Chapter 5

-Archi-

@-Archi-

Hey guys!

Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments! And I am so sorry for the lateness. I sprained my wrist, so I got considerably slower at typing. Anyway, here is the next chapter. Hope you like it

Silent Whispers

-CHAPTER THREE-

Prisons

Shyam Manohar Gupta was not happy.

One of his cases was postponed to allow for the court to re-consider the evidence submitted and deduce if anything was fabricated. As if there was some way the accused was not guilty of murdering an innocent family of three in order to threaten a man into obedience. As if miraculously, the victim could get his entire family back and be happy again.

Things like that never happened. A case never really ended, even if the court delivered some sort of justice to the victims. He was living proof of that.

Of course, he wasn't the type of person to dwell on such things. He was intelligent enough to know that things of the past were not worth the regret and things of the future, the worry. And yet, despite his practicality, he often fell into the whims of "what if's?"

What if his father never decided to move to this city and instead chose to stay in Lucknow under the shadow of his family? What if his father never aspired to sell his principles to earn a place in the world of riches? What if his father never abandoned them for the sake of his dreams?

These questions had no answers, no matter how hard he looked. He was old enough to know that his father was a man of determination. He got what he wanted, even if he had to go to hell for it.

And it was precisely that determination Shyam often saw in himself. Only, he didn't dare to dream. He didn't dare to wish for things that he had no right to, he didn't dare to be something he wasn't and more importantly, he didn't put himself before his family. And that was perhaps why he rose to fame so quickly as the lawyer who never failed to fight.

Shyam let out a sigh and began to sift through the mountain of files on his desk. He didn't and couldn't afford to dwell on one case, when he had plenty others to fight for. At the back of his mind, he knew that at the very end of this lengthy process, the verdict would be in his favor. It always was.

He wasn't the city's biggest criminal lawyer for no reason.

He spent years studying people; he knew what drove them, what pressed them and what broke them. He worked long enough to know that people never wanted to commit a crime - in some corner of their minds they knew it was wrong. It just so happened, that they simply chose to live with it, forced to by others or in some case, by their own insane minds.

Shyam often found himself pitying the criminals he saw in the courtroom. There was no cure for their lives, even though the court tried hard to. Once hurt, they will always, forever be hurt.

"Sir?"

He looked up absent-mindedly to see his secretary peep in to his room.

"Your sister is here. Should I send her in?"

"Yes, Rosie," Shyam answered, closing the file in his hand.

While criminals were one thing, his sister was a whole other. She was perhaps, the only reason he got up in the morning; she became his anchor to reality when there was nothing else to hold on to. In many ways, he thanked her for his life, even though she didn't know it.

No, his sister was kept far away from his worries. She was much too young to face the burdens he did. Or at least that's what he told himself, even though he knew that she didn't escape the storm that struck years ago. She was very much caught in the nightmare his father left behind.

"Hi."

Shyam looked up from his thoughts to see his sister walk in and flop down on the sofa.

"Finished class for the day?" he asked, getting up to join her.

"Yes Bhaiyya," she answered, rolling her eyes. "You know my schedule by heart - why do you still ask?"

"It's called having a conversation Meeti."

"Very funny... why bother with the pleasantries, when both of us know you have something to talk about?"

It was Shyam's turn to roll his eyes. "Is it so hard for me to have a simple chat with my baby sister? I know you are the brilliant Khushi Kumari Gupta, or whatever it is that Lavanya calls you, but you can at least cut some slack for your brother."

"There is no slack to cut down - I am always Meeti for you."

Shyam smiled. "You sure learned how to talk!"

"Well I am your sister!"

"Then you must have also learned how not to pick a fight with Maa every morning."

Khushi's face fell. "Don't-"

"It's getting out of hand now, Meeti. She is our mother, not some stranger-"

"Please Bhaiyya! Don't give me this lecture when both of us know she failed to be a mother!"

"I still don't understand why you talk like this! After all that we went through, the least you could do is support her."

"For what exactly? It wasn't only hard for her when Babuji left! We were hurt too!"

