Swara didn't know what to think when the silence consumed her, it has been 40 minutes since she was left alone in the Van and still now there was no information except silence, then there was a knock on the door which made her panic until she heard Pradeep bhai voice outside as she rushed to open the door.

"No one is inside the house Swara, it took us this long to search all the rooms and everyone of them were empty and it didn't make sense how they all could disappear without a trace, we got all the entry and exit points covered, the house is surrounded yet there is no one inside " Pradeep bhai spoke up frustrated and even scared from the looks of it 

It has been three hours. If they left the house, by now they could be anywhere. The police kept focusing on the house, since they believed the house held the hostages. And it wouldn't be easy to take all of them somewhere else. She knew Sanskar wouldn't have went without a fight and so did Aandhi, who was fiercely protective of her siblings. 

The only reason they would have left would have been if they went along her plans to keep Abirami from killing everyone. And now they are gone and Swara felt the panic consume her as she insisted Pradeep let her inside the house to search for them too.

"Swara, you are a civilian. I can't allow you inside the house." Pradeep  bhai argued but she didn't care to follow his orders as she rushed passed him to get inside. No one stopped her and she wasn't a fool to think it was because they read her desperation but more like because Pradeep bhai was by her side letting her get away with it 

And when she entered the house, Swara wasn't prepared for the sight of the blood. For someone who had been on the brink of death twice and a doctor. The blood shouldn't have shocked her but when the long suppressed memories of those two encounters came rushing back through her mind. It was more than enough to make her almost lose her balance and faint until  a pair of arms held her from falling down the blood stained floors and crumble away in agony.

"It not his blood Shona " Pradeep bhai voice kept talking as he led her out of the house, thinking her hysterics were a product of fear for Sanskar but it was much more than that as she remembered now the sight of her parents dead body that greeted her, now that she remember how ruthless Abirami can be as well. 

Swara had come close to death twice in her life, she lost her parents to Abirami and little Asha lost her mother, and Swara wasn't going to let the little one lose her father as well. She need to find something from those memories even if it haunted her to find Sanskar and the others. Because losing him was not an option. 

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"Well, Well , Look how touching it is to see Swara crying for you " Abirami spoke up as she starred at the phone where she got to see Swara entry into the house and her subsequent hysterics. Sanskar didn't reach for the phone, she offered to him to see the Video because he had gotten quite comfortable in unnerving her.

First he brought his sister instead and she learnt Aandhi has been staying with him all this long. It only made her angry enough to show him that she still held the power, as she marched them into the secret room , she found long time ago .

When she was a child, she had been mischievous and when she grew up , she liked knowing everything about everyone and that was how she knew about her father's secret room of power. A room that wasn't in the blueprint of the house, he built to save his wealth as evidenced by the gold and Diamonds in the safe. 

It had been easy for Abirami to crack into the password for both the room as well as the Safe, and while she never wanted to make it her room when her father was alive. She did the moment she killed him. Abirami knew leaving her siblings in any of the room would make it easy for Sanskar to let them escape, so she moved them into the room first and it was the reason Aandhi couldn't find them easily even if she grew up on the house.

And when she learnt that it was Aandhi who came with Sanskar instead, well she had to change her plans too. Because she wasn't sure what else was cooking up in Sanskar's mind. So she had to move them into the room too even if that wasn't what she had in mind in the first place.

And then she waited to see what other plan Sanskar had up his sleeve and was bored when it looked like nothing was happening until thirty minutes ago. The police broke in to the house and she liked seeing them frustrated to find the house empty.But seeing Swara upset, well that was worth being cramped up in room with her siblings and Sanskar together for three hours. 

"So now that the police and your dear Swara will go away from this house and search me or you somewhere else, we can finally get to have fun " Abirami answered back as she smiled at Sanskar who was in a way looking quite murderous at her. Maybe they will find a way to be together after all .

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Sanskar didn't see the video of Swara, not because he didn't want a glimpse of her but because if he saw how upset she was then he won't be rational enough. It has been three hours and he knew the Police would think they escape someway and widen the search which meant they are going to be alone for quite some time.

And Sanskar needed to find a way out for all of them soon, he can't make Abirami let any of her siblings go because they would most likely tell the police about the secret room. So he needed to learn more about it, when he and Aandhi walked inside the room, it was through her parent's bed room as it used to be her father's secret room. 

