Ishani hadn’t spoken a word in hours.
The room remained still, yet nothing about it felt calm. Nurses came and went, murmuring softly, adjusting drips, checking vitals. But Ishani barely noticed. Her eyes kept drifting back to the chair in the corner.
Advit was still there.
Like a shadow that refused to leave.
She didn’t understand why. Or what he wanted. His name hadn’t appeared in any of the hundreds of memories she had with Rhea. Not even once. And yet, somehow, he was the last person with her.
That fact alone made her uneasy.
“Are you going to say something?” Her voice finally broke the silence, weak but sharp.
Advit looked up, startled. “About what?”
“About why you were with Rhea. Who are you really?”
He exhaled slowly and stood up. His movements were composed, deliberate — the kind of calm that felt rehearsed. Like he’d trained himself to never crack.
“I already told you—”
“No,” Ishani cut in. “You gave me half a truth. And I want the whole one.”
Advit stepped closer to the window, looking out at the dark city below. The lights flickered like broken stars. "Rhea wasn’t just your cousin," he said quietly. "She was trying to protect something. Or someone. She didn’t tell me everything, but I know it led her to danger.”
Ishani’s breath caught. “What kind of danger?”
His jaw tightened, and for a moment, she saw the man behind the calm. The man who had seen things no normal 25-year-old should’ve seen.
“She didn’t trust the people around her,” he said. “Except for you. And at the end… me.”
Ishani frowned. “So what are you? Some undercover agent? Some… gangster? Who are you really, Advit?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he looked her dead in the eyes and said, “The kind of man who keeps his promises. No matter what it takes.”
The door creaked open suddenly. A nurse entered. “Miss Malhotra, the inspector is here to take your statement.”
Advit stepped back. His eyes lingered on Ishani for a beat longer than necessary.
As the nurse turned away, he whispered, “Don’t tell them everything. Not yet. Trust me.”
Then he slipped out the side door — like a secret vanishing into the night.
And for the first time since Rhea’s death, Ishani felt something stronger than grief.
Suspicion.
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