❝The only kind of love I want is one where even if it is just for a short moment, it feels like I have lived a lifetime in that moment with that person. ❞ - Jhanvi Raichand.
**You CANNOT read this as standalone. Read Dare to Be before reading this...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
2.53 To Hell...
I shield Arshiya's face in my chest to keep her eyes from flickering over to the dead body of Narayan Raichand. Even if Arshiya has had a close brush with death twice in her life, she does not need to see it. And I hate, hate, that tonight, anything could have happened. Anything. Despite all the precautions taken her whole life, something could have happened to her and I might not have reached her in time.
She murmurs against my shirt, "home," and I brush a hand over her hair.
Home. Yes.
"Vikas, we're going home." With my family is where I want to be as well.
Aarush suggests, "Aarav, maybe now is not the right time. Let her rest tonight. You can leave tomorrow."
I gather her in my arms and stand on my shaking knees. "She will rest in her own bed. Annie, let's go."
She touches my arm gently, "Maybe Aarush is right, Aarav."
I stick to my decision. It's not just for Arshiya's wish to be home right now. I have to go home too. I need to go home. "There's no way I can tell mom about tonight over the phone."
She understands within a second that I am speaking about Anjali mom. All I want right now is to get home, take my loved ones with me where I know we'll all be safe, and hug my mom. Telling her about tonight won't be easy. She'll have sleepless nights for a while before she'll be at ease again. Heck, I don't know how well I'll sleep either.
Tonight has rattled the core of my being with just the thought that history could have repeated itself. Even if we prevented it and got to Annie and Arshiya on time, it pricked at wounds I thought I had buried. I was too young to