68. The Testimony #3
Something flickered across her face at those words. Before anyone could say anything else, her phone started ringing.
She glanced at the screen and instantly smiled.
A real smile.
The kind I hadn't seen all day.
"Yes, baby." Her voice softened immediately. "Ms. Arora is on the way."
I didn't need anyone to tell me who it was.
Her daughter. The little girl she loved so much. The little girl whose voice was enough to erase every crease from her forehead. There was a time when I was at her place.
"Okay, sweetheart. I'm coming."
She disconnected the call and looked back at us.
"Alright, I should leave. My daughter must be waiting."
For some reason, those simple words made something twist inside my chest.
Because once upon a time..... I used to wait for her too.
She turned around and walked away. My eyes followed her until she reached her car, got inside, and disappeared from sight.
A strange heaviness settled inside me.
Inside the courtroom she had stood beside me. She had held my hand when I couldn't even stand properly. But now she is gone.
Just like that.
She didn't ask if I was okay. Didn't talk to me. Didn't even look back once. It shouldn't have bothered me. But it did.
"We should leave as well," Samarth Bhai said.
I blinked and nodded.
All of us walked towards our respective cars. Yugant and I got into ours while Samarth Bhai took Daadu and Vedika with him.
As the car pulled onto the road, I rested my head against the window and watched the city pass by.
For once, I hoped the silence would stay but it didn't.
"Will you tell me what happened with Dhrithika now?"
Yugant's voice wasn't loud. In fact, he was trying very hard to stay calm. But I could still hear the frustration beneath it.
His grip around the steering wheel was so tight that his knuckles had turned white.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Actually... Dhrithi... she was dating Ruben Kingsley."
The car came to an abrupt stop. The force of it threw me slightly forward.
I turned towards Yugant. His face had gone completely dark.
"Dating Ruben Kingsley?" he repeated slowly. "That's impossible. We didn't even know Olivia had a brother."
"She knew."
His jaw tightened.
"She met him in America through Adhvait. And Adhvait knew everything. The entire thing happened because of him."
Yugant slammed his palm against the steering wheel. The sound made me flinch. "And you're telling me this now?"
My own patience snapped. "Because I didn't know she was dating a Kingsley either!" My voice rose instantly. "She introduced him as Rohit. And even when I tried to tell you during your mehendi function, you misunderstood me and told me to stay away from you and your sister."
The words hit their mark. He opened his mouth to answer back, but then stopped and then he exhaled harshly and started the car again.
Neither of us said another word. The rest of the drive passed in complete silence.
My mind was exhausted. I just wanted a little peace. A little space to breathe.
After a few minutes, the Raizaada Mansion came into view.
As the gates opened, my eyes landed on Samarth Bhai's car already parked outside.
Looks like they reached before us.
And judging by the tension waiting inside that house... The real battle hadn't even started yet.
As we stepped inside the mansion, the atmosphere was exactly as tense as I had expected.
No one looked relieved. No one looked happy that we had practically won the case.
Instead, everyone sat in silence as if we had returned from a funeral rather than a courtroom.
Dhrithika was sitting on the couch with her head lowered. Samarth Bhai stood beside her while others occupied the sofas around the living room.
The moment Yugant's eyes landed on his sister, something inside him snapped. Without saying a word, he strode towards her.
"Dhrithika."
She looked up.
The next second, he grabbed both her arms and pulled her to her feet. The force of it made her stumble and flinch.
"Dhrithi!" I gasped. Followed by Daadi, Daadu and Vedika.
The fear on Dhrithika's face was enough for all of us to understand one thing.
This wasn't going to end well.
And honestly, I didn't have the courage to step between them.
Thankfully, Samarth Bhai did.
He immediately caught Yugant's wrist and shoved him back a step. "Come to your damn senses, Yugant." His voice was dangerously calm.
Yugant's eyes blazed with anger.
"Stop interfering in my family matters, Samarth." His jaw clenched. "And let me talk to my sister."
"Talk?" Samarth let out a humourless laugh. "You call this talking?"
He glanced towards Dhrithika, whose eyes were already filling with tears.
"Look at her." Yugant's gaze flickered towards her for a second before hardening again. "You think she hasn't suffered enough already?"
"Was she really suffering? Or enjoying her life hiding her relationship with that scrumbag from us?" Yugant shot back. "Hiding things from us? Keeping all of us in the dark?"
"For fuck sake she is an adult. It's her life, her choice whom she wants to date or not. Her only fault was that she trusted the wrong person."
The words exploded from Bhai. The entire room fell silent. " Look at her. She's terrified, Yugant."
Yugant ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
"And what am I supposed to do? Sit quietly after finding out what happened?"
"No," Samarth replied sharply. "You're supposed to act like her brother." Samarth bhai stepped in front of Dhrithika protectively.
"Come back when you're ready to listen instead of explode." His eyes locked with Yugant's. "Until then, don't show her this version of yourself."
Without waiting for a response, he wrapped an arm around Dhrithika's shoulders. The sound of their footsteps echoed through the silent mansion as they climbed the stairs.
Yugant kicked the table beside the couch before storming upstairs. A few moments later, the sound of our bedroom door slamming echoed through the mansion.
Ishaan quietly excused himself and left shortly after.
I didn't go after Yugant. Not because I didn't care. But because I knew exactly how angry he was. And right now, anything I said would only make things worse.
He needed time. What happened with Dhrithika was a mistake, not a crime. Samarth Bhai was absolutely right. Dhrithika was an adult. She had every right to choose whom she wanted to love and whom she wanted to date.
The fault wasn't that she trusted someone.
The fault was that Ruben turned out to be a monster.
I understood Yugant's anger. He was her brother. He wanted to protect her.
But there was a part of me that couldn't understand why men found it so easy to accept their own choices while judging their sisters for making similar ones.
Dhrithika trusted someone she loved. The same way countless people did every day.
The whole situation had already traumatized her, then the last thing she needed was more guilt piled on her shoulders.
The entire day passed in suffocating silence.
Nobody properly ate. Nobody laughed. Nobody even tried.
Daadi and Daadu remained worried. Yugant never came out of the room. Samarth Bhai stayed with Dhrithika the entire time.
And when I said my brother was the best brother in the world, I truly meant it.
I didn't know where he got so much patience from.
So much understanding. Not once did he judge Dhrithika. Not once did he make her feel smaller than she already felt. He simply stood beside her.
Protected her.
Supported her.
The same way he had always done for me.
Sometimes I genuinely wondered which woman would be lucky enough to end up with a man like Samarth Rathore.
Because men like him were rare.
Very rare.
And I am glad I told him everything instead of telling Ishaan. I don't know him in this way, and I don't know how he would react either so I changed my mind at the last moment.
Eventually the day faded into night.
Vedika somehow managed to make Daadi and Daadu eat something and take their medicines. Despite being disappointed, both of them went to Dhrithika's room afterward and spent time with her.
They loved her too much to abandon her.
Especially Daadi.
As I always said, Daadi was a girl's girl.
She understood things in ways most people didn't. She even managed to calm Daadu down.
By night, Dhrithika had finally fallen asleep after Daadi gave her medication. She hadn't slept properly for two nights, and between her depression, anxiety and everything else, her body desperately needed the rest.
Once I made sure she was sleeping peacefully, I finally headed towards my own room.
The mansion was silent. I pushed open the bedroom door. Just as I expected, Yugant was lying on the bed.
He wasn't sleeping. His eyes remained fixed on the ceiling while his fingers repeatedly switched the bedside lamp on and off like a ghost.
Sleep was nowhere near him. And honestly, all I could think was that approaching him right now would be like approaching a wounded wild animal.