Shivika SS : The Ties that Bind

Part 9

She came to with a groan, and tasted blood in her mouth. Her left cheek felt numb and sore, and the edge of her lip was stinging with a wound. She clutched her stomach and found no evidence of bleeding, said a prayer of thanks. My Baby is strong. We'll survive this.

The door opened with a bang. Veer strode and pulled her up by the hair.

"You scheming little bitch. I told you not to play games with me! Now see what you've made me do. I never wanted to hit you! You MADE ME do it! WHY!??! Why is everything so difficult with you, damnit?!"

He crowded her to a wall and pinned her between his arms. His face approached hers and she turned away in revulsion, eyes shut in terror. He squeezed her face and turned it back. A large finger pressed her lower lip gently. His hard hand cupped her resistant chin and lifted to his face.

Veer pressed his lips to hers, and she let out an animal cry of revulsion. He grabbed her arms and held them behind her painfully and pressed her body to himself. She bucked madly and managed to land a knee up near his groin. He slapped her hard and her head whipped violently and she fell on to her knees.

He kneeled before her and pulled her hair painfully.

"You will submit to me. You have no other choice. There is no hope. I can wait a very long time. Again, we don't have to be violent about this."

She spat out blood on the floor in revulsion. He sneered, and resumed his cold stance. "See you again soon, my spitfire. Taming you will be fun."

***

Shivaay paced the police station incident room, nervous energy all around. The police worked diligently, tracing down the phone number of the police informer undercover in Veer's covert gang. He had yet to activate his phone to be traced, and the wait was nailbiting. All other leads had turned up cold, Veer had covered his tracks well, not even a papertrail to show where he was.

But then Shivaay requested a new line of investigation. Links between Svetlana Kapoor, Tia Kapoor and Veer Pratap Chauhan. After a frustrating hour, things started popping out of the system. Money exchange and paperwork going back for years.

Earliest mention of Veer Pratap Chauhan was 34 years ago, his birth was recorded in Mumbai. Shock sent members of the family to their feet. His mother was registered as Roop Oberoi.

Shivaay watched as his family paced the floor and slowly spilled the story from years ago. Who was born first and to whom, and who betrayed whom, all stupid meaningless stuff. But they went on and on, and Shivaay became very impatient.

"Stop it! I DON'T CARE who the hell he is. If he is an Oberoi, our COUSIN, why is he after MY WIFE!?"

4 guilty faces looked back at him, a story of unsavoury choices made by selfish people, Shivaay wasn't interested. All he knew was , his Annika is stuck in the middle of a venomous web of revenge and retribution, solely because she was his wife.

He picked up a large ornamental vase and smashed it on the ground. Everyone just stared at him, as he cleared his head.

"Sir !!" a police tech officer jumped from the console towards his superior. "Sir, our informant just sent us this video clip. Only few seconds, but it does look like Mrs Oberoi."

The whole family watched the tiny grainy video. A hidden phone camera footage, of Veer holding Annika's arms back , as she screams and kicked him in the groin. Veer's hands stretched out for a violent slap and Annika fell to the floor. And a sudden commotion, and the camera footage dipped and was shut off.

Shivaay sat on his knees and bent his head to stop the nausea.

Om kneeled next to him, catching his brother in his embrace, to give some strength in his hour of need.