The white Toyota gleamed in the warm sunlight, its polished surface reflecting the vibrant hues of the surrounding flowers and trees. Inside the car, the atmosphere was tense. The hushed conversation between the friends lent an air of mystery to the scene.

"What story will you make up?" Siddharth gripped the steering wheel firmly, glancing over his shoulder. The seatbelt stretched across his brown leather jacket.

Rudraksh, dressed in a black shirt with a matching jacket loosely hanging off his right shoulder, sat motionless in the back seat. His eyes darted restlessly behind the veil of his messy hair as he chewed on his lower lip.

Beside him, Karan, in a blue hoodie and white jeans, sat with his fingers interlocked above his knees. His gaze flickered between Rudraksh and Siddharth, his tongue occasionally darting out to moisten his dry lips, restoring their pink gloss.

Rudraksh's gaze shifted from the floor mat to Siddharth, then to Karan. "I was on a business trip for two days." His eyebrows rose slightly as he continued, "It was to gain some strategic insight from CEOs of other companies on how to revive our failed projects."

His casted hand rested against his chest, while his free hand gestured like a teacher explaining an assignment. "On my way back last night, I met with an accident. It's not serious - just mild scratches, a few stitches, and a fractured wrist."

Siddharth and Karan exchanged a look, their faces frozen as they blinked repeatedly. Siddharth's lips twitched, and Karan's mouth hung slightly open - their dumbfounded expressions perfectly mirrored each other.

"Do you think that's a believable story?" Siddharth asked, waiting for Rudraksh's response.

Rudraksh mirrored Siddharth's neutral expression. "Do you have any other option? You told them I was on a business trip. So, I was on a business trip." His voice was firm, his tone unyielding.

Karan shifted in his seat, resting an elbow on the passenger seat's frame as he turned toward Rudraksh. "And about me being with you?"

"You lied-"

"What?! Why should I be the one lying?" Karan's voice rose, his grip tightening on the leather seat.

Rudraksh closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, glaring at Karan. "First hear me out, time bomb."

Karan's face twisted. "Proceed, volcano," he shot back.

The two friends locked eyes, their glares sharp and unwavering.

"Focus on the plan, guys," Siddharth's firm voice cut through the tension, snapping them back to attention.

Rudraksh and Karan broke their stare, their chests rising and falling with agitated breaths. The silence that followed was punctuated only by the soft hum of their breathing and the distant chirping of birds. The sunlight streaming through the windows cast a warm glow over their tense faces.

Rudraksh shrugged, giving a small shake of his head. "The owner of the house isn't home. It'll be easy to fool his wife and my sister. And Maan is a child." His voice was calm and measured, his words edged with calculation.

Karan's voice cut through again, laced with frustration. "About me being the liar?!"

Rudraksh's side glare spoke volumes. "You lied because you didn't want them to worry. Simple." Each word was sharp and deliberate, his lips pressing into a thin line afterward.

Siddharth remained composed. "And about Kshay?" His eyebrows lifted slightly, his gaze fixed on Rudraksh.

Rudraksh took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling. His eyes wandered over the car's interior - the leather seats, the dashboard, the faint reflection in the rearview mirror. "He's a pain. But I don't think he cares enough to check on me anyway. So, let's hope for the best."

The three friends nodded in unison, their heads moving in quiet agreement. They brought their fists together, bumping them one by one in a gesture of solidarity. As they pulled their hands back, the sunlight streaming through the windows illuminated their determined faces.

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"What?!"

Both women's eyes widened in unison, their feet scraping against the floor as they shot up from the sofa.

"Yes," Kshay replied calmly. His feet were planted firmly on the floor, his eyes locking onto the women. "I don't remember the CEO announcing anything about a business trip. And yesterday, Karan came to me as well, asking about Rudraksh's whereabouts."

Anusuiya and Antara exchanged glances, their eyes darting between each other like startled birds.

