Chapter One Hundred: The Sighting
Three months had passed since the funeral.
Three months of grief. Three months of silence. Three months of empty rooms and broken hearts.
Akshi still couldn't go into Shreya's room. Chethan held her every night while she cried. Jay threw herself into work, into Keiran, into anything that kept her mind occupied. Keifer stayed close, always there, always steady.
Mithun had changed.
He barely spoke. Barely ate. He spent hours in the garden, staring at nothing. Chethan tried to talk to him. Akshi tried to hug him. He accepted it all with empty eyes.
But he never stopped thinking about what C.N. had said.
Something doesn't add up.
---
It was a Tuesday.
Normal. Gray. Nothing special.
Mithun had gone out for a walk—something he did often now, just to move, just to feel something other than the weight in his chest.
He was crossing a street when he saw her.
---
A woman.
Dark hair. Same height. Same walk.
She turned a corner.
His heart stopped.
"SHREYA!"
He ran.
People stared. He didn't care.
He reached the corner.
She was gone.
---
He searched for an hour.
Every street. Every shop. Every face.
Nothing.
He came home shaking.
---
Akshi saw his face. "Mithun? What happened?"
"I saw her."
"What?"
"Shreya. I saw her. On the street."
Akshi's face went pale. "Mithun—"
"I know what I saw."
"You're grieving. You're—"
"I KNOW WHAT I SAW."
---
Jay appeared. "What's going on?"
Mithun turned to her. "I saw Shreya. Today. On the street."
Jay's heart stopped. "What?"
"She turned a corner. I ran after her. She was gone."
"Mithun, maybe it was someone who looked like her—"
"It WAS her. I know her walk. I know her hair. I know her."
---
Chethan came down. "What's happening?"
Mithun told him.
Chethan's face went through several stages—disbelief, hope, fear.
"Bro, are you sure?"
"I've never been more sure of anything in my life."
C.N. appeared in the doorway. "Then we find her."
"How? She disappeared."
"She disappeared once. She can disappear again. But now we know she's out there."
---
The family gathered.
Percy arrived within the hour. "I HEARD! SHREYA'S ALIVE?"
"We don't know that," Honey said gently.
"MITHUN SAW HER! THAT'S ENOUGH FOR ME!"
Aries and Ella came. Felix and Bridget. David and Freya. Mica and Calix. All of them.
Yuri was already planning. "I'll get cameras. We'll search everywhere."
Rakii nodded. "I'll coordinate with local networks."
C.N. pulled out his laptop. "I'll track any activity—bank cards, phone signals, anything."
---
Mithun stood in the center of it all.
"I'm not crazy."
No one said he was.
"We believe you," Jay said quietly. "We all want her back."
Akshi grabbed his hand. "We'll find her. Together."
Mithun nodded.
For the first time in three months, there was hope.
---
That night, they searched.
Split into groups. Covered the city.
Nothing.
But they didn't give up.
They couldn't.
Because somewhere out there—
Shreya was alive.
And they would find her.
---
End of Chapter One Hundred