Page 86 of Born in Grief

“Yes. We can go back and look. See if I missed anything?” When they agreed, she led them through the house and towards the third floor and the master bedroom.

“Your house is a bit small, Goody,” Ishaan observed. “Especially since it only housed two people. Did you guys play hide and seek in here every day?”

Dhrithi came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the hallway. Memories slammed through her as she squeezed her eyes tight trying to banish them.

Run!

You hide. I seek.

“Dhrithi.” Strong hands gripped her arms, giving her a gentle shake. “Hey! Where did you go?”

She snapped her eyes open, sweat beading along her hairline. “Sorry. I-I’m sorry,” she stammered.

“Don’t be.” Amay’s gaze was gentle and understanding, even though the violence of vengeance lurked beneath it. “You never apologise for the wrongs of others.”

“Just a flashback. Hide and seek.” She sucked in a tremulous breath. “He liked to make me run, to allow me to think I was safe in my hiding place, before he dragged me out to toy with again. It was a game to him. All of it was a game to him.”

Murderous rage settled onto Amay’s expression as he drew her close. “He’s dead. He’s never going to touch you again.”

“Yeah.” She took in a shuddering breath, the air burning in her lungs as she fought for control. “That’s how I found it. I was in the closet where I used to hide, and it was on the floor under my hand. Let’s go look.”

Virat stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm. “You don’t have to come. Ishaan and I will look. Amay and you can stay here.”

“No.” She surprised them all with the vehemence of her answer. “I need to do this.”

She led them into the bedroom and then through to the closet. She saw Amay’s expression go dark and forbidding and she knew he was imagining her, hiding in that dark space.

She touched his hand and his attention snapped to her immediately, concern flashing in those dark, intense eyes of his.

“He’s dead. He’ll never touch me again,” she parroted his words back to him.

Amay exhaled hard, dropping a kiss to the top of her head, as Virat crouched low, shining his phone’s torchlight into the dark space.

“Can’t see anything on the face of it,” he commented. “But I’m going to want to come back and check it more thoroughly with my team.”

“Sure.” Dhrithi nodded.

“Anywhere else you think he might store stuff like this, out of your sight? This being in your closet seems like an aberration, an error on his part.”

Dhrithi agreed. How this ended up on the floor of her closet was a mystery. “His den is the only-“ She gasped, a lightbulb going off in her head. “He has a huge porn collection,” she whispered.

The horrific reality of what she was thinking sank into all of their minds at the same time.

“Fuck!” Amay breathed. “That bastard!”

That about summed it up. “I can take you there.” Dhrithi’s voice shook with the force of her disgust.

“No.” Virat stopped her, his hand on her arm. “It’s enough for tonight. Grab some of your stuff and let’s go. We’ll come back tomorrow morning and deal with whatever we need to deal with.”

“Let’s go?” she asked, dumbly, the words not making sense to her shellshocked mind.

“Home, Dhrithi,” Amay said gently. “Let’s go home.”

Tears pricked her eyes as she nodded. She dashed them away before she blubbered all over the three of them. “I’ll go pack my duffel bag.”

“The infamous duffel bag,” Ishaan teased. “We’re going to need to destroy your go-to runaway bag, Goody.”

“Go ahead,” she told him, smiling slightly. “I don’t plan on running anymore. But if I do need to, you’ll always be there to give me a ride, right?”

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