Chapter 3
KAVYA
“Just drop me here,” I told Saurav as he slowed the car through a narrow, broken lane.
He frowned slightly, eyes sweeping over the surroundings. “You live here?” He pointed ahead at the crumbling buildings, the open drainage running like a black wound along the road, the piles of trash pressed into corners.
“Yes. Why?” I asked, lifting my brows. “Trust me, people here are more friendly, more loving, and more kind-hearted than your society.”
“I’m not talking about the people,” Saurav said quietly. “I’m talking about the condition of this area. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings …”
“I’m not hurt,” I interrupted, already pushing the door open. “Thank you for caring enough.”
“Believe me, you’re not the only one I care about,” he replied. “I care about my whole country. That’s why I’m a soldier. So don’t think of yourself as special.”
“I don’t… ” I forced a smile that didn’t reach my eyes. “Ta-ta.” I stepped out and closed the door gently.
I didn’t look back, though I could feel his gaze burning into my back, warm and heavy, like a question I wasn’t ready to answer. I kept moving, each step dragging me closer to the hell I called home.
The lane narrowed further as I walked. The smell of rot and dampness thickened the air. My house finally came into view.
It stood weather-beaten and quiet, its peeling walls scarred by age and neglect.
The faded paint looked like skin stripped too many times.
Barred windows stared blankly, and the dark wooden door.
Rusted metal sheets drooped above it like tired brows, while loose electric wires cut across the front, tangled and careless.
This was the place where I had lived and learned how to endure pain silently, quietly, and patiently.
I was just about to step forward when a voice sliced through my thoughts.
“Who was he?” A shiver ran down my spine. “He seems rich, doesn’t he, Kav?”
My breath hitched. Slowly, I turned to look at my father.
“Pa,” I whispered, swallowing hard. My fingers began to tremble as sweat gathered at the nape of my neck.
My chest tightened until every breath wheezed.
“He was … one of the customers. He wants… ” My throat closed.
I forced the words out, lifting my eyes to meet his. “… to decorate his house.”
“Come inside, Kav,” he said softly, gesturing toward the door.
“Yes, Pa…”
My feet felt heavier than stone as I climbed the steps and pushed the door open. The familiar darkness swallowed me whole.
Inside, the air was thick with stale heat and old resentment. “So he was your new client?” Pa asked as he moved toward the sofa and sat down. “Come here.” He patted the empty space beside him.
“I … I am tired, Pa.”
“Come here!” he barked.
My body obeyed before my mind could protest. I walked to him and sat down, keeping my hands folded tightly in my lap.
“Where were you last night?” he asked.
“I told you yesterday. I had a night out with Noor. She returned from Dubai.”
“Yes. But she called us last night asking about you,” he continued. “She sounded worried. You told her you were coming, but you never reached.”
My lips parted to answer but…
“Because that bitch was sleeping with her bastard of a client!”
I jolted.
Nitin’s sharp and poisoned voice burst through the cracked walls of the house as he stood near the doorway, arms crossed, a crooked smile stretching his mouth.
“What are you talking about, Nitin?” I said through clenched teeth, wanting nothing more than murdering him right then and there.
“Didn’t you see her, Pa?” he sneered, stepping towards us.“She just came out of a Mercedes because last night she was with him.”
“Shut up!” I snapped, my hands curling into fists. “He’s lying, Pa!”
“Am I?” he asked softly before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick bundle of photographs, throwing them straight at my face.
I gasped as the papers struck my cheek and fluttered down like wounded birds.
“See? I have proof.”
Pa bent and picked one up. Then suddenly time stopped and so was breath. My heart crashed violently against my ribs as his eyes moved over the picture.
On the floor, near my feet, I saw it too.
It was a picture of Saurav and I. We were on a bed.
The image of him shirtless, his hand wrapped around my wrist while he slept, mumbling for me not to leave.
But frozen in ink, stripped of truth, it looked filthy, wrong and intimate in a way it had never been.
My vision blurred.
How… How did Nitin get these? Was he stalking me? My shaking fingers reached for another photograph.
Again, the bed but the angle twisted. Now our faces were close enough to look like we were kissing.
A sob clawed its way up my throat.
“That’s not what it looks like,” I whispered, but my voice sounded small even to me.
Pa’s jaw tightened. His knuckles whitened around the picture.
“Explain,” he said, low and dangerous.
I opened my mouth, but no sound came. Inside my chest, fear spread like poison. My thoughts got tangled. Every truth I held felt fragile, breakable, easily crushed under the weight of those images.
Nitin laughed softly. “What’s there to explain, Pa? Our respectable Kavya… sleeps around the city.”
“Stop it!” I cried, turning to him. “You’re twisting everything. Those photos mean nothing. Nothing happened between us!”
But even as I said it, I knew how useless my words sounded.
“What is it, Kav?” Pa asked, his eyes never leaving the photograph. “Is this you?”
“Pa…” I snatched the photo from his hand. My fingers shook violently. “It’s a lie. Everything is a lie. What you’re seeing is wrong…ah!”
A sharp pain ripped through my scalp. I gasped as Pa fisted my hair and yanked my head back, forcing me to look into his face.
His eyes were red. They were not tired-red or teary-red.
They were the red of madness, of something broken and rotten inside.
They terrified me. The way he stared at me, unmoving, unblinking, it felt as if he might smash my head against the table any second.