Chanchal looked at Kshay with raised eyebrows.

Kshay shrugged nonchalantly before gesturing for Chanchal to leave the living room.

Chanchal nodded and made her way toward the stairs, cradling Swastik in her arms. The jingling of her jewelry followed her departure.

Anusuiya's fingers pressed against her temple as she whispered, "Antara, call Siddharth." Two fingers rubbed one side of her temple while her thumb massaged the other, applying firm pressure. The motion was soothing, but her eyes remained tightly shut. "This boy... if your father finds out, he'll throw both of us out of the house."

Antara nodded quickly, her fingers fumbling across the mobile screen. Her eyes darted up and down, scanning it like a thirsty crow searching for water.

Kshay walked over to Anusuiya, his footsteps soft on the floor. Wrapping his arms around her shoulders from behind, he whispered gently, "Mausi, don't stress yourself."

His eyes flickered to the side, landing on a row of Rudraksh's photos on the mantle - each showing him smiling, medals in one hand and certificates in the other. The sight made Kshay's jaw tighten.

His brows furrowed, lips pressing into a hard line before he turned his attention back to Anusuiya's tense form. "You know how reckless he is. We understand, he's faced injustice multiple times. But he needs to realize he's not the only person in the world who's been through hurdles and hardships."

Antara's face scrunched, her features tightening as she yanked her gaze from the screen to Kshay. "Maa, it's not connecting!" She jerked the phone away from her ear, the device hovering mid-air.

"Karan. Call Karan!" Anusuiya's voice rose, her words spilling out in a rush. Her hand swept across her face, wiping away the worry lines etched on her forehead before clamping over her mouth. "You're right, Kshay. I've given him too much liberty. Let him come home once..." Her fists clenched near her stomach, lips pressed into a determined line.

"Maa, please!" Antara's eyes flashed with anger as she darted between them. "And stop provoking her, Kshay!"

Anusuiya's arm shot out, her forefinger stabbing the air like a dagger. "You keep your mouth shut, Antara!" Her hand fell to her side, fingers curling into a fist. "He always walks out safely behind your sisterly affectionate armor!"

Her eyes darted around the room, her gaze bouncing off the walls. Her chest heaved, her breath coming in short gasps. "I don't say anything, so he thinks he can do whatever he wants! Today, I'll teach him how a mother makes her children behave."

Kshay's hands tightened on Anusuiya's shoulders, his grip firm. "Yes, mausi. I'm with you. He's taking you for granted. No fear, none at all."

Antara's foot hovered mid-air, her leg bent at an awkward angle. "Ma-"

The doorbell's ring sliced through the tense silence.

Antara's gaze swept across the room, meeting each pair of eyes before she composed herself and moved toward the main door.

The others followed closely behind, their footsteps softer now, their faces etched with concern.

As they reached the door, Antara's hand grasped the handle, her fingers curling around it. The door creaked softly as it swung open, revealing a sliver of bright light from the other side.

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The evening sun cast a warm orange glow on the polished iron entrance gate, its fading light dancing across the intricate designs etched into the metal.

Rudraksh stood before the door, his right hand hovering hesitantly over the doorbell, as if uncertain whether to announce his presence.

Nevertheless, he pressed it twice.

Beside him, Siddharth and Karan flanked him like sentinels, their faces reflecting concern and quiet solidarity.

As the door creaked open in slow motion, Antara's tense form came into view. "Rudraksh! What happened, bacha?" Her feet instinctively moved forward, her hands reaching out to cradle her brother's face.

Rudraksh stood frozen, his eyes locked on Antara's worried expression before a slow, nervous smile flickered across his bruised lips. "Hey... di."

Inside, the room seemed to stiffen as Anusuiya's face crumpled. Her eyes welled with tears before she quickly regained composure, her expression hardening as she watched Rudraksh step inside, breathing heavily.

Siddharth and Karan followed close behind, their footsteps soft on the marble floor.

