Kiaan

******

"It's the emotional distress and the dehydration. She had nothing to eat for quite a long time, and the overwhelming situation she witnessed just now took a toll on her nervous system."

The doctor said after he was done examining my wife. I hated his presence there because he belonged to Simran's side of the family. If not for Simran's unconscious state, I would never have given heed to Nitya's request for her to be examined by a doctor right away and called another one. 

She was lying on the bed in my room, of course, and only a few people were allowed in; I made sure that only those I had approved of seeing her were present. So now, Arjun, Nitya, Dhruv, Anvi, and Nikhil were there along with my parents and Arjun's parents. The rest were with Dhriti, for she was unwell too.

"I know what happened to her. I asked you what we should do to make sure she gets better quickly," I said through gritted teeth.

Didn't I know what caused her to shiver?

Didn't I know what caused her to faint?

Heck, I knew everything. I knew she was seeing flashes of her mother and was aware she was hearing the screams from the same day. No one knew, but I did. I highly doubt that even she knew herself like I knew her throughout.

"You need to give her space." The doctor said solemnly, and with a little caution too, for he surely was scared of me.

If by space he meant to stay away from her, I swear I was going to empty my gun inside his head and find another doctor. I would keep finding the right one and killing those who would dare advise me to stay away from my wife. No one should dare say that to me after witnessing how I went ahead with the wedding, even when the world stood against us.

Before I could grab his collar and throw him out of the room, my mother asked him for clarification, "Could you please help us understand what all we should do? How serious is this, please?"

"Like I said, what she went through simply isn't exhaustion. She has been through a mental shock. The body shuts down when the mind can't take it anymore. People tend to fall into severe depression in such cases, and try to take grave steps to harm themselves or sometimes even others around them." He gave her one concerned look before sighing and saying, "You all need to take care of her, give her some space, but at the same time, it's not advisable to leave her alone. Someone has to..." He looked at me then before proceeding, "Especially her husband has to stay with her all the time. If you can't, then make sure someone who is close to her stays with her."

He did not need to tell me what I had to do. He was a doctor whose job was to prescribe medicines and not some guide who had a say in who should be around my wife.

"By the way, did she have a history of depression before?"

"Why would you ask that?" The words slipped out of my mouth cold and sharp. I could hardly hold my rage then. He gulped but did not stop talking and said, "She seemed quite vulnerable out there. If she had a history of depression or anxiety, then things could get worse."

He was her relative, for fuck's sake. He should be the one aware of her state after her mother's death, but he was oblivious, just like others from her family. I was not surprised, though. After everyone cornered her three years ago, surely no one would know about her state. She went obsolete for them when she should have shone like the rare jewel she was.

I got off the bed, ready to march to him and throw him out, but I could not when Simran stirred in her sleep. My steps halted. I sat beside her again, jaw clenched, staring at her in that vulnerable state. This was not part of the plan. She wasn't supposed to lose consciousness.

"After Rina Aunty died, she wasn't fine. But then she came along. It never occurred to us that it still bothered her this much. We thought she was doing well," Nitya answered the doctor's question, her voice low.

He listened intently, his grim expression deepening. Then he exhaled heavily.

"Most of the time, people tend to pretend. They hide their grief and keep getting suffocated. They're often unaware of when it'll all backfire. I hope that's not the case with her. But regardless, make sure she gets proper rest. I'll prescribe some mild sedatives and multivitamins."

The doctor left, and I heard Nitya's voice break as she asked a question, more to herself than anyone else.

"When will she wake up?"

I had been asking myself the same thing. When will she wake up?

Arjun murmured something to Nitya, likely trying to comfort her. I didn't hear it, nor did I care to.

Then I heard my father say, "We should let both of them get some rest..."

"Right... they need rest, and so do the others," Arjun's father agreed.

Dad patted my back gently before they all began to file out, leaving me and my wife alone.

The room fell into a quiet lull. She stirred again in her sleep. Worry lines creased her forehead. I reached out, and with the pad of my index finger, gently smoothed them. She exhaled, as if my touch gave her a breath of relief, like she had finally found a pocket of oxygen after suffocating.

"You were supposed to torture me, remember?" I murmured.

Her breathing was steady now, serene even. Anyone who hadn't witnessed the chaos of the wedding might have thought she was simply resting, but I knew peace was still miles away from her. 