And he had done it before. His anger had always been my first memory of pain.
I was six the first time he smashed my head against the wall because I had broken his spectacles.
I was ten when he twisted my finger until it cracked.
Twelve when he fractured my legs so that I would never dance again.
Fifteen when he broke my nose. And Eighteen when he broke me completely.
He was the most dangerous and disgusting person in my world. A monster wearing human skin. Sick in the head. A psycho.
“Now tell me,” he growled, tightening his grip, “you were with him last night. Admit it, Kav.”
His fingers dug into my scalp as if he meant to tear my hair out by the roots.
“Pa…” I whimpered. My eyes burned. “Please…”
“Your little sister is fighting for her life,” he shouted, shaking me, “and here you are enjoying yourself with rich men!” His breath was hot against my face.
“How heartless have you become? You don’t care whether your sister lives or dies, but you care about spreading your legs… I told you to arrange money but you…”
“I tried, Pa,” I cried, clenching my teeth, forcing myself not to sob. “I tried to arrange the money… ”
The slap came so suddenly my head snapped to the side. My ears rang.
“Don’t you dare answer back!” he hissed. “Since you’ve tainted our family’s image, you will be punished. And next time, you will remember what happens when you step against your family.”
“Pa, please,” I begged, my voice breaking. “I didn’t sleep with him. I swear. Nitin is lying.”
But he never listened. He had hated me since the day I was born. I was the living proof of something he despised. He had always resented my existence.
“You’ll be punished, Kav.” A slow, cruel smile stretched his lips. “But the twist is… your sin will be paid by Kirti.”
My blood ran cold. I froze for a moment unable to speak but a few moments later. “No… no, please, no.” I shook my head violently. “Pa, please…”
My knees hit the floor. The sound echoed, hollow and small, just like me. “Leave her alone,” I sobbed. “Punish me. Do anything to me. But not her.”
“This time,” he said calmly, terribly, “she will take her last breath, Kav.” His smile widened. “We are stopping her medication. We don’t have lakhs for her treatment. This is the easiest way to get rid of the burden.” He tilted his head. “After that, you’ll be free to go wherever you want.”
The world swayed.
“No… no…” I whispered, clutching at his feet. My tears dropped onto the floor. “I’ll arrange the money. I swear I will. I’m trying. I’ll do anything.”
“But we need it today, Kav,” Pa replied mockingly.
Today.
That single word crushed whatever strength I had left. I cried, begged, pleaded until my throat burned and my chest ached, but his face remained empty like stone.
Then Nitin’s voice cut in, smooth and venomous. “I have an idea to save Kirti’s life.”
My head snapped toward him. He smiled sinisterly. “If Kav files a complaint against that rich man,” he said, “that he molested her then we’ll get pay.”
“What are you saying?” I whispered in disbelief.
Nitin took a step closer, his crooked smile still pasting on his face. “You will go to the police and say he touched you, trapped you, used you. You will cry if they ask you to and sign the papers.”
“No,” I said immediately, shaking my head. “I won’t! He’s innocent.”
Pa’s voice cut in sharp like a knife. “You will.”
I flinched.
Nitin laughed softly, caressing my cheek with mocking sympathy. “Men like him don’t fight cases, Kavya. They buy silence. One complaint and his world will shake. His image, his respect, his future everything will hang by a thread.”
“I won’t lie,” I said, my voice breaking and so were my soul. “You can’t make me.”
Pa stood up. “You forget who you are talking to,” he said quietly.
“You forget who controls what happens in this house. We have the photographs. We have witnesses. We will drag you to the station if we have to. And if you open your mouth there and say anything else… ” His eyes darkened and ugly smile spread across his lips. “Kirti’s medicines stop tonight.”
“Pa…”
“You don’t file the complaint,” Nitin murmured, “and by morning your sister will be gasping for breath. You file it, and we save her. It’s that simple.”
“That’s blackmail,” I cried angrily. “That’s a crime.”
Pa’s lips twisted. “So is prostitution. So is lying to your father. So is shaming your family.” He leaned down until his face was inches from mine. “We are far beyond right and wrong, Kavya. This is about survival.”
I shook my head violently. “You’re asking me to destroy an innocent man.”
Nitin’s hand slammed against the wall beside my face. “We are telling you to sacrifice him or bury your sister.”
Suddenly silence fell, heavy and suffocating.
Pa straightened. “You will go to the police station. You will file the complaint. And after that,” he said calmly, “we will make him pay to erase it.”
"I. Will. Not. Do. This!" I shouted.
“If you don’t agree with us then we’ll make you.” Pa gestured Nitin.
My step brother walked toward me. Something in his eyes made my stomach drop. He sneered and suddenly his hands were on me.
I struggled, screamed and clawed at him, but he was stronger. He tore at my clothes while Pa watched without blinking.
Every rip sounded like something inside me breaking. I fought until my body trembled, until my voice was gone, until there was nothing left but shock. After that, everything happened too fast. He dragged me out into the street and a moment later we were in the police station.
My clothes were torn, I had bruises on my face and arms but I was unable to tell officers the truth. My father and step brother would kill Kirti if I raised a voice against them.
“Sign.”
My hands shook as they forced a pen into them. I couldn’t think, breathe and even cry anymore. And so, with a body that no longer felt like mine, I filed a complaint against the only man who had ever looked at me without cruelty. Against Saurav Chauhan.
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