Aryan blurted out the words which made my heart freeze.

I almost forgot that I saw people in white when I saw my cuties safe and sound. I couldn't hold it anymore, and that's when I knew how it pains when you cry with full emotions. As I continued to cry, I heard Roy cooing at me and drawing circles on my back with his palm.

"You Satan! Are you not satisfied with all the bad luck you gave us? Leave my home before I call the police!"

My dad shouted at the length of his lungs and took Mahir away from me. I was a crying mess. I didn't know what to do and couldn't form words with anything that came to my mind.

"Aarush, we should go. I promised to get you out of trouble..." Roy was sympathizing with me but it wasn't the right time, so I just cut him off.

"Enough Roy. The part you have done proves you did better than what my dad could have done this whole time. And Justin Solanki, or so-called my father, I don't want to have any fight with you or your family. I didn't visit you for anything on a sorrowful day like this one, and since you are not interested in my visit here then there is no need of telling you.

"But one thing is for sure, I can visit your house whenever I want till six months and two weeks from now have passed. You are still my legal guardian according to the law and I'll be at your house whenever I want and I won't be questioned or taken out by police for being here. I am just going right now because the situation needs me to act mature enough and also because Roy advised not to create a scene right here." I said turning to Roy but continuing right after.

"But I'll come back whenever I sense distress in my cuties or feel their tears and sorrow. And maybe when they need me like the time you were busy at work, and mom in Australia with her company project and Minna Ma... was sick."

And just then, I realized that she was more important to me than how important I thought she was to me. The way she was with me the whole time and never left my side. How she sent my friends to tell me to go back and live at her place after the fight. How she came for me at school and I avoided her. There was a lot she did.

"If you are done, you can leave my house."

"She meant something to me as well. Something that made up the biggest portion of everything in my life." I busted out.

I broke down again. Roy saw that I wasn't going to gather my strength anytime soon, and thus he made me stand up. And that's when I realized that, he was crying as well. I saved it for a later topic to distract my mind.

"I need to see her at her cremation, but I will be intruding on your space and I don't want that. So, may I say goodbye, now before I go?"

I knew it was a horrible thing to ask them but the answer made me feel more horrible and the thought of it coming from my father made it weirder as if the situation wasn't weird after all.

"You better hurry boy, because I don't want to get my therapies to go to waste just because of your presence."

I hurried to the mat which had her body. I took her hand and kissed it for the last time ever and cried a little before be brave crossed my mind. It was the last thing I ever heard from her.

¶

I was in the car with Roy driving back home.

It was mostly quiet except for the radio that kept talking about the prime minister doing some god damned tour I didn't care about

"Can you explain to me why were you crying?" I asked Roy trying to find a distraction.

"Did you notice? I tried to suppress it but I couldn't."

"So, tell me why. I'm curious as hell."

"Whenever I see family fights, especially between children and their parents, they remind me of my own. For the past six years, it has been haunting me so badly that I couldn't focus on anything, at least until when you showed up that's when I said Fuck It. But seeing you going through the same thing as mine and at relatively a younger age, it hurts me more."

He was going to brag non-stop. That little pause he took gave me a nice chance to stop him.

"Stop there! I need a nap."

"Huh?!"

"Not the car, you fool. Shut up and good night. I mean good mornight." I then closed my eyes and let the things register in my mind. It hadn't taken a long time before I slept again.

¶

It was already 12 when I woke up in my room. Roy was sleeping on the floor near the foot of the bed. I just went to brush my teeth and heard Roy's phone go off. I hurriedly brushed my teeth to go get it, but I heard Roy mutter some words and I knew that he had taken it already.

"... Why could you allow that while I told you to keep a close eye on my door? ...I have both keys, if it was locked how is it open then? ...I'm coming."

It was a part of the heated up conversation that I made out while I was still in the bathroom. He told me to rest while he ran to wear his shoes and went to the front door. I wasn't a fool to just let it slide, and I went after him.

"What's happening today? I understand nothing at all." Priya said running to where I was.

"Even I don't know. Something about somebody breaking into the office and I don't know what happens next, so let me catch up with Roy. I'll keep you informed."

'Tamasha'

I made it out before he finished the driveway. I climbed in and we went to the restaurant together. Jaan was standing outside. He rushed to the driver's side and started to speak to Roy as they made their way inside.

The only person I could gladly speak to in such kind of situation was Arnold, and so I didn't bother following them around as Roy himself said nothing during the ride there.

I found Arnold tense and paranoid in the kitchen and he even ran away when I asked him 'What happened?' I knew there must have been something off with him to act that strange at me of all people. He either knew what happened or saw something that relate to the situation at hand if not involved whatsoever.

I just went to Roy's office to find the door broken by something like a kitchen material.

"What could have broken this door? Without the key, it can't be opened and it seems like the person knows well about these things to just follow the papers." Roy exclaimed in utter disappointment and disbelief at what he was seeing in front of him.

"I don't know boss. The morning shift started with everything in hand and no any sign of this case here." Jaan said.

