Chapter 2: The half-truth

Ananya stood, dumbfounded remembering neil's narration, as well as her own side of the story. She was left speechless, only knowing that her answer to neil's question would mean having to tell him the truth. There was no avoiding his question. Not when he was in this state. She couldn't get herself to lie or think of a good enough lie seeing neil in this state, and herself being shook knowing the truth.

Neil: ANANYA! (He shouted to get her attention) I'M ASKING YOU A QUESTION; ANSWER! NOW!

Neil was at this point shouting, completely having lost patience with her knack of keeping secrets, but he could no longer put up with her secretiveness. He launched himself at ananya, forcefully grabbing her by both arms and shaking her violently. His grasp tightened more and more, hurting her. His eyes were filled with rage and questions. Ananya looked at him, horrified, as she had never witnessed him like this. His tone lowered, but his anger was still visible, as he spoke the words through gritted teeth, seething in rage.

Neil: Give me an answer, NOW! I've had enough of you lying to me and keeping secrets, but not this time. This time...THIS TIME, if you dare lie to me or refuse to give me an answer, I will no longer bother with talking politely to you, and will simply drag you to the police station. I demand an answer, and nothing but the truth, do I make myself clear?

Ananya: Y-y-y-yes. (She stuttered as she cried)

Neil: Then tell me (He continued speaking through gritted teeth).

Neil's threat to drag her to the police station did not sound like bluffing. Even though he had no reason to criminalise her here just because her words implied she knew juhi, his threat meant that at this point, right, wrong and duty became only secondary to knowing the truth. This shook ananya, as the neil she knew would never make such hasty and impulsive decisions.

Ananya: I didn't know juhi that well personally. I knew she was a journalist as I had one time seen her with a group of journalists outside mehta mansion, interviewing dayavanti mehta. I heard juhi ask her about Ayesha Haider's murder case, and how it was a coincidence that the same 12 year old girl who had approached the law to seek justice for her mother's murder was herself convicted of the murder, and then was mysteriously killed, with nobody understanding who killed her. I was intrigued by her curiosity for the case, and even after Mrs Mehta had avoided her question, when all the journalists were leaving, I heard her over the phone to one of her colleagues saying that she noticed how nervous daya had gotten when the question came up, and found it strange that she chose not to answer. I liked how she ended her convo with saying "that is not the sign of an innocent person"...

Ananya paused to look at neil's face. The fine lines across his forehead had become more prominent as a result of confusion and questions her revelation had caused him. She continued with the story.

Ananya: Seeing her curiosity and distrust for Mrs Mehta pleased me, and I wanted to know more about her. I found out she was looking into the Aisha Haider murder case, as well as the mysterious death of her daughter, Avni, from a conversation she was having at a coffee shop with her colleague.

Ananya could tell from his expressions that he was annoyed and looking at her with suspicion, as she was admitting to following and eavesdropping on Juhi's conversations.

Ananya: I heard her say that she had read over the entire case files of the case, and had even done a background check on Avni. She said she didn't believe that a 12 year old girl would murder her own mother just to frame her grandmother out of revenge for not accepting her as her granddaughter, especially as from her background check on Avni, she had found out that Avni had fought a lot for her mother to be accepted by Dayavanti Mehta and that she had done a lot to stand up for her mother's self-respect. She found the story Mrs Mehta's had told to prove that when she had admitted she was behind the murder was a trick by Avni, to be somewhat unbelievable.

Neil: But why were you outside the mehta mansion 5 years ago? And why were you curious about Juhi's curiosity towards this case?

Ananya: Your answers will be questioned. Having known that juhi didn't believe Mrs Mehta, I decided that I would get the truth out about Mrs Mehta through Juhi's help. I contacted Juhi, albeit anonymously, and told her that I could help her in her case, only if she kept quiet about somebody on the outside helping her. She agreed despite at first being suspicious about who this stranger was claiming to be able to help her in her case. I had seen Mrs Mehta go somewhere one day and had followed her. I was shocked to find her secretly meeting her own son, Ketan Mehta outside the house, when I heard, and recorded them both discussing whether avni was really dead. Dayavanti had herself admitted that there was no way that avni could have survived when she had shot her in the heart. This was the evidence I had sent to her. I didn't know juhi, or where she lived or anything, just that when I first saw her outside the Mehta mansion I followed her where she met her colleague at the coffee shop. I knew nothing about her. After giving the evidence to her colleague, I heard nothing back from her. After a while, I thought she even had betrayed me, and probably had not utilised the evidence.

