The air in my brother's office felt suffocating, thick with something unspoken, something heavy. I stood there, fists clenched at my sides, waiting. The silence between us stretched, a quiet war of will. Then, finally, he exhaled and spoke.
"A year ago," he started, voice calmer now but still guarded, "we got a clue. A whisper in the underworld that you were alive."
I sucked in a sharp breath, my pulse pounding in my ears.
"We searched," he continued, his cold exterior cracking ever so slightly. "I searched. But it wasn't easy. You had become a ghost, hidden so deep that even our most trusted sources couldn't find you."
My stomach twisted. So they had been looking for me. Then why... why had he greeted me with such coldness?
I pushed the thought aside, my fingers twitching as I tried to keep my composure. "And?" I pressed, my voice sharp, demanding.
His eyes darkened.
"Ayaan was the first to get close," he said, and my entire body froze.
My twin brother.
I could barely breathe as my elder brother continued, his tone quieter, almost regretful. "He found a lead—a real one. He didn't tell me, didn't tell anyone. He went after it alone." His jaw clenched. "And he walked straight into a trap."
A cold, sick feeling coiled inside me. "What do you mean a trap?" My voice came out quieter than I wanted, but I could feel the storm rising in my chest.
"The men who did this to you, Aashi, who did this to us, our parents," he said, watching me closely, "they're still out there. And they knew that if we searched for you, we'd eventually get close."
He took a step closer, but I barely noticed. The blood rushing through my ears was deafening.
"Ayaan was ambushed. The men who work under Vikram Chauhan—"
That name. The name of the monster who created me. The one who made me what I am.
A sharp, searing rage burned through me, but I swallowed it down, forcing myself to listen.
"They nearly killed him. He fought, Aashi. You know how strong he is. But they wanted to send a message. They left him alive—barely." His voice dropped to a whisper. "And now, he's in a coma."
I stumbled back, hitting the edge of a chair as my knees gave out.
Coma.
I had seen him with my own eyes. His lifeless form, the monitors, the wires keeping him tethered to this world. But hearing the truth—the way he was hunted, the way they left him like that just to send a message—it made something inside me snap.
I gripped the armrests of the chair, trying to steady myself. "How long?" My voice was hoarse.
"A year," he admitted.
A whole year. My twin—my other half—had been lying in that bed, trapped in darkness, while I had been out there, tearing my way through hell.
I lifted my gaze to my brother, my vision tinged with red. "And you didn't tell me the moment I walked through that door?"
His face hardened. "You don't get to question me, Aashi. You may have become some underworld legend, but you are still my sister. I did what I had to do."
Anger flared in my chest, but beneath it, there was something else—something raw. Pain maybe, I felt my whole body turning numb and blood turning cold, the years of experiments they did on me, but it was nothing compared to what i was feeling after listening all these things.
"You should have told me," I seethed. "You should have told me the second I walked in."
"You were gone for years," he shot back, his voice laced with something unreadable. "You don't get to waltz back in and act like you understand what we went through."
I shot up from the chair, the heat of my fury near boiling. "You think I don't understand pain?" My voice was razor-sharp, shaking with restrained rage. "You think I don't understand what it means to be broken?"
(Umm.. There is a star on the bottom of the page, press it and turn it orange and if you already did, then ignore this, hehehe...)
He didn't respond. He didn't have to. The silence was answer enough.
I turned on my heel, heading straight for the door.
"Where are you going?" he demanded.
I stopped, gripping the doorknob so tightly my knuckles turned white. When I turned back, I let every ounce of the monster they created show in my eyes.
"I'm going to finish what they started."
And then, I walked out, leaving the weight of my brother's stare burning into my back.
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Abhiyansh's POV
The moment the door slammed shut behind her, the weight of everything crashed down on me.
I stood there, unmoving, staring at the place where she had just been. My hands clenched into fists at my sides, but no amount of tension could stop the ache clawing at my chest.
Aashi.
She was alive. She was standing in front of me after all these years, no longer the little girl I once held in my arms, but a force of nature, sharpened by pain and forged in blood.
And I had pushed her away.
I let out a slow, shaking breath and ran a hand down my face, trying to steady the storm inside me. My own sister—my baby sister—had looked at me as if I was just another enemy. And why wouldn't she? I had greeted her with coldness, masked my relief with indifference, and acted as if I wasn't breaking apart inside seeing her like this.
But what was I supposed to do?
The moment I let my emotions slip, the moment I let her see how much I needed her back, she would run straight toward death. She was already planning to. I saw it in her eyes, in the way her body tensed like a predator ready to strike.
I had only one option—to make sure she didn't spiral any further. Even if it meant making her hate me.
I moved toward the bar cart in the corner of my office, my hands shaking as I poured myself a drink. The ice clinked against the glass, but I barely heard it. All I could hear was her voice, cold and venomous. "You should have told me."
She was right.
I should have told her.
I should have taken her into my arms the second she walked through those doors. I should have reassured her that she was safe now, that no one could hurt her anymore.
But she wasn't safe.
Not as long as those bastards were still out there. Not as long as Vikram Chauhan still had power, still had his army lurking in the shadows, waiting for another chance to take away what was mine.
I had already lost her once. I had already lost Ayaan once.
I would not lose them again.
I took a sip of the whiskey, the burn doing nothing to ease the fire inside me. My mind went back to the night Ayaan went missing. The panic that had gripped me when I realized he had gone alone. The helpless rage that consumed me when I found him barely breathing, covered in his own blood, his body broken beyond recognition.
The only reason he was still alive was because of sheer will.
Because he refused to die without seeing Aashi again.
And now she was back.
She was back, and she had no idea how much pain her absence had left behind.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
If I had let myself break in front of her, she wouldn't have stayed. She would have stormed out, consumed by vengeance, and she wouldn't have stopped until she was either victorious or dead.
I couldn't allow that.
Not again.
The past few years had taught me that emotions were a liability. That warmth and kindness could be stripped away in seconds. That the only way to protect the ones you love was to be strong enough to endure their hatred.
If pushing her away meant she would stay, then I would do it again.
Even if it killed me inside.
I gritted my teeth and set the glass down with a hard thud before walking toward the large window behind my desk. The city lights flickered in the distance, mocking me with their emptiness.
Aashi was back in this house. But for how long?
Would she ever forgive me?
Would she ever understand?
Or had I already lost her for good?______________________________
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