Ayaan sat on the bed, staring at the untouched strip of tablets. His jaw was clenched so tightly that a vein pulsed at his temple. He didn’t blink, didn’t move, just kept staring. His grip tightened around the strip.
“So her panic attack has nothing to do with me… then what could have happened that night that pushed her into depression and cause the panic attacks ? Still… I need to confirm if I’m her salvation or her trigger.” he thought.
Ayaan returned home late in the evening, his mind was a storm, he couldn’t silence. He went straight to his study without looking for her.
Meanwhile, Zara had stayed in the balcony for hours. The bedroom suffocated her, everything in it screamed of Ayaan… and the woman, his first dead love. She had seen his car enter the gates, but she didn’t move. She just sat there, hugging her knees, staring at the garden below.
By 10 p.m., Ayaan finally entered the room. It was completely dark. He turned on the lights, and the first switch he pressed lit up the photo on the wall. He looked at it for a few seconds with a frown and then he turned it off and turned on the rest of the lights. He glanced around, searching for Zara and walked toward the balcony and found her curled on the couch, lost in her thoughts.
Ayaan cleared his throat softly and Zara looked at him calm, composed and guarded.
“You’re a bad wife, Mrs. Ayaan. You didn’t even come searching for me. Seems like you were enjoying my absence. But don’t worry… I’m back. Let’s have dinner.” he said with a faint teasing smile.
Zara simply nodded and walked past him but before she could leave, Ayaan wrapped his arms around her from behind.
“Won’t you ask where I’ve been all this while?” he murmured near her ear, his lips brushing her ear shell.
“I don’t think I have any right to question you. Why bother… when I know you must have gone to find something against me? Or maybe you were brainstorming new ways to torture me mentally or psychologically. Either way, I haven’t failed any duty you expect from your wife. So… let’s just go have dinner.” she replied and her voice was steady but hollow.
She stepped out of his hold and walked away.
Dinner was painfully quiet. No words. No expressions. Only Ayaan’s eyes silently trailing her every movement.
Back in the room, they changed into their nightwear. Zara chose the couch again. This time, Ayaan didn’t stop her. He lay on the bed, wide awake, staring at her back. Past midnight, he noticed her breathing turn ragged, shallow and uneven.
“Don’t… don’t touch me… let me go…” Zara started screaming, her body jerking violently as panic overtook her.
Ayaan shot up and rushed to her side. Her hands were trembling in the air, searching blindly and desperate for something.
Before Ayaan could speak, her fingers brushed against the chain around his neck. She instantly clutched the pendant with a death-like grip, panting, shaking, fighting for breath.
Ayaan gathered her into his arms, holding her firmly against his chest.
“Zara… calm down. I’m here. You’re safe. Nothing will happen,” he whispered, his voice breaking and his lips pressed against her temple.
Slowly… very slowly… her breathing eased. He carried her to the bed and pulled her into his arms, holding her close. That was when he noticed, she was gripping the pendant on his chain as if her life depended on it. And suddenly, everything made sense. She had been holding onto the locket… because it felt like holding onto a piece of him. A piece that kept her panic and darkness under control.”
Ayaan brushed her hair back gently, kissed her forehead and watched her sleep peaceful only in his arms.
“This is your place, Mrs. Ayaan,” he whispered, his throat tight as he held her closer.
Sleep slowly pulled him under and both of them tangled together.
Two days passed in the same routine. They ate three meals together, Zara quietly enduring, Ayaan silently burning. He was losing his mind as every resource, every lead, every angle was a dead end.
As usual, Ayaan was in his study holding a glass of whiskey in hand, when Zara entered.
“It’s late… aren’t you hungry?” she asked softly.
Ayaan set the glass down and stepped toward her. His fingers gripped her chin, tilting her face up to his.
“I run a business empire that commands top global brands. I deal with politicians and sharks who tremble with a snap of my finger and you think you can stay silent and play me forever? Who the hell are you, Zara? What is the reason behind targeting my family ? ” he growled in a voice low yet dangerous.
“I think we’ve had this discussion already, What difference will my words make when you’ve already made your conclusions? Come… let’s have dinner. I’m hungry.” Zara replied quietly and turned to leave.
Ayaan slammed the door shut and caged her between his arms, against the door.
“I’ll give you one chance, one chance to confess everything. One chance to convince me you’re innocent. I swear, I’ll stop everything. I’ll give you back your freedom if you ever had one.” he said, his voice was low almost like he was pleading.
Zara looked into his eyes, searching… and found no lies. Just conflict. Pain. And a strange vulnerability he was desperately trying to bury.
“What do you want to know, Ayaan?” she asked softly.
“You say you love me. But we never met except the night I saved you. So how did you fall in love with me? How did my chain end up with you ? Do you work for someone ? What was the motive behind the blast? And what the hell is your plan now, if you have one ?” He asked and dragged a frustrated hand through his hair. “Just… answer me, Zara. Confess the damn truth.” he screamed but Zara felt the vulnerability in his voice that he had finally given up.
“I will answer, but I need answers from you too. Will you?” Zara asked, voice trembling but steady.
Ayaan’s eyes locked on her. “My answers depend on what you confess… but yes. I’ll answer.”
Zara nodded.
” I did not steal your chain. To begin with, I’ve seen you and your family in the news and social media, but the first time I truly saw you… was the night you saved me. I was running for my life that night. Men were chasing me. I… I got hit by your car. You could have left me there but you didn’t, you held me. Your chain slipped out and dangled in front of me. Your eyes…” she paused as her voice broke, “your eyes held concern. Worry. Something I had never seen in my life. You carried me in your arms and I remember holding something tight in my palm. I felt safe… protected… for the first time. Your eyes and warmth was the last thing I remember before I lost consciousness. That was the first time, someone ever held me in arms, looked at me with care “
She looked down at her hands as the incidents of the night still terrified her.
