Just as the dust settles on one betrayal, a darker secret emerges from the shadows. A stolen chain, a hidden photograph, and a phone call from a madman—the investigation into Elina's assault takes a chilling turn. The monster wasn't a stranger; he was the one standing right beside them.
David delivered a stinging slap to Jack's face. Elina, stunned, looked at David and said, "But according to the CCTV footage, Jack was at the function the entire time. He couldn't have done this to me." She turned to Jack, her voice trembling. "Tell me the truth, Jack. What is going on?"
Jack's composure broke. "Yes... I was the one who paid Shib. I told him to plant David's watch in the guest room so he would be arrested for the crime. David has always taken everything from me, ever since we were children."
Jack's voice was thick with years of buried resentment. "After my mother passed away and my father remarried, I never felt the love of a mother. David's mother says we are both equal to her, but in her heart, David was always the priority. When I wanted to marry Suzi, she refused to accept our love, saying our family didn't allow love marriages. I had to leave this house for Suzi. But when David fell for Sarlin? They accepted it instantly!"
He looked at Elina with desperate eyes. "I wanted David to rot in jail for the rest of his life. Besides, all the initial evidence pointed to him—why shouldn't he be the one to pay?"
David's mother stepped forward, horrified. "I never saw you as a stepson, Jack. I never knew you carried such poison in your heart for us."
Elina cut through the family drama, her voice cold. "Enough! Do you all think what happened to me was some sort of play? You've turned my trauma into a joke!" She fled to her room, her sobs echoing behind her.
Jack followed her, catching her hand. "Elina, I've fallen in love with you. I've lost so much in my life already; I can't lose you too. Please, forgive me. Don't break our engagement."
Looking into his eyes, Elina saw a glimpse of genuine pain. As a friend, she found it in her heart to forgive him for the framing, but her heart still belonged to David. "You want us to marry, Jack... but I still love David. I don't think I can go through with this wedding."
Just then, her grandfather called out to her. Elina went downstairs to find Mr. Louis waiting. "Grandfather, what are you doing here at this hour?"
"Elina, my child, come home with me," he pleaded. "If you stay here, those horrific memories will keep haunting you. Please, come back with me."
David rushed to his side. "Grandfather, please let her stay. I am innocent, I swear it! The real culprit is still out there. Please believe me!" But Mr. Louis was in no mood to listen to any of the Smiths.
Frustrated and desperate, David left the house with his friend Nikhil. Back at the mansion, Elina's mind was racing. If it wasn't David, and it wasn't Jack... then who? Arohi approached her gently. "Bhabi, please try to remember. Was there any clue? Any detail that could help identify the man? I know my brother; David could never do something like this."
Meanwhile, David and Nikhil were at a restaurant, drinking tea and discussing Elina's case. Suddenly, as Nikhil reached for something, Elina's heart-shaped chain fell out of his shirt pocket and landed on the table. Before David could utter a word, Nikhil bolted from the restaurant.
The realization hit David like a lightning bolt. The man who had brutalized Elina was none other than Nikhil.
David raced back home and called for Elina. When she came downstairs, he revealed the sickening truth. Elina immediately called the police, demanding they match the fingerprints found in the room with Nikhil's. But Nikhil had vanished into thin air, hiding from the law.
Arohi then remembered something strange. "David, Nikhil used to ask me about Bhabi all the time. He spoke as if he had known her for years. He was especially obsessed with that chain around her neck... as if he had some old connection to it."
Elina shivered. "That night, after he... after he did it, he ripped that chain from my neck before he left."
The police launched a massive manhunt, charging Nikhil with the crime, but five days passed with no sign of him. They searched Nikhil's house from top to bottom but found nothing to link him to Elina's past—until Elina's eyes fell upon a photograph.
In the picture, Nikhil was standing clearly beside Elina's uncle (Mama). What connection could Nikhil possibly have with my uncle? she wondered.
Suddenly, Elina's phone rang. It was an unknown number from a public booth. It was Nikhil. "You were mine, and you will stay mine," his voice hissed through the line. "Or else, I'll burn this whole world to ashes."
David snatched the phone and shouted, "Hello?" but the line went dead.
"There is a dark secret behind that chain," David said, his face grim. "A secret we are all blind to."
Who is Nikhil really? What is the hidden mystery behind the broken heart locket? Will David and Elina finally find their way back to each other, or will Jack still find a place in her life?
To discover the truth behind the obsession, keep reading "Beneath The Truth," only on Webnovel.