Sakthi could not wrap her head around what was happening and how Athreya could be involved in any of it.

Aadhi's hands wrapped around her in a protective embrace while she just got herself mentally prepared for what is to come. Though her heart raced instantly at the thought of the voice that haunted her for the last five years, she also was determined that this has to end.

Closing her eyes, she let the sound of waves calm her disturbed soul. Drowning herself in his soothing hold and reminiscing the beautiful moments of their night, she let out a sigh of relief.

Oddly she felt the end was closer than they all imagined.

The group reached them in a couple of minutes and Aadhi sensed the anxiety that overwhelmed each one of them.

"We need to talk about Vishnu", Vijay implored.

"We should and I do know that he is the master mind behind all of this", he divulged and started to walk towards the villa leaving everyone baffled including Sakthi.

***

"All I will say for now is that this has nothing to do with Sakthi and everything to do with Sathya", Aadhi avowed with a straight face when the others in the group were yet to break out of the shocking revelation from a few minutes ago.

"Aadhi... not the time to joke", Sakthi chided him for making such an inappropriate statement that left all of them is a puzzled state with a million more questions.

"Sakthi enna nambu ma. Nijamma", he tried to sound guileful with a smirk that earned a nasty hit on his chest.

"Dei.. machan velaydra nerama da idhu?", Sathya barged in with a glare as he was being accused of being the reason behind his sister's traumatizing experience.

"English please", Vijay interjected making everyone laugh at his untimely but very valid remark.

Sakthi kept her eyes fixed on Aadhi's eyes that beamed, reveling in a joy of accomplishment. He was evidently excited though she could not gather the reasoning behind it. Instead of trying to over think, she closed her eyes and let her senses enjoy the moment with him while leaning on to his shoulders.

"Getting back to the point. Care to explain in English?", Vijay glared at the grin on Aadhi's charming face when Sakthi leaned on him.

"Ok Mr.To the point. You all know that I always believed the people following you around was connected to her past."

"Yes", Vijay agreed.

"Kavya's accident sealed the deal that it was indeed from the past."

"True"

"You had mentioned that Vishnu was very close to Sakthi from the things you had read in her diary. If that were true, why did he not try to find her all these years when she was actually suffering? And by timeline he actually met Kavya at the restaurant to reach Sathya before he showed up at Sakthi's place out of the blue."

"Yup I actually did not think about that", Vijay recollected the happenings.

That got everyone in the room thinking while Sakthi and Nithya were still not sure what he meant by Vishnu met Kavya at a restaurant.

"What restaurant? What meet?", Nithya asked.

"Let me fill you in. The day I met with you and Sathya at the restaurant, Vishnu was there as well to meet with Sathya. But because of some issues with his sister, he mentioned that Sathya was ignoring him and asked me to talk to you.", Kavya explained.

"Clearly, he did not know that you and I were not close. Later I got information from my PI that Sakthi, the girl Aadhi was in love with was Sathya's sister. That was followed by the anonymous video getting dropped off. It was the day before your engagement.", Kavya finished.

"But why did Vishnu meet with you? What was the reasoning?", Sakthi was puzzled by the entangled web of things that had happened in the last two weeks.

"My guess. He was just following me to make sure I was desperate enough to use the video and also hint that Sakthi was too traumatized by her past. Though it did not make sense then, now when I connect it all, he was indeed a genius", Kavya shook her head unable to believe how Vishnu had played his game under her nose.

"But why did he go to these lengths? Even try to kill you? Makes no sense. And how is Sathya related to this mess?", Sakthi questioned Aadhi who was busy calling someone.

They were all suddenly distracted by a ringing tone on speaker.

"Who are you calling now?", Sakthi snapped at him.

"Gautham", he responded with a smile and before Sakthi could ask more, she heard Gautham.

*Phone conversation in Italics*

Gautham: Hey Aadhi! What a surprise? You still remember me?

Aadhi: Good joke. I was going to ask for a favor.

Gautham: And what's that?

Aadhi: I want to accompany Sakthi for the award show.

Gautham: I was kind of expecting this.

Aadhi: Just another Romantic husband like you.

Gautham: That's a nice one. Sure, go ahead. When your wife is getting awarded as the most promising stylist of the year, you better be there to cheer for her.

Aadhi: Thanks, Gautham.

Gautham: Safe travel!

*Phone conversation ends*

"How did you know that I was going on a trip?", Sakthi asked startled by Aadhi's conversation with Gautham while the entire room stayed in absolute silence.

