1. Routine
On most mornings, Divya's phone stayed silent until at least 10 a.m.—unless it was her boss or her mother. Today, it buzzed at 6:17 a.m.
She groaned, rolled over, and reached for it with one eye open.
Unknown Number.
She debated ignoring it, but something about the timing felt... urgent.
The message read:
“He didn’t die in the accident. You’ve been lied to.”
Her stomach flipped.
Two years ago, Aarav, her fiancé, had died in a car crash on the ECR highway. Burned beyond recognition, they said. Closed casket. No final goodbye. She had screamed in disbelief. And then—nothing. The silence of grief, the numbness of acceptance.
Now this.
2. The Past Returns
Divya reread the message fifteen times before replying:
Who is this?
No response.
She tried calling. Switched off.
The rest of the day passed in a fog. Her boss’s words blurred, her coffee tasted like ash. Her mind replayed every detail of the accident. Something never felt right. The police had been vague. Aarav’s phone had been "missing." The autopsy results were never shared with her directly—only told through his parents.
She hadn’t questioned it then. Grief had been too loud.
Now, suspicion was louder.
3. The Clue
That night, another message came.
“Kanchipuram. Lakshmi Lodge. Room 208. Tomorrow. 6 PM. Come alone.”
Divya’s heart thundered.
She stared at her wall—a framed photo of her and Aarav at Pondicherry beach, their faces lit by a golden sunset. He had whispered something that made her laugh just before the click. That version of love had vanished too soon.
What if he was alive?
She couldn't not go.
4. The Journey
Divya booked a cab the next day. The three-hour drive felt endless.
Kanchipuram was dustier than she remembered. The streets buzzed with temple music, honks, and hurried footsteps.
She reached Lakshmi Lodge—an old, faded building tucked between a tea stall and a Xerox shop. The stairs creaked as she climbed.
Room 208.
She knocked once.
No answer.
Again.
Finally, the door creaked open.
And there he was.
5. The Reunion
Aarav.
Hair longer. A faint scar on his jaw. Eyes wide with disbelief. Like a mirror, she too was frozen.
“Divya?” he whispered.
She stepped back, words lost, oxygen stolen.
“You’re... alive?”
He nodded, voice trembling. “I—I never wanted this. But I had no choice.”
“What are you talking about?”
He motioned her inside. She entered like someone walking into a dream that could crack at any second.
6. The Truth
“I didn’t die that night,” he began. “I was supposed to.”
Divya sat down, silent.
“I was involved in something... bigger than I realized. My company wasn’t just into tech. They were laundering money through overseas servers. I found out. I was going to expose it.”
Divya’s breath caught.
“They found out. The accident was arranged. Only, I got lucky. A stranger—driver of the lorry—saved me. But he died instead.”
Tears welled in Aarav’s eyes.
“I escaped. Hid. For two years. I didn’t reach out to protect you. They were watching.”
“Why now?”
He handed her a worn-out phone. One video. One file. Names. Accounts. Dates. Everything.
“I’m going to leak it. But I need your help. I can’t trust anyone else.”
7. The Choice
Back in Chennai, Divya sat in her apartment, staring at the USB copy.
The message had changed everything. Her grief was now fury. Her life—a ticking clock.
What would she do next?
Expose a billion-rupee scam?
Go to the police? The media?
Or... disappear with Aarav?
She stared at her phone.
The message blinked again.
“They know you’ve seen him.”
8. The Message
“They know you’ve seen him.”
Divya’s hand trembled as she locked her phone.
The room darkened though it was barely 7 PM. Maybe the power cut was random. Maybe not. She crawled to the window, tugged the curtain aside slightly. A black SUV stood across the street. Parked. Engine running. Headlights off.
Coincidence? Doubt it.
She yanked her backpack from the cupboard. Slid the USB into a book. Shoved that book into her tote. Her laptop, charger, a bottle of water. Aarav had risked everything. Now they were both on borrowed time.
9. A Friend or a Foe
She ran.
Not to the police station. Not yet.
Instead, she took an auto to Taramani. To the one person she hoped she could trust—Ravi, her journalism college friend turned investigative podcaster. The kind who believed in systems breaking but people surviving.
He opened the door in boxers and a wrinkled tee. “Divya? I thought you were in Mumbai or something.”
“No time. I need your help. And your mic.”
10. The Leak
They recorded in his tiny studio, with blackout curtains and mics that had exposed corrupt MLAs and pharma scams.
Divya narrated everything. Her love story. The fake accident. Aarav’s exile. The corporation’s shadow crimes. Names. Documents. Dates.
Ravi uploaded the podcast as a "Breaking Confidential" episode titled:
“Dead Men Tell Tales — And So Do Their Fiancées.”
Within thirty minutes, it had 200,000 downloads. Hashtags trended. Trolls howled. Journalists called.
And just as she allowed herself to exhale—
Ravi’s studio window shattered.
Gunshot.
11. Flight
Ravi screamed. Divya ducked. A second shot cracked the mic stand.
No more questions.
They fled down the back stairs, through an alley that smelled of fried snacks and fear.
Ravi hissed, “We need to split.”
Divya handed him a second USB. “Backup. Hide it.”
They parted without goodbyes.
She got into another auto. “Central Station.”
The driver glanced at her through the mirror. “You sure?”
She nodded. “Fast.”
12. Reunion & Revelation
She found Aarav again in Room 208.
He hugged her tighter than he ever had, the kind of hug that means you made it back alive. She cried into his shirt—grief, relief, rage, all blending.
“We don’t have time,” she whispered.
“I know,” he replied. “They’re hunting me too.”
That night, they booked tickets under fake names and boarded a late-night train to Mangalore. From there, they'd vanish again. Start over. Maybe leak more evidence piece by piece. A digital guerrilla war.
But the past wasn’t done with them yet.
13. On the Train
At 2:46 a.m., halfway through Tamil Nadu, Divya’s phone buzzed.
No name. Just a video.
She hesitated.
Then tapped.
It was Ravi—bound to a chair. Blood on his forehead. Breathing hard.
A distorted voice spoke behind the camera:
“We warned you. You don’t run from us. You vanish.”
Then—
Darkness.
The video ended.
14. The Final Decision
Aarav paced the train cabin.
“They’ve taken Ravi because of me.”
“No,” Divya snapped. “Because of them. This is bigger than you. Or me.”
He nodded. “Then we go all in.”
They opened his laptop. Uploaded the full files to multiple platforms. Reddit, Signal, Telegram, even a couple of anonymous hacker forums. Names. Proof. Wire transfers. Offshore accounts. Everything.
Within hours, every major media outlet had it.
The beast was now out of its cage.
15. One Last Message
Just before sunrise, Divya’s phone buzzed again.
“We underestimated you. We won’t again.”
She smiled, finally.
Replied:
“Neither will the world.”
Epilogue – 6 Months Later
Divya stood before a packed room at a tech journalism conference in Delhi.
She was now a whistleblower, a speaker, a symbol.
Aarav had been cleared. Ravi had survived.
The corporation’s top brass had been arrested. Two had fled the country. One was still missing.
They never figured out who had sent that first message.
Maybe a ghost in the system. Maybe a stranger who believed the truth matters.
Or maybe, the past itself, refusing to stay buried.
THE END
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