What Sanskar observed of the room had been that it was on the first floor but they had to walk down on the stairs to reach the room which could mean the room was either on the ground floor or underground. Underground seems likely as it would explain the spaciousness of the room

While it was a single room, it still held three to four big safe's, and a comfortable set of furniture's for a room used by just a single person. Maybe Abirami's father used it a private meeting place and if that was the case then there has to be another way to get inside the room from out of the house. 

And Sanskar needs to find it, if there was any hope for him to get all of them out alive. Which means he needs to not only find the way out but also if Abirami was indeed crazy enough to have wired the room with a bomb that could go off if any of them attempted to leave.

Abirami was always on the phone either monitoring or doing something or that other that it wasn't far fetched for him to think , she had set the house up to blow but hopefully not with her in it. And for now, she was inside the room with them and he need to get her out, so he can search for the way out first before finding about the bombs existence.

"Well now that the Police are gone, why don't you get us something to eat. We all need to keep our strength if you are going to keep us here for however long you want ?" the question came from one of her brother and Sanskar was surprised by it, because he expected this new side of Abirami must have terrified them.

"Or I can just kill you and you will no longer be Hungry , Avinash " Abirami replied back and then turned to smile at him .

"What if I am hungry ?" Sanskar asked instead, hoping it would give him an reason to be alone with her siblings, as far as he could see the room didn't have any food or kitchen. 

"In the case, Let me make something for you and then we can plan our future. I know this didn't look like there is much hope but by the end of this day , you will see how much I love you " Abirami spoke up as she walked out of the room, he heard the locks getting engaged again meaning they were all trapped without her in it. 

" You are alive , I didn't want to say anything in front of her. I am so glad you are alive Di " one of her brother who insisted he was hungry spoke up first.

"She maybe out of the room but she could still see and hear us " Aandhi answered back. And Sanskar knew that to be true as well but being in the room and seeing the video from above is entirely different because she can't keep track of all that is happening and Sanskar needs to be smart enough to get her siblings on board.

" But that shouldn't stop you from speaking with your siblings Aandhi. When Sakshi died, I wish I had a chance to speak with her one last time. And now since there looks like no escape round the corner, I want you to speak with them. She can monitor all she wants , just speak because you may never get a chance again " Sanskar spoke up, hoping against hope that Aandhi not only takes up on his suggestion but also read between the lines .

And what ensured for the next fifteen minutes was all the Siblings speaking with each other. As their voices continued to raise, the room was filled with more voices which meant Abirami even if she was keeping track would probably never be able to notice if one or two lines looked odd. As Sanskar kept joining them in the conversation at random interval either to agree with them or state an entirely different opinion. 

And finally he dared to use the one opportunity he was granted before Abirami would walk inside again. 

"You are the first son right, the one your father groomed to take over his company ?" Sanskar asked Avinash making the conversation look simple enough. But he had noticed that Avinash looked like a rational man and his need to get Abirami out of the room was never because he was hungry but because he know something else that the others in the room didn't know and the logical assumption would be that being the first son, he was allowed a glimpse into his father's world and likely the only person who knew about this room apart from Abirami before this night. 

But when Aandhi reminded him that Abirami can still hear them, he wasn't forthcoming with anything because he knew it would be overheard .

"Yes, and it was my job to protect them too. Aandhi had always been the mother figure of us and I tried to protect them for all the enemies my father created, I tried to make sure going forward our industries and company would remain spotless. But now, I failed them because I didn't expect the enemy would be my very own sister " Avinash answered back 

"Oh don't be dramatic brother ? . Where were you when I was raped by my own sibling. Don't act like you protected me " Abirami voice broke out as she entered the room carrying food.

" I would have killed him or got him Punished, if only you came to me when it happened Abirami" Avinash answered back and behind the words Sanskar heard the protectiveness and lots of regret as well .

"So the house is empty?" Sanskar asked her as she placed the food before him. None of them were restrained or tied down to a chair, which was the reason they all knew her plans must be more sinister if she allowed them this much freedom inside the room.

" No, that is the problem with technology. The police think the house is protected by enough police officers, I gave them a message from the higher up that our location was found out and they need to come there to offer their assistance. While I have hacked into all their phone that any call from them would be directed to me which will give us about few hours before they realize the message they received was sent by me instead " Abirami replied back as she sat on the chair beside him.

This was the first time, she dared to get into his close proximity and he feared that she was gaining more confidence by each moment they are locked in the house without any protest. 

