“Oh My God… Sir… Are you okay?” were the last words I heard before everything faded to black.
I awoke in a hospital, surrounded by an intense security detail and a heavy police presence.
“Where is Shivi?” I asked, looking directly at Mr. Patel, the head of my security.
“We need to talk about that, sir…” he said, motioning for his men to give us some privacy.
“About what? Just tell me, where is she? Is she okay?” I felt a surge of anxiety mixed with the sharp pain in my ribs as I tried to raise my voice.
“We couldn’t find her, sir.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t find her?” My frustration was mounting, but the pain held me back from fully expressing it.
“She left…” Mr. Patel hesitated, his eyes avoiding mine.
“Left where? Check her apartment, her office, her friends, her colleagues… What do you mean, ‘left’?” I was teetering on the edge oflosing control.
“We checked everywhere, sir… And…” He still couldn’t meet my gaze.
“Spill it, NOW!” My patience snapped.
“We checked her up again this morning. She… uh… she was an agent.”
“What agent?” My hands trembled with a mixture of shock and rage. “She was a scientist… You checked her out, remember?”
“Sir, everything about her identity was fabricated,” Mr. Patel replied, his voice steady but somber. “She was an undercover Russian agent, assigned to keep an eye on you. He stood up and handed me the iPad he was holding. “Look here… Her real name isn’t even Shivanya Patel. She faked everything—her name, her job, her family, her background, and… even her feelings for you.”
“Get the hell out,” I barked, my voice laced with venom.
“Sir, please, calm down…” Mr. Patel tried to reason with me. “We’re working on it. The government’s involvement is making this more complicated, but we will find her.”
“I said, GET OUT!” I shouted, unable to contain the fury boiling inside me.
“Sir, there’s one more thing,” he hesitated, but pressed on. “The people who attacked you today… they were after her. Those men were mafia, tracking her because of a deal she was involved in. I’m deeply sorry, sir. We did everything by the book, but she was that good. We’ll find her within 24 hours, I promise.”
“NO!” I shouted, feeling the fire in my chest spread to my veins. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the edge of the bed. Who was I really angry at? Shivanya Patel? My Head of Security? Or myself for being so blind? I spent every night and morning with her, and I still didn’t see it. How could I have been so foolish?
“No one will try to find her…” I said, my voice suddenly cold and resolute. “And you… I don’t want your so-called security anywhere near me.”
Another person had left me… just left. No goodbye, no explanation. As if I didn’t even deserve that much.
Why am I thinking about this now?
I opened my eyes and stared at the dark ceiling.I can’t afford to feel anythingagain.I repeated it to myself, hoping it would make the feelings go away.
But for the first time in a long while, it didn’t work.
____________
7 ♥?Kiara
The morning breeze carried sand and salt—and the lingering sting of last night’s silence. The ocean was wild today as if it knew I needed a place to absorb the chaos. I hugged my knees, the sand cool beneath me, grounding me even as my mind raced.
I replayed Manav’s words from last night over and over, unable to shake the sting.
“We aren’t… friends.”Seriously?
It shouldn’t matter this much. But for some reason, it did. And then there was my phone, lighting up every few seconds with Vihaan’s messages. The words on the screen blurred into meaningless strings of letters.
