Fatal Attraction

Part 19

Five minutes.

Five minutes and his entire perspective had transformed completely. From a man driven with madness for a woman, he was a man accepting his emotions, understanding his actions, and realizing himself. The one who destroyed the woman who evoked the feelings lying in the comatose state within him.

Five minutes and he finally found a name for his feelings for her. The irresistible pull, the urge to claim her, and the lately developed concern which made him feel her pain as his own.

Love.

Mad love.

Truly mad love in which the lines between love and obsession had blurred, had amalgamated, and had probably become one without his notice.

The five minutes which Asmita had borrowed from him felt like eons of wait and longing. The wait had finally ended when she appeared in front of him, as she had promised. Her cheeks besmirched with dried drops of lachrymal fluid only anguished him further.

"Y-Yes Sir. Thank you so much for allowing me to freshen up by granting me those five minutes. Please tell me what I will have to do as a part of my punishment for arguing with you."

Her voice oscillating between impassioned pain and extreme formality shook his very insides. Unknown to him, as he confessed the true extent of his feelings for her, he had done just that; he had declared her punishment, which would place her in a state contemptible than she already was,

"I love you, Asmita."

Her expressions revealed nothing and concealed everything leaving no chance for Daksh to guess what was going on in her mind. As Asmita turned around on her heels and walked away, Daksh felt his world crashing around him and his peace walking away along with her.

She could have hit him, punched him, kicked him, or hurled insults at him, but she walked away, and that had hit him the hardest.

The silence which she had left him in echoed the silence which prevailed in her heart, as she had no words to offer for the person who had committed those things she condemned the most.

Daksh leaned back against his table for support as his knees almost gave way and could not support the internal storm in him. The storm of emotions, of regret, and of love, which swore to destroy him from within because of her silence.

His forceful ministrations on her in the rain, his violent and heinous act at Malhotra Mansion, his conscripted marriage with her. Everything in their relationship was by force. How would anyone even believe he was in love with her after listening to the list of his beastly deeds against her?

He wanted to compensate for everything she had endured because of his impulsiveness and recklessness. That want was tearing him apart, ripping his heart with pain, but nothing seemed to strike his mind as if it had gone numb. Numbed by the powerful wave of redemption that struck down everything in its wake.

Suddenly, the question of Asmita's safety arose in Daksh's mind. She had walked out on him but, where was she at the moment?

Did she go home?

Would anyone try to take advantage of her because of her unstable mental state?

Questions flooded and tormented his mind, and the peace of mind felt like the unattainable moon to him. He pulled his phone out and dialed Aman's number.

"Hello, Aman. Do you know where Asmita is?"

Daksh did not give a chance for Aman to greet him and put forward his question in an expeditious tone.

"Asmita Bhabhi? No, Sir. I did not see her since this morning. Do you want me to locate her?"

Aman could not help but feel bad for his boss' wife, forced at every step of her life since she had entered the office.

"I want Asmita's whereabouts as soon as possible. Do whatever you have to do for that." Daksh's worried tone made Aman wonder if this, for once in his life, was a love that sprung in his boss' heart. Agreeing with his boss, Aman disconnected the call and set out on the mission his boss entrusted him with, hoping that she was not in danger of any sort.

"Where are you, Asmita?" Daksh whispered to himself desperately, hoping for some kind of miracle.

Nothing else mattered to him except her safety and her forgiveness now that she had expressed how painful the journey with him has been for her. He could not turn a blind eye to it without his conscience and his heart would not allow him to do that.

He crashed on his chair as he pulled his hair with his dainty fingers to hurt himself, to bring him back into senses which he had lost ever since he laid eyes on Asmita. He did not know when he fell for Asmita; he did not even realize his feelings for her, and yet he broke her in the manner he did. Was there a man more ludicrous and ill-fated than he was?

_____________________________________
Temple beside the office,

The bells rung for the kind goddess reverberated in her heart. She could not decline the effect that the man had on her, but she knew that the effect was not the kind that he had desired.

It was not admiration that warmed her heart with the utterance of his name. It was abhorrence that burned her heart by a mere thought of his.

It was not respect that wound around her heart as she reminisced about his actions; it was fear.

It was not trust that knocked at her tumultuous mind upon listening to his words; it was disgust and disbelief.

It was not love that she felt for him; it was unadulterated hatred.

The person who had snatched her dreams of a wedding, of love and peace, and almost forced her. He was in love with her?

What was that even supposed to mean? How can a person loving her subject her to such deep torment? Was it even love Daksh had for her, or was it another plan of him to make her his?

Her mind and heart refused to cooperate with her and then she did what she does when she was clueless—call her best friend.

"I—I need your help."

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Trust Daksh to name his obsession as love :/