Chapter 37
Fourteen years. It had been fourteen years since Sabrina had last seen her brothers, and now, suddenly, impossibly, they had found her.
It felt so damn unreal, as though she would wake up and discover this was all just a cruel dream.
Yet, beneath the shock, happiness bloomed in her chest. They hadn’t forgotten her.
They had cared enough to search, to hold on, to bring her back into their lives.
She stared at Mihir’s picture. He looked so mature, so handsome, so confident, so successful.
She was so proud of him, of all of them.
A sharp fear gripped her chest suddenly.
Fourteen years was too damn long. What kind of men had time, wealth, and distance shaped her brothers into?
She wanted to believe in the bond they’d once shared, but fourteen years was a long time.
What if they had changed? What if they didn’t forgive her for running away?
“Are you okay?” Aditya asked her. “Shall I make the call?”
A realization hit her, freezing her hopes in place. What if they weren’t her brothers at the other end of the line, but Dorab or JD? But Aditya knew her brothers, right? But what if he was mistaken too? God, her fears were driving her crazy.
Her heart began to pound. “I will talk to them, but first, I need you to ask them a question for me. I need to be absolutely sure it’s really my brothers on the line.
I’ve been hiding for too long, and I cannot afford to make a mistake now.
Too much is at stake. Apart from Ahaan and myself, I have to consider you also.
He clasped her cheek. “You know I can protect you. I will keep you safe no matter what.”
“I know, but I cannot risk you, Adi… I won’t…” She lifted her jaw and told him what she needed him to ask on her behalf. Aditya’s brows lifted in surprise, but he didn’t question her. He simply dialed the number and put the phone on speaker.
A woman answered the call.
“Ananya,” Aditya began. “Sabrina is with me, but before she talks to anyone, she has a question for Mihir. Mihir, Sabrina wants to know what did you give your sister for her protection?”
“A knife!” a strong male voice said. “I gave her a knife. It was… it was sharp and serrated. I was teaching Karina self-defense, and I gave her that knife as added protection.”
Sabrina gasped as a barrage of tears spilled down her cheeks. The man on the other end of the line was indeed Mihir, her brother. She fetched her bag from the nightstand and pulled out the knife. Aditya stared at it, and then at her.
“Karina…” Mihir continued, “if you’re listening, then you should know that we found Dorab and he told us everything. We know that he deceived you and that he tried to sell you off to that man, JD. We also know that you stabbed Dorab and JD and ran away.”
Oh God. They knew? They’d found Dorab? They’d really been searching for her. It was unbelievable.
“Mihir… is that really you?” Tears choked her. Aditya took her hand in his and squeezed it in silent support.
“Karina! Yes, Karina, it’s me,” he said. “We found you… we found you.”
“Switch to video, please,” she said. “I want to see you.”
The phone lit up, and she finally stared at her brother for the first time in fourteen years. Her heart was going to burst with happiness.
“There you are!” Mihir exclaimed, wiping tears from his eyes.
“Oh God, Mihir…” Sabrina said, wiping her own face. “Sorry, I had to make Aditya ask you that question as I’ve been in hiding for so long. I couldn’t take the risk. I’ve missed you so much.”
Mihir nodded. “I understand. Wait, Armaan and Vedant are here too.”
Two other men joined him on the screen.
Fresh tears poured down her face. “Oh God, you’re all there, and you look so good, all of you.”
“Hi,” the man in the middle said. It was Armaan. That naughty smile could only be his. “We found you!”
“We sure did!” The third man sniffed. Vedant. It was Vedant, and he wore glasses now. “Hi, sister.”
She laughed, wiping her face. “Aditya showed me your picture, Mihir. You look so fine and important. So successful.”
“And you look beautiful,” Vedant told her. “Even better than the image we generated of you.”
“My image?” she queried.
“We have so much to tell you…” Armaan smiled. “We’ve been looking for you for so long.”
“I saw Mrs. Braganza at a mall in Mumbai, you know,” she said, remembering that day all those months ago. At that time, she’d never even imagined she’d be talking to her brothers again.
“We’ve been in touch with her,” Mihir said. “She was helping us find you.”
“I didn’t know that,” Sabrina said. “I was so afraid to acknowledge her. I didn’t want Dorab finding me. My son… I couldn’t acknowledge her. I was so scared.”
“He’s safe now,” Vedant told her. “You are safe. Dorab’s gone. He will never be a threat to you again.”
“He’s truly gone?” she whispered.
