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As if benumbed by shame, Kavya had paused for a while, but being aware of Dhruva’s understanding, she resumed saying that her plan did work to her peculiar excitement, which made her realize that deep in her heart there could be a criminal beat after all. Dhruva patted her, as if to convey his empathy, and she said that she was ashamed of the darker side of her nature that came to the fore then; but as he reached out for her hand, she ran inside in despair, and he stayed back to let her overcome her grief in solitude.
But smelling gas and rushing into the kitchen, as he saw her picking up the gas-lighter, he grabbed and closed the cylinder valve; crying, she fell into his arms but as he led her to the verandah for fresh air, she withdrew from him in self-remorse. While he was at a loss to understand as to how to calm her, she told him that she could not bear the thought of life with a foul soul in a polluted body. Taken aback at her self-pity, he pleaded with her not to feel so low and told that it was only time before she regained her self-worth; she looked at him in hope and he offered to take her to his place, where with the Rajus in attendance, she would have Radha for company. Thanking him profusely as she hesitated to agree, as if to show her the way, he took her hand, and cajoled by him, she packed up some essentials.
When Dhruva reached home with Kavya, Radha knew she had a rival to contend with, but thought it might not help her cause, if she were to cut up with him on that count; but as he pondered over Kavya’s predicament with her, she said that she saw an unmistakable linkage between both the murders. Before she could elaborate upon her theory, he received a call informing him that the day he died Shakeel was with a woman in burka. As Dhruva shared that news with her, she said that it could have been a case of Pravar’s poison at work under Kavya’s burka, why, she had Natya’s word that Kavya lost her soul to Pravar, and reduced herself as his vassal.
Cautioning her against jumping to conclusions, he said that it was not wise to go by Natya’s words for she could have a grouses against Kavya, and added that she should learn from her own experience. Wasn't it Shakeel’s over-reliance on Pravar’s version that caused her so much grief, why repeat the mistake to Kavya’s hurt? She reminded him how Kavya had given a clean chit to her paramour in her husband’s murder and said that it was for him to decide whether she was feigning remorse over her liaison with him. Were it not possible that Kavya’s suicide attempt was fake, a la Pravar, to gain his sympathy, and, for all she knew, it could be a ruse to divert his attention away from Pravar and herself.