Rudraksh cleared his throat, the sound echoing faintly through the room like a gentle cough. He took a cautious step inside, his shoes making barely a whisper on the floor. "I-uh... sorry I didn't call. The network was weird where I was."

As he spoke, his eyes lingered on Antara, whose worried gaze remained fixed on him. Then, they shifted to his mother, whose stern face looked carved from stone with do many cracks. Finally, his eyes landed on Kshay, and...

Rudraksh clicked his tongue quietly. The brothers' eyes locked in silent combat, though their faces remained impassive.

"Where were you?" The oppressive silence broke with Anusuiya's calm yet cutting voice.

Rudraksh's gaze dropped, his eyes flickering to the floor as he quietly replied, "The business trip stretched a little longer than I expected." His right hand moved with deliberate slowness as he removed his shoes, the soft thud of leather against the floor echoing in the tense air.

The room fell silent once again. The only sound was the distant cooing of a bird outside. Words seemed to hover like fog, refusing to clear. No one responded; their faces were studies in varying shades of concern, anger, and disappointment.

"Last night, on my way back, I met with an accident. The doctors said it's a fracture and a couple of stitches. I just need to keep it elevated for a while," he concluded casually.

As he took another step forward, a faint wince crossed his face, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Siddharth and Karan-uh-they just panicked a bit, that's why the fuss. Honestly, I'm fine." His words were accompanied by a strained smile.

"Are you done lying?" Anusuiya's measured tone clashed sharply with the charged atmosphere.

Rudraksh froze mid-step, his fingers twitching slightly at his side, his eyebrows furrowing. "Excuse me?" The laugh that followed died on his lips, leaving an awkward silence behind.

Anusuiya approached him with a blank expression, her anklets producing an uneven, discordant sound. "Do you think we're all fools? You disappeared for two days, lied about where you were, had your friends cover for you, came back looking like you fought a war, and you thought we wouldn't find out?"

Rudraksh's mouth opened, then closed again. For a moment, his carefully constructed calm slipped, revealing a flicker of unease. "I didn't want to worry anyone," he muttered dryly.

"You didn't want to worry anyone," Anusuiya repeated, her eyes narrowing. "Or you didn't think you owed us the truth?"

A heavy blanket of silence smothered the room. Karan and Siddharth exchanged uneasy glances. Antara's eyes shimmered with tears as her fingers clenched the edge of her saree. Kshay's eyes widened slightly, flickering between his aunt and cousin, his body stiffening where he stood.

But Rudraksh just stood there, his eyes fixed on a point on the floor, his throat working as he swallowed something rising fast in his chest.

Anusuiya's eyebrows knitted together, her eyes lifting to meet Rudraksh's silent gaze. "You keep pretending like nothing matters. Like you're fine. Like you're whole. I'm tired of trying to make you understand, to make you see that there are people who care for you. But you never let anyone in. You don't even try!"

Rudraksh's shoulders stiffened, his body tensing like a coiled spring. Slowly, his faint smile faded, like the sun dipping below the horizon. He looked up, locking eyes with Anusuiya, and for the first time since stepping inside, he didn't look away.

"I never tried?" he asked softly. His mouth opened again, as if to say more, but then closed, the words dying on his lips. He looked aside, jaw tightening.

One deep breath later, his voice changed - the tone tightening, the control slipping. "You want me to say sorry for lying? Fine. Sorry."

But then his voice shifted again, heavier now. "But don't you ever say I didn't try." His words were no longer apologetic, no longer careful, no longer afraid. "I spent twenty goddamn years trying!"

He took a step forward, the heel of his shoe skidding slightly on the floor. He stumbled for half a second before steadying himself.

"Rudraksh..." Antara reached out, her voice trembling.

