As I entered our room, I am shocked to see Rohan sitting on the bed. Usually, he's always occupying the sofa.

"Hey," he greeted me softly.

"Hi,"

"Come, I'd like to talk to you about something, more like share something," he said as he patted the space next to him. I walked over and sit a little farther from him.

"I know my behaviour today was totally unacceptable, I am very sorry for that and I'd like to tell you why I was so angry,"

"Don't do it just because you think you owe me an explanation,"

"I don't owe you an explanation I know, I just-- I would feel better if I told you this okay? So will you want to listen?"

"I--"

"And don't think that just because I will be sharing my dark secret, I want you to share yours as well, no, take your time, I want you to trust me enough when you share your secret okay?" He asked.

"Y-yeah," I said, suddenly too overwhelmed with his understanding nature.

"Urmm so, okay wait, it's about Tanya, and when I go in detail about what happened, would it make you uncomfortable? Would it trigger anything?"

"I don't think so,"

"Okay so, I'm leaving a little part because that isn't my story to tell, but Sunil and I aren't blood related, we both were adopted, I honestly don't know about my birth parents and from what I can remember, I only had a sister. From the time I can remember, in the orphanage, it was Sunil, Tanya and I. Tanya was a year older to us, so she was adopted before us and..."

"Mom and dad came one day and they adopted Sunil and me. We grew up living a fairly nice life but Tanya never left my mind, I knew that as soon as I am an adult, I will do everything in my favour to reunite with my sister. So when I turned 19 and I asked dad to help me trace Tanya, we were easily able to find her and we connected with her parents and were reunited. I was so so so happy to finally meet my sister after so many years and I was so happy to know that she was well. Our families had also bonded and then after two years, Tanya got married. We didn't suspect at first but we realised that every time Tanya came home, she would not be her bubbly self, she wouldn't talk much and she would keep to herself," he said as tears welled in his eyes, I slid closer and placed my hand on his.

"And slowly, she stopped visiting us, we all knew something was up, I knew something was up, she had those eyes when she would talk to us, the guarded ones, the one that assesses their whole surrounding, the one that you have Sanjana," he whispered the last part and my eyes widened as I stared at him.

"One day I followed her to her office and then confronted her there, her scarf fell and I saw a hand print, I immediately knew what it was and I was so angry, I wanted her to immediately come with me to the police station, she denied saying that she was pregnant and she couldn't find it in herself to do so," he paused as he let the tears stream down his face and sniffled.

"I was so dumb, I was so stupid, I should have just brought her home with me, I should have done that because the next day... The next day, she was found dead, she'd called me, asking almost begging for help, I could hear it in her voice, but I was sleeping and I couldn't answer her. I failed as a brother. I was sleeping peacefully while she was enduring that torture. She-- she died due to internal bleeding, she was raped and beaten to death that day and--" he doesn't stop himself as he cries. I rub his back as he cries.

"When...when the doctor told me the damage they had done, I was so broken, they legit broke her, she couldn't have survived it because they had done such a great deal of damage to her internal organs, her intestines, everything..." He cries and I let him cry as tears well in my own eyes.

How could people be so cruel? And to say she was pregnant.

"When I filed for a court case, I didn't have the expertise and no one would fight against her husband because he is very influential, it has been going around this this for a few years and now I know I can win this case, I know your expertise will help me win this case," he whispered as he looked at me. I just nodded my head as I wiped my own tears.

"S-should I hug you?" I asked awkwardly.

"Only if you feel comfortable," he said with a small smile and I nodded before wrapping my arms around him, a little stiff when his arms wrapped around me and pulled me a little closer.

"Relax," he whispered and I relaxed a little as we stayed there for some time before he pulled away.

"Thank you for trusting me with this information," I mumbled as I looked at my folded hands in my lap.

"Thank you for listening to me and I'm sorry for crying like a baby,"

"You don't need to be sorry, crying makes people human, I would honestly doubt your sanity if you didn't cry while you were telling me this story," I joked a little and he gives me a small smile.

I need to learn better jokes.

"Come on, let's go get some sleep, tomorrow we need to prepare for the whole case, we have a court hearing day after tomorrow,"

"Yeah, good night Rohan," I mumbled as I watched his figure walk over to the sofa.

"Urm.." I started but trailed off.

"Only when you're going to be comfortable Sanjana, till then I'm fine with sleeping on the sofa," he said as if know what I was going to say.

"Okay,"

°

"Yeah, so as I was saying, we have to--" he stopped talking when he stared at something in front of us. I can feel his body going tense and when I turned around, I found a man with a few bodyguards standing in front of us.

"Oh look, there those cowards are," the guy commented before walking inside the room.

"Cowards? How dare you?!" Rohan said loudly and made a move to punch that man but I clasped my hand around his and pulled him back.

"No Rohan," I said as I shook my head and then we walked inside the room.

We settled down and were talking about the case when that guy called Rohan.

"She's nice, I'd like to know if she's available," he said pointing in my direction.

"Well too bad, I'm not available and I wouldn't ever be available for an asshole like you," I retorted with a sickly sweet smile.

"My my, you're feisty, did you not tell her what happened to Tanya?"

Rohan became rigid next to me and that man smirked as he stared at Rohan's face.

"Right? And so what? Are you gonna do the same thing to me? Because guess what asshole, you even lay a finger on me and I'd kill you," I commented and before he could reply, the judge walked in.

°

"Ha! Take that you son of a bastard!" I muttered lowly so only that asshole could hear.

Death penalty for him and lifetime imprisonment for his friends.

"You--" he tried to pull out of the police's grasp but was held back.

As everyone left, Rohan didn't not budge from his place. I sighed as slid closer to him.

"Hey? What's wrong?" I asked softly as I nudged his shoulder with mine.

"Nothing, I just don't know how to thank you Sanjana," he said, unshed tears in his eyes as he looked at me.

"You don't need to thank me, it's what I do and every time I bring someone justice, it is a reminder to me that I did something good, when I'd started studying law, I'd pledged that I would do anything and everything to bring justice to these women, to help them in any way I could," I said.

"I'm happy I met you Sanjana," he said truthfully.

I'm happy too, I find myself thinking.

"You're brave Sanjana," he said before getting up and I looked at him in confusion but he just shook his head as he walked out and I followed behind him.

_____________________________

Another day, another update.

Hope you guys enjoyed it. Tanya's mystery is solved now.