“When I woke up, I was alone in the hospital room but your memory remained. I opened my fist and found your chain. I knew I had to run… again. So I wore a mask and escaped that very night. Whatever happened that night, it hurt me deeply. And it’s something I’m not ready to talk about.” Zara finished and looked anywhere but him.
Ayaan’s heart clenched. He expected……no, he needed her to confess, he wanted to know what happened before she was hit by his car.
“Did those men try to harass her? Assault her? Kill her?”, the thought alone made his jaw lock, fury tightening every muscle.
“Don’t make me repeat my fucking questions,” he growled.
“I did not kill your girlfriend but yes… I was indirectly the reason she was killed.” Zara whispered in a trembling voice.
The moment those words left her lips, Ayaan slammed his fist against the door beside her. Zara flinched, eyes squeezing shut, his harsh breathing filling the room like thunder. Both their eyes brimmed with tears.
“I need answers,” he whispered as his throat tightened in pain.
“The man you saw in the photo… he’s my father. I was left at an orphanage when I was five Growing up, I had no memories of my parents. I was an introvert. I didn’t speak to anyone. I just… studied. That’s all I had.” she said and her fingers trembled as she clasped them together.
“On the day of my convocation, a man approached me on campus and told me he was my father. I thought he was lying so I avoided him. But he kept appearing… in places where I’d least expect. Months later, I saw him waiting near my office at night, as always hiding . I finally agreed to meet him near a park after closing time because he didn’t want anyone to see us.”
Zara blinked rapidly, pushing down old pain before she continued further.
“He showed me photos of me, him, and my mother. He said keeping me with them was dangerous… that my life was at risk. He claimed he left me at the orphanage to save me. I was devastated, angry. I screamed at him for abandoning me. That’s when he told me he had an identical twin. A twin who was involved in doing illegal things. His brother stole a huge amount of money from some big-shot criminals and ran away. They caught my father instead and demanded he work for them. He refused and lived in hiding.”
Ayaan’s eyes narrowed, but he stayed silent listening to her.
“He only wanted to see me because he feared he wouldn’t live long. Even though I finally had my father, I couldn’t be happy… we couldn’t meet in public. He never held my hand. Just a few stolen minutes where he shared his fear of dying.”
Zara took a deep breath.
“One day, after returning from work, a group of men grabbed me and sprayed something in my face. I lost consciousness and when I woke up I was in a room and my father was tied to a chair. They harassed me… threatened him… forced him to take up the work his twin brother had abandoned. He refused again. They even tried to rape me, but I struck one of them with a bottle, and the blood drew everyone’s attention. I used that moment to escape… and I ran.”
Her voice trembled, tears rolled down her cheek. “And that… that’s when I got hit by your car.”
Ayaan’s chest tightened painfully, he fisted his palm, wanted to find everyone of them and bleed them to death for touching her. He wanted to pull her to his chest and wipe her tears but he waited for her confess everything.
“After that night, my father never met me, I didn’t know what happened to him but I waited for him, I missed him. But life moved on… and so did I. I moved to a small apartment away from everyone’s eyes. I always wore mask, always kept a low profile and stayed away from attention. Three years later, he called me and said that he found a way to fix everything. That the men had found his twin brother and he was assigned a different work that would help us leave the city and that we could finally live together. “, Zara’s voice broke completely now.
“He never confessed who those men were or what work they wanted him to do. The last thing he told me was that he didn’t want to bring any trouble into my life… and that he regretted coming back in my life after all the years he had left me at the orphanage. That was the last time I spoke to him. Two days later, the blast happened. But I don’t know if the man at the airport was my father or my uncle. Every day I waited… hoping he would reach out. Hoping he would tell me it wasn’t him but I haven’t heard from him. Not one word “
Zara’s breathe hitched as a sob broke out.
“Before I met him, I believed I was an orphan. But now… knowing I have a father yet having no idea whether he is alive or dead, it’s unbearable.” Zara said, her voice breaking as tears streamed down her face.
Ayaan gently wiped her tears and pressed a soft kiss to her eyes. He removed the chain from his neck and clasped it around hers, something he had intended to do after he found it had been a piece of himself she held onto. For a fleeting moment, Zara felt a spark of hope flare inside her, a fragile wish that he believed her… that things might finally change.
Ayaan pulled her into his chest and murmured, “Let’s sleep, Mrs. Ayaan. It’s already late.” He started toward the bed, but Zara’s faint whisper halted him.
“Ayaan… you aren’t saying anything. Please… say something.”
Ayaan paused, turned, and looked straight into her eyes. “Wish what you said you were true and I could believe you. Everything you said sounds too filmy. I have DNA proof that you are that man’s daughter. You could have simply ended it by saying your father did that blast, shattered my family, and destroyed my life… all to save you. Now I would do my investigation” he said with an exaggerated breathe.
Zara felt her blood freeze. “Ayaan…” she whispered, stunned and her voice trembled.
He didn’t respond. Instead, he scooped her into his arms and held her close. “It’s okay, Mrs. Ayaan. Let’s sleep.”
“Let me go, I don’t want to be near you if there’s no trust between us.” she choked out, pushing weakly against him.
He tightened his hold around her, refusing to let her move an inch. “Sleep. This is your place from now on.”
With those words, the last fragile thread of hope inside Zara quietly shattered, while Ayaan held her in silence, praying that everything she had said would be true and that he could find the truth at the earliest possible.
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A/N:
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