Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 186 - Goodbye

As soon as Sidharth gave his order, the orderlies he had brought with him immediately rushed over. Their deadpan expressions said: “Don’t take this personally.”

One of them twisted Deepika’s arms behind her back and cuffed her wrists. Another deftly cut a strip of masking tape and stuck it over her mouth.

In a split second, Deepika found she had been silenced.

She could no longer defend herself. She burst into tears, and
her knees buckled beneath her.

Luckily for her, the two orderlies on either side of her had a firm grip on her arms. If it weren’t for them, she would have crumpled to the floor by now.

Grandfather Shukla and Anand were stunned. They exchanged a glance, before turning to look at Sidharth.

“Sidharth, what are you doing? What crime did Deepika commit? Why are you arresting her?” Grandfather Shukla’s expression was terrible to look at.

Kirat had turned out to be an evil schemer, but Deepika… What did she have to do with it?

She was a victim, too!

Uncle Ved and Aunt Jiva stood on either side of Grandfather Shukla, supporting him between them. They did not dare look up; the formidable aura emanating from Sidharth paralyzed them.
The young master had not returned home in six years—and now, as soon as he was back, he had immediately turned the entire household upside down.

If the two older Rautela’s were paralyzed with fear, Urvashi and Priyank were positively shaking in their boots. The two siblings stood behind their parents, gaping at Deepika with undisguised sympathy. They knew Deepika
had gone to great lengths to convince Sidharth to come back for the New Year—if she knew then that he would be back to get his revenge, would she still have welcomed him with open arms?

There was no cure for regret, however.

Deepika had made her bed, and now she had to lie in it.

Urvashi chewed on her fingernails: she had a bad habit of doing it when she was nervous. She looked at Deepika’s tear-stained face, and then at Sidharth’s solemn, no-nonsense expression. Fear welled up inside her.

She wondered whether the young master of the family had come home after his long absence just to “repay” Deepika for the way she had treated Rita in the last 10 years.

Sidharth looked at Grandfather Shukla. “Grandfather, Deepika may know something about the death of her mother. To be safe, she has to be kept under supervision while we investigate. Would you rather the police take her away and throw her into a cell, like they did with Kirat Reddy, or would you rather I detain her instead?”

“Are you saying she had something to do with the death of her mother?!” Grandfather Shukla was utterly shocked. “That can’t be right! Deepika… Deepika… Let her say something! She isn’t that heartless—I don’t believe it!”

Grandfather Shukla had watched Deepika grow up. She was the only daughter of his eldest son, Ashok, and he refused to let anything bad happen to her.

Everyone in the Shukla family was dumbstruck by the news.

Deepika had heard the entire exchange. She shook her head frantically. She tried to say that she had had nothing to do with her mother’s death, but Sidharth had ordered his men to cover her mouth with tape. Her protests, no matter how articulate, were reduced to incomprehensible
mumbling.

Everything Shehnaaz had learned as a law student told her that Deepika deserved a chance to defend herself, but the order to gag her with tape had come from Sidharth himself. Shehnaaz had already decided long ago—in an entirely unprofessional manner—that Sidharth was always right. She therefore assumed that he had a good reason to gag her; perhaps Deepika knew something else, something that could not be revealed in public?