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Thank you guys for your feedback on part 3, here's part 4:
Chapter 4:
Rudra pulled Paro into his cabin and pointed to the double sided mirror. She gaped for a second, she hadn't realised he could have been observing her from here all along while she was in that room. Coming back to what was unfolding infront of her she walked towards the mirror, her heavy lehenga trailing behind her. Kesari Ram was sobbing and pleading as Aman stood over him asking him to confess all he knows.
"How did all that money come in the possession of those two girls?" Aman questioned.
"I...I put it in there on the orders of Thakursa," Kesari Ram confessed, declaring Paro and Bindi innocent.
"Does weapon smuggling happen in the cross border wedding every year?" Aman asked firmly.
"Ye...yes!" Kesari Ram spluttered, making up his mind to give into the BSD and testify against Tejawat. He would flee from the area as soon as the BSD let him go so Tejawat wouldn't hurt him. With his testimony, it wasn't as though Tejawat would be roaming free for long anyway.
"Every year, Thakursa asks a baraat to be bought from across the border, along with them they bring unassembled arms. When the baraat leaves Thakursa sends with them the money for the arms under the pretence of gifts for the bride...Thakursa has manipulated the entire village against the BSD so no one will believe the BSD if they opposed" Kesari Ram choked through his sobbing. His voice grew clearer, carrying through the open door to Rudra's cabin where Paro stood frozen in disbelief.
"How?" Aman asked.
Kesari Ram snorted,"oh Thakursa has an ongoing strategy...his men disguise themselves as BSD men and murder or rape villagers...the blame going to the BSD so that villagers continue to abide him and mistrust BSD"
"And what happens to those girls who are brides?" Aman pressed on.
"I...I don't know exactly what...the wedding is fake, groom is fake so the marriage holds no meaning for them...I've heard when they cross border some brides get sold...others killed" he said shamefully, disgusted that he himself had taken part in the miserable fates that met these girls.
Paro's brain stopped processing anything else it may have heard, she was numb as her world came crashing down then and there. Her entire life felt like a big lie, she felt sick as her life flashed before her eyes. Her parents' corpses...her mama's corpse...her Nandu Jija's wedding...her own wedding that should have started tonight with the sangeet ceremony...none of it should have happened, everything was fake and it was all Tejawat's fault. She and all of the villagers were his pawns not children/people like she believed them to be. Until now she felt blessed to have a father figure like Tejawat, to look after her but he as good as sold her off. She shivered as she thought of her Nandu Jija, was she alive or was she-
Paro stopped that thought there. She hadn't realised herself slip to the stone floor or the thick hot tears that trickled down her cheeks. She sat in silence and let them continue to roll. Was she free to go from here? Even if she was, where would she go and what would she say? Paro wondered internally still occupying the hard floor.
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Rudra fumed back into the office. Paro hadn't really registered the hours of his absence. He flipped one of the chairs as his protege, Aman came in right behind him making Paro jolt up to her feet and cower against the mirror.
"Don't worry Sir, we will catch him soon" he assured. From their conversation Paro gathered that Tejawat had contacted the baraat and stopped them from coming, he and his men along with the Thakurian had fled from the village and were on the run now.
"Until he is caught make sure Kesari Ram is guarded well...Tejawat will go for him before he is able to testify in person, in court," Rudra ordered.
"Sir, I've tried to reach him on his phone but it's out of reach, I sent two of our men behind him to Jaipur to guard him," Aman reported. He'd learnt from Rudra to think like the enemy and reacted accordingly as soon as possible.
Neither men had really acknowledged Paro's presence until now, she shifted slightly. What would happen to her now? She cleared her throat to draw attention to herself. Rudra who was removing his jacket to examine his wound looked up. The girl...how had he forgotten she was here, the last he recalled she was sobbing uncontrollably.
"Tu teekh hai?" He enquired, genuinely concerned. He knew this feeling very well. When everything you believed in life turns out to be a lie, life feels a joke, the weight of it all crushes you, he'd felt it all 15 years ago when his mother abandoned him and his father, after that she was never to be seen or heard of again.
Paro nodded and was about to ask him if she was free to go when she spotted blood oozing from his wound and spreading through his t-shirt. Her being a healer by nature, couldn't help herself from reflexively reaching out with her dupatta to wipe the wound clean and bandage it. Rudra jerked his arm away flinching at the discomfort it cause.
"Aman you're dismissed," he said more harshly than intended. Paro looked into his face bewildered, why was it so difficult for this man to take assistance from her? Aman left immediately with a curt "goodnight Sir,"
Rudra looked at Paro's face. Her big eyes questioning him, cheeks flushed pink whether in annoyance or at the awkwardness of the situation he could not tell, her lips quivered ever so slightly as she stood her ground.
"Stop looking at me like that!" He yelled frustrated, she was no longer afraid of the BSD at large but this particular man still frightened her. The fire she'd feared so much and associated to the BSD was visible in his eyes just like it'd been in her nightmares.
"Like what?" She asked in a tone of surprise.
"Like you're my saviour, like you need to rush to my aid every time I hurt myself now because I owe you my life! Rudra Pratap Ranawat is not too fond of living but whatever life I have left I cannot spend in the debt of a woman, especially a beautiful woman like you"
"You think that's why I healed you that night? So I can make a point of flashing that favour in your face every time?" Paro snapped in disbelief,"well let me set this straight, healing people is what I've been taught to do, I'm a physician, just like my Mamisa. I am bound by code of duty to help the wounded and sick just like you are to help eliminate terrorists like Tejawat from our country...what I did is not a favour to you, it was just my duty," she explained.
Rudra was taken aback by how fierce she looked and sounded in those few seconds, evolving from Parvati to Kaali just like the Goddess she was named after. He didn't have anything else to say to her so left the room to bandage his messy wound.
Rudra came back shortly with a plate of food, he pushed it towards Paro indicating her to eat it. In turn she tentatively asked, "now that you know I didn't do anything wrong...can I go back...home,"
"No" he said sharply, stunning Paro, who couldn't guess why she was being held anymore,"Tejawat will be after you as well, for your own safety you can't leave while Tejawat is out there," he said sipping at his drink.
"But I need to go to Mamisa, she needs to know about Thakursa and I need to go find Nandini Jeeja wherever she may be" Paro argued with urgency.
He towered over her, what foolish girl she is he thought, doesn't she understand that Tejawat will kill her as she is a witness against his smuggling too, and did she just say she wants to go find her sister who's across the border, alive or dead, no one knew. Paro refused the food and walked away into the interrogation room where she paced the room. Rudra's fury grew, how dare she show her back to him and walk away like that, he was just looking out for her. What did he care if she ate or not, he tried to eat the food himself but had lost his appetite by now. Pulling out his whiskey bottle he resigned to drinking and watching his captive through the mirror. He couldn't help but appreciate her beauty, her thick, long locks braided down her back, perfect waistline adorned with a simple waistband, her eyes which were no longer flooding with tears, rather forming their own resolve. She retired to lay down on the floor when she got tired of pacing while Rudra drank himself to sleep not long after.
Precap: the news of Kesari Ram's murder made Paro his only witness but she was no where to be found. Rudra searched frantically for her.
So, what'd you think? Let me know :)
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