Farewell

"What do you mean by 'no more'?" Aditya asked as he looked at his elder sister. Even though he knew what she meant, he still entertained a little hope that it was not what he thought.

His mind froze when he saw the look on Saira's face as his breath stagnated. The sounds of his heart seem to echo in his eardrums as if it was only sound in this world.

"How did it happen?" Aditya asked in a hoarse voice, his throat had become dry. He had to muster quite a bit of courage to ask this question as he feared the answer. At her age, he knew that it was not going to be a natural death.

Intense grief flashed through Saira's eyes as she said one word, "Suicide."

"Lie", Aditya sprang from his bed as he sat upright, not minding the pain from the injuries on his legs and back. The intravenous catheter which was inserted in his left hand for administering saline or any medicine was ripped off forcefully because of this motion. What pain could be more painful than the agitation he felt in his mind right now. He could not accept that Maahi would do such a cowardly act. He was sure that Maahi who grew under the tutelage of his mother would never act that way.

Saira's lips trembled when she saw blood flowing out from his left hand, she looked at Aditya and said, "She did not have any other recourse." Saira stood up as she took a cotton swab and sat near Aditya as she stopped the blood flow. She was shocked when she touched Aditya's hand as it was very cold. Even her mental strength as a decorated military soldier faltered when he saw her younger brother's pain when coupled with the loss of her younger sister. The thing that truly ate her from inside was the fact that the system which she fought for, failed to guarantee justice to her younger sister when she was alive.

"Elder sister Saira, I want to know everything," Aditya's dry voice quivered as he looked in Saira's eyes. He was feeling numb inside for some reason as if his body and mind had automatically activated some self-defence mechanisms so that his spirit would not break.

Saira nodded as she said, "it was the Raipath family. It is one of the most prestigious families in the Capital with roots deeply entrenched into political, military, media and the administration. Any government would have to think twice before touching them as this family has a history of causing the collapse of governments either through controlling the popular narrative or directly buying off the corrupt politicians."

Aditya listened calmly as Saira continued, "it all started when the Data Startups, that Maahi had invested in, discovered a shocking truth. Data analysis was done by using AI algorithms to cover all the areas of farming, health, infrastructure, government contracts and development trends. These algorithms were actually under trials where their efficiencies were being tested taking all these data as an experimental field."

"What they did not expect was that their algorithms had come up with a dreadful conclusion i.e. certain pockets of our country were been deliberately left undeveloped and these pockets have become human trial territories for many national and foreign conglomerates."

"Many new experimental food varieties which are genetically modified are being tested there. These poor people who are uneducated and ignorant have unknowingly become a test subject to these corporations. All the health effects which are recorded in these areas are covered up by them and the mainstream media is kept silent either through, ignorance, coercion or lobbying. Also, the free and charitable hospitals were actually, centres of new drugs testing. Because of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, all these small pieces of otherwise irrelevant information containing petabytes of data were fitted together like how you solve a jigsaw puzzle."

"Maahi had identified eight such pockets and the most important piece of the puzzle was found to be the background support of the Raipath family. She immediately took one copy of all this data and deleted all other versions. Maahi was someone who grew in your family, under your father's teachings. It was not a surprise that she could not ignore it. But she was not foolish enough to just openly announce this information. She waited for the right time to expose it which would ensure her anonymity as she knew the capabilities of the Raipath family and did not wish to lock heads with it."

"But things didn't go as planned as your mother's family's corporation, the Ahuja group, was sabotaged by the Raipath family and was pushed to the brink of collapse. It was not a secret that your maternal uncle does not have half the efficiency of Aunt Nirmala. So after your maternal grandfather had retired, your uncle made many wrong decisions which made it easy for the Raipath family to make a move."

" This pushed Maahi, who was always grateful to your maternal grandfather for his help when she was just a child, to release all the information publicly so that Raipath family would be heavily effected and that the Ahuja group could be saved."

"This was where things went wrong, it turned out that the Raipath family had already received news that Maahi had key evidence against them. The person who leaked this news was Maahi's father. But the Raipath family could not move crudely and suppress Maahi brutally as she was not an insignificant person. She was the most successful, youngest billionaire of India whom the whole young population looked up to. Over the years, the current government had weakened their hold over this system and they could not do as they pleased anymore."

"So, first, they weaved a net all around Maahi without her knowledge and went after the Ahuja group first as they knew that the Ahuja group and Maahi had strong ties. Even though Ahuja group had fallen from grace, it was still a giant. they wanted to weaken the strength she could summon."