"Sakthi we have more important things to deal with and this is not one of them", Aadhi tried to reason with his angry wife.

She furrowed her brows to disapprove his brazen behavior but could not really argue on the fact that there were more pressing questions to be answered.

"Vijay and Sathya gathered from Vishnu that even Rahul was getting those blackmail videos. Vishnu also told Kavya that Athreya loved Sakthi and he had executed all of this, to look like a hero in Sakthi's eyes. And now he was trying to make Kavya use the video and ruin our marriage so that he can come to the rescue. This time not just save her from humiliation but also marry her", Aadhi reiterated.

"But how does this convict Vishnu? How Sathya is related to any of this?", Vijay asked unsure of how all of these dots connected enough to make Aadhi so sure.

Aadhi looked around the room and his eyes fell on Kavya who was sitting near Vijay with his hands around her.

Sakthi read the apprehension in Aadhi's eyes. The doubts and unease that crept into him were blatantly visible but only to her. Knowing him inside out meant that she could also comprehend all the convoluted whirlwind of emotions that suffused his mind even in the absence of words.

Once someone lost his trust, there was no way for them to gain it back. She knew that. That was his personality and this very situation was far more sensitive which made it even worse.

"Aadhi you have to give her a chance.", Sakthi whispered into his ears.

His hands entangled with her fingers and his gaze met hers. A minute of meaningful silence between those eyes were all he needed for assurance.

Aadhi turned to face Kavya. He did not trust her. Not even one bit. However, Sakthi did and he had to take this leap of faith for her.

"I for sure knew that Athreya would never do anything that hurt Sakthi or Sathya. But it also made sense that somehow, he was in the middle of this mess. So, I had my PI dig into how Athreya fit into this web.

After a deep background check on Vishnu since he came to meet with Sakthi, I had a fair idea of things that did not add up about him. But none of it was enough to give a motive until I got to know that Nisha is working with Vishnu. That's when my suspicion exponentially grew.

When I went back to look at things in Vishnu's past that had references to Nisha, a lot of missed dots started to connect.

Interestingly enough, he also found that Vishnu's account had a regular transaction of payments to Devi Ma's account. All the memos read the same. Shreya Music class and that it was his sister who used to learn music from Devi Ma a long time ago.

Isn't that odd? Even before Sakthi was in Vishnu's life, he was connected.

So I immediately sent the audio note that Kavya got before her accident to a sound engineer who specializes in mixing. He was able to match the raw audio to Vishnu's voice from his college speech. The confirmation came through today morning."

"Shreya?!", Vijay asked in fascination how Aadhi had managed to put the pieces that were hanging only by a small thread into a picture that finally made sense.

Sathya's eyes widened in shock as soon he heard the name.

"So, you know about her as well?", it was Aadhi's turn to be was perplexed.

"I got to know yesterday from a friend in CBI that Vishnu has a sister Shreya. I wanted to wait until Sakthi, and you were here to reveal this information. Interesting fact is that Shreya and Nisha were both 2 years younger to Vishnu and they all went to the same school. Something has happened for sure. All of a sudden, the next thing we know is Vishnu and Nisha were Sakthi's class mates and band mates."

"My head is spinning.", Kavya complained to the two guys who seemed to get it all.

"Mine as well. This is getting into a spiral web of details", Nithya added with a frown.

Sathya was still frozen and Sakthi was the only one who noticed.

Deeply bothered by the look on her brother's face, she couldn't focus on anything else but him.

She decided to interject, least concerned about these intricate details.

"I think we have all had a good share of shocking revelations for the day. If we all take a flight to Bombay tonight, let's rest up.", she intervened to distract the group.

Sathya was still too lost in his thoughts to react.

"I will accompany you in the same flight but the rest of us will fly in an earlier flight. Brace yourselves for some craziness tonight.", Aadhi informed after reading the concern in Sakthi's eyes.

"Craziness?", Nithya whined.

"Yes. But it will be fun. Trust me on that.", he hugged his sister.

When everyone was about to get ready for their flight in a few hours, Aadhi turned to Athreya who had been mute for the entire time.

"Athreya I have already spoken to Vijay's manager about the security issue. They have agreed to release the entire jukebox today evening at 6. There will be nothing for them to blackmail you with", he walked to his best friend and hugged him tight.

———————————————————

Author' Note:

And that's chapter 58!

So sorry for the delay. Have not been doing well health wise. Hate being sick.

Not sure how this came out but I don't want to delay it any further. So here it is.

Thank you for being patient with me!