Sia woke up to the phone ringing next to her. It was dark outside and the clock showed it was just past eleven.

Ajay was lying next to her, and he had woken up to the phone ringing as well.

She grabbed the phone next to her and answered it anxiously. “Varun?”

“Sia.” The voice on the phone trembled.

Sia straightened immediately, all the traces of tiredness and sleep gone. “What happened?”

“He’s already out, Sia,” the anguished voice cried out. “They let the animal out of the cage, along with the other disgusting animals.”

There was a stunned silence.

“That’s not possible,” she whispered.

“It happened. And it’s all over the news as well,” he said.

Hurriedly, Sia turned on the television in the room. She flipped channels until the local news channel came up. She had to wait for five excruciating minutes until the headlines of her uncle being released scrolled through the bottom. And then, ten minutes later, there was coverage where the news was confirmed by his lawyer.

 

“Mr. Jagadish Naidu is innocent. He was being framed unnecessarily by vindictive people around him. Luckily, with his background and good deeds, he has more well-wishers than others.”

The camera panned on her uncle while he was being led towards his car, outside the jail.

“I didn’t know what was going on in there. I was told it was a children’s charity event. I’m equally shocked and appalled that such atrocities can happen with our innocent children.”

He spoke at length about how he was determined to bring justice to those children and get the actual perpetrators into the jail.

 

A little later, the topic of the news changed to something inane. But Sia couldn’t get her eyes off the screen.

 

* * *

 

Ajay turned off the television as Sia continue to watch late night infomercials.

He wasn’t surprised with the news they just watched. He already knew that would happen, even before Sia received the call.

The only thing he wasn’t entirely prepared for was how Sia looked right then.

“Sia... baby...” he called out.

She was staring right at him, but it felt more like through him. Her chest rose and fell with heavy, uneven breaths. Her pupils were dilated with a suppressed emotion.

“Baby, please. Say something,” he pleaded with her softly.

He held her shoulders. “Sia... listen to me baby. We can—”

“No,” she stated in an eerie calm tone. “I don’t want you to do anything.”

She stepped back, until his hands dropped from her shoulders.

He could feel the walls between them get higher and higher, and he didn’t know how to overcome the suddenly hopeless situation.

“Sia, we can try to get them arrested again,” he said. “I can—”

“I said no!” she shouted. Taking a deep controlling breath, she turned away from him, to look outside a large window.

“I’m going to do it,” she stated quietly. “I don’t need outside help. I’m going to bring justice in my own way.”

His heart began thumping. “Sia, you can’t take justice in your hands. I know what he did to you was—”

“Don’t,” she interrupted him sharply. “I may seem cold-blooded for what I’m planning on doing to him. But unless you understand what he is still capable of doing, you have no right to judge me.”

He went closer to her. “I’m not trying to judge you for what you want to do to him. Hell, I wanted to destroy him from much before for what he did to you. But, I can’t let you do something that is irreversible. You could get arrested, and sent to jail for taking law into your hands.”

Sia looked crushed and disappointed as she heard him trying to talk her out of whatever she was planning out of sheer rage and helplessness.

“You think they don’t deserve to get punished for what they have done?” she asked.

“They deserve to suffer in the worst way possible, Sia,” he said with an edge to his voice. “But it should not be at the risk of you getting arrested.”

She didn’t reply.

“For god’s sake, Sia!” he shouted, shaking her once. “Don’t do anything rash or stupid. We have a daughter! We are a family now. Think about us!”

She didn’t look at him. She stared at the floor. “I can’t give up,” she whispered in a hopeless tone.

He then knew that the beginning of a very rocky patch ahead had already started.