66. The Breaking Point
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"But how do you know she didn't come? Maybe she was stuck somewhere."
Dhwani let out a bitter laugh.
"I had the same thought. I kept telling myself there had to be a reason. But Dad told me she picked up his call."
My brows furrowed. "She did?"
Dhwani nodded.
"He said she told him she couldn't afford a stain on her reputation. That she knew I was a criminal and didn't want to ruin the years she had spent building her name in the legal world."
Her voice cracked slightly, but she continued.
"She never lost a case, Yugant. Not a single one. And if she lost her own daughter's case, people would question her abilities, her judgment, everything she had worked for."
I stayed silent. Not because I believed it but because I didn't know what to believe.
The woman Dhwani was describing and the woman currently working with me for thirty six hours while preparing my case felt like two completely different people.
One had abandoned her daughter. The other was risking her safety to fight for strangers. And somehow both of them were supposed to be the same person.
Something wasn't adding up.
" What happened next? I mean who saved you and how you met Samarth?"
She sat up and looked ahead at the blank wall.
"I was taken back to the juvenile home until the next hearing," she said softly. "By then, I had lost hope."
There was no anger in her voice anymore. No bitterness. Just exhaustion. As if even after seven years, she was still tired from carrying those memories.
"And then the worst happened. Three of my friends who were involved in the same case committed suicide."
I looked at her but she didn't look back. She was looking somewhere far away, somewhere only she could see.
"I don't know how it happened. Nobody told us much. One day they were there and the next day they weren't. I remember seeing them being carried away under white sheets. I remember the blood drops outside the washroom."
I grabbed her cold hands and rubbed them between my palm to let her feel my presence.
"I was scared. My soul was shivering, Yugant. The trauma kept getting worse every day."
She told me with lots of hope, as if wanted me to believe her. I understood that whatever happened seven years ago hadn't ended seven years ago.
A part of her was still trapped there. Still standing in that place. Still staring at those white sheets.
"I knew this might be my end too if I stayed there long enough. Not because I wanted to die, but because that place slowly broke people from inside. But I couldn't kill myself."
A small humourless smile appeared on her lips.
"Maybe because I loved myself too much. Maybe because I still wanted to live. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, so why should I die for someone else's crime?"
Despite everything, that sounded exactly like Dhwani. And somehow, hearing that made the whole thing worse. Because she had always been full of life. Loud. Chaotic. Impossible to control. But I never knew she bore something this worst.
The idea of that same girl sitting alone in a place like that felt so painful.
"Then came the third hearing. By that time, I had stopped expecting anyone to save me. That day the weather was horrible. Rain had been pouring across Mumbai since morning. Roads were flooded. I was inside a police jeep along with three other kids from the same case when a truck hit us."
She paused.
"The impact was so hard that the jeep turned over. Everything happened within seconds. People screamed. Glass shattered. I hit my head somewhere. I don't know if the people sitting in the front survived or died. I honestly don't know."
As she spoke, the images formed in my head without permission.
A seventeen year old girl. Handcuffed to a future she didn't deserve. Sitting inside an overturned jeep while flood water rushed in.
Terrified. Alone. And waiting for someone to save her.
"The roads were filled with water. I couldn't breathe properly. The jeep had overturned and dirty flood water was entering from everywhere. I was injured, and all I could see was blood mixing with the muddy water around us."
She looked down at her hands.
"I still don't know how I came out of it. Maybe someone pulled me out. Maybe I crawled out by myself. I don't remember. I just remember being outside. My legs were shaking. Blood was running down from my head."
I stayed silent.
Not because I didn't have anything to say. Because nothing I said could make that memory easier.
"I tried to run. I didn't know where I was going. I just wanted to save myself."
For the first time, I understood why she always ran whenever life cornered her. People called it stubbornness. Some called it immaturity.
But maybe it wasn't either.
Maybe the last time she felt trapped, she had watched people die.
