Where is home… when the people who made it are gone?
My voice trembles as I speak, barely louder than a breath. “Aunty… can you tell me what happened?”
She looks at me, startled. “What do you mean?”
My voice shakes, but I push forward. “I mean… everything. What happened while I was in the coma? I know I missed a whole year. But it doesn’t feel like a year to me. It feels like I closed my eyes and opened them the next moment.”
She looks at me for a long moment, as if weighing the cost of the truth.
“Nisha, maybe it’s too soon. Your body is still healing. You just woke up. Maybe we should wait till—”
“I am not made of glass, Aunty,” I cut her off gently but firmly. “If there’s one thing this coma has taught me, it’s that life doesn’t wait for anyone. I’ve already lost enough. I deserve to know the truth.”
She opens her mouth to protest again, but I press on, “I already know about Mom and Dad.” Her breath catches. “And Suman. I know she was murdered.”
Sunita Aunty stiffens just slightly, but I feel the way her hand tightens around mine.
“How did you…?” she begins to speak, but stops, as if the question itself might break me.
A bitter smile curls at my lips. “The inspector who came in earlier, he filled me in.”
Aunty’s eyes well up instantly. “Oh, beta…”
“He told me in short,” I whisper, my voice cracking under the weight of it all. “But I need to hear it from you. How did Kavya handle it? How… how did she find out the truth?” My fingers tighten slightly around hers, my eyes pleading. “All of it, Aunty. Please.”
She nods slowly and takes a long breath before speaking.
“After the accident, when you were brought home unconscious, in a coma, the doctors said they didn’t know when or even if you’d wake up,” she begins, her voice low and trembling. “But Kavya… she never gave up. Not for a second. She believed… No, she knew you’d definitely wake up one day.” A soft smile graces her face. “That’s when she hired me to take care of you while she went to work. She wanted someone she trusted by your side, every single day.”
The tears I’ve been holding back for far too long finally slip down my cheeks, but I stay silent and let her continue.
“Everything was going fine, until a few months later, Inspector Viraj Shetty informed Kavya that your car crash wasn’t an accident. It was a planned murder.” My breath catches. But she doesn’t stop. “And then the threats started coming. Anonymous messages. Strange phone calls.” She swallows hard, her hand still wrapped tightly around mine. “But that didn’t stop her. Kavya was determined to find out the truth. She started digging. Even reached out to Suman for help.”
There’s a painful pause, filled with everything she’s struggling to say. “But before she could get anything from Suman,” her voice breaks, “she was…”
“Murdered,” I finish for her, my voice hollow as my heart clenches. But the ache runs deeper now, buried more in my soul than in my body.
Sunita Aunty nods, her eyes brimming with emotion. “Kavya was devastated. As it is, she was barely holding on, trying to piece together who was involved while staying by your side every single day. The weight of it all… it was too much.” She pauses. “If it weren’t for Reyansh, I don’t know what might’ve happened to her. He was her rock. And with the help of his detective friend, Sidharth, they found out the truth. In fact, it was Sidharth who got you to the hospital. He hasn’t gone home ever since you were admitted.”
I swallow hard.Sidharth?Why is he still here? Does he have questions for me too, like the inspector who came earlier? Is he waiting for answers I’m not ready to give? The truth I want to stay buried?
Aunty’s voice continues, pulling me back into the moment.
“I’m grateful to that man. If he hadn’t found you just in time, if he’d been even a few minutes late then…” She breaks off, shaking her head, her silence saying the rest.
“Prakash would have killed me,” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
Just saying his name aloud sends a chill through my veins.
Her jaw tightens, and for a moment, her usual gentleness gives way to a flash of fury. “He’s in jail now. And he’ll rot there. For what he did to you… to all of us.”
I close my eyes, bile rising in my throat.
“I’m so sorry you had to find out like this,” she says, wiping a tear from my cheek.
“I needed to know,” I whisper, looking at her.
“I understand.” Sunita Aunty nods. “But right now, you need to rest. No arguments,” she says firmly, tucking the blanket around me again.”