"Maybe a fork, like a kitchen fork. The marks can't be of any appliance and considering this is a restaurant, it might be only a fork with these marks and the one accessible." I explained trying to sound convincing and reasonable.

"I think this boy is right. I can agree with him." Finally, a person in a group of people. Might be my luck.

"Aarush, how do you suggest all these? And do you have any other idea of what might have happened?" After like forever of thinking, Roy let me in on their discussion.

"Can we check the footage of the time when you suspect this might have happened?" I sounded like a detective but I just wanted to make sure I made myself useful.

We went to the room next to us and checked the footage. At first, I had no point to make about the people I saw there. But then I remembered back home when we were coming here 'Tamasha'. I started to overlook all the women and since there was no camera in the kitchen and at the office, I used the one that ended at the doorway of the toilet.

I found one that looked like Tamasha. She had short blonde hair while Tamasha had black curls. The facial features were the ones that made me realize that, if the woman wasn't Tamasha, then she looked like her.

I asked for the controller and rewind it to when she got up from her table and headed to the washrooms. Instead of going to the left side where the women's restrooms were, she opened a door on the right which also didn't lead to the male restrooms. I paused and asked where the door leads.

"This is the one that we use when the staff restrooms are occupied or in repair. It leads to the staff area. I mean here." Jaan replied.

"This woman is Tamasha though I don't know this man. She did it with the help of him and a mole from the inside." I zoomed on the man after having enough evidence of her being the one.

"What?! How could he?" Roy deadpanned after seeing the man clearly at some point when he turned to the side a bit.

"If you know him then we should call the police," I added for which Jaan took off and went to the office we were in before coming to the security room.

"Why couldn't she excuse my family and leave it all alone!"

What had happened?!

So, that man was Roy's family. But who was he? And why did he do so to his own family? It was a puzzle nobody wanted to get involved in. Believe me, even I.

¶

The police were fast enough to consider the two people I identified as their suspects. Well, there wasn't anyone more suspicious than them, and because both knew Roy and had bad memories of him, it was a perfect fit to accuse them of what had happened.

They asked when did it happen and all the other details that they needed and gladly, Jaan made himself useful. Being glad didn't last long as the police came onto me and decided to make me a suspect as well.

"Young man, where have you learned to do so? I mean going through cameras and examining the footage."

Was the constable living under rocks? Who knew!

"You can call me Aarush, and I don't live under a rock to not notice the technological development every rising day. From English movies, is a better answer to your question."

"Can you please try to not be rude when you speak to us? It is a professional thing between us, we are not having coffee as friends."

"Okay. You can proceed."

What the hell was I thinking? But I knew I wouldn't frustrate them.

"The thing that is stolen is documents of ownership of this restaurant, going through cameras and searching for all those things don't you think it makes you a suspect and you seem trying to give us fake evidence to run away from the situation?"

The constable was losing his mind. I had to get his mind running straight.

"Sorry, but why would I do so and where will those documents take me? He is more than a brother to me. And also, there should be a reason behind stealing those documents. Oh, and a motive."

"There seems a lot that you have to tell us. We will need you to come with us to the police station. And you two also, you can entrust the restaurant to someone you believe the most." The female officer said.

"Can we take Arnold Khanna along, he seems to know something about this and he is the last person I saw going to the kitchen before Tamasha followed?" I said to make all of them think twice if not thrice.

"Sure, but you have a lot to explain to us, young man." The constable said with a threatening voice but who cared.

Arnold was fetched from the kitchen and came with us to the Jeep. We went all the way to the police station with Arnold shivering and sweating. I took his hand and told him, "You won't be jailed, it's just a simple interrogation and you will come back with us."

He cried and that's when I could see how he was so vulnerable about that. We reached the station soon after.

Jaan started with the information that I already knew and added nothing to it. I then followed and said from where I woke up and the phone call to watching the cameras.

"I suggested bringing Arnold with us because I am the only person who he gets on good terms with. But today, him running away from me made me so suspicious and when I saw him going to the kitchen like one minute before Tamasha went, I knew something was fishy, and if not he is a part of it and then knows about it." I said that and turned to look at Arnold who was still shaking.

"Arnold I don't believe you could do this to Roy. He took you to work at his restaurant with no experience and zero qualifications. Really Arnold!"

"I didn't know that. I thought... she is still a boss. It wasn't my shift when they announced her retirement. I..." Arnold was a crying mess trying to say all those words at the same time. But fortunately, he was cut off by the officer.

"Wait, Arnold. Relax, take a breath and explain to us what happened."

He took a breath and then continued.

Arnold's POV

I was attending table 10 which I was assigned to for today's shift. When I went to take their order, I found a man looking like a boss but he was older like in his thirties, and when I turned to the woman to greet her I found boss, I mean ex-boss Tamasha there.

She greeted me and asked how was I doing. I have never seen her that kind. I told her if she wanted to have breakfast I would bring it to her office. She told me she was having a good time with a family, so I just took their orders and went to the kitchen to get them. As I gave the orders and I was going to listen to other tables, I found her coming the way I was and she said she has forgotten her keys at home and there was something very important she needed that was in the office.

