Everyone says trauma bonds people. For us, the Apex Ten, it was true. But we didn't know that trauma would also hand out wedding invitations.
Karan and Ishani got married first. Month 14 after the factory. All ten of us were there. We were not just colleagues anymore. We were witnesses. We had seen them pull each other out of the darkest room of our lives. Their wedding was not just a celebration. It was proof that we could all have a life after that locked door.
I am Teena. I was 24 during the kidnapping. HR. I was the one who organized the corporate offsite that got us all kidnapped. The guilt of that ate me alive for months. I should have checked the bus vendor. I should have seen the red flags.
Rajveer was 26. Client Services. In the factory, he was the one who calmed Neha when she was crying. He was the one who told her, "We are all getting out of here. Together." He didn't say it to be a hero. He said it because he believed it.
After Karan and Ishani's wedding, something shifted. The ten of us had a group chat. It was mostly memes and "you okay?" texts at 2 AM when someone had a nightmare. But after the wedding, Karan started sending couple photos. Him and Ishani at a dhaba. Him and Ishani fighting over the last slice of pizza.
It was Ishani who messaged me privately after one of those photos.
Ishani: _You saw Rajveer today? He was staring at you during the pheras._
Me: _He was not. He was looking at the pandit._
Ishani: _Teena. The pandit was behind him. He was looking at you. Trust me. I know that look. Karan used to look at me like that for 8 months before he fixed my sandal in the rain._
I ignored her. I was 25 now. I had a therapist. I had a job. I did not have time for "looks." The factory had taught me that life is too short for games, but also too fragile for risks.
But then Rajveer started texting me. Not about the factory. Not about trauma.
Rajveer: _HR department needs your opinion. Is it unprofessional to expense a pizza if you're crying while eating it? Asking for a friend._
Me: _Depends. Is the friend Client Services and does he cry over thin crust?_
Rajveer: _The friend feels attacked. But yes._
It was stupid. It was light. It was the opposite of the factory. And I needed that.
Month 16 after the factory, Karan and Ishani invited all of us to their new apartment for dinner. "Housewarming," Karan called it, even though they had been living there for two months. "We just want an excuse to feed you all," Ishani said.
We went. All eight of us who were not married to each other. Neha brought Bruno. Vijay brought his fiancée. Satwinder brought gulab jamun. It was loud. It was chaotic. It was home.
After dinner, we played dumb charades. Teams were random. I got paired with Rajveer. Karan and Ishani were against us.
The word was "wedding." Rajveer had to act it out. He did not do the typical fake garland or dance. He looked at me, and he just held out his hand. Like he was asking me to take it. Like he did in the factory when we were climbing out the window. He had been behind me on the cloth rope, pushing me up, making sure I didn't fall.
I knew the word in two seconds. "Wedding."
Karan whistled. "Okay, that was fast. Too fast. You two are cheating with mind-reading."
We were not cheating. We just... knew. We knew what each other's hands meant. We knew what it felt like to trust someone when the floor was 12 feet below you and the only thing between you and death was a torn shirt and a stranger's promise.
Later that night, I was on their balcony. The city was noisy and alive. So different from the dead silence of the factory.
Rajveer came and stood next to me. He did not say anything for a while. He just handed me a cup of chai. He remembered I take extra sugar when I am stressed.
"I hate weddings," he said suddenly.
I choked on my chai. "You were at Karan's. You were crying during the vows."
"I was crying because I was happy for him. But I hate the idea. The pressure. The performance. My parents have been asking me since I was 26. 'When are you settling down?' After the factory, I told them I was not settling. I was surviving. That was enough."
He looked at me then. Really looked at me. "But then I saw you at Karan's wedding. You were talking to Neha's mom. You were explaining Bruno's medication schedule to her like it was a quarterly report. You were so... you. So competent and so kind and so completely unaware that you were the steadiest person in the room."
My heart was doing that stupid beat again. The same beat it did when the factory door finally opened.
"Teena, I don't want a wedding," he said. "I don't want a performance. I don't want pressure. I want you. I want to come home to you and tell you about a stupid client. I want you to send me HR policy memes at midnight. I want to build a life that is so boring and so safe that we forget what a locked door sounds like. Will you do that with me? Will you marry me?"
There was no ring. There was no kneeling. There was just a cup of chai and the Mumbai noise and a man who had seen me at my worst and still thought I was the steadiest person in the room.
I said yes. Because how do you say no to the person who made the factory smaller?
We told Karan and Ishani first. We were at their apartment again. Karan punched Rajveer's arm. "You stole my move. Confessing after a party."
Ishani hugged me for ten minutes. "I told you he was staring," she whispered. "I am always right."
We got married in month 20. Court marriage. Small reception. Only family and the Apex Ten. My parents cried. His parents cried. Karan gave a speech. He said, "The factory took a lot from us. But it gave us this. It gave us each other. Teena and Rajveer, you don't owe your trauma anything. But thank you for turning it into this."
I wore a simple blue saree. Rajveer wore a kurta that was slightly wrinkled because he hates ironing. It was perfect.
The factory had four women and six men. It took us all. It broke us all. But it gave two of us back to each other. First Karan and Ishani. Now me and Rajveer.
Because sometimes, the only way to survive a locked room is to find someone who will hold the door open for the rest of your life. And sometimes, you have to be that person for someone else.
We were kidnapped as colleagues. We escaped as friends.
And now, we were staying as family....
THE END