Chapter 63

Sneha had come in the main room by that time and started throwing things at Stella. She was in a frenzy. She didn't hear what Rohan was saying.

"How dare you attack Rohan? Get out of here. You don't belong…" She fell on the floor numb, with blood splattered on her shirt and the floor. Her left shoulder was hurting immensely and she fainted just inside the bedroom door.

Stella had fired yet another shot.

By this time, Rohan had surrendered.

"Please don't shoot her. Look, if you leave right now, we will not even mention your name to anyone. Everybody thinks that you are dead. You can start a new life. I will give you enough money to settle with a new identity."

"Do you realize what you have done to me? I have committed a murder because of you. The only person I ever wanted to murder was Sneha, but you have made me murder Shonali too! She freaked me out. But she was beautiful." She turned on the music system to play Kenny G – her favourite. She wanted them to die in style.

She turned towards Rohan only to find that he was not there. The apartment was too small for him to hide. "Where are you, sweetie? You know you can't hide in here. There is no place! Come on out else I am going to put a bullet in your wife's heart." She started laughing.

Rohan didn't come out.

"I am counting to five and then I am just gonna have to shoot her."

"One…, two…, three…, four…" her patience was wearing thin. She started walking towards Sneha. "Five!" She felt excruciating pain in her right shoulder. She saw that a knife was stuck in her flesh. She dropped the gun immediately and again lost her balance.

Rohan had thrown a knife at her.

"You brainless, dumb animal!" She shouted in pain as she took the knife out of her shoulder. Blood spurted out. She lifted the gun from the floor and again pointed it towards Rohan.

Rohan was aghast to see Stella's transformation. She had changed into a wretched beast that couldn't be put down easily.

He looked at Sneha who had fainted and who needed immediate medical attention. "Sneha has got nothing to do with all this. Leave her out of it. I am to blame. She needs medical help. Let me take her to the hospital."

Stella laughed.

"I hate you. And I hate your wife twice as much as I hate you!" she spat.

Her finger was already on the trigger to shoot Rohan when he leapt head on towards her. She had fired the shot by then, but this missed him and hit the mirror behind him.

He tried to snatch the gun from her, and in the fight that ensued she fired another shot. This time the bullet ripped through his hand.

Rohan was in so much pain that he thought he would faint. Stella, on the other hand, was now standing over him.

"And that's how my persecutor dies."

There was a loud bang and everything became silent. Rohan passed into a dream-like state. He felt relaxed, detached…

There were ambulances and police sirens in the building's compound. There were spectators even at this time of the night. Some bold people had come out to find out what had happened. They saw three bodies being taken into ambulances – two women and one man.

Abdul was standing next to his car and wiping the sweat off his temples. He had reached there just in time to save Rohan and Sneha from a lifetime of misery. When he entered the apartment he saw Stella standing over Rohan with a gun pointed at point-blank range. Before she could press the trigger, Abdul did the honors.

He smiled and left the premises after giving orders to his juniors...