My knuckles glided across her soft cheeks, aching with every touch.

"You were not supposed to lie here lifeless on our wedding night," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, raw and heavy. I could not recognize my own voice.

At that exact moment, my phone rang.

It ached to pull my hand away from her skin. The loss of contact felt like it would scorch me. I hated that I couldn't be impulsive with her and couldn't do what I desired. I hated that I had to keep the beast inside me chained when all he wanted was to be unshackled, to touch her, to feel her, to believe this was real, that this woman was finally my wife. It hurt so damn bad that I could burn the world for her, but couldn't even light a match in front of her. With every ounce of restraint, I tore my hand away and picked up the phone.

"What is it?" I asked the moment I picked up. I knew it could only be Enzo calling me at that crucial hour. He wouldn't have though, not unless it was something that truly mattered.

"Sir, Dr. Phil has been trying to reach out to you." As expected, Phil was trying to flap his feathers.

"Does he know about my wife?" I asked, waiting with bated breath, already plotting a scheme if he had even the slightest idea of her existence.

"No, he does not."

I took a breath of relief. Phil was an important piece in my game. He wasn't an enemy, but he wasn't an ally either. Besides, the farther he stayed from Simran, the better for her. Things would spiral out of control if he ever found out. I couldn't risk him meeting her, but at the same time, I needed him under my radar.

"He shouldn't know she exists, nor should he be able to reach me. Not unless I want him to. Have some of our most trusted men watch him twenty-four seven," I ordered.

"Sure, Sir," he obliged.

"Any more information?"

"I've sent you the details about M.P. in your email. Besides, our trusted informer, who dug this information, died this morning."

The man who did the dirty work, who went all in for this intel, was dead. Not a good sign. But then again, this had been a bloodbath from the start. Expecting anything less would be foolish.

I realized the longer I stayed away from my base, the deeper the chaos would run. I had no time to waste, not when I had lives to take, monsters to feed, and traitors to punish.

"Enzo, prepare for my and my wife's departure. We're leaving in a few hours. And make sure some of our men are aggressively digging into this M.P. I want answers, not corpses. You get that?"

"Yes..."

With that, I hung up the call. I gave one last glance at her sleeping form, the scene from the wedding replaying in my head on a loop. I had something to do before leaving, so I headed out of the room. Nitya came to me holding a tray of food.

"Did she wake up?" she asked, her eyes filled with hope.

"No," I replied. Her face fell again. Arjun had not left her side since the chaos, comforting her and shielding her.

"I got some food for her. Should we try waking her up?" she asked softly, hoping the woman who would wake up would be her best friend. But I knew what was coming. A storm was yet to prowl in when she would open her eyes, and I could not let anyone witness that.

"No, I'm leaving with her tonight. Just make sure her needed stuff is packed." Nitya looked at Arjun and then at me, clearly worried about how Simran would travel in that state.

"Is it safe for her to travel like this?" she asked, concern written all over her face.

Was it safe?

Perhaps not, but I was going to make it safe for her to travel in that state, too.

I glanced back at my wife through the half-closed door as I replied, "The longer she stays here, the sicker she will get."

Nitya went into some kind of serious thought. Then I looked at Arjun and informed him, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Niti and I are here," he assured, his words promising they wouldn't allow anyone to break her slumber or disturb her even a bit. I gave him a curt nod before heading to the adjacent mansion. I needed to talk to someone, to give him a piece of my mind, and finally cut that loose end for good.

******

I knew where I would find him. You always find a defeated man hiding from the world in the loneliest corners, places no one wishes to reach. Just as I had anticipated, there he was, sitting on a lounge chair in the darkest corner of the study room, looking like he had just lost a war. Well, losing a daughter may have felt like war to him, but to me, this was just the beginning, not even close to the battles I was used to fighting... or rather, the ones I was thrown into. Moreover, he was the one who stabbed her with the dagger in the first place, so it hardly mattered if he tried to pull it out now. The scar of this wound was etched into her forever, one she would never forget.

The lights of the room were dim, but I could still make out clearly his gloomy face and sunken eyes.

"I warned you, didn't I?" I asked. My voice was low but coated with the venomous anger that had been smoldering inside of me.

Arvind Kashyap jolted out of whatever trance he was in. He got up from the chair and turned to me. His eyes were bloodshot red from crying, and now I could see anger, too.

