Author’s POV
The sound of the car faded into the distance, but the weight it left behind did not.Aayansh remained where he was, standing in the middle of the empty road, headlights still slicing through the darkness. His hands were clenched at his sides, jaw locked tight not with panic, but with restraint. The kind of restraint that came from realizing something had gone terribly wrong.
The stalker hadn’t run.That alone changed everything.
Men who were caught panicked. They made mistakes. They disappeared.
This one had smiled.
The mocking salute replayed in Aayansh’s mind not as a provocation, but as a promise.
See you again.
The words echoed without sound.
Aayansh exhaled slowly, dragging a hand down his face as anger rose first, sharp and familiar. Anger was easy. Anger meant action. It meant control.
But beneath it settled something colder.Unease.
Because the man hadn’t spoken like someone hunting Ruhi.
He had spoken like someone waiting.
For days, he had convinced himself that tightening the circle around her was protection. More security. More presence. Less truth.
But standing alone now, the road silent around him, he was forced to confront the flaw in that logic.
Ruhi wasn’t becoming safer.She was becoming curious.
She was noticing the pauses in conversation. The careful glances. The way answers dissolved into reassurances. And curiosity, when fed by silence, didn’t fade it sharpened.
The stalker knew that.
That was the real threat.Not force. Not confrontation.
Patience.
Aayansh struck the roof of his car once, the sound sharp in the stillness. It wasn’t frustration alone, it was the realization that control was slipping, not because he was careless, but because he was afraid.
Afraid of what she might remember.Afraid of what the truth might take from her.
Or from him.
He got into the car and started the engine, the familiar vibration grounding him as he drove away. But the road back felt longer than usual, heavier with thoughts he could no longer push aside.
If Ruhi remembered before he was ready, If she connected the scar before he could explain it, If she realized that everyone around her knew more than she did.
The danger wouldn’t come from the man in the hoodie.
It would come from the silence Aayansh himself had created. Somewhere behind him, the stalker disappeared into the city.
Somewhere ahead, Ruhi lay awake in the dark.
And between them, something fragile had begun to crack not loudly, not all at once, but enough to change what came next.
This was no longer a matter of stopping someone else.
It was a matter of choosing when the truth would finally surface.
And whether it would arrive as protection…
Or betrayal.
………
Next day Aayyansh office
Aayansh was in his office trying to focus on his work but he couldn't, then his phone rang. It was from the security person who was with Ruhh.
He picked his call and he froze. The pen slipped from Aayansh’s fingers and clattered onto the desk.
For a second, the world inside his office went silent, no hum of the AC, no distant phones ringing, no footsteps outside the glass walls. Just the sound of his own breathing, suddenly too loud.
“What do you mean you can’t find Ruhi?” His voice was low, controlled but there was steel beneath it now. “You were assigned to her. You don’t lose her.”
On the other end of the line, the security officer swallowed hard.
“Sir… we were with ma’am the entire time. When she entered her office building, we stayed right outside, same as always. We didn’t move. Not even for a minute.”
Aayansh’s jaw tightened.“Then how did she leave?”
There was a pause. Too long.
“When we checked with her assistant later, she said ma’am had already left the office. That’s when we reviewed the CCTV footage.”
Aayansh stood up so abruptly his chair rolled back and hit the wall.
“And?”
“We saw ma’am exiting from the back door, sir. A service exit. We weren’t informed about it. We didn’t even know it was in use.”
The word back door hit harder than any shout could have.
A hidden exit. A blind spot. A choice.
Aayansh closed his eyes slowly, pressing two fingers against his temple not because of a headache, but because realization was sinking in, heavy and undeniable.
She hadn’t been taken.She had slipped away.
“How long ago?” he asked.
“About forty minutes, sir. We started searching immediately, but”
“Send me the footage. Now,” Aayansh cut in. “And alert Rishabh. Lock down every route she could’ve taken.”
“Yes, sir.”
The call ended.
Aayansh remained standing, phone still pressed to his ear long after the line went dead. His reflection stared back at him from the glass wall, eyes dark, expression rigid, a man finally facing the consequence of his own decisions.
This wasn’t recklessness.This was planning.
Ruhi had watched them long enough. Learn their patterns. Waited for the moment when protection turned predictable.
She had warned him.
Either you involve me… or I make my own plans.
He grabbed his keys, already moving toward the door, mind racing through possibilities cabs, public transport, familiar places, unfamiliar risks.
And then, uninvited, another thought crept in.
The stalker’s words from the night before echoed like a curse he couldn’t shake.
She’s mine.
Aayansh’s grip tightened around the keys.
“No,” he muttered to the empty office.
She wasn’t his.She wasn’t anyone’s.
But for the first time since this began, Ruhi was out of sight out of the circle Aayansh had built around her.
And somewhere in the city, a man who thrived on patience had just been handed an opportunity.
This wasn’t just a breach in security.It was the moment everything shifted.
Ruhi’s POV
Few hours ago
I was in my office, staring at my screen without really seeing it, when my phone rang.
An unknown number.I hesitated.
Something in my chest tightened instinctively, sharp but I answered anyway.
“Hello?”
There was a pause.
Then
“Hello, doll. Missed me.”
Everything inside me froze.My fingers went numb around the phone. My breath stalled halfway in, like my body had forgotten how to function.
