“I’m still at the Shiv temple.”
Just then, her piercing scream tore through the line.
“Mishti!” Karan’s tone changed in an instant. He panicked. “Mishti, what the hell happened?”
The line went dead.
Blood drained from his face as he pulled the phone away, staring at the dark screen. For the first time since he had married her, his heart slammed against his ribs in real paralysing fear. Nothing had ever made his world stop like the sound of Mishti’s scream just had.
****************
Karan drove like a madman. The engine roared down the empty road, his knuckles white on the steering wheel, eyes darting between the road and the phone screen that still flashedCall Failed.
He’d tried calling her again. But her number wasn’t reachable.
“F*ck,” he slammed his hand on the wheel.
Why did she scream like that?Did she fall? Was she hurt? Or worse, had someone dared to touch her? Abduct her? No!! The thought alone sent a violent rage crawling under his skin.
He’d made countless enemies in his life. The idea that one of them could have used her as leverage boiled his blood.
“Damn it,” he muttered, flooring the accelerator.
For a man who’d always prided himself on control, this loss of calm was foreign. He wasn’t supposed to care. Especially for Mishti. Yet every nerve in his body screamed otherwise.
When he finally reached the temple, he parked haphazardly and jumped out, storming up the steps, scanning faces, searching for her. But she was nowhere.
“Have you seen a woman in a pink churidaar?” he demanded from two startled women lighting diyas near the entrance. “She came here a few hours ago.”
They shook their heads. “No, we haven’t, beta.”
The words did nothing to calm the pounding in his chest. He turned, eyes wild, looking around for no idea how long in the temple vicinity, until he finally saw the edge of her dupatta fluttering behind the side stairs.
Without a thought, he rushed toward it.
And there she was. Sitting on the temple steps, hunched forward, her hands clutching her bare foot. For a moment, he was relieved that she was safe, but soon that relief twisted into fury.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he scolded, storming towards her. “I’ve been looking for you like a maniac for the last half hour, and you’re sitting here playing with your feet? What did you scream for, damn it?”
He didn’t realise how harsh he sounded until she lifted her tear-brimmed eyes to him. And that innocent and shaken look was enough to disarm him instantly.
His gaze dropped to her foot. Blood trickled down her heel, glistening in the sunlight. He saw a small shard of glass pierced into her heel. So that’s why she screamed. Wordlessly, he knelt in front of her.
“Karan…” she whispered, unsure what to say as his fingers brushed her ankle, tracing the edge of the wound.
He looked up when she flinched, meeting her eyes with a glare. “Don’t move.”
“But—”
“Don’t,” he said again, lower this time. “This is what happens when people walk barefoot. Now shut your eyes and don’t open them until I’m done.”
Her breath hitched, but she obeyed, trying to focus only on the sting in her foot and not on the man crouched before her. She wanted the glass piece out as much as he did, but what left her bewildered was his sudden concern. Why was he bothered?
Didn’t he make it painfully clear that he didn’t care for her? Hadn’t he said to her that her life with him would be a walk on thorns? Then why was he here now? Why had he called her so many times? Why did he come here looking for her desperately to know why she had screamed?
And now that he knew it was only a small wound, why was he still kneeling before her, carefully trying to take the glass out as if her pain were his own?
Her lashes fluttered, her fingers clutched her dupatta tight as Karan carefully extracted the shard with surprising gentleness. He didn’t know what possessed him to do this…to touch her, to care…but when she winced, his thumb instinctively soothed the spot, rubbing into slow circles that stilled her trembling.
