Ruhi’s POV
It’s been a week since I started noticing not just Aayansh, not just Rishabh bhai, but everyone.
The way conversations stop when I enter a room. The way eyes follow me like they’re counting my steps. The way silence suddenly feels planned.
I can’t tell what they’re thinking, but I know one thing for sure they’re hiding something from me.
And I know why.
I’ve asked them. Again and again.
“What’s going on?”
“What did you find out?”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Every time, I get the same thing,soft smiles, careful words, excuses wrapped in concern.
“Don’t worry.” “We’re handling it.” “You don’t need to think about this.”
But I am thinking about it. Constantly.
Aayansh has changed the most.
He’s always been protective, but now… this is different.
He doesn’t leave me alone, not for a second. There’s always security. Always someone watching.
He picks me up from home himself. Drops me to the office himself. Some days, he works from my office just so I’m not out of his sight.
And when we’re home, it’s the same. Rishabh bhai. Avni bhabhi. The entire family.
It feels like if their eyes leave me for even a moment, they’re afraid I’ll disappear.
At first, I understood.
I knew they were scared. I knew they were trying to protect me. So I stayed quiet. I adjusted. I let it happen.
But now… it’s too much.
I don’t feel protected anymore. I feel contained.
And what hurts the most is not the fear it’s being shut out.
Like this is my life, my past, my father… and yet I’m the only one not allowed to know the truth.
If they won’t involve me If they won’t trust me enough to tell me what they’ve found
Then I’ll do it myself.
Either they let me be part of whatever plan they’re making…Or I make my own.
Because my father’s accident isn’t just a shadow from the past anymore.
It’s following me.
And this time, I refuse to walk blindly.
So I decided if they won't tell me anything I'll find it by myself.
So I started my own investigation
I didn’t tell anyone.
Not Aayansh. Not Rishabh bhai.no one
That was the first rule I made for myself.
Because the moment I spoke it out loud, they’d stop me.Wrap concern around my wrists and call it love.
So instead, I waited.
I smiled when they watched me too closely. I nodded when they asked where I was going.
I let them believe I was still the same careful, scared, compliant.
But fear doesn’t disappear. It sharpens.
Late that night, when the house finally went quiet, I locked my door and sat on the floor with my laptop.
I didn’t start with strangers.I started with my father.
The accident report. The hospital timeline. The insurance records.Things I’d seen before but never really looked at.
This time, I read every line slowly.
The times didn’t align. Witness statements were vague. And the CCTV footage from the crossing near the accident site?
“Unavailable due to system malfunction.”Too convenient.
My chest tightened.
Then I did the one thing I knew they didn’t want me to do.
I searched for the CCTV footage from the day the note was placed on my car.
It wasn’t there.
Not in the system. Not in the backup folder. Not even in the trash.
My chest tightened.
Rishabh bhai.
He must have deleted it thinking he was protecting me.A bitter smile touched my lips.
I had known something like this would happen.
That’s why I made the backup.
I opened the video again, forcing myself to watch it slowly this time not as a victim, but as an observer.
Frame by frame.
The man stepped into view. Black hoodie. Mask. Deliberate movements.And then just for a second his sleeve shifted.
My breath caught. On his wrist.
A scar.
Thin. Slightly curved. Old.
My fingers trembled as I paused the frame.I had seen that scar before.I was sure of it.
The realization hit me so suddenly that my head started to ache.
A sharp, pulsing pain spread behind my eyes, like my mind was pushing against something it wasn’t ready to remember.
I pressed my palm to my forehead, trying to breathe.
Where had I seen it?
My vision blurred. The room seemed to tilt.
Flashes surfaced unfinished, broken.
“Think,” I whispered to myself.But the harder I tried, the worse it got.
Pain exploded through my head, stealing my breath.
I gripped the edge of the bed as if that would ground me.
Whatever that memory was… Someone had buried it deep.
And now it was fighting its way back.
Tears burned behind my eyes not from fear, but from frustration.Because the truth was right there.
On his wrist.On that scar.