" In that case, why don't we eat out of this room. I am getting Claustrophobic locked up here and we can get to know each other better " Sanskar answered back, he knew she won't believe what he said but will she outright deny him was about to be tested 

"I had planned our first date for so many years and even if I don't trust a word of what you said at the moment, I don't want to spend the time with you and have my siblings be the audience to it as well " Abirami spoke up as she allowed him out of the house.

"And don't think you can leave my siblings, this door can't be opened without my password and well I even tell you the password it is " I Love Sanskar " but if you opened it from anything apart from my phone then this whole room will blow up, so how about you all be patient enough while I spend some time with the man I love , she answered back.

And Sanskar had the confirmation that Abirami only knew about this door to the room and he only hoped he had a way of letting Avinash know that without raising her suspicion.

"Just one word before I go Avinash, When My wife died, I wanted to blame myself too . That I should have protected her , even when I had no idea how I could have prevented it when I was unaware of the danger. It is the thought that counts and even if we all failed today, the fact you want to protect them is good enough . This single locked door wired to explode isn't enough to keep you captive forever" Sanskar stressed out the last sentence hoping Avinash would catch up and the surprise in his face was quickly masked by solemn nod and Sanskar knew he got the message. 

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Swara knew time was running out, the police as expected were widening the search, trying to get a clue of where they could be and each siblings phone GPS is showing them to be in different place and she knew they will not be there in any of them.

And she had been going over and over again with her new memories as if they could let her into Abirami mind as well, which wasn't really tangible but it was something she was going to believe in irrespective of her rational mind saying the opposite. 

"The memories have been gone for far too long and now that it has come back, it has to help me find them. " She kept shouting at Ragini and Laksh who were both by her side trying to connect whatever she told them about her last two near death encounters with Abirami.

She was back in Sanskar's house after Pradeep dropped her and had been trying to somehow find anything that will give her a clue on Abirami and where she is keeping her Sanskar

" Where is Papa ?" three words from Asha broke her heart as she entered the house. And now 30 minutes later, she was still lost.

"Swara, I know getting the memories back is good. Back then it would have helped having a face to the killer but now that is not the issue. I know you had wanted the memories back for a long time to find our parents killer and maybe that gotten you hung up on those memories being what you need to help Sanskar as well " Ragini spoke up and the rational part of Swara believed in her explanation but she couldn't seem to let it go.

" Exactly, the memories while Painful doesn't have the knowledge of where Sanskar is located Swara. I can't believe they weren't in the house " Laksh agreed with her too. But she still replayed them over and over again in her mind. Until she remembered it, something that led her driving back to the house all over again, as she dialed Pradeep bhai on the way .

"They are still in the house Bhai, I know it . We need to search it again " Swara shouted on the phone and this time Laksh refused to be sidelines as he drove with her.

"Swara, the officers searched everywhere . They are not in the house " Pradeep Bhai house answered back

"No, you didn't search everywhere. She told me on the night she killed my parents, that if I wasn't stupid, I would have kept my mouth shut and she would have rewarded me for my silence from her father's stash of gold .  Which means it something her father kept hidden away and where else would he hide it except inside the house.  I am going inside to search, I know from the police reports, you didn't recover any stash of gold after  her parent's murder, which means it still inside the house and so does the room it holds " Swara spoke up as she hoped he would believe in her .

"I am on my way, I will call the police officers left inside the house to search more thoroughly but if they are still inside the house. You are not entering the house even to search and that is final " Pradeep bhai replied back as he ended the call .

" He is right, we aren't even armed to protect herself and we can't walk in and risk them. Let us wait here " Laksh spoke up as he parked the car one street before their destination and they waited for Pradeep bhai to reach first. 

And it was also how they spotted the Shukla siblings walking or running from the house as far as they could and her heart dropped to see Sanskar wasn't with them . 

"Where is Sanskar ?" She asked fearing the answer as they got near to her car and Laksh got out to intercept them first as well. Asking how they escaped.

" He is still inside the house, I am sorry Swara but we had to leave without him " Aandhi spoke up and left Swara once again shattered  with the truth . 

P.S: " That it for now. So sorry about the delayed updates. The next one is the final one. I tried to end it with this update but it had gotten longer, so had to divide it again. Hopefully will be able to post the finale part soon. Not error checked, so forgive the mistakes. Let me know your thoughts and feedbacks "

Juanita Reid