The person who opened the door at the sound of knocking was startled to see Karthik standing there with a gun in his hand and tried to quickly close the door. But before that, Karthik pushed him aside and entered. The grandfather, who fell down after hitting the table from the push, suffered a severe head injury.
Mullai, startled, got up and ran towards him, shouting "Grandpa!" The children also ran and held onto their grandfather.
Karthik walked in majestically and sat on the sofa. Behind him, his henchmen stood like mountains of flesh. The grandmother was shocked to see him and stood frozen. She too knew who he was.
The grandmother had sent Mullai abroad to prevent her from falling into anyone's sight, but now she had fallen into his hands. Her heart pounded with anxiety, wondering what would happen now.
Angry at Karthik and his henchmen for trespassing, Mullai shouted at them, "Who are you? Why have you come here?"
Karthik smirked at Mullai and said, "Don't you know who I am? Didn't that old woman tell you? Hmm... never mind, never mind. I'll tell you myself. I'm your cousin." Mullai became angry when Karthik said this.
"Hey, who are you? Not only did you trespass into the house like a dog, but you're also talking as if you're a relative?" Mullai shouted angrily.
Enraged by her use of the word "dog," he quickly got up from the sofa and grabbed her neck, tightening his grip, saying, "Hey, who did you call a dog? You orphaned donkey!" As Mullai struggled to breathe, the grandmother, panicking, rushed over and tried to pull his hand away, shouting, "Hey, let her go!" The children also tried to push him away, but they couldn't.
Theeran, after trying to hit Karthik with his hand, finally started biting his leg. Vaishnavi, seeing her brother, also grabbed Karthik's other leg and bit him.
In pain, he released his grip on Mullai's neck, grabbed the two children who were biting his legs, and shouted, "You little rats, you're biting me!" Without any regard for them being children, he threw them away.
With a scream of "Amma!", the children hit the wall and fell to the ground. Theeran's head was injured and bleeding. Vaishnavi wasn't hurt as badly. Mullai, who had been watching all this, cried out, "Theeran! Vaishnu!" and ran towards them. She was devastated to see Theeran's head bleeding.
The grandmother also came over, weeping, and hugged Theeran. She didn't know what to do. She was bewildered, not knowing how to protect them from him. Just then, a shadow fell upon them, and they looked up.
It was Karthik. He pointed the gun he was holding at Theeran. He nodded to his men, and one of them handed Karthik a document and a wedding chain before moving away. Mullai stared, not understanding what he was about to do. Karthik knelt on one knee in front of her, looked at her face and said, "You're not that beautiful. You don't even deserve to marry me. But what to do? All the property of the Singara family is with you, isn't it? If I had killed you before you turned 18, there wouldn't have been any problem... I miss that."
"But you went abroad without anyone noticing, didn't you? That's why the whole story has changed now. If you get married, the property will go to your husband. If you have children, the property will automatically go to their names, apparently. Is all this good?"
"You already did everything and had children before getting married, didn't you? Now the property will be in their names, right? When the lawyer told me this, I got really tense. But he said there's a way out, do you know what it is?" he asked, holding Mulla's chin and lifting her face.
Mulla stared at him in confusion, not understanding anything he was saying. Tears streamed from her eyes. Ignoring her tears, Karthik continued speaking.
"I have to marry you, and then I have to kill these two," he said, pointing to the children, "If they die, without any heirs, the property will come to your husband's name. That is, to my name," he laughed like a demon, and Mulla's heart trembled with fear.
She hugged Theeran and Vaishnavi tightly, completely lost and not knowing what to do. "So, shall we get married, baby?" Karthik asked, reaching to tie the thali around Mulla's neck, when someone stepped on his back.
He fell down, immediately got up, and looked to see who it was. It was her grandfather, standing there angrily. Karthi said, "Your time is up, old man," and shot the grandfather with the gun he was holding. He died on the spot. Shocked by this, Mullai screamed, while the grandmother went to his side and wept uncontrollably.
Ignoring all of this, Karthi approached Mullai again, when he heard the sound of someone coming from outside. Immediately, Karthi...
Karthik gestured to his men, and they pushed Mullai, the grandmother, and the child into a room and closed the door.