I knew that voice.I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even pretend.
He chuckled softly, like my silence amused him.
“Well,” he continued, unbothered, “it’s time we meet.”
My throat burned as I forced the words out. “And why do you think I’ll meet you?”
There was a smile in his voice now slow, confident.
“Because I’ll tell you who I am,” he said. “And I’ll tell you the truth.”
My heart started pounding.
“The truth is your whole family,” he paused deliberately, “and your boyfriend” he stretched the word, twisting it “have been hiding from you.”
Before I could say anything before I could scream or hang up.The call ended.
I stared at my phone, my reflection faintly visible on the black screen. My hands were shaking now. I hadn’t even realized it until the phone almost slipped from my grip.
Then Ping.
A message.
From the same number.My breath caught as I opened it.A photo.
My stomach dropped.It was him.Standing face to face with Aayansh.Close. Too close.
I could see Aayansh’s rigid posture, the tension in his shoulders, the way his fists were clenched like he was holding himself back. And opposite him relaxed, unreadable, watching him like this was a game he was already winning.
My vision blurred.
Another message came through.
Well… yesterday I met him.
We had a great conversation.
So I thought now it’s time you and I talk too.
The room suddenly felt too small. Too quiet.
So this was it.
This was why Aayansh had been watching me like he was afraid I’d vanish.
Why did everyone tighten the circle around me instead of telling me the truth?
They knew.And they still chose silence.
I looked toward the glass wall of my office toward the main exit where security always stood.
Predictable. Controlled. Safe.
And exactly where he wouldn’t expect me to go.My jaw tightened as something cold and steady settled inside my chest.
If they wouldn’t trust me with the truth, If he thought he could scare me into obedience He was wrong.
I picked up my bag, stood up, and walked calmly toward the back of the office.
Toward the exit no one thought to watch.Because fear hadn’t stopped me.
It had finally pushed me to move.
I didn’t tell anyone.
Not Aayansh. Not my assistant. Not the security standing outside, convinced they were doing their job.
I took the back exit.quiet, unguarded, almost forgotten. The corridor smelled faintly of dust and cleaning liquid, like a place people passed through but never stayed long enough to notice.
My heart was beating hard, but my steps were steady.
Fear didn’t own me anymore. Anger did.
I hailed a cab two streets away and sent a single message to the number.
Where.
The reply came instantly.
He sent me the location.
The ride felt longer than it actually was. Every red light stretched painfully. Every reflection in the cab window made me flinch. My mind kept replaying the photo of Aayansh standing face to face with him.
So they had met.And Aayansh still said nothing.
The cab stopped. I paid, stepped out, and walked into the mall like I belonged there head high, shoulders straight. No rushing. No hesitation.
The parking lot was dim, concrete pillars casting long shadows. The hum of distant engines echoed, hollow and cold. I scanned the rows slowly.
Then I saw him.
Leaning against a black car. Hands in his pockets. Hoodie on. Mask still covering the lower half of his face.
Waiting.Like he knew I’d come.
My pulse spiked but I kept walking until we were standing a few feet apart.
“Remove the mask,” I said.My voice surprised even me calm, firm.
He tilted his head, amused.
“Straight to orders,” he murmured. Then added, almost mockingly, “Not now. You need to know the truth first. Then I’ll show you my face.”
“Now,” I said, swallowing hard. “Start talking.”
He smiled faintly. “You came alone. That already tells me everything.”
“It tells you I’m tired of being lied to.”
Something flickered across his face approval.
“You know,” he said casually, “Aayansh thinks he’s protecting you.”
My jaw clenched. “Don’t say his name.”
“He chased me last night,” the man continued, ignoring me. “Angry. Desperate. Very territorial.”
My nails dug into my palm. “Why are you doing this?”
He took a step closer.
I didn’t move.
“Because you deserve the truth,” he said softly. “And because everyone around you is too afraid to give it to you.”
I laughed short and bitter. “You expect me to believe you’re doing this for me?”
“No,” he said honestly. “I expect you to believe me because I’m the only one not lying to you.”
Silence pressed in around us.
“Who are you?” I asked.
He studied my face for a long moment. Then his gaze dropped intentionally to my wrist.
My stomach turned.
“You’ll remember,” he said quietly. “Soon.”
My head throbbed sharply, pain blooming behind my eyes.
He straightened, his expression hardening just a little.
“Your father’s accident wasn’t an accident,” he said.
The world tilted.
“And the people you trust,” he added in a lower voice, “they know more than you think.”
My chest tightened. Breathing suddenly felt like work.
“The accident was planned,” he continued. “By your mother.”
He stepped closer. Instinctively, I moved back but he caught my wrist, firm but not rough. He bent down and whispered in my ear,
“I’m giving you the proof today. What you do with it after that… is up to you.”
Then he let go.
He placed a file into my trembling hands and walked away without another word.
I stood there frozen.After a moment, I opened the file.It had everything.
Dates. Payments. Statements. Signatures.
Proof.
Proof against my mother.
My vision blurred as I read. I didn’t know how long I stood there, clutching the file like it was the only thing keeping me upright. My mind refused to process what my eyes had already seen.
Then I heard it.Someone shouting my name.
“Ruhi!”
Again.Louder.
But I couldn’t move.Not even an inch.
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