"By the way, may I ask if this is the only reason you want to help me? Because you weren't wrong for standing up against them even if it resulted differently. You already apologised even if it weren't necessary so why go this far? You won't be gaining anything from this." Koushik stared at her face with a questioning look.
'Why?' Olivia thought about that incident.
It was the time when she was still acting as Ankita.
One night Mr Chakraborty was having a painful headache. Besides her, there was only the servant who worked at their house. Mrs Dey was out on a business trip. Her father had applied balms but they were not working and his headache kept worsening. Having no choice she went out to buy medicine from the local drug store leaving her father in the servant's care.
It was past midnight and the streets were mostly empty. The drugstore was a little away from their house so Ankita had to run all the way. Moreover, the pharmacist took a lot of time to find the medicine. Thus she had to race faster on her way back.
To make it quicker she took a shortcut route through an alley. It was then that she saw that horrifying scene.
Several drunk hooligans were beating a pregnant dog. They were kicking her mercilessly while the poor creature screamed in pain. As the area was marked with under-construction buildings and it was far from the residential area, nobody heard the dog's screams.
Immensely enraged Olivia clenched her fists. Although her face was devoid of any expression, her eyes had a murderous gleam. Her jaw was taut and her chest heaved up and down slowly. From her clenched fist, two fingers stretched out and something gleamed between her forefinger and index finger. The flash was tiny but the source was a thin, small yet deadly sharp blade enough to kill in one strike. Olivia slowly lifted her hand to strike but she stopped midway.
From the dark, a boy darted towards the men, screaming with a brick in his hand, "You monsters! get away from her!"
And he started swinging it wildly. The small brick did not inflict any severe injuries but the hits were painful enough for them to be distracted. Fortunately, they were drunk to the point of oblivion so they could not fight back. Still, they had an advantage of number and decided to pounce on him all at once.
One of them landed a punch in his stomach which caused him to double over. Getting an opening he wanted to strike again but missed by tripping on his tipsy steps. Another man punched him in the jaw. The boy staggered clutching his stomach in one hand and jaw in the other. Now that all of their attention was focused on him they decided to gang up and attack him. But just then another series of screams rose.
Two other boys ran over grabbing two iron rods they found near the leftover construction materials. They started hitting the men with all their might. The five men howled in pain crouching on the ground trying to cover themselves with their hands.
The boys were not strong enough to deal any serious blow to the big men but they still rendered them defenseless with their persistent attacks. The men barely escaped on all fours.
Meanwhile, the boy who was cornered previously recovered from the blows he received and was tending to the dog.
Seeing the dog was in safe hands Olivia sighed in relief and returned to her character. She quickly went home and gave the medicine to the servant and darted out with a first-aid box, some food, water and a towel.
When Ankita reached there, the three boys were huddled around the crying dog and were trying to calm her down. As she was recently attacked by some humans she was desperately trying to claw at these three humans thinking they were also her enemies. As such none of them were able to get close to her.
"Move aside," Ankita said breathing heavily.
She then crouched down and put everything before the dog letting her take a sniff. She also placed her hand near the goods so that the dog could sniff her hand too.
At first, the dog growled and snapped her teeth at Ankita. Her dirt-covered swollen belly rose and fell as she panted. There was also a little blood but fortunately, it was not much. When she sniffed Ankita's hand she looked at the latter's face and whimpered. She wagged her tail with difficulty and stuck out her tongue licking Ankita's fingertips.
Ankita patiently waited until the dog recognised her. A relieved look flashed past Olivia's eyes before turning to Ankita's panicked gaze.
Ankita then slowly patted the dog's head and cleaned her off with water and antiseptic lotion. Then she wiped her body gently with extremely careful movements with the help of the boys and fed her some food and water.
After a while when the dog seemed better, they wrapped her in the towel and gently carried her to their neighbourhood.
Olivia no doubt tracked those men back after the dog was safeguarded. She broke each of their legs, the one that they used to kick the dog and made sure they remained crippled for several years. She took special care of the man who kicked the dog harder and broke both his legs. As a bonus gift, she also dislocated the hands of the two men who hit Koushik for interrupting them in beating the dog.
Since that day, the three of them especially Koushik, took care of the dog along with Ankita till she gave birth properly. Although Koushik and the others could not join every time because of their manager's warning about infection from stray animals, they still sneaked out every chance they got. Over time the dog also became friendly with the three boys.
Olivia raised her eyes thinking back to this memory.
'Because I owe you and I'm grateful to you. And... so is Ankita... '
When Koushik met her eyes he felt a sudden rare wave of gentleness from the otherwise vacant eyes. But before he could detect it properly they vanished. He frowned in confusion as he contemplated whether he imagined it all.
He was lost in thought about Olivia's sudden reaction to his question when he heard her speak.
"Yes, that's the only reason."
Koushik nodded in understanding albeit confused.