A/N -> Just a tiny request from you all. Please follow me on Instagram 🥹 I post cute AI videos of Kiaan and Simran there. I am sure you guys will love it. 😍

My insta handle: shree_storyteller

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Kiaan

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Her jingling payals chimed through the stillness, stirring my thoughts. It's like the soothing cacophony to my ears. Her existence was itself a melody of my life, now combined with those payals, it brought a soft ache to my heart, which I didn't want to ease. I wanted to feel it more, wanted to suffer more. That suffering was my damnation, and who wouldn't bask in such a tragedy? I would rather pray to be burned into it.

The music of her presence mingled with the tunes of her payals grew louder. I knew she was close now, but I didn't turn. I just sat there on the floor of the front deck with my legs stretched, my arms resting on either side of me on the floor.

I longed to turn around, but if I had, I would have craved to touch her, bring her closer, and would have made her sit nearer, certainly on my lap. I would have kissed her in the night's stillness, with the moon witnessing the most beautiful woman being cherished like the goddess she was. The moon would have felt jealous, and why wouldn't it? There was no one who matched her beauty and grace, no one whose feet murmured music whenever she moved, tapped, or glided as she danced.

I would have let the sky cover us as I brought her to the brink of ecstasy throughout the night, more than once. But I couldn't do that, not now when the enemy had played its move. It was time I gained control, acted like the beast I was, and spilled blood, gallons of it.

Moreover, I had seen how well I could destroy her. One touch and she was bleeding, more would kill her, and then me.

She sat down beside me. My eyes were on the sea getting torn apart by the yacht while her eyes were on me. Neither of us said anything but just sat there in stillness.

I was infamous for destruction. Everything I touched fell apart, turned to ruin. Part of me wanted to color her with the same darkness that stained my soul. I wanted to ruin her the way I was ruined, but not by harming her, but by making her see the real me, the truth no one else ever got to see.

Yet the thought of actually breaking her was something I could never bear. So even when she needed me, even when I was the one she craved the most, and I craved for her too, I had decided to keep us apart, without even asking her, without even telling her.

Soon enough, the port came into sight, and the distance between us and the port decreased significantly. I could see three cars waiting there already.

"We are going back..." she said in realization. The sight had caught her eye, too, now, but I stayed silent.

"I poisoned you..."

She tried to get a reaction from me, but I still didn't speak a word.

She was guilty of what happened, and it was obvious she didn't know how it even happened. But I didn't care if she did it willingly or not because I would defend her even if she willingly did it.

Though I knew she didn't, because she was the target, and I needed to spill the blood of the one who thought hurting her was even a choice. I needed to set a brutal example for everyone out there.

It was time to send a message to my enemies about what happens when someone messes with what belongs to the beast.

Tears spilled down her face, but I just sat there watching the distance getting diminished and the distance of our hearts increasing. When the port was really close, I stood up to steer the yacht manually.

"Kiaan..." She grabbed my hand, and my name sounded like a desperate plea. The touch ignited something in me. It fueled the beast. I felt her pain just from one touch. I yearned to hold her hand back, even when it struck a fire inside me. But if I had held her, I wouldn't have let her go. And killing her culprits was more important than that.

"Not tonight, Simran," I replied, my voice was a quiet and lethal whisper. She left my hand, and I knew she was taken aback. I don't call her Simran often. She wasn't that to me. She was not Simran to me.

To me, she was more; she was the fire that kept me alive, my every breath I took, and every time that poured life into me. But I needed to get my control back, and only one thing could get me that. A death race!! I needed to chase my enemies, too, and that could get my control back.

"Go back home with everyone," I said, with my back still facing her.

"Home?" She whispered.

"Where is my home?"

Her voice cracked, and it wasn't the sound of it that resonated, but the echo that came from within me, as if something had crashed inside of me. Something inside me broke at that moment, and that's when I realized I had something within me that could break as well. I didn't know it until her.

She had changed this beast. She turned this monster into someone with a heart. She had revived my soul, and I could barely recognize myself anymore.

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Simran

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He walked away like I didn't matter, like he hadn't promised me the world and then ripped my heart out. It wouldn't have affected me if he were still the monster I had always presumed him to be. But everything has changed now. He had let his mask slip in front of me, let me touch him when he didn't even let anyone else come close to him.

Tonight, he touched me not as a beast but as the broken man scared to touch me.

It affected me now because I had seen what he was hiding. I had seen the real him. Even if it was just for a brief moment, I saw the vulnerable man hiding behind the facade of a beast, the one who cared deeply, the one broken inside. And that man gave me an ache no one ever did, and it made me realize I had felt that ache before.

