Her fingers quietly reached for her phone inside her purse.
Ajay noticed that too.
And then he said something that made her freeze completely.
— “Your brother Rohan finishes work at 10:30, right?”
Meera stopped breathing.
Ajay continued softly:
— “And your mother’s blood pressure medication gets delivered every second Thursday.”
Her phone slipped from her trembling fingers onto the carpet.
Ajay knew.
He knew everything.
Not just about her.
About her family.
Her life.
Her routines.
Meera’s voice became barely audible.
— “Who are you?”
Ajay looked down at the folder for a moment.
For the first time that night, something flickered across his face.
Pain.
Real pain.
Then he pulled out one final photograph and handed it to her.
Meera looked down.
The girl in the picture looked almost exactly like her.
Same eyes.
Same smile.
Same long black hair.
But the photo looked old.
At least fifteen years old.
The girl couldn’t have been older than seventeen.
Meera frowned.
— “Who is she?”
Ajay’s jaw tightened.
— “My sister.”
Silence.
— “Her name was Kavya.”
He swallowed hard before continuing.
— “She trusted the wrong man.”
Meera didn’t speak.
Ajay stared at the photo like he had memorized every inch of it.
— “He pretended to love her. Promised marriage. Promised a future.”
His voice became colder with every sentence.
— “Then he filmed private moments without her knowledge.”
Meera felt sick.
Ajay continued:
— “When she tried to leave him, he blackmailed her.”
His hands clenched tightly.
— “Three weeks later, my sister jumped from the sixth floor of her college hostel.”
The room fell silent again.
Meera didn’t know what to say.
Ajay finally looked at her.
— “After she died, I found out something horrifying.”
He pushed the stack of photographs toward Meera.
They were pictures of different women.
Different ages.
Different cities.
Some smiling.
Some crying.