Neil: My Juhi would never cheat someone, She was killed. But the evidence that girl gave was stolen, and that girl was you. Who could have stole the evidence against Mrs Mehta?

They were both in tears, each of them remembering Juhi. Ananya felt guilty for her death.

Ananya: I don't understand myself. Could someone have gotten to know that juhi had found evidence on the case, apart from her colleague, who was also murdered? Was the colleague murdered before or after her?

Ananya felt guilty asking him this question, knowing the pain he was in.

Neil: Before.

Ananya: What if somebody found out from the colleague and murdered him first so he couldn't reveal the truth, and then went after Juhi and then erased the evidence?

Neil: It is possible. But don't you have a backup of the evidence?

Ananya: Unfortunately I don't. I had deleted the evidence off my phone just in case and transferred it all to my laptop before that. I had then made only one copy of the video, which I had sent to juhi's colleague. The laptop was destroyed in a kitchen fire in my house due to my negligence, and I made the mistake of not having backed up the evidence.

Neil managed to stop his cries, and concentrated on processing everything ananya had told him.

Neil: All this time you have told me lies ananya, and each time I pretended that I believed you as I could see through your lies. However, for once, I believe something you have told me, as this time I can tell you are not lying. But this has left a lot of questions in my mind, which you have to answer honestly. Who are you? Why are you interested in the Aisha Haider and Avni death case? Why are you investigating Dayavanti Mehta?

Ananya knew that neil would catch any lie she would tell him, so this time she chose to not tell him the truth. She walked around neil so her and neil's backs were facing each other, and they could not see each other's face, and only hear the words.

Ananya: The truth is that I am Neela Pareikh's adopted daughter. She had adopted me only two years after Avni's death in order to get over the loss of her daughter. I respect her so much as I have seen that despite Avni was not her real daughter, she loved her no less than a biological mother, and losing avni really hurt her. It made me love neela maa as a woman and a mother even more.

Neil turned towards her, but still not looking directly at her face or making eye contact.

Neil: And what about the case?

Ananya: Growing up, I had heard everything about what happened. Everything dayavanti did, including her daughter murdering even neela maa's father. I was shocked knowing how anybody could stoop that low. That is when I decided that I would find out more about dayavanti, by becoming friends with riya, and hiding my identity. If they knew I was in anyway connected with neela maa, the mehta's would have been suspicious of me straight away.

Ananya turned now to meet neil's eyes, for one, to see whether he was convinced with her story, and secondly so that he would not get suspicious of her lying by avoiding looking at him. His expressions showed he was completely convinced, but perhaps because she was not looking at him when she started with a lie.

Ananya: From the moment dayavanti emotionally blackmailed me into taking the case back against amol, by lying that he has become like this because of his supposedly evil mother, aisha, and started bad-mouthing his mother, I realised that neela maa was telling the truth about her. That is why I took back the case. She has no money to bail amol out any more as her jewellery and house are all mortgaged with the bank as she has become bankrupt. That is why she thought she would convince me to easily take back the case by lying that she needed my help to reform him. Neela maa considers amol her son just like she considered avni, and now me her children, so any of her children are my siblings. I had to help amol and get him out of the evil influence of dayavanti mehta.

Neil: What? She's bankrupt?

Ananya; Yes! Not only that, I tricked amol into admitting the truth about why dayavanti wants you and riya to marry in front of your mother, who I had spotted hiding outside the room, listening to our conversation. Your mother now knows the truth, but she hasn't told you because she thought that you would disbelieve her thinking she is again trying to break your marriage with riya, especially after her fake suicide act. Amol admitted in front of shweta aunty that dayavanti is planning on making you her ghar jamai, and stealing your father's money through you. That's why she needs this marriage to happen; so that your father signs a deal with her, and this would help her get back her lost status and power.

Neil was shocked, as now he realised why his mother had all of a sudden started acting nice with ananya out of nowhere.

Neil: Despite everything you have told me, I need to know for sure about this whole bankruptcy thing. It isn't because I don't believe you, but i need to know the full extent to how deep in bankruptcy she is. She has been hiding about her bankruptcy from everyone. I can't believe it.

Neil shook his head in disbelief.

Ananya: Ok. But you need to know more details on this. There is a man who works at that bank who has, against bank policy, been taking out the mortgaged jewellery on her orders, so she can use them to keep up her fake rich status in front of the world. You need to target that man too.

Neil: Thanks for the heads up. I will immediately get DD to work on this as well. Doing all that against bank policy is itself, a major crime. Dayavanti Mehta cannot avoid things this time.

Please continue soon