The Broken Bonds

Ch-18 The truth

Sonu stared at mahi in shock. "And you didn't think to tell me all that?" He asked upset.

"Sonu i knew it was a lost battle. And i knew if I would tell you, you would try to find those people and you would not let me go. Everyone i love or loved, their safety came first for me. And i would have even thought to fight for a moment but i didn't have the strength, not after how they betrayed me." Mahi answered trying not to sound sad but sonu knew him better than that.

"So you went away leaving India just for us? For some of them who didn't even trust you? And you were lying to us the whole time?" Mahi turned around quickly to see harry looking angry and betrayed and similar expressions were on rishu and jaddu's face.

Mahi was so engrossed in remembering those painful days that he hadn't even noticed them coming and similar was the situation with sonu.

Unknown to them, the three had heard the whole story.

"It was not just that, there were other factors also." Mahi tried to explain but jaddu cut him off. "but this was the biggest factor, wasn't it? You could have told us that someone was threatening you, we would have helped you, we wouldn't have let you go. But you lied to us."

"I knew if i told you, you guys wouldn't let me go and if i didn't go, they could hurt anyone close to me. I couldn't afford that." Mahi tried to justify.

"Nothing would have happened to any of us. If you would have told us, we would have protected each other." Harry answered.

"And you think i would be ready to take that risk?" Mahi bhai asked. "What if we failed and someone would have gotten hurt, do you think i would have been able to forgive myself?"

"Why are we discussing this now?" Sonu asked interrupting whatever harry was about to answer. "it's over, it's done, we can't get those years back now. Right now just tell us the names. You know whose call was it, don't you? So just tell us."

"You three should go out." Mahi bhai said not wanting them to listen.
"What? No!!" Rishabh exclaimed. "We also want to know who they were and take revenge."

"No, you all have matches in some days, your focus should be there."

"We will focus on that when the time comes, but first we want to know the names of the culprits and sent them behind the bars." Jaddu said.

"Yes, but not before extracting our own revenge." Harry added smirking at jaddu and jaddu sensing that harry had some ideas, also grinned, nodding.

Mahi looked at sonu requesting him to help him but to his surprise, sonu just shook his head.

"They are right, mahi. Just tell them and me the names."

"But, sonu, cricket...."
"They will anyways not be able to focus if you don't tell them, so what's the benefit in hiding."

Mahi sighed and said "okay, so the person who called me was siddharth singh."

Sonu looked at him shocked. "really?" He asked and mahi nodded. "I am 110% sure that it was his voice."

"I have heard about him." Jaddu said. "he was a big name in domestic cricket around the time I made my debut."

"Yeah, he was." Mahi bhai said "and he had immense talent also. And he was selected in the team in some series. But he was only a batsman and virat and rohit were also playing as batsmen. And i just saw something in them that i couldn't see in him, so i decided to give them chances in the playing XI. And they started to perform also so the chances of their place becoming permanent, started to increase. Rohit was a little inconsistent in between, so the selectors kept telling me to give siddharth a chance, but i believed rohit was way better than this, and in 2013 champions trophy he proved that to everyone as an opener. So the team had gotten their perfect combination of batsmen and everyone knew, it wouldn't change for quiet some time. Siddharth was asked to play more domestic matches but his form took a dip and he was very poor in the next few seasons. So much so that he was removed from captaincy in his domestic team and then benched also. I realized the day he called me that he was most probably doing all this for revenge."

"But he can't be alone " sonu said.
"Yeah i know. I also don't think he's alone."
"Then we should go, confront him and make him confess everything." Jaddu said angrily.

"We are not going anywhere because we can't leave the house right now and we don't even know where he is." Mahi bhai put a stop on jaddu's plan.

"Yuvi will help us find him. He has some good friends in bcci." Sonu said.
"You are not going to say a word to him." Mahi bhai said immediately. "i don't want any help of his."

"Mahi, i know you are angry on him and it is fully justified, no one is asking you to forgive him, but right now he is the only one who can help us find siddharth and go and make him confess." Sonu tried to explain.

"I don't want to make anyone confess and i don't want to involve anyone." Mahi bhai said stubbornly.

"So what do you always want to be considered as criminal in your own country?" Sonu asked getting a little angry at his stubborn nature.

"Sonu don't you understand, one of the main reasons why I was ready to go to another country leaving everything behind was that he had threatened to hurt all of you. If he gets even a little idea about what we are planning or if he manages to warn whoever is helping him, then they could hurt any of you. They could hurt ziva or sakshi, Rio or gracia."

"Nothing is going to happen, because i am not going to let anything happen to any of us. And i am not going to let you go again, especially now when I know the truth."

"And that's why I didn't want to tell any of you. Is the truth worth getting yourselves hurt?"

"Even if we all get hurt, the truth is still worth it." Rishabh said. "it should come out. And it will come out. We are not going to sit here and see you leave us again, no matter what."

Mahi bhai couldn't help but feel emotional by Rishabh's words. They loved him so much.

"Mahi, i promise, the truth will come out and no one will get hurt. Believe me. Nothing is going to happen to anyone, but let us do this. Don't give anymore pain to yourself, sakshi, ziva and us also." Sonu said.

Mahi looked at him, Rishabh jaddu and harry. All of them had a face which indicated mahi to say yes to the plan of exposing the culprits.

He sighed and then nodded.
Harry jaddu and Rishabh became happy and instantly went to hug mahi bhai. Mahi also took sonu in the group hug and everyone stayed like that for a while.