Maybe the last time she stayed where she was supposed to stay, it nearly destroyed her.
"I took a step. After that everything became blurry. I fainted. I had no idea where that flood water had taken me."
She wiped her face before continuing.
"I don't know how many days passed. Maybe one day, maybe two, but not more than that. When I woke up, I was lying on the roadside near a pile of garbage. My whole body was covered in it." Her voice shook. "When I looked around, I saw stray dogs sitting nearby."
She turned towards me, her eyes flooding again.
"I was so scared, Yugant. So scared." Her fingers curled into my shirt.
"I wanted to move, but my body wouldn't listen to me. It felt paralyzed. I remember looking at the dark sky above me, those dogs around me, and that horrible smell."
She shut her eyes. "The garbage was covering me more than my own clothes."
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"You know who I called first?" she whispered. "Mumma."
I stayed silent.
"Even in that condition, she was my first instinct. Because no matter what, she had always been there for me." A broken laugh escaped her. "Just not that night."
She lowered her gaze.
"I didn't move from there. I couldn't. My body had no strength left. I think I cried for hours. But without a voice because I lost it somewhere along with myself. Then I fainted again."
Her sobs grew stronger. She bit her lip as if trying to stop them, but failed.
I pulled her into my arms immediately. She buried her face against my chest. For a few moments, neither of us spoke. I let her cry.
Then her voice came again, muffled against my shirt.
"I don't know how much time passed after that. I just remember being hungry. So hungry that it felt like my stomach was eating itself. Whenever I opened my eyes, everything looked blurry."
She took a shaky breath.
"There was a piece of chapati lying near one of the dogs. He kept looking at me."
My arms tightened around her.
"Then he picked it up in his mouth and came towards me."
Her voice cracked completely.
"My hands wouldn't move. I couldn't even sit up properly. I was dying there, Yugant."
A tear slid down my cheek before I could stop it. "That dog held the chapati in his mouth and brought it close to my face."
For a moment, I couldn't say anything.
The image alone was enough to destroy me.
"Stop." I cupped her tear-streaked face. "You don't have to tell me this if it's hurting you."
"No." She shook her head immediately. "I want to tell you. Please... let me."
Her voice trembled with every word.
I looked at her and wondered how much pain a person could survive and still remain kind.
If hearing it was hurting me this much, I couldn't imagine what it had done to her.
"That dog stayed near me," she whispered. "He didn't leave. Another night passed like that until..."
She stopped. "Until Samarth Bhai found me."
I frowned.
"He found you?"
She nodded. "He told me he was passing through that area when his cab got punctured. He stepped out and that's when he saw me." A faint smile appeared through her tears. "He always says I looked more dead than alive."
I let out a breath.
"He took me to a hospital immediately, but they refused to admit me. They said the police had to investigate first because he didn't know who I was."
The bitterness returned to her voice. "So he took me to another hospital."
"And?"
"And he lied. He told them I was his sister."
For the first time since starting the story, there was warmth in her eyes.
"He didn't know my name. He didn't know who I was. He didn't know where I came from."
Her lips trembled. "But he knew I needed help."
She looked down.
"The doctors weren't ready to start treatment because there were too many legal complications. So he stood there and told them I was his sister."
A tear slipped down her cheek. "And that was the first time in days someone chose me."
"Samarth did that? I couldn't believe it," I said, genuinely surprised.
I had known him for more than a decade, and if there was one thing Samarth Rathore avoided, it was getting emotionally attached to people.
After his parents death, he had built walls around himself so high that nobody could easily get through them.
"Samarth Rathore is the best. No one can be him for me." Dhwani said, a smile appearing through her tears. "You know, I lost the ability to talk after everything that happened. Maybe it was temporary. Maybe I just didn't want to talk anymore. Even doctors weren't sure."
She wiped her eyes.
"Every day he would sit beside my bed and talk nonsense, hoping I would reply someday. When I didn't, he started calling me Dhwani."
I smiled faintly.