I could not understand why he was crying, though. 

Was it because of guilt, shame, regret? 

He was a hypocrite for pushing a diamond into the pits of fire and now regretting it. She might have suffered at his hands, but she was no weakling. She was a phoenix who would rise from the ashes.

"What are you doing here?"

How could he show me his anger when everything was his fault from the start? But then, when you lose and have nothing left, you are left with that one sentiment that keeps you alive more than anything else: rage.

"I warned you that if anything happens to her because of you, I will make your life hell." 

I reminded him of my threat from the other night when Simran overheard a part of our conversation. Not only had I threatened him, but I had told him that after the wedding, he would not be allowed to see her ever. But I guess he did not take me seriously. Now it was time to clear the fog and make him face his upcoming brutal reality.

"I was trying to save her from you. You perceive me as evil when it's you. If I had not known about the truth, I would not have known about your reality," he said, his voice broken like a loser. He stood there holding a letter. The words of the letter were not clear except for the term 'Murder'.

I did not care much about that letter, but only what he did a few hours ago. Moreover, I knew what was in that letter. Even if everyone in the world read it, I still would not care about it.

"I did everything to protect her, but ended up pushing her into the den of a monster. But I will make sure I get her back." He seemed a little hesitant but more determined with his statement. He had to be under the influence of alcohol to talk shit like that.

"You are right, I am a monster," I said calmly. My calmness should not have shocked him, but it did.

"I am sure what you heard was only true about me. What you don't know is, once someone steps into my hell, they never come out. Simran is my wife now, and there is no letting go of her, not when I am alive and not even if I die."

"She will suffer because of you," he said, clenching his fists.

"She might, but not alone. Anyone who touches her pain will burn with her."

I will burn with her, more than her.

"I will hurt her, yes. But I will never pretend to care like you."

I will hurt her, but I will make sure the pain I feel is worse than anyone has ever felt.

 I will punish her, and then I will do the same to myself. 

I will be cruel to her, but crueler to myself.

"She is my daughter," he wept, tears streaming down. He took a deep breath before he said, "She will come to me when I show her your true face."

I gave him a smirk. He stood there in utter shock at my calmness. I could have acted strongly, but I chose not to. My calmness was doing things that my anger could not.

"Isn't your indifference toward her rooted in the truth that you are not her father, that she is not your blood? Yes, there was a time when you fulfilled all your duties and rights as a father, but now she is my wife. She wears my name."

I threw the reality in his face like a slap. I was sure he wondered how I knew she wasn't his daughter to begin with, but he had no clue what all I knew. His face went pale as he stared at me as if he were looking at a ghost.

I took a step toward him, then another, and kept treading slowly until I was close, staring down at him.

"I know who she is, Arvind Kashyap."

He went speechless. His grip on the letter loosened, and it fell to the floor. He almost lost his balance in shock, but held the nearby table to steady himself.

"She belongs to me in every sense. You lost her the day you let her fall in front of everyone and chose silence."

He shook his head, then stared back at me with intensified anger.

"I will expose you."

"You want to expose my face? Go ahead. I wear my truth on my sleeve. But what about yours? How will you justify burying her worth beneath your ego? How will you erase the fact that when she was breaking, it wasn't the world that crushed her... it was you?"

The reality hit him hard. The truth he wasn't ready to accept hit him, and it will haunt him forever. He lost one daughter, and I will make sure he loses Dhriti too.

"She will not come to you. She will never walk back to the people who stood still when she was drowning. You pushed her into the pits of suffering when all she needed was to be cloaked in your care. Now, I will make sure she rises stronger than ever, so she can punish you all with her own hands."

He looked at me with regretful eyes, realizing the grave sin he had committed.

"Yes, you will suffer, but by her hands, not mine. And I will make sure every single person who hurt her begs for mercy at her feet."

"Stay away from her. No calls, no messages, no contact. If you even breathe near her, it won't be her anger that destroys you; it will be mine. I don't care who you are to the world. To me, you're just another man who broke her. And I'll burn the world down before I let you do it again," I threatened.

Just then, I heard footsteps. We turned to the door and saw Ishaan enter. He looked at Arvind with worry, but then it was replaced with anger when he stared at me.

