Chapter 33
Present Day
‘How could you do that?’ Siya demanded, her eyes blazing with raw fury.
Kashvi instinctively took a step back as the full force of her sister’s anguish hit her. ‘Di, please. Just listen to me.’
‘Listen to what?’ Siya shot back, her face flushed red. ‘That you caused the accident that took Maa’s life?’
Kashvi shook her head and gripped Siya’s hand tightly. ‘N... no.’
Siya immediately pulled her hand away.
Beside her, Abhay looked deeply unsettled, his attention fixed entirely on his wife. No one else had uttered a word since Kashvi told them the full story.
Agitated, Siya grabbed Kashvi by the shoulders. Her distress seemed to ripple through the room as she cried, ‘How could you do that to Maa? To me?’
Kashvi wanted to explain. She wanted to go back nineteen years and rip her terrified younger self away from that phone call before her father poisoned her mind. But all she could do was crumble beneath the unbearable weight of Siya looking at her like she had betrayed her.
It was the one look Kashvi had prayed never to see in her life.
When she flinched from Siya’s tight grip, Swayam cut in sharply. ‘Siya, enough. Back off, please.’
‘Back off? Did you even hear what she just said?’ Siya snapped.
‘I heard every word, but I don’t see how it’s Kash’s fault,’ Swayam said evenly, though tension radiated off him. ‘Your father manipulated the love of his six-year-old daughter and used it against his wife. He’s the only person here you should be angry with.’
The certainty in his voice stunned Kashvi into silence.
She had been so sure that once he saw this ugly, festering part of her, he would look at her with revulsion, judgment, or horror. She hadn’t looked at him even once, terrified he would finally realise she was too broken to love.
But when she finally did, his expression held only quiet understanding.
‘Maybe you should back off, Swayam,’ Siya retorted, glaring at him.
‘I won’t,’ Swayam said firmly, refusing to move away from his wife. ‘Because I care about Kash, and so do you. Maithili specifically warned us not to stress her because it could trigger another seizure.’
He regretted saying it the second the words left his mouth, but it was already too late.
Siya’s anger cracked instantly, and she turned back to her sister. ‘Another seizure? It’s happening again? Since when?’
The guilt hit so hard Kashvi felt nauseous, but there was nothing left to hide anymore. ‘A few months.’
Siya’s eyes widened with alarm, her brows pulling together. ‘You lied to me about this too?’
Kashvi curled her fingers helplessly into a fist. ‘Di, I just... I didn’t want your life revolving around worrying about me again. I thought I could handle it. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.’
‘But you did! I asked you that night at my house if the seizures had come back. You looked me in the eye and lied to me. Just like you lied to me all these years about the accident.’ Siya took a step back, her eyes glassy with unshed tears.
Panic surged through Kashvi, because every inch of distance Siya put between them felt terrifyingly permanent.
Swayam spoke again. ‘She hid it because of Karthik’s manipulation and the guilt he buried her under. There’s a difference.’
‘I don’t care!’ Siya snapped, furiously wiping away her tears, her eyes fixed on Kashvi.
‘Every year on Maa’s death anniversary, I cried on your shoulder.
I told you I hated myself for passing out with a migraine because maybe I could’ve done something.
I told you it killed me not knowing what happened in her last moments. And you said nothing.’
Guilt burned viciously through Kashvi, sweat lining the back of her neck.
‘Why did you let me suffer like that? Why didn’t you tell me everything right after the accident?’
Her knees nearly gave out as Kashvi said brokenly, ‘You were in a coma for a week. Then there were endless physical therapy sessions. After that, the years just blurred together. I kept telling myself I could make it right with time, but instead I only got more scared to tell you.’
‘There is nothing you can do to fix this!’ Siya burst out, her red-rimmed eyes wild with grief. ‘You can never bring Maa back.’
Kashvi squeezed her eyes shut. The words hurt so badly she physically ached. But carrying this secret alone had always felt like living with a blade lodged in her chest, and deep down, she had always known it would end like this.
‘You’re right. And you have every right to hate me for it. I can’t bring Maa back, but I can make sure she gets justice.’
Siya let out a disbelieving laugh. ‘And how exactly would you do that?’
‘I know I’m too late, but I’ll confess everything. I’ll turn myself in to the police and make sure Dad goes to jail with me.’
Siya stared at her in shock while Abhay swore softly under his breath.
Swayam looked at her in disbelief and blurted out, ‘What the hell? Absolutely not!’
Kashvi couldn’t face him, so she pulled away and walked towards the sofa where Vihaan sat.
