The Malhotras
Episode: 4
Arun’s phone dropped from his hand. His eyes went blood red. Supriya looked at Arun shocked. She picked up the dropped phone, received the call and said, ‘I am Supriya, Arun’s friend. Who is it?’. The voice at the other end said, ‘I am calling from the hospital. Sulochana Ma’am passed away.’ Supriya froze there. She knew she had to be calm. She gathered herself together and said, ‘ We have to go to the hospital now.’ Sukumar asked scared, ‘ Is Sulochana okay?’. With tears streaming down her eyes, Supriya said softly, ‘No. Aunty is no more.’
The Malhotras rushed to the hospital. Being a doctor himself, Arun tried to keep himself as calm as possible. Yet, his bloodshot eyes could not hide his pain. Sukumar stared at a blank spot while on his way to the hospital. The driver drove as fast as careful.
Seeing the dead body of his wife was not easy for Sukumar. He went near her, kissed her forehead and said, ‘I will miss you Mrs.Malhotra.’ Despite his efforts to keep calm, Arun broke down, knelt down near his mother’s dead body and cried his heart out. No one said anything. Supriya stood in one corner. Seeing Arun hurt this bad was not something she had ever wanted to see. Arun’s tears pierced her heart. She wanted to go near Arun, hug him tight. However, she could not. Maya was there beside him. Her pretty hands were around his body trying to snuggle him. Rasika stood there looking at Maya and Supriya.
While the atmosphere was glum, Rasika was the only one contemplating on her next steps. She was happy that Sulochana too was gone. Now, the greatest thorn in her path was Maya. Rasika thought, ‘I can remove Maya easily. But this Supriya is Arun’s spine. If I can get rid of her, I can get rid of Maya easily. With Supriya around, I can’t do anything to Arun. Arun has to be out of this house for me to reign here. Nevermind, I will handle one thing at a time. First Maya needs to know that Supriya loves her husband. Once Maya knows this, she will take all the steps to stop Supriya from meeting Arun. And after that, I will get rid of Maya and ensure Arun marries my niece Ishita.’
Arun finally pulled himself up. Maya got him a glass of water. After drinking water, Arun went to the washroom, washed his face and came back to Sulochana’s room. He then went ahead to check all her files. Everything seemed okay. There was no sudden deterioration of her health. How did she then die suddenly? He summoned the nurse who was with Sulochana, along with the other doctors. Arun was furious. ‘How can this happen with all of you around?’, he shouted at the entire staff of the hospital. Sukumar patted Arun’s back and said, ‘We lost her. There is no point screaming at anyone. But, we need to know what went wrong. We have to send her body for post mortem.’ Arun hugged his dad tight and cried like an inconsolable baby.’
Sulochana’s body was sent for postmortem. The reports came in the evening. She was poisoned. The medicines and the fluids that were injected into her body had no traces of any poison. She was poisoned by something else. Sulochana’s body had the same marks which Kasturi’s body had. Something had bitten both of them.
Things became tense at the Malhotras. What were those bite marks? The entire hospital was ransacked for clues. There were no traces of snakes or insects or any venomous creatures. What were those marks then? Arun decided he had to go into the depth of the matter. Back in his room at home, he told Maya, ‘ I am sorry Maya. I have not been able to give you all the rights of a wife all these days. I thought I will keep you happy. I am a failure Maya. I failed as a son, I failed as a husband’, saying that, he hugged Maya and cried. Maya brushed Arun’s hair with her pretty fingers and said, ‘I am happy here Arun. I have no complaints. I am your wife and that’s all that matters. We have our entire life to spend with each other. Let us first take care of our family. We need to find out what had happened to Kasturi aunty and Maa.’ Arun nodded and said, ‘I will find out.’ Maya held Arun’s hand, smiled at him and said, ‘We will find out together. I will go and give something to Papa to eat now. He has not eaten anything.’ Saying that Maya stepped out of the room. Rasika was waiting in the kitchen. When Maya came to the kitchen, Rasika went near Maya and said, ‘ Maya dear, I have to tell you something.’ Maya looked at Rasika with her sea green eyes reflecting questions of all kinds, and said, ‘ What is it Aunty?’ Rasika held Maya’s hand and said in a note of concern, ‘ Maya, you are too naive. I don’t want to scare you, but you need to keep Supriya away from Arun.’ Maya looked at Rasika and then quietly went away. Rasika smiled to herself and thought, ‘I planted the bomb of doubt. It will explode. All I need to do now is to bring my niece Ishita here.’
It was 2 am. The entire Malhotra mansion was quiet. Everyone was fast asleep. Maya walked out to the garden. Someone was waiting for her. The black shadow hiding behind the huge tree in the garden said, ‘Arun is sleeping?’. Maya replied in her mystical voice, ‘Yes. He is sedated. I added pills in his food. He won’t wake up till 9:00 a.m.’ ‘Good’, the voice replied. The voice then continued, ‘ You are doing your work well. Things are changing though. You will need to complete the rest of the tasks soon.’ Maya smiled wickedly and said, ‘ Yes. I do things as per your order. You tell me and I do it.’ The voice said, ‘ Someone is coming closer to your husband. You have seen that, haven’t you?’ . Maya cackled like a witch and said, ‘ Oh yes. I saw that and I know that.’ The voice said, ‘You know what to do now, right?’ Maya walked closer to the voice. Her anklets jingled. She said, ‘I know. I will do it tomorrow.’ The voice said, further, ‘ Be prepared for more tasks. There might be more people you will need to take care of.’ Maya cackled again and said, ‘ Yes and I love doing it.’
Next morning, while Maya was taking the tray of breakfast to Sukumar’s room, she overheard Rasika talking to someone. Maya eavesdropped the entire conversation. Rasika had asked her niece Ishita to come over and stay at the Malhotra mansion. Ishita was to arrive in a day or two.
Maya went to Sukumar’s room and served him breakfast. She then went to the kitchen to make breakfast for the rest of the household. After some time Rasika came to the kitchen. She wanted to remind Maya about Supriya’s feelings for Arun so that the fire of doubt burnt Maya’s heart. As she stepped into the kitchen, Rasika’s phone rang. A chill went down Rasika’s spine. Some time ago, she was speaking to Ishita and now Ishita is no more.
