Silent Whispers

Chapter 3: Prisons

Shyam Manohar Gupta was not happy.

One of his cases was postponed to allow for the court to re-consider the evidence submitted and deduce if anything was fabricated. As if there was some way the accused was not guilty of murdering an innocent family of three in order to threaten a man into obedience. As if miraculously, the victim could get his entire family back and be happy again.

Things like that never happened. A case never really ended, even if the court delivered some sort of justice to the victims. He was living proof of that.

Of course, he wasn't the type of person to dwell on such things. He was intelligent enough to know that things of the past were not worth the regret and things of the future, the worry. And yet, despite his practicality, he often fell into the whims of 'what ifs?'

What if his father never decided to move to this city and instead chose to stay in Lucknow under the shadow of his family? What if his father never aspired to sell his principles to earn a place in the world of riches? What if his father never abandoned them for the sake of his dreams?

These questions had no answers, no matter how hard he looked. He was old enough to know that his father was a man of determination. He got what he wanted, even if he had to go to hell for it.

And it was precisely that determination that Shyam often saw in himself. Only, he didn't dare to dream. He didn't dare to wish for things that he had no right to, he didn't dare to be something he wasn't and more importantly, he didn't put himself before his family. And that was perhaps why he rose to fame so quickly as the lawyer who never failed to fight.

Shyam let out a sigh and began to sift through the mountain of files on his desk. He didn't and couldn't afford to dwell on one case, when he had plenty others to fight for. At the back of his mind, he knew that at the very end of this lengthy process, the verdict would be in his favor. It always was.

He wasn't the city's biggest criminal lawyer for no reason.

He spent years studying people; he knew what drove them, what pressed them and what broke them. He worked long enough to know that people never wanted to commit a crime – in some corner of their minds they knew it was wrong. It just so happened, that they simply chose to live with it, forced to by others or in some case, by their own insane minds.

Shyam often found himself pitying the criminals he saw in the courtroom. There was no cure for their lives, even though the court tried hard to. Once hurt, they will always, forever be hurt.

"Sir?"

He looked up absent-mindedly to see his secretary peep in to his room.

"Your sister is here. Should I send her in?"

"Yes, Rosie," Shyam answered, closing the file in his hand.

While criminals were one thing, his sister was a whole other. She was perhaps, the only reason he got up in the morning; she became his anchor to reality when there was nothing else to hold on to. In many ways, he thanked her for his life, even though she didn't know it.

No, his sister was kept far away from his worries. She was much too young to face the burdens he did. Or at least that's what he told himself, even though he knew that she didn't escape the storm that struck years ago. She was very much caught in the nightmare his father left behind.

"Hi."

Shyam looked up from his thoughts to see his sister walk in and flop down on the sofa.

"Finished class for the day?" he asked, getting up to join her.