"So, in a way, Maahi walked right into their trap by releasing this information which instead of going to the public domain ended up in their hands. One should not underestimate the influence Raipath family could achieve if they were pushed to the brink. If Raipath family was done for, so were the many multi-billion dollar foreign conglomerates. The soft and hard power of this huge interest group was not a joke."

Saira paused a little and saw that Aditya had an unmoved expression. She sighed as she continued, "Maahi was asked to hand over her investments in these Startups so that the Raipath family could take over them. As long as these algorithms were present, it was just a matter of hours before any supercomputer came up with the same conclusion as Maahi. They wanted to have full control over her companies and kept her in house arrest when she refused to comply with them. Maahi knew that it was not easy for them to keep her in check for long."

"So, why didn't she just give those damned algorithms and companies to them," Aditya burst out. Even though he would have done the same thing as Maahi, he did not want Maahi to take any risk which might put her in harm's way.

"She might have done just that but the Raipath family made a mistake in their hastiness to get Maahi to comply as they also knew they couldn't control Maahi for long. They couldn't do anything over-the-top to Maahi as that might send her on a mutual destructive path which might engulf them. So they targeted her closest person and extorted her to make a quick decision by threatening his safety ."

"Her closest person?" Aditya's brows wrinkled slightly as he looked at Saira.

Saira nodded with pain in her eyes as she said, "yes, they targeted you, it turns out that your accident was not caused by a mistake but it was a deliberate attempt of harming you. The Raipath family did this as a warning so that your elder sister Maahi would comply with their requests."

Aditya's pupils shrank when he knew that the accident was a planned attack. He closed his eyes as an intense agony took over his heart. This pain was not because of his accident but because of what Maahi had to go through.

Saira looked at Aditya's expression and knew that he understood, "how could the Raipath family understand the importance you held in Maahi's heart. She might have let it slide if they had targeted anyone else but the moment she saw your accident, everything changed. After four days, Maahi committed suicide by jumping from her penthouse suite in Mumbai in broad daylight."

Tears started rolling down Aditya's cheeks as his body trembled with grief. Saira's eyes also became wet as she said, "With her death, all the things which were forcefully covered by the Raipath family were not able to stay hidden anymore, the whole country is currently in full rage against the Raipath family and the government does not have any other option but to take this issue seriously. If this issue is not dealt with properly, then it would even affect the country's image in the global stage. All the key conspirators of this interest group are being rounded up as we speak. Even many prominent politicians of the ruling party have been arrested for their links in this matter."

Aditya could not hear any more of these things as memories he shared with his elder sister Maahi flashed in his mind. He remembered that Maahi used to be very calm in the beginning. She did not speak even if she had any necessities, his mother had to keep asking her if she was hungry, thirsty or if she wanted to play.

Aditya used to find it weird as his mother never had to ask him anything, he would do what he wished. He would eat what he liked, ask what he wanted but Maahi was not like that. Even after many years, she did not change but Aditya and others had become accustomed to her and could tell her feelings most of the time. Maahi could completely open up to only Aditya and it stayed that way. But, even to him, she had never revealed her pains, she only shared happiness with him.

Guilt tormented Aditya's heart for being the reason that Maahi had died. All kinds of thoughts sank into his heart like nails in a coffin. He never expected that Maahi would have to face such a dire circumstance on her own, alone, while he was completely unaware of it. He smiled mournfully as he thought, 'Yes, why would Maahi speak about her problems now when she had never done it before?'

Saira hugged Aditya with her only hand as she patted his back, "you have to remain strong Aditya. Maahi would not want to see you cry because of her."

Aditya's body trembled as tears continued to roll, he had never cried even when he saw the cruel situation Anupama was in but now the tears just won't stop as images of Maahi and her memories filled his mind.

Saira sighed as she took out a mobile phone and passed it to Aditya, "this contains Maahi's last message for you." Saira got up and left the room as she knew that Maahi would want only Aditya to hear these words.

Aditya held this phone delicately as he opened the video file. His heart trembled when he saw a delicate-looking woman smiling brightly as she said, "this video is only for my little brother Adi, so if you are not him, please I kindly request you do not view it."