The second he saw her reach for Viraj’s laptop, he snapped it shut and shoved it behind his back. Luv took it from him and moved two steps away.
Swayam grabbed Kashvi’s arm and stepped between her and Luv. When he refused to let her move past his hulking frame, she snapped, ‘What the hell is your problem?’
His expression tightened.
‘Wrong question,’ Swayam shot back. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
‘I need the laptop.’
‘For what?’
Instead of answering, Kashvi looked past him at Luv and held out her hand. ‘Give me that.’
Luv slid the laptop farther behind her back. ‘Not a chance.’
‘Why do you need the laptop?’ Swayam asked again, guiding her chin up until she met his eyes.
‘I can’t do this without the evidence. If I confess without proof, he’ll walk away too easily,’ she said urgently, needing him to understand.
‘You’re not turning yourself in,’ he said flatly.
Kashvi wiped at her cheeks angrily. ‘Why? Are you scared you’ll have to wait years for me if I go to jail?’
‘Baby, I’d wait for you as long as I’m breathing.
But I’m too selfish to stand back and watch you throw your life away because you think you deserve punishment,’ Swayam said, his gaze dark with devotion.
‘I want to wake up beside you, spend my life loving you, and grow old with you. For any of that to happen, I need you here with me.’
Unable to fight herself anymore, Kashvi rested her head against his chest and let out a shaky breath. But the moment she heard Siya sniffle behind her, the fragile comfort Swayam had wrapped around her cracked apart.
She turned to see Siya crying on the couch while Abhay crouched beside her, his one arm wrapped tightly around her as he tried to calm her down.
The sight cut straight through Kashvi’s heart. She pushed herself away from Swayam. ‘It’s the only way.’
Swayam held onto her, shaking his head. ‘No, it’s not.’
His firm refusal made something inside her turn volatile, and she pulled against him. ‘You don’t understand. Dad is threatening to expose me if I don’t sign over the inheritance. If I do it first, he loses that power. He won’t see it coming.’
‘He won’t see it coming because it’s a stupid thing to do,’ Dhruv argued, dragging his gaze away from the laptop screen.
‘It’s the right thing to do… because I am guilty!’
The words tore out of her violently as years of buried self-loathing clawed their way to the surface.
The room fell silent afterwards.
Her chest rose and fell as hot tears spilled down her face.
‘You think jail is too much?’ Kashvi asked hoarsely. ‘What I deserve is far worse than that. At least prison would finally let me breathe, because maybe then this suffocating guilt would stop haunting me.’
‘Kash, it’s your father who deserves to be punished. He’s a sick man who wants to destroy what’s left of his family.’
‘I’ve already done that with my own hands,’ she whispered, lowering her eyes.
The memory of that day was burned into her mind. She still remembered her father’s voice through the phone, the screech of metal when they crashed, and her mother’s final words telling them to hold on.
Kashvi went on, shame crawling over her skin. ‘If I hadn’t listened to him, Maa would have taken us to Jiju’s house. She would still be alive, and Dad would be out of our lives for good. But I burned it all down.’
As a child, she had wanted her father’s love so badly that it ended up costing her everything.
‘Kash, baby, you need to listen to me carefully,’ Swayam insisted, gently cradling her face.
Her vision blurred with relentless tears as she tried to push him away. She couldn’t bear his comfort when she felt rotten to her core, but he only pulled her deeper into his arms.
One arm wrapped firmly around her while his other hand settled protectively at the back of her head. The steady rhythm of his heartbeat drowned out the noise in her mind, and she clutched at his shirt as her sobs finally broke loose all at once.
Swayam held her through the tremors shaking her body. ‘Shh, I’m here, baby. Just tell me this. Did you know what would happen when you closed her eyes?’
‘What?’
‘When your father told you to close your mother’s eyes, did you understand it would cause an accident?’
She shook her head.
‘Did you do it to make the car crash? Did you know it could kill your mother?’
Kashvi recoiled at the question. ‘No! I didn’t know that would happen.’
‘You were six, baby,’ he said, gently stroking her hair. ‘A child can’t understand what something like that could lead to. But your father did. He knew exactly what he was doing when he manipulated you into it.’
Denial burst out of her, tangled with despair. ‘You’re wrong. I’m the one who listened to him.’
‘Exactly. You were a child who trusted her father and did what he told you to do.’ He gently wiped her tears with his thumbs. ‘He tricked you into carrying his shame and guilt for years. Don’t let him get away with that.’