“Yes,” Mihir replied.
Sabrina’s shoulders sagged as the weight of fear was finally lifted off her. For too long, she’d lived in fear of Dorab, thinking he would find her and hurt her or her brothers.
“Thank God…” she whispered. “I’ve spent my life hiding from him…”
“We’ve waited too long for this day, to finally see you,” Vedant said.
“I read that you went with Alexander to Russia,” she said.
“We did…” Armaan said softly. “He was amazing. I wish you’d come with us.”
“I wasn’t meant to,” she said. “My life turned out the way it was supposed to, just like yours.”
“Your son,” Mihir said gently. “How old is he?”
She grinned. “Ahaan… He’s eleven, and he’s amazing. He’s in Mumbai with his grandmother, my late husband’s mother.”
“We have a nephew!” Armaan sounded ecstatic. “Imagine that.”
“Send us photos,” Vedant said.
“You will love him, and he will be so happy to meet you all,” Sabrina said. Her heart was swimming in joy. Ahaan would love to meet his uncles. She could finally tell him about them.
“Can you come here? To Dubai, to meet us?” Mihir asked. “We can send you the jet.”
She turned away from the phone to look at Aditya. “I want to go meet them.”
Aditya gave her a smile. “We can go meet them whenever you want. My jet is here in Singapore.”
She gave him a grateful nod. God, she was truly blessed to have him by her side.
She looked into the phone and addressed Mihir. “Aditya told me that you are friends with Rajiv and Sheena. Imagine the coincidence. They’re my friends too. In fact, Ahaan was in Dubai just last month. He’d gone with my sister in-law Aisha and her family. He stayed at Rajiv’s house.”
From the background, a woman’s voice chimed in, bright with excitement. “Oh, I met him when he was here. He’s such a sweet boy. Truly, it’s such a wonderful coincidence.”
Mihir angled his phone, and a woman came into view. “Meet Anna… She’s Rajiv’s sister, and she’s the love of my life, and she’s also my… my…”
“That’s Ananya,” Aditya whispered from her side.
“Hi, Sabrina! Or Karina?” Ananya said, taking the phone from Mihir. “What should I call you?”
“Either is fine,” she replied.
“I’m Ananya, Rajiv’s sister. And what Mihir was trying, but failing, to do was explain our very complicated relationship. He’s my husband and the father of my unborn children.”
Aditya peeked into the phone. “What? I didn’t know that.”
“Oh God, Mihir’s married and is going to have twins?” Sabrina said.
“Don’t forget it’s complicated also,” Aditya teased, peeping into the screen again. Ananya laughed, and Mihir made a face. Clearly, there was a back story here that she wasn’t aware of. She’d ask Aditya later.
“Come here to Dubai,” Ananya addressed her. “There’s a lot all these men have to tell you, as I’m sure you have too.”
“Alright, I’ll come…” Sabrina smiled. “I’m so eager to meet you all.”
“I’ll bring her to meet you all as soon as possible,” Aditya promised.
Sabrina looked at the screen again. She could see all her brothers. “Thank you all for finding me. This is the best day of my life. I can’t wait to meet you all.”
She disconnected the line and handed the phone back to Aditya. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“They found me because of you…” She pressed her head to his chest. “You’ve been so patient with me, but it’s time I told you everything.”
“Okay.”
She stood and paced the length of the room. Taking a deep breath, she told Aditya everything—from how Mihir, Armaan, Vedant, and she had become a family, to meeting Alexander, to her running away with Dorab, and finally, everything that happened with JD.
“So, you think you may have killed this JD guy?” Aditya asked.
“He was so still,” she shuddered. “For the longest, I believed I had killed him. But then… that day at the stadium…”
She shuddered.
His brows lifted. “What happened that day?”
She drew a shaky breath. “I was already panicking when I saw those reporters hounding you, clicking photographs of you. In that moment, I just wanted to disappear because I didn’t want my picture to be seen anywhere.
You see, I’d been so careful. I’d hidden for so long.
I’d changed my identity. And one wrong photo could destroy everything.
I was just thinking that when a man bumped into me.
It was… it was JD, the man I thought I’d killed. ”
“Are you certain it was him?”
“I’m absolutely sure,” Sabrina said. “His face haunts my dreams till date.”
“Did he recognize you?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
Aditya looked in the distance. “Your brothers mentioned that Dorab wasn’t going to be a problem for you anymore. But they never spoke about JD. We need to talk to them about it. Perhaps they have more information. Anyway, please continue.”