To Where It All Began ✔

27. Blood Against Blood...

11:00 AM, 5th April, Mumbai, Kavya's Home

The revelation was much more than it could be digested by both, especially Disha who wondered to herself exhaling loudly, "I worked for almost a year in Mhatre Group, despite that I didn't have the slightest hint of how dangerous these people are", while Amna continued with her enchanting box of questions, "I still don't understand... How Anna met Keerthana? When did all of this happen and how? How do you know Anna? How do you know about Amol Despande?"

Lifting her hand slightly and gesturing her to calm down, "I will tell you everything, have patience" and she continued, "Keerthana had prepared a special report against ROYMHA in the first week of January, about some fraud they committed in stocks and prepared special video footage for that. But our boss denied her to telecast that, so out of anger she uploaded that video on her Facebook and Instagram handle."

"It didn't even take an hour for the PR(Public Relations) staff of ROYMHA to delete that video from all websites and ultimately, she was sued by ROYMHA. She even got a good set of warnings and screaming from our channel head. Ultimately the legal charges were dropped only when she apologized and returned all the original sources of the video"

Heaving a breath heavily, she muttered slowly, "This whole thing was known to Amol Despande as he was an employee of ROYMHA. He only told your sister about Keerthana, a senior journalist whose help she could take in gathering more evidence against ROYMHA. Anna had approached Amol initially in order to get evidence against HV 94 scandal in which Anant Mhatre was involved, around twenty-five years ago but he was unsuccessful in finding proof regarding such an old case"

"Anna came to meet Keerthana for the first time on 16th February and narrated the whole story about the incident that occurred twenty-five years ago. But Keerthana suggested and advised something else... The HV 94 scandal was too old and finding any evidence against that was next to impossible so the best would be to find about something that was recent. In that way, she could bring Anant Mhatre in the eyes of law and there would even be a chance that he blurts something about HV 94"

"Stock-related fraud, funds manipulation, were small range crimes for Mhatre Group... But if ROYMHA's connection with Simon Jacob was established with concrete shreds of evidence, then no one in the country could save Anant Mhatre, and thus began my and Keerthana's search. We both were already working on that story and had faint suspicion about ROYMHA's involvement"

She fisted her palm and uttered in a soft tone, "Anna knew that she was putting herself into huge trouble, especially when she was the daughter-in-law of the Mhatre family. She trusted no one from that family except her husband, but couldn't say him a single thing about this, as she was too guilt-ridden."

"She had married him against his family's say and that had already drifted the father and son... This truth and the twenty-five-year-old truth could have shattered their relationship totally. She knew that one day, she will have to tell him the truth but until then, she just wanted him to be happy and guilt-free, as he was the son of the same person who was responsible for her miseries"

"Anna's part of the story was known to both of us, but not to Amol Despande. He didn't know the whole story or the real reason why Anna was doing all this or the fact that I too was helping Anna, he knew only about Keerthana's involvement.

"He was helping her to repay her back for the monetary help she gave him in his daughter's treatment. The main reason that Anna told us the entire truth was because Keerthana and I were not at all going to believe or understand that why the daughter-in-law of the Mhatre Family wanted to see the downfall of her own kith and kin."

"We had sternly refused to help her until she told us the entire truth. Amol must be having similar questions but he never compelled her to tell anything. We both knew that she had an estranged sister but she never disclosed anything about your identity to neither of us. It was her wish that at no cost you should be dragged into this mess"