I didn't want to witness any more drama, so I left the room instantly. I didn't need to repeat myself or warn the others to stay away from my wife. Arvind Kashyap could do that for me. He would pass on my warning. And no, it was not an empty one.

******

I was used to whispers following me, so they never bothered me. I always kept a quiet, poker face around those who gossiped about me, either because they lacked drama in their own lives or had too much of it. Most of the whispers and rumors came from people whose partners were cheating on them, or who were already suffering and didn't know how to process grief, or simply those who were jealous.

I had observed them all, their patterns, and stayed silent... until I needed to destroy them.

Like once someone dared to say something about my sister, my Dhriti. I spiraled and exposed her affair to her husband. Now, she's barely living, wishing to die.

When it came to me, I could let it go. But when it came to my people? I was someone to be feared, not ignored in the shadows.

And now, these so-called relatives of mine were at it again, this time, trying to make my wife their target.

They were inviting their doom.

When I entered back into my mansion, making my way to my room, I could hear those whispers clearly along the way.

"She is not in a state to travel."

"And who will do their grah pravesh if he takes her now...?"

"He's lost his mind....first he threatened everyone with a gun, and now this..."

"I doubt he's completely at fault... Did you not see how her father treated her?"

"Surely she killed her mother. Otherwise, why would her own family treat her like that?"

"You're right. But Smita's son is no less..."

"God forbid, I always warned Smita that her son was a threat to this world, but she never listened... Now look at what he's doing..."

They either thought I wasn't there or didn't see me coming. All of them were wide awake, gathered in the house to feed on more drama.

"They should have given him up after birth, not his..."

When I finally came into view, their faces went pale, and they scurried away, probably to hide, knowing well I was, in fact, the threat to this world, just like that relative said.

As I neared my room, I heard my mother's voice coming from inside.

"I... I'll go with them even if he doesn't listen. Simran needs someone by her side, and I can't leave her in that state."

She grew quiet the moment I stepped inside. Everyone's concerned gaze landed on me. I knew they didn't want me to leave, but no one said a word. No one tried to stop me. Not that I would've listened, anyway.

Niti came to me holding a small bag.

"Everything is packed in this bag. The rest of her stuff will come tomorrow with Namit and Dhriti. Dhriti is a little sick, so they're staying."

I nodded.

"Kiaan, your mother and I will tag along," Dad added.

I didn't mind anyone coming along. I simply didn't want anyone trying to stop us. And I sure as hell didn't want any more rituals.

"There won't be any rituals, if you think...." I began.

Dad cut me off, clarifying firmly, "We'll just come along for Simran. And no, there won't be any rituals."

"We don't want to leave either of you on your own," Mom added gently. "Besides, it'll be too much for you to handle everything alone."

"My wife will never be too much for me to handle," I replied, meaning every single word.
She could erupt a chaos or be the inception of war, yet she would never be too much for me. She was what I needed: my drug, my addiction, the morphine I craved.

"Dhruv..." Dad called.

Dhruv looked at my father and assured him, "Namit and I will handle everything here. You guys go ahead."

Dhriti was sitting beside Simran on the bed, caressing her hair lovingly, while Namit stood nearby. When I walked over to my wife, Dhriti looked up at me, emotions flooding her eyes as she took in Simran's condition.

"Shouldn't we wake her up?" Dhriti asked softly, her eyes already moist.

"No," I said.

If she were to wake up now, demons would be waiting for her. And as much as I would slash every single one of those demons, she needed to remain numb for a while. She needed to be unaware that the demons were still lurking, still waiting for her to open her eyes.

I swiftly scooped Simran up in my arms. Dhriti stood as well. She wanted to speak, but her throat was clogged with emotion. I hated seeing my sister like that, but I knew Namit would take care of her. When she couldn't get her words out, she turned around and hugged Namit, sobbing into his chest. Namit gave me a curt nod as he held her tightly.

And I walked out of the room with my wife in my arms.

******

Simran

******

FLASHBACK [The Day of Rina Kashyap's accident]

******

"You think you will be fine after seeing a therapist?" Mom asked me.

Eventually, after the heated argument that same morning and all those crying sessions, Dad consoled me just like he always did. He listened to me about my nightmares, my feelings, and never for once doubted me, just like always. He bridged the gap a little between me and my mother, convinced her to go with me as I had wanted. So now, here I was going to see a renowned therapist with my mother by my side. We had not talked to each other half the way, and now, finally, she spoke and chose to ask me the one question she should not have. But her tone was gentle, like it used to be before, and not the one she used that morning. I did not know how Dad managed to bring my old mother back, but I was really, really grateful to him.