And until I remembered where I had seen it before…
I was standing at the edge of something dangerous, with no idea who would fall first, him, or me.
So I closed my laptop and leaned back against the bed, heart pounding.
They thought I was protected.They thought I was safe.But safety without truth is just another kind of cage.
And whoever was watching me… They had just made one mistake.
They had confirmed I was on the right path.
My head was still hurting so badly that I couldn’t focus on anything.
Then I heard a knock.I flinched.
Quickly, I slid the laptop aside before calling out, “Come in.”
The door opened.Aayansh stepped inside.
The moment his eyes landed on me, his expression changed. His brows drew together, concerned instantly replacing whatever he’d been carrying with him.
He crossed the room in a few long steps.
“What happened, Ruuh?” he asked softly. “Are you okay?”
“Hmm,” I muttered. “I’m fine. Just tired… and I have a slight headache. I was about to sleep.”
He wasn’t convinced.
“Is it bad?” he asked, his voice tight with worry. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
I let out a short, humorless breath.
“Do you tell me everything when I ask you?”
He stiffened.
“Ruuh,” he said quietly, “this isn’t funny. This is about your health.”
“I’m fine, Aayansh,” I replied, sitting up a little. “And I know my own body. But I’m not fine with how you and everyone else are keeping things from me, thinking it’ll protect me.”
He ran a hand through his hair, frustration flickering across his face.
“You need to understand”
“Aayansh, please,” I interrupted, pressing my fingers to my temples. “My head already hurts. I really don’t want to talk about this right now.”
Silence stretched between us.
“I’m going to sleep,” I said, turning away and lying down on my bed, my back facing him.
I felt the mattress dip as he came closer.
His hand rested gently on my head, fingers brushing through my hair with a tenderness that almost made my chest ache.
“Try to understand, Ruuh,” he murmured. “It’s for your own good.”
A soft kiss pressed against my forehead.
Then he left the room.
The door closed quietly behind him.
I stared at the wall, wide awake.
Because the truth was if this was really for my own good…Why did it feel like I was being pushed further away from it?
Unknown’s POV
I watched the light in her room turn off.
Not because she slept. Because she turned away.
That mattered.
Aayansh left moments later. His shoulders were tight, his steps measured, like a man convincing himself he was doing the right thing.
Good.
This was exactly how cracks formed not with shouting, not with betrayal but with protection that started to feel like control.
I had seen it in his eyes earlier. The calculation. The fear dressed up as care.
He thought tightening his grip would keep her safe.
Men like him always thought that.
I leaned back, fingers tapping slowly against the steering wheel as I replayed the night in my head. The closed door. The kiss on her forehead. The silence she didn’t return.
She hadn’t fought him.
Not yet.
But something in her had shifted.
Ruhi was curious now.Unsettled. And more importantly alone inside her own questions.
She didn’t know it yet, but she was already stepping out of his shadow.
Aayansh believed distance from the truth would protect her.
I knew better.
Secrets didn’t protect relationships. They starved them and hunger made people reckless.
I smiled faintly.
She was doing exactly what I had predicted.
Looking. Remembering. Digging.
That headache she thought was stress? It wasn’t.
It was memory pressing against a door that had been locked too long.
She had seen the scar.
Even if she couldn’t place it yet, her mind would circle it like a wound that refused to heal.
Soon, she wouldn’t need me to approach her.
She would start searching for answers that no one around her was willing to give.
And when that happened…She would come closer.
To the truth. And to me.
I wasn’t breaking them apart.I was simply stepping back and letting their silences do the work for me.
Somewhere inside that house, Ruhi lay awake, staring at the dark.
Somewhere else, Aayansh convinced himself he was in control.
And here I was watching both of them drift exactly where I wanted.
This wasn't an obsession.It was inevitable.
Because once a person realizes they’re being protected from the truth…They stop trusting the hands that hold them.
And when that trust cracksThey start walking toward the one thing no one else will give them.Answers.And this time, she wasn’t running away from me.
She was coming on her own.
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