He ignored her, his burning gaze locked on Anusuiya. "I tried when you left me in Prayagraj at barely four, with strangers who screamed if I touched a toy they didn't get for me." His voice was low and even, his teeth gritted. "I tried when I was starved for two days because I forgot to iron someone else's clothes. I tried when I ran. Barefoot. Bleeding. On a train I didn't even know the name of, trying to find something, someone... who wouldn't treat me like garbage."

His breathing grew ragged, chest heaving with every word. His casted arm trembled against his chest. "I kept my head down in school. I worked harder than every other child around me. I learned to cook my own damn burnt food by eight. I stitched my own wounds. I stitched my own damn life!"

The softness in his tone gave way to a terrifying calm, the kind that came before a storm. "Do you know what it's like to live twenty years waiting for someone to ask if you're okay?" His narrowed eyes flashed with a deep, searing pain that pierced Anusuiya's like a blade. "To sit in a stranger's house at six years old, get slapped for speaking the truth, and still think - no, maybe it's my fault. Maybe I wasn't good enough to be kept."

Anusuiya blinked once.

"Do you even remember, Mrs. Maurya?" He stepped forward, his voice dripping with venom. "I wasn't even four when you and your husband decided you had more important things than your own son. You left me in Prayagraj with strangers." He tilted his head slowly, almost mockingly. "Do you know how they treated me? You don't. Of course not. You were too busy being the 'bloody sympathetic great people'."

He was shaking, though not shouting, fury trembling through his broken frame like a volcano ready to erupt. "I was beaten!" His voice thundered, echoing off the walls. "Slapped. Locked in dark rooms. Fed once a day!"

Each word hit like a blow, leaving Anusuiya gasping for air.

"Do you know how it feels to cry for your mother and have someone say - 'You don't have any mother here'?" His reddened face twisted into a snarl.

"You talk about the truth?" He let out a bitter laugh. "Here's the truth - you gave me away. Like second-hand furniture. You didn't just forget me. You erased me."

A broken sound escaped Antara's throat as she covered her mouth to stifle a sob. Kshay stared at the floor, his throat bobbing hard. Siddharth and Karan stood frozen, their faces contorted by the depth of their friend's pain.

But Rudraksh wasn't done.

The volcano had cracked, and now, the lava poured. "Do you know what it's like to lie in a hospital bed with a head injury and still feel ashamed of calling home?" His voice was heavy, trembling, his eyebrows furrowed, his almond eyes burning.

"To wonder if anyone would care - not out of love, but out of guilt?!" His face twisted, pain and anger colliding in every muscle. He turned too fast. His bandaged head hit the wall, tearing the wound open. The white cloth soaked red, a line of blood trailing from his eyebrow down to his jaw.

"YOU WANT TO TEACH ME TO TELL THE TRUTH?!"

He advanced toward Anusuiya like a wounded lion, forcing her backward with tear-stained, terrified eyes. He no longer looked like the quiet Rudraksh she knew - this was a storm made flesh.

"Where were you when I was beaten with a belt for spilling milk on the floor?! Where were you when I had to stitch my school shirt with a rusted needle?!"

As he moved, his casted arm struck the flower vase beside him, shattering it into a hundred glittering pieces.

Antara flinched at the crash, while Kshay stared blankly at the mess, then at Rudraksh's blood-streaked face, pale and trembling, like a man too lost between a scream and a sob.

Anusuiya stood frozen, eyes wide with disbelief.

Karan's eyes widened. Siddharth stepped forward, arm raised to calm him.

"STAY THE FUCK BACK!"

Siddharth froze. Rudraksh had never snapped at him before. His eyes widened, lips parting in shock.

Karan lunged forward, shouting, "Are you out of your damn mind, Rudraksh?!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU BASTARD!" Rudraksh roared, his trembling fist brushing Karan's nose, just an inch away from breaking it.

Karan forgot to blink. His arms hung limply at his sides, wide eyes fixed on Rudraksh's trembling fist. The proximity sent a visible shiver down his spine.