Karthik slowly opened the door and looked out. A policeman from the neighboring house had come out to see what was happening after hearing the gunshot. While Karthik was watching the policeman, the grandmother inside the room opened the window and looked at Mullai.
"Mullai, quickly take the child and go. Otherwise, they will kill you and the child," she urged her, intending to save them. Without even a moment to think, Mullai picked up Theeran and Vaishnavi and went out through the window.
Without even her sandals, she somehow reached the street from the back of the house and started running. Now, her only thought was to save the children. That thought gave her strength, and she ran fast.
After the policeman left, Karthik opened the room where Mullai had been, but found no one there except the grandmother. Shocked, he went to the grandmother and asked angrily, "Hey old woman, where did you send them?"
When the grandmother said, "I don't know," he shot and killed her. He then shouted at his men, "Hey, she must be running around nearby. Go and search for her!"
As she ran with the two children, she kept looking at the road to see if anyone would come to her aid. Just then, she heard the henchmen shouting in the distance, "Look, there she goes! Catch her!" Panicked, she started running even faster.
Turning a corner, she saw a Shiva temple open and ran inside. She went straight to the sanctum where Lord Shiva was seated, laid the two children before him, and sat down, covering her mouth with her hand.
Theeran was unconscious. Even though Vaishnavi was awake, she tightly closed her eyes in fear.
Mullai looked at Lord Shiva with tears in her eyes and prayed, "God, please save us somehow." As if to say, "There's no chance of that," Karthik appeared before Mullai. The moment she saw him, Mullai's body began to tremble.
Karthik came closer to her and said, "Enough of your hide-and-seek game, now it's my time," and grabbing the back of Mullai's neck, he lifted her up. "You've even come to the temple to get married? You seem quite eager too," he said, laughing cruelly.
He quickly went to tie the thali (wedding necklace) he held in his hand. Mullai pleaded, "No, please leave me alone." Ignoring her pleas, just as he was about to tie the thali around her neck, another thali was placed around her neck.
Mullai looked up in shock to see who it was, and Karthik, even more shocked, looked at the man who was tying the thali.
With fire in his eyes and a stern face, Bhadran was tying the thali around Mullai's neck. After tying three knots around Mullai's neck and positioning her behind him, he delivered a single powerful blow to Karthik's chest. That was all; Karthik crashed against a pillar and fell.
Twirling his mustache with one hand and rolling up the collar of his shirt, Bhadran stood ready for a fight. Karthik, shouting "Hey...." came running towards him to attack. Bhadran deftly dodged his blow and punched him hard in the stomach, causing blood to gush from his mouth.
Even then, Bhadran continued to beat him. The henchmen ran towards Bhadran. They surrounded him and all attacked him at once, but he blocked their blows and fought back. Mullai watched all this from the side. Then, turning around at Vaishnavi's crying voice calling out "Amma" (Mother), she screamed. There, a man was holding a knife to Vaishnavi's throat. Startled, she shouted "Vaishu!" Bhadran, who was fighting, turned around at her cry.
He picked up the sacred ash plate nearby and threw it at the man holding Vaishnavi. It hit him squarely on the head. Vaishnavi broke free from him and ran towards Mullai. Bhadran stood there stunned for a moment. In that gap, one of the men slashed Bhadran's back with a knife, but Bhadran simply turned and looked at him.
The man opposite him was looking alternately at the knife in his hand and at Bhadran. Bhadran kicked him, sending him flying. Unable to withstand the blows, the thugs ran out of the temple. As they left, they carried away Karthik, who was lying unconscious.
Still breathing heavily with anger, Bhadran turned and looked at Mullai. She too looked at him, and their eyes met simultaneously. Not even a moment had passed when Vaishnavi pointed towards the sanctum sanctorum, saying, "Amma, Anna..." (Mother, Brother...). Remembering Theeran, she ran towards him.
Theeran was still unconscious. There was a slight trickle of blood from his head. Distraught, Mullai, without thinking about anything else, looked at Bhadran and pleaded, "Sir, please save my son, sir." Bhadran, shocked beyond belief, looked at them...
He was watching her.
He too was overwhelmed with shock and confusion. It was surprising to see confusion in his eyes, as he was someone who was never usually confused.