"I don't know. But I want to try. I don't want to die with the fear of those nightmares, thinking I never tried helping myself." I replied honestly.

"Simmi, nothing will happen to you." Mom gently stroked my hair, and my eyes almost got teary when she said, "I will never let anything happen to you."

I blinked away my tears before turning towards an alternate route to the therapist. There was some construction work going on in the usual path, hence, I had to take the route I did not prefer much.

"You know what, let's stop at your favorite cafe on the way first. We will have a frappuccino, and I promise I will listen to whatever you want to tell me, whatever I have been ignoring till now."

I gave a confused look at Mom before looking at the road.

"You don't even like frappuccinos," I said before I pouted. I always wanted for mom to try it, but she never did.

"I will have it today. Besides, anything for my daughter. You can even rant to me about me." The idea was quite tempting. Besides, she was ready to listen to me just as I wanted.

"You promise? No going back on that? And you won't convince me not to see the therapist?" I asked hopefully.

"I will do whatever you want me to, my little princess, and I am sorry for not listening to you before." She gave me her warmest smile, causing me to grin.

"Okay..." I squealed a little. I would have hugged her tight, but I could not, as I was driving.

My favorite cafe was a few meters away on the same road. When the cafe came into view, I tried applying the brakes, but they did not work. I pressed it harder the second time, but they still did not work. The cafe passed by, and panic started to seep inside of me.

"Simmi...the cafe passed by, stop the car." Mom said, giving me a questioning look.

"I am trying, Mom..." I said, and tapped the brakes with my feet multiple times until the realization finally seeped in. Fear crawled inside of me like a monster's veins running through its course in my body.

"Mom..." I whispered as I looked at my mother with a blanched face. Tears clouded my eyes, and my heart started thumping in fear.

"Mom, the brakes aren't working. They..." I stopped in mid when I saw the fear projected on my mother's features. I could not let anything happen to her.

"Mom, hold tight, okay?" I said before driving straight ahead. The road was all clear, and all I needed was a ramp so that the vehicle would slow down or stop. I had seen that happening in movies. I was not losing hope.

"Mom, call Dad, the cops, and the ambulance. Inform them of our situation." I knew one thing that we were not going to come out of it unscathed, but I was not letting any of us die.

We will get through this. We will get through this.

I kept chanting that mantra in my head, hiding the intensity of my fear from my mother. A car nearly passed by ours, and my heart leaped out of my mouth, but I did not show it at all.

I did not hear Mom calling anyone, so I glanced at her. She sat there in shock. Her phone was on her lap, but she had not dialed anyone's number.

"Mom, what are you doing? We don't have time." I shouted for her to come out of shock as I gripped the steering wheel tighter. A crossroads was coming in a few kilometers. It's a place where multiple accidents have taken place. I thought about changing my route, but for some reason, every other alternate way we passed by they were blocked because of some construction work.

"Mom, please...call Dad at least," I screamed. This time, I could not stop tears from streaming out of my eyes. Mom jolted because of my scream, but she still did not pick up her phone. She turned to me, eyes filled with tears, too, a sad smile plastered on her lips.

"Simmi, you need to listen to me carefully..."

"We don't have time for that," I yelled. I could not hold my fear inside anymore and sobbed. I did not want to die, I did not want my mother to die.

"Simmi, you need to listen to me..." she said resolutely.

"I won't survive, honey. I will not survive today's fall, but you will." She said as if she could see the future. I did not want her to lose hope and decided to take matters into my hands. Just when I was about to grab her phone from her lap, with my right hand on the steering wheel, she did not let me.

"Simmi, beta, listen. When I die, I want you to find a letter in the lower drawer of my bedside cabinet. There is a secret passage under the drawer, which you will find out easily. The code to open that secret safe is 7867. Read that letter and promise me you will take care of yourself. Promise me you will never become like ...." I was about to hit a car, but my focus immediately moved to the road, and I steered right, saving us.

"Mom, what are you saying? What letter? And why would I promise you something like that? Nothing will happen to us, Mom. Just call dad or let me call him, please...." She did not listen, did not pay attention, as if something had changed in her. But her smile did not falter. She kept smiling at me with tears in her eyes.

