The Dead Flower

chapter 14

Harish crumbled a paper caught on his hand clenching his fists so hard that his nails cut into his skin.

"Harish, stop... if you don't listen to me this time you might make it easy for the real culprit to escape..." Eric's words stopped Harish in his track, who was about to leave the office hearing what happened to his sister.

"What do you want me to do now?" While asking his muscles were still tensed.

"Before doing something mad we have to ask Vaishnavi about the incident. She is the only one who can help us." Eric looked at Harish hopefully saying that.

Closing his eyes for a moment he nodded in agreement making Eric relieved.

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After having breakfast Vaishu spent her day inside that room. She didn't go downstairs even to have lunch.

She sat on the floor leaning towards the wall with her mobile in her hand. It was switched off due to a dead battery. Even though she had the charger with her, she didn't charge the phone.

She didn't have the courage to face the questions of Midhuna. But she wanted to talk to Raghu to explain her situation...to explain her helplessness.

The sound of a car entering the compound interrupted her thoughts, she got up to see who was coming. She felt her hands becoming cold seeing Harish entering the house, she didn't expect him to come this early. But seeing Eric entering along with him eased her mind a little.

She comforted herself saying 'he was with his friend, he didn't come to hurt me'

She walked to the balcony before Harish could spot her in his room.

Harish climbed the stairs after asking about Vaishnavi to his mother without bothering to answer back her questions.

After searching for her in his room Harish went straight to the balcony shouting her name.

Vaishu was scared to the core with his sudden unexpected appearance in front of her. Before she could understand what was happening Harish forcefully made her stood up holding her upper arm.

"Ahh...leave...Harish you are hurting me." She tried to loosen his hold.

"Call me sir, you worthless beggar..." Vaishu was shocked at the words he used at her, at the same time she felt humiliated by his behavior in front of his friend.

"Harish leave her... we are not here to hurt her..." Eric stopped him from behaving harshly towards Vaishu not being able to watch his inhuman behavior.

Eric made her sit on a nearby chair, by this time her eyes started to wet her face in humiliation.

"Vaishnavi, do you know who I'm...?" Eric asked her calmy. She nodded negatively for that. She thought they were friends but not sure about that.

"I'm Eric, Harish's friend and also his legal advisor. Have you seen Haritha his sister?" Vaishu just nodded for his question.

"Do you know what happened to her?"

"No"

Hearing her answer Harish came forward gritting his teeth "don't you know what happened to her? you gold digger..." he shouted at her raising his hand

Eric stopped him before he could slap Vaishu. This time Eric lost all his patience and pushed him making him stumbled on his feet.

"I'm asking her, Harish... If you don't want to hear this just wait outside I will ask her..." when Eric fumed in anger Harish left there slamming the door shut behind him.

Eric saw Vaishu crying silently when turned back to her "I... I don't know anything... please leave me, sir... I didn't hurt anyone" she said in between her weeping.

"I know... I know you are innocent..."

"Then, why was he treating me like a criminal...?" She asked still crying.

"You have seen Haritha right? She was caught with an accident when she tried to escape from some kidnappers..." taking a break Eric looked at Vaishu's confused state, he continued "she was from the same school where you studied. This incident happened one year before when she was only seventeen"

Vaishu listened to him patiently and waited for him to continue.

" Police closed this file stating that this was a suicide attempt... we couldn't do anything about that due to lack of evidence... but recently we came to know that she was blackmailed with her nude photos... Everything mentally broke Harish, he is not a bad person; he was broken than we could imagine..."

"But what I have to do in this?" Vaishu sounded miserable.

Sighing heavily Eric answered"He thinks... you have involvement in this"

"What? Why me?"

As the answer to her question, Eric showed the CCTV footage from his laptop. Vaishu watched the clip with wide-opened eyes, seeing Haritha in that clip confused her more.

"I didn't know it was her..." she said watching the clip. It showed Vaishu forcefully dragging Haritha who was standing at a bus stop and walking forward. When Haritha was crying and trying to get freed from her hold..............................

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