The woman in the video waited for some time as if giving time for the people who were not Aditya to close this file. After a few seconds, Maahi gave a bright smile as he said, "Adi, how are you? It has been a decade since we saw each other and I want to say that I missed you a lot but the fact is that I did not miss you much. Whenever I missed you, I would just come and see you from a distance."

"I saw you when you were dating that Nancy, Rosy and others. You turned out to be quite a playboy in your early college days. I saw you when you were training hard to keep up with both your college and training. I was there when made your debut, I cheered for you from the crowd when you won the rookie championship. so, I didn't miss any of these important events."

Aditya tried to smile a little when he heard these words but failed as fresh tears chocked him in the end. Maahi smiled as she said, "I have always been near you though we didn't meet. It was kind of sad, yeah but never mind as it is going to end soon. I have come into a bit of problem here which has effected even you. Sorry about it, I would solve it quickly and see that it won't happen again."

The more Maahi made it sound like it was something simple and normal, the more Aditya's heart cracked as if it would shatter into smithereens any second.

Maahi's smile faded a little as grief flashed in her eyes, "Those people killed elder sister Qaima two weeks ago. That poor girl hoped that I would notice her someday but even till the end, she failed to realise that my heart had been long occupied. Maybe, we would end up in the same place now that I am … cough…"

Maahi coughed lightly as the smile returned to her face, "Okay let us not talk about these things. I have a few things I have to tell you, Adi. I know that you love your parents the most but still I have to ask you to look after aunt and uncle. They are my benefactors whom I can never repay adequately in my whole life but I still tried a little."

"I bought a few flower fields near Keukenhof gardens, Netherlands for aunt Nirmala as she likes those tulips very much. I also privately funded the new round of experiments which are about to start in the newly upgraded Hadron collider in CERN. They call it the 'High Luminosity – LHC' it seems and the energy required to get the machine running is quite high which has increased the required criteria for the experiment to be approved."

"I came to know that if the country which is an associate member could fund the experiment, it would be easier for the process to be validated by the officials at CERN. So, I took care of the money matters so that uncle Satya does not need to worry about it. As for you, my little brother," Maahi smiled as she said, "whatever is mine will be yours always, it does not matter if I am here or not."

Maahi continued, "Oh, I almost forgot, I made some arrangements for your security as I don't want anything to happen to you again. Please, don't reject it." Aditya's eyes only looked at Maahi and as for the things she spoke about, they did not register in his mind.

Maahi smile did not fade but bitterness emerged in her eyes as she said, "you may have avoided me after that night as you might have felt afraid at my behaviour or awkward at having to face me after what happened that day. I am sure you might have had your doubts as to why I also avoided you and stayed away from you."

Aditya's dazed eyes focused a little when he heard these words, it was true that he had expected Maahi to just barge into his life but was surprised when she did not do so. Maahi continued, "I don't know what happened to me that night when you suddenly mentioned another girl in front of me. It was not that girl who bothered me but rather the fact that you had no idea of staying with me forever that pricked me deeply."

"But when I saw the fear and worry in your eyes that night, I realised a very important thing." Maahi raised her dark eyes as she looked at the camera which made it seem like she looking into Aditya's eyes, "Adi, I realised that I am broken inside. Maybe it was because of been physically abused by my father or staying awake for many nights as I heard screams of pain from my mother. At some point in time, I started transforming into someone who I hated my whole life."

"Aunt Nirmala was right in saying that we should not hate anyone too much as the more we hate someone, the more we let that person influence our personality. It seems to have happened in my case also. I have killed that person now as I don't want him to affect your life when I am not here."

"At that time, I questioned myself if I was the right person for you and I failed to get an absolute answer. So, I decided that I would stay away from you until the day I was sure that I won't harm you by staying with you. Because, I won't tolerate anyone, who is liable to harm you in any way or form, even if it is me." Maahi stated seriously.

Maahi's serious expression became soft as she said, "Adi, I know that my action is going to stain your heart forever but I can't deny the fact that I feel a kind of happiness that you are going to remember me forever even if it brings you pain. Like I said, I am broken. I will not be there to warn you about your poor choice of woman anymore so you have to stay alert and don't let anyone just enter your heart like you usually do."

"It was never going to work out between us, anyway," Maahi said with a smile but her eyes became wet as she said, "if I don't assume as such, I am not sure I would have the courage to take this leap, Adi. Goodbye..." Maahi cut the recording hastily as Aditya spotted tears rolling down her cheeks.

Aditya's eyes became unfocused as he remained like a statue looking at the blank screen.