How can someone be this attractive?
How can I even call this love? Is it love? Or is it something else? Something darker? Something deeper?
I don’t know.
But when I saw her, panicked, lost, vulnerable everything else ceased to exist.
All I wanted was to hold her, to pet her, to never let her go.
And that’s exactly what I did.
For all this time, it was just me, her, and Vikram. My dear twin. My blood. My shadow.
I kept her away from everyone, made sure no man even dared to lay eyes on her. I was careful. Meticulous.
No one saw her in the dark, no one even breathed in her presence without my permission. How great of me.
And yet, how stupid of me.
I never saw it coming.
My own twin. Vikram.
He had only one job and that is to be near her, to protect her in my absence. And he used that to his advantage.
The fool. The coward. The quiet one who never knew what it was like to live, always lurking in the corners, watching, waiting. What did he ever have that made me jealous?
Nothing. But him?
He envied me.
He always did.
He was jealous of my life. My freedom. My choices. He was jealous of Anika.
And he played his cards so well.
When I told him, when I confessed to him that she was mine, not now, not yesterday, but from the moment Anika stepped into my life, he still had the audacity to take her from me.
He was waiting.
He was always waiting.
And the moment I turned my back, the moment I gave him the responsibility of being near her, protecting her, he used it.
He made her fall in love with him.
Jokes on me...
The stupid one here isn’t him. It’s me.
But don’t worry, brother. I’ve always been one step ahead.
And this time, I made sure you lost.
The moment Vikram and Anika announced their engagement, something inside me snapped.
I saw nothing but red.
Everything blurred. The voices, the smiles, the claps it all became background noise as I watched the love of my life stand beside my brother, wearing a ring that should have been mine.
The next thing I remember, I was back at home, my breath ragged, my fists clenched, and the wreckage of my fury lying around me.
Furniture shattered. Glass cracked. The very foundation of the house shook with my anger.
How could this happen?
How could my own brother, my own blood, betray me like this?
And so, I hunted him down.
The moment I saw him, I didn't hesitate. I didn't speak. I swung my fist straight at his face.
The impact was satisfying. His head snapped to the side, blood trickling from his mouth. But I wasn’t done.
I grabbed his collar, slamming him against the wall. “How could you?” I growled, my voice filled with pure rage.
“She was mine! You knew she was mine!”