I suggested to call boss Roy but she said you weren't around. I told her we could break the door, and she said she cares for her office and doesn't need unnecessary replacement. I knew this kindness was of problems she had, and not the good mood of having a family over. I once had opened our door at home with a fork when it locked itself from the inside, and so I went to the kitchen and asked for a fork and I went with her to open the door.

It didn't take many tries to open and she asked me where the important documents were. I was taken aback by her question, but then I remembered one day she told me to find them without anybody seeing me and I couldn't succeed because the boss was on a phone with somebody in his office, but I remember seeing him putting a white file in a drawer under the table. And I told her.

She went under the table and it was also closed, so I opened the drawer as well and she took the file. She hugged and kissed me while putting it in her coat, and told me to cancel their order, they had some places to go. I couldn't think properly about how she didn't know where the documents were because she owns the place and also why ask me to do all those if she could just speak to her husband and get all of them. I returned the fork and told them to cancel the order. When I was attending other tables after going back to the booths, I found out that they were long gone.

When I heard that, there has been a theft at the office, I couldn't think properly. I wanted to ask about boss Tamasha and that's when I heard that it may be her because she was divorced without a penny.

Aarush's POV...

He cried a lot after his statement. I knew something was fishy since the day I saw him looking out for anyone who could see him and when he ran away from me.

Roy was the last and explained everything that I knew about his life from when they met and when he was forced to marry her due to a fake pregnant case, to their divorce.

"The man she was with at the restaurant is my second brother in our five children family. Our first brother died in a car crash about seven years ago. Since then, my second brother started to hate me and did everything he could to get me out of the house just because he thought I was responsible for his death.

"When he got the chance of pinning that pregnancy on me, he made my father get me married to Tamasha and chase me out. I was left with nothing and forced to move out with my new family three days after the wedding. My older sister Carla is married to a certain businessman from Paris. We get along really well and she is the one who gave me the house I live in now, and the restaurant. She even paid for my uni degree which I studied online for three years. I think they have teamed up like before to take me down."

That was a very heartbreaking story. I never knew he had gone through that shit to be where he was then. Luckily, they were rich pigs.

After calling his lawyer and calling the ownership of the property branch in our locale, the case was opened and scheduled for Monday, a week from then. At least prom/graduation would be over, but I still had my finals which was fucking sick.

We went back to the restaurant to find the mechanics repairing the lock and added a fingerprint lock. I didn't know what to do when he said I should add my fingerprint as a second person allowed. It was an honor for me and I reluctantly agreed to not let him down. We then went back home and I told them in detail what had happened.

From Minna Ma's death to the theft.

¶

It was 5:30 am on the prom/graduation day.

I brushed my teeth and went to make pancakes with bacon and egg rolls. I left the coffee beans in the machine and went to take shower. At 6:20, I was ready in my dope tracksuit and headed to the dining to find Priya in a daze.

"Good morning Priya!"

"Morning Roy... ah I mean Aarush!"

"I don't think Roy is a morning person," I smirked at her.

"I'm sorry. You made these?"

"I think you are. And yes, I did that. I made them. So, go and do your morning routine before you come to eat."

She nudged my ribs before leaving the kitchen. I screamed after her "AND WAKE THE REST UP!"

I then put the breakfast in the heater, so it couldn't get cold while I wait. After what seemed like an eternity which allowed me to watch an episode of 100 things to do before high school at Nickelodeon, they came in their casual and Harleen with pajamas.

Once we started eating, 7 rings started playing from the speakers and we sang along with it, but Jess and I had our version of the lyrics.

'Breakfast at Roy's, black coffee and a teapot,

Pals' mood is hungry, who likes eating a lot,

Pancakes with bacon, and sweet egg rolls,
Serving myself, all in my favorite bowl.'

We all laughed and continued with our breakfast. I told them that Jess, Leen, and I would be going to school at 2 after lunch. And Roy would come with Priya later before 5.

Leen said she had plans of going with Phil to prom, but Priya made her tell Phil there was a change of plans at the last minute. And then, we were all going there together.

Roy drove us to school, and we got there to find all the students who signed to help already present. Even Phil was there. We laughed at Leen and then welcomed ourselves to the principal's office.

"Wow! You made it in time. Thank you guys, I appreciate your presence." Principal Chaudhary said.

"Thank you, sir. We want to make this happen. This will be in our history as the students of this school."

"Well said Miss Alarton. And Miss Side, I don't see your name here. It is great having you here, but make yourself useful please!"

"I think extra hands on this occasion are necessary. And I couldn't sit at home having nothing to do while I know if I come here I can make things easier for the ones available to help."

I think it was the day of me getting amazed by those girls.

"Well, that's so nice of you. So, I think Aarush you have the module on the decorations. We have all the equipment, and the teachers who were assigned to help are here as well. If you proceed to the hall and make it heaven right now, it would be appreciated. Thank you."

Formal as always. But the mood was a tolerable one.

I bid my farewell as I didn't think I would be in that office again for the day. I went to the teachers' office and greeted them. They were in their casual clothes, so they were shining and they looked like angels. Not