For a while, she gazed out of the window. I kept stealing glances at her, my hands moving on autopilot as I chopped and stirred. There were moments when our gazes met, and she managed a faint smile, though her wet eyes told a different story.
The bleeding on her arm had stopped, and I’d made sure she took the pain medicine. She tried to act normal, but it didn’t take much to notice her mind was elsewhere.
“Can I ask you something?” I said quietly.
She nodded without a word, her hands fidgeting lightly in her lap.
“How the hell does Rocky know so much about your history?”
Her fingers drifted unconsciously to her arm, where the bandage now covered the angry mark left by the fork. “I have no idea…” she said, taking a shallow breath.
I abandoned the chopping board and circled the counter, stopping just a step away from her. My hands found their way into my pockets, a poor attempt to restrain the overwhelming urge to wipe away the tears that hadn’t fallen, to still her trembling hands, or to tuck back the stray strands of hair falling into her face.
“If I knew… it would help me deal with the situation better.”
She hesitated, her lips parting slightly as if to say something, then closing again.
She kept looking at her hands, her fingers fidgeting with the edges of the counter. Between shallow breaths, she swallowed, “There was…” her voice fragile. “There was… an accident.” Her fingers absently brushed over the bandaged wound on her arm.
“When?”
She closed her eyes briefly. “Six months back… My ex-fiancé, Vihaan, and I were kidnapped from the cruise party two days before our wedding.” Her voice broke, trailing off like the words were caught in her throat.
“You were…what?” I took a step back like I’d been punched.
Her eyes met mine for a fleeting second before darting away toward the window. “Roy doesn’t know any of this… not even that I was kidnapped. I never told him.”
My fists clenched. “You never told Roy? Kiara—are you serious?” I wasvery, veryclose to losing control over my mind.
Her words broke off into shaky fragments, “They wanted me to call Roy and give them access to his project.” Her gaze darted between her hands and the window.
“And…?”
She struggled to continue. “They… attacked me because… because I didn’t call.”
“Attacked you… How, Kiara?” I couldn’t help it—my brain was exploding.
“One of them… he was… holding a knife,” she stammered. “He… cut my skin on the arm…” Her fingers instinctively reached for the bandaged wound. “And then… He threatened to ki…kill me,” she swallowed hard, her voice breaking, “…if I didn’t comply.”
“FUCK…” I muttered under my breath, gripping her trembling hands tightly.
“I didn’t call,” she continued, her voice soft, fragile. “They waited for an hour, and… Vihaan negotiated with them. He offered a few million for his life, and they let him go, but for me… money wasn’t what they wanted.” She took a shaky breath. “One of them… he put a knife to my throat, and then… he got a call.”
“Acall?”
“Yes,” she nodded, her gaze distant. “He was arguing with whoever was on the other side of the line, and then… he let me go. They dropped me back at the cruise after three hours.”
“Wait—” I interrupted, “Your fiancé left you there? Alone?”
“He… was not very fond of me.”
“Fondof you?” I almost growled. “And you weremarryinghim?”
“It was a marriage of convenience,” she replied softly, almost as if she were ashamed of the words.
“Convenience for who?” I shot back.
“My family…” she whispered.
