The phone call ended, but the echo of Neelambari's voice lingered like poison.
The Queen of Naraka had spoken.
Threatened with blood promised in return.
Athavan lowered the phone and turned to his father-in-law. Vasathan was pale. His fingers trembled. His breath came short and hollow.
Without a word, Athavan stepped forward, placed a firm hand on his shoulder, and said:
"Mama… you're not alone in this. I'm here. To shield this family with you. She will never touch us."
From the other side, Dhiviya joined in, gently holding Vasathan's hand.
"Appa… I don't know what happened with your past family. But we're here. Always. Don't carry this alone anymore."
In the corner, Archana watched with tears flooding her eyes. She had never seen Vasathan like this. Not this fragile. Not afraid. Just broken.
Vasathan looked around the room at the faces of those who loved him. Who stood beside him without question. He closed his eyes. And took a long, ragged breath.
"Then let me tell you," he said quietly.
"Let me tell you the truth. Everything I once wished to bury with my bones."
He smiled sadly. He was about to unveil his darkest secret buried deep within his heart.
The tale between him and his stepmother, Neelambari.
"I was four when my real mother died. Grief was brief for a child the world moves fast. My father remarried. Her name was Neelambari. He wanted to make sure I was always showered with motherly love.
My father's family was the ruling tycoon in our region. Landowners. Decision-makers. The spine of our town. He was a natural-born leader. He wasn't corrupt. He was beloved. A genuine man who led with compassion. For a time… everything was good."
Vasathan's voice softened.
"Neelambari… seemed kind. She gave birth to two more children. But I never called her stepmother. I called her mother. I loved her. And I believed she loved me. She hugged me. Cared for me like her own child. Actually, more than my half-siblings. Or so I thought."
He paused.
"But as years passed… my father began to fall ill. Slowly. Piece by piece. First headaches. Then fatigue. Then his legs stopped working. And she… she stepped forward."
He laughed bitterly.
"We were all grateful. She handled business meetings. She made executive decisions. She became his voice. Everyone believed her trusted every choice she made."
He took a deep breath before continuing. Closed his eyes to exhale.
"When I was fourteen, my father lay bedridden. The doctors said his organs were failing. That he wouldn't last long. That night, I wanted to be near him. So I crept into his room, lay beside him on the floor… and must have drifted off.
When I woke, I found myself under the bed."
Vasathan's eyes grew darker.
"And then I heard her.
Laughing.
Not just Neelambari but the family doctor too. The one assigned to care for him.
They were laughing.
Mocking.
Moaning in lust.
And then… I realized from their conversation."
He swallowed hard.
"They had been poisoning him. Bit by bit. She had been faking the kindness. Faking the devotion.
She and the doctor were making out in the bed next to him mocking him.
Next to my father's dying body. He was paralyzed. He couldn't speak clearly.
He couldn't scream."
Archana covered her mouth.
Dhiviya clenched her fist.
Athavan lowered his head.
"They left the room. And I crawled out. My father saw me.
His eyes… oh god, his eyes. For the first time I saw the tears in his eyes. He cried. He sobbed. And with his trembling hand, he took mine. He mouthed the words to me.
It was slow and broken. But it was clear to me. He said, 'Kill me.'
He didn't beg for life. He begged for release.
And I… I was fourteen. But I understood a man's heart. This was shame and pain unbearable to a man like him. A leader like him toyed by a cunning bitch.
I loved him. I knew what he meant.
So I… I did it."
Tears formed now in Vasathan's eyes.
He didn't wipe them. He cried. For the first time, he was sharing the pain and guilt hidden within him for more than forty years.
"I choked him. With my own hands. Until the pain stopped. And just as his breath faded…
Neelambari walked in. She saw what I had done.
She was furious I killed her toy. Then she grinned. She called me a monster.
Accused me of assault. Told the town I'd tried to violate her and that I killed my father out of lust and madness.
She used her influence she owned the courts, presided over them, silenced the neighbors.
And me? She chained me. Iron rings around my neck. Like a dog. Like a beast.
I lived like that for two years. In a dungeon beneath my own home. Whenever she felt bored, she would come and assault me like playing with a dirty dog."
The room was silent. No one dared speak. No one dared to imagine the life he'd gone through.
"Eventually, a distant relative came. He saw the truth. He broke the chains. But by then… my town had turned into hell. Gangsters arrived. Criminal networks took root. Neelambari showed her fangs. She wasn't just cruel. She was building something turning our town into her slave ground. I ran. To another state and lived as a beggar. Scraped coins from the street.
But I still had my iron will. I swore… I'd come back."
His voice turned steely.
"I worked during the day. Studied in secret at night. Eventually, I earned a private scholarship, graduated as an architect. I too, in secret, was learning the truth about my town and I was planning my revenge on her. But she found me first. She came hunting and killed all my allies. I had to flee to Nepal. From there, I joined an expedition that led me to Khadah and met Archana. I gave up on revenge. Years later, I met Raja Sekaran a fugitive from India. He told me he was running from her too.
And that… that was the moment I believed him. I saw myself in him. And I helped him build a foothold here."
Vasathan's voice quieted.
The room exhaled. No one moved. No one interrupted.
His history had unfolded not as a story, but as a scar.