"Simmi, jump off the car..." I sobbed harder when I heard her say that.

How could she? How could she even think I would leave her behind and save myself?

"No..."

"No..."

I shook my head vigorously, driving straight. The crossroads was now in close vicinity. I knew our car would crash there, but I was not ready to give up.

"Simmi, I said jump."

"I am not leaving you." I screamed. My throat was clogged and burned with emotions. Before our car could reach the crossroad, Mom hurriedly took off her seatbelt, and mine too. She pushed me out of the car before taking my place in the driving seat. My body rolled on the road, and my head hit the footpath. Vehicles behind us skidded, and some stopped abruptly. People started rushing toward me. I tried getting up, but I guess I was hit in too many places to even lift a finger. Lying there, though I could still see my car, I could see Mom driving it recklessly. She drove faster and then crashed into a truck intentionally, causing the car to explode right in front of my eyes. I could not even scream, could not utter a word. My blurry vision could see the car going up in flames, but I could neither ask the people nearby to save my mother, nor could I go there myself. I just lay there lifeless, bearing the pain of losing her until my body gave up and my eyes shut.

My mother was gone, all because of me.

******

Kiaan

******

We had landed in a few hours and headed straight to Grandpa's place. Everyone had stayed back except Arjun, Nitya, and my parents. Arjun and Nitya had decided to stay with us for the night. I had swiftly laid Simran on our bed in my room upstairs, and now here I was, sitting with everyone in the drawing room.

"I want you guys to stay here for a few days, like originally planned," Mom said, sounding desperate, wanting both Simran and me to stay as planned earlier. But that plan wouldn't work now. Ideally, the chaos wasn't supposed to erupt, and then it would have been fine for us to stay. But after that incident, I didn't want to. Besides, I knew that the more she was surrounded by my family, who would try to coax her like a baby, the more suffocated she would feel.

Still, those were all secondary reasons. There was one primary reason no one knew about. And heck, I would never let her live in that house, where evil resided, too.

"Your mom is right, Kiaan. You guys should stay." Dad concurred with her.

"We are not staying. The moment she comes to her senses, we will leave for our place."

Arjun and Nitya sat there in silence, knowing well that convincing me was an impossible task. I knew they were fine with whatever, as long as Simran's health got better.

"She needs people," Dad said.

"She needs me."

Dad would have tried to reason with me, but then all of a sudden, a scream resonated through the walls of the house. It was Simran.

I got up hurriedly and rushed upstairs to the room where she was. Just as I stepped inside, I found her emptying a jug of water on the carpet. She was sitting at the corner of the bed, looking spooked as if she had seen a ghost.

"Simran..." Nitya gasped in shock, standing behind me. Arjun, Nitya, and my parents had followed me to the room after we heard her scream.

My wife looked in our direction, eyes bloodshot, tears streaming down, panic written all over her face.

"There is fire..."

"That's burning..."

She mumbled and then started looking around, on the bed, on the cabinet, as if trying to find something. Before I could reach her, she put the jug on the bedside cabinet, grabbed the glass of water, and threw it at the same spot on the carpet before placing it back.

"Fire... call the ambulance." She kept repeating, her voice was laced with panic.

Rushing to her, I stood right in front of her, blocking her vision of the place she kept staring at. I cupped her face, commanding, "Look at me."

She did look at me. But the woman who looked at me wasn't the Simran I knew. She was someone else, someone who was hollow, broken, unaware of herself.

"Call the ambulance, please," she pleaded while crying.

"There is no fire..." I said sternly.

Hearing me, she lost her cool. She swatted my hands away and tried to escape from my grip. I sat on the bed, holding her tightly in my arms because I knew what was coming next.

"Mom..." she screamed. Her shrill cries pierced thorns into my soul.

"Oh, my darling daughter," my mother sniffled.

"Arjun, please call the doctor," Nitya cried. She stood there, covering her face with her palms, unable to bear the sight of her best friend in pain.

"Dad, Arjun..." I said, and they nodded, understanding exactly what I meant. They took their women out of the room.

"Let me go, let me go..." Simran started hitting me, trying to break free. I held her more firmly, taking each and every hit of hers. I let her do whatever she needed to do, as long as she was in my arms, as long as I got to scare her demons away.

She was hurting, but I was dying.

She was in pain, but I could feel my soul burning to ashes.

She was drifting apart, and I was already crushed to pieces.

"She is dying, let me go..."

She was struggling against me, fighting with all her might, screaming at the top of her lungs. She thought she was at the accident site of the day her mother died. I was not going to let her lose herself. I had to bring her back.

"I am here..." I whispered, tightening my hold more than ever.

"I am here, firefly..." I kept whispering to her, my words reserved for only her to hear.

I wanted her to recognize me, not with her eyes, but with her soul.
I wanted her to remember me, not the beast I had become, but the boy who once smiled because of her.
The boy who had taken a leap of faith to fight monsters because she held his hand.
The boy who became an ace, just for her.

"Your monster prince is here..." I whispered as she kept fighting against my strength.

"My mom is dying... let me go..."

"Please... please... let me go..."

She sobbed and cried. The crystal studs of her bangles pierced my palm during her frantic struggle, but I felt nothing compared to what her condition was doing to me. I didn't loosen my grip. I held her so tight, like my life depended on it. Like losing her would mean throwing her back into the very pits I had once pulled her from.

"Let me save her... please. Let me save my mom."

It wasn't her mother who needed saving; it was her. My firefly. The woman who once saved me, and then killed me herself.

"I will save you this time, I promise," I mumbled into her hair.

But her state kept worsening.

"Arjun..." I shouted.

Arjun returned to the room in no time.

"Give her the sedative."

Without questioning, he pulled the injection from the bag Nitya had packed with medicines. I kept holding Simran tightly so Arjun could inject her.

I held her wrist firm as Arjun tried to find the vein.

"Save her..."

She whimpered in pain in my arms the moment the needle went into her, and I hated every second of it. She wept like a baby, her body loosening now as she stopped struggling with each passing second.

"Shhh... it's okay... it's okay..."

"It hurts..." she mumbled, with emotions gripping her throat.

To others, it might have seemed like she was talking about the physical pain from the needle, but I knew her well enough to understand that what truly hurt her was the pain in her heart. The pain of losing her mother. The pain of losing the woman she worshipped and loved. She loved her mother so much that, despite being aware of the truth, she had buried that painful memory deep within her mind and replaced it with a story she had crafted in her head.

"Please..." she pleaded, drifting away into an unconscious state again.

Arjun gave her a sad look, and I knew he was angry too, for he cared about her, perhaps even more after he had done the kanyadan. 

When he left, I whispered to her, "Everything will be fine. I will make everything great for you. Everything will be perfect."

I sat there holding her in my arms tightly, even when her body went limp, even when her eyes shut again, even when she was no longer in her senses. I sat there holding her close, so close... yet she felt so far from my reach, like we resided in two different galaxies.

I lay her on the bed, my body simmering with anger, and I needed to channel it. I knew I would lose it and kill someone if I didn't find a way to pour this rage somewhere. I couldn't go out and torture someone. I couldn't go to a race either. Going out was out of the question. I couldn't leave Simran behind, not when the risk was too high. So, relying on medicine made the most sense. I pulled some of my old meds from the bedside cabinet and gulped one down. I hated relying on medicines, but that was my best bet.

The pill didn't erase the rage, but it dulled the sharpness. I sat on the edge of the bed, my fingers brushing her hair away from her face. She looked too delicate to have survived the day, yet she did. She always did. My beast wanted blood. But tonight, my war was with silence, with restraint, with not letting her wake up to chaos again. So I stayed beside her, guarding her like the beast I was: Quiet, coiled, waiting.

The wedding was over. But the real storm had just begun.

******

Hi Lovelies, 

I hope you all are doing well. 🤗

I am sure no one saw the plots of this chapter coming. 😌

Simran is not Arvind's daughter, but how come she has been with the family for this long, and no one knew about it? 🤔

If you guys notice, I have dropped some major spoilers in this one -- if you guys could read between the lines 🤫

Trust me when I say this, no one is ready for what's coming next, but...but...but...rest assured, you guys will also see the human side of our beast. 🥹

Kiaan's flashbacks from his past start from the next chapter onwards. Stay tuned. 🤗

Do share your views about the chapter. It would mean a lot to me. ❤️

Thanks,

Shrishtee