"I know that Meeti... but it was a big shock for her. People don't recover that easily from such kind of things-"

"I agree it was. But how long does it take? How long does it take to get it that her children were in pain and needed her? I don't know about you Bhaiyya, but I remember what it was like. I remember staying hours up at night, knocking on her door to come out, to talk, to do something. And all we got was silence. Is that what a mother does? Abandon her kids when they needed her?!"

Shyam was quiet.

"The truth is, she chose the easy way out of the mess... and put us on the line for it. I may have been little, but I sure do know what you went through. Working in the day and studying in the night is not a joke! But you did it, for me and for her. And she doesn't even realize what that means. No, because Ms. Garima Gupta cares only for herself and for her happiness!"

"That's not true. You know that's not true! If Maa had a choice, then we wouldn't even be here to begin with."

"Oh please Bhaiyya! Don't tell me she was helpless and majboor. Don't tell me she was in love and didn't know what was happening to her. Those things happen in movies, not in life!"

Shyam surveyed his sister, seeing the anger etched in her eyes. He knew her more than he knew himself, so it was almost second nature for him to understand every bit of the resentment creeping through her. If only she knew what he did, then things would have been very different.

"I'm not going to defend Maa or explain why she did what she did," he said calmly. "Not that it will change your mind, even if I did. All I want to say is that she is trying to change things Meeti and the least you can do is to stop giving her such a hard time."

Khushi didn't answer.

"I know you think she wasn't around when you needed her, but she is now. So, stop pushing her way."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because she is not someone you want to lose."

"Well what a bummer," she answered, sarcastically. "Because I lost her years ago. But you know what I don't get? Why are you supporting her so much? You know better than me what happened and yet-"

"I believe in second chances Meeti... I have seen people die in guilt for not being able to mend their mistakes and it's not a fate I wish upon anyone, least of all, my own mother."

"I guess it's too late for that," she spat vehemently. "Because Ms. Gupta never got over her first chance, forget thinking about her second one. She couldn't accept the fact that her husband left her for another woman. And let's face it, it was her fault-"

"Enough," Shyam said. And even though there wasn't any change whatsoever in his voice, Khushi knew it was the end of their argument. She had gone too far.

The room fell into an eerie silence as the siblings stared at each other, one in thought, and the other in contempt. It was the first time in years that they got into an argument.

It was Shyam who spoke first. "I know you think it's Maa's fault, but you have no idea what happened. You were too small to understand and listening to you now, makes me feel like you are still too small... I'm not asking you to welcome her into your life with open arms. I am just asking you to be nice."

"Would you be nice to someone who is proven to be guilty in any of your cases?"

A sad smile worked up Shyam's face. He was expecting that question from the moment he decided to have a chat with her. "Sometimes I forget how much you have grown up. And the things you say make me wonder if you are really the girl who once asked me what handcuffs were."

"That was a long time ago Bhaiyya. I am not an eight year old who needs her big brother to defend her at school."

"No," he agreed with a sigh. "You came a long way from that... I never forced you to do anything Meeti and I never will in the future either. I have enough faith in you to know that you will never let me down."

Khushi gritted her teeth. "Don't guilt trip me-"

"I'm not," he answered honestly. "You know I will pick your happiness above everything... I just hoped you would understand my point of view."

"Fine," she muttered, grudgingly. "I will be nice to her... but not because I believe she deserves a second chance, but because I love you. And I can't even bare the thought of letting you down. Okay?"

Shyam couldn't help but smile. "If you say so... You know, I'm starting to think that Lavanya is right. You really are crazy!"

"I should really stop telling you everything about my life - this is so not cool."

"Then I will just bug Akash to tell me."

Khushi pouted. "One day I will get you back... I am sure there is something out there that will annoy the hell out of you!"

"Good luck with that."

"Thanks! I will need it."

Shyam laughed and quickly went back to work, wondering if there really was difference between criminals and other people. At the end of the day, weren't all humans caged inside their own infectious minds?

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So no, Arnav is not Khushi's brother (I am not that cruel! ). He will be introduced soon, once we know a bit more about Khushi.