Rudraksh's nostrils flared, his breathing ragged as he struggled to contain his fury. "YOU GODDAMN LIAR! YOU STOOD THERE AND WATCHED!" The sound came from him like that of a wounded animal cornered for the last time. "You let her stay in my life despite knowing everything!" His eyes were bloodshot, the vessels across his face and forearm bursting like fragile threads.

The silence that followed was filled only with the uneven rhythm of everyone's breathing.

Rudraksh's fist loosened, his arm falling limply by his side. He looked at Karan's shocked expression with a helpless gaze. "You lied to me, Karan," he seethed, his voice breaking like a dam finally bursting. "You, of all people, didn't tell me the truth. You - who saw me cry in the hostel multiple nights. You, who called me 'bhai', and you still lied."

"Sanam lied. My own best friend lied. My so-called parents left me. WHAT AM I TO ANYONE?! A LIABILITY?! A BURDEN?! A THROWAWAY CHILD?!" The words exploded from his lips like a nuclear blast, shattering everyone, and everything, from the core.

Siddharth's arms locked across his chest, but Rudraksh was fighting like a man who hadn't let himself scream in two decades. He thrashed, his body twisting and turning, like a wild animal trying to break free.

"You-you-you ALL left me! One after the other! She left me at FOUR! YOU-" He thrashed again, his good hand clawing at Siddharth's shoulder in a desperate attempt to break free. His fingers dug deep into the fabric of Siddharth's shirt. Siddharth grit his teeth in pain, but still, he didn't let Rudraksh go.

"You LIED to me when you said I had a family! I was a placeholder in this house! A fucking afterthought!" The words boomed from his lips, venomous and bitter. Blood poured freely down his temple now, the bandage torn and forgotten - a crimson trail streaming down his face like a macabre tear.

His gaze turned unfocused, his mind slipping back into another time and place. He was no longer in that room; he was in the Prayagraj haveli, six years old, being beaten by his adoptive mother. A ten-year-old boy, running down the railway tracks at Prayagraj station, barefoot and bleeding, boarding a train to a city whose name he couldn't pronounce; his only destination: away. The hostel room, crying himself to sleep while clutching a pillow. The restaurant, learning of Sanam's betrayal.

He wasn't aware of the blood, and he didn't care. His focus was on the scream that had been building inside him for years. "WHAT AM I TO YOU ALL?! A SON?! A COUSIN?! A FRIEND?! OR A FUCKING TRASHBAG?!" His voice broke, and he kicked the glass coffee table with full force. It exploded against the wall, fragments raining across the floor like a thousand tiny shards of glass piercing the air.

A shard sliced across his foot, but still, there was no reaction. No wince of pain, no flinch - only the voice. The scream that came from somewhere far beneath his ribs. "I'M TIRED OF BEING QUIET!" The sound echoed through the house, a brutal reminder of the pain and hurt that had defined his life.

The room was silent now. The only sound was the heavy, uneven breathing of those present.

Rudraksh's chest heaved with every breath, his face twisted in a snarl as if daring anyone to come closer. And then, he stumbled, his legs buckling beneath him. He collapsed against Siddharth, his body going limp as consciousness slipped away.

Siddharth's arms instinctively wrapped around him, holding him upright. Antara burst into tears, running forward with a soft cry.

Anusuiya stood unmoving, her face pale and stunned. The strength of his silence, of two decades of restraint, had finally been shattered. Her son's words still echoed in her ears like judgment day. Her eyes were fixed on Rudraksh's crumpled form, a mix of shock and realization written across her face. Tears silently trailed down her cheeks.

And in the middle of it all lay Rudraksh Maurya - the boy who grew up with no home, no hand to hold, and now no more strength to pretend. His chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, his face twisted in a mixture of pain and exhaustion as his eyelashes slowly met together.

A/N: Umm... let me know if this needs a trigger warning or something like that.

1. Any thoughts on Rudraksh's upbringing, or his volcano nature?

2. And, woah... Karan got fortunate, wasn't he?