."
Her face turned emotionless.
"My answer is still no. I don't care whether Shaurya Singh Shekhawat destroys himself or his political career. I can't help him."
Dev felt something inside him break hearing that. She misunderstood Shaurya far more deeply than he had imagined.