Page 171 of Since You Stole My Heart

Dark smoke burned her nose and made her cough. Something warm slid down the side of her face, stinging her eye. Her trembling hand lifted to touch it, and when she pulled back, her fingers were covered in blood.

Shattered glass glittered around her. The car’s interior was mangled beyond recognition. Her foot was trapped beneath the seat, agony shooting up her leg. Everything felt wrong.

Her gaze dropped to the phone lying crooked near her foot, the screen still glowing faintly.

With a groan, Kashvi stretched for it and brought it shakily to her ear.

The world tilted sickeningly as she heard her father’s voice. ‘Hello? Hello? Arohi? Kashu?’

‘Papa?’ she whispered, though her own voice sounded distant and muffled.

‘Hey, Kashu, what happened?’

Her head throbbed harder. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to breathe through the pain. Her words slurred together. ‘I don’t know... I don’t understand.’

‘Did you do what I said? Did you close her eyes?’ he demanded immediately.

She wanted to tell him not to yell because it hurt, but the words stayed trapped inside her throat.

Her eyes locked onto the wrecked front seat where Siya slumped over the deployed airbag. Blood streaked across her face, stark against the white fabric.

Ignoring the pain tearing through her leg, Kashvi dragged herself closer. Panic cracked through her voice as she grabbed Siya’s shoulders and shook her hard. ‘Di? Di, get up, get up. You’re scaring me.’

Karthik shouted into her ear again. ‘Tell me what’s happening.’

‘I don’t know!’ Kashvi sobbed frantically, struggling to breathe. ‘The car... it’s broken. Di is bleeding and she’s not waking up. I’m hurt too. I don’t know what to do.’

Her stomach twisted violently, and she wished she had her magic eraser now.

‘What about your mother?’

Her head snapped towards the driver’s seat, but it was empty.

Kashvi pushed herself up on one trembling hand and looked through the shattered windshield.

A scream rose in her throat, but she choked on it as her gaze locked onto the road ahead.

Arohi lay sprawled a few feet from the car, surrounded by strangers staring at her in horror. Her body was twisted at an unnatural angle and lay impossibly still.

Her eyes were open. Wide. Unblinking. Blood-covered.

There was no life left in her mother’s eyes.

‘Maa is... Maa is gone,’ she whispered to her father.

Silence stretched across the line for one terrible beat too long.

Then Karthik laughed.

‘That’s my good girl. You just proved why you’re my favourite daughter.’

Pain seared through her whole body as panic clawed at her chest. ‘Papa, help me. Please.’

But there was no answer.

The line had already gone dead.

Kashvi stared blankly at the phone, her mind scrambling helplessly to catch up. Her whole body started shaking, violent tremors ripping through her as the realisation finally crashed into her.