His figure was out of my sight, but the ghost of those moments we shared lingered behind, making my eyes teary. But I instantly wiped them off as the yacht now stopped at the dock. I got up, putting on a mask just like my husband. When I walked off the yacht, I found Di and Saavi there. They were accompanied by Namit Jiju, Dhruv Bhaiya, Arjun, and Hredhaan. Enzo and some security officials were also there.

"Simmi.." Di looked at me with concern.

"What happened?" she asked, staring at the band-aid.

I smiled as I replied, "I was feeling dizzy, and I slipped... but I am fine now."

She hugged me gently before gesturing for me to walk towards the car.

I felt his presence looming behind me, but I didn't turn around.

"I will drive. You go sit with Simran at the back." Saavi said to Di and then took the car keys from Dhruv Bhaiya.

In the backseat of the car, I sat beside Di. Dhruv Bhaiya was in the passenger seat, and Saavi was driving. My head throbbed like crazy, and the thoughts of Kiaan made it worse. To find respite, I pulled my legs up and put my head on Di's lap, curling myself into a fetal position.

I barely controlled myself, didn't want to make a fool of myself by letting my emotions take over. I shut my eyes, letting the world go black while I fought with my thoughts to not take control of me until I was alone.

I felt Di's soft rhythmic tap on my head just like Mom used to do it. Trying to hold the last thread of my emotions, I let the darkness take control now.

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I felt a soft nudge on my shoulder. My eyes burned with sleep, so I didn't open them and groaned now, both in pain and tiredness.

"Simmi..." I heard Di's soft voice. Struggling, I opened my eyelids. I noticed I was lying in her lap. The car wasn't moving anymore, and one of the side doors of the backseat of the car was open. Slowly, I got up from her lap, sitting straight. The driver and passenger seats were empty as Dhruv Bhaiya and Saavi had already gotten out before I woke up.

"Come on, we are home..." Di said, smiling, stroking my hair. I nodded and got out of the car, followed by her.

But the same question arose again.

Where is my home?

Was my in-laws' house my home?

No place ever felt like home in three years, but the space I shared with my husband did. He made me feel at home, even when we fought, even when we didn't talk. His place always felt like mine, like my home, our home. Every corner of that house carried the same scent as his, and I never once felt like it didn't want me there.

Each space, each object in that house had welcomed me with open arms, and any other house apart from that felt like a hotel to me, mingled with more than one person's scent and not his. No place ever felt as close to my soul as his place did, as if it was constructed keeping me and my choices in mind.

But what truly made that place home was not the four falls, three floors, and huge garden. It was him. My husband.

I saw Dhruv Bhaiya was hugging Saavi, not letting her go, and then Namit Jiju stepped out of his car and ran to us. He then hugged Di, smiling. It seemed they were not coming inside the house and going somewhere else, that's why giving hugs to their wives. While my man... he just sat in his rumbling car, whose windows were tinted so that I couldn't even see inside.

Namit Jiju was a cold man, but for Di, he was the softest man one could ever meet. Dhruv Bhaiya, on the other hand, was a quiet guy, but for Saavi, he was a chatterbox, who loved rambling, who didn't know how to stop.

I smiled sadly watching them leave their wives behind with love, and the hope that they would meet again soon, while I was left with only an ache.

I felt like I was being watched. I knew he was looking at me, hiding behind the tinted glasses of his car, so I turned my back to it. If he couldn't be man enough to choose me over his demons, then he didn't deserve to even see my face.

His car didn't move from there, not until I was out of his sight. When I eventually walked ahead to go inside the house, I heard his car roar to life. It sounded like the roar of a wounded beast, and the sound died down as he sped away somewhere.

Once I was back in the house, I found Adya Bhabhi, Aditi Di, and Sonia waiting for us in the living room. I struggled to smile at them before walking into my room. I didn't do much once I was inside. I changed into comfortable pajamas and lay on the bed.

My bed stayed cold the entire night, and my pillow was stained with my tears as I sobbed myself to sleep, hugging my knees to my chest. For the first time in this marriage, I didn't feel like I belonged anywhere.

That was why I was trying to be cautious. That was why I wasn't letting the beast in, not letting my guard down.

Because that's what happens when you try softening up to the beast: you get burned all the way through.

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Hi Lovelies,

I hope you all are doing amazing. ❤️

kya laga tha? Kya hoga? That Kiaan wouldn't leave Simran behind? 🥹

But he did the same...which she was scared of. She chose him even when she was in pain, but he didn't. 🥹

What do you all think would happen now? 🥹

Will Kiaan redeem himself or make things worse? 🤔

And what about Simran? Will she ever forgive Kiaan for what he did to her? 🥹

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

P. S -> The next update will be published on Wednesday. 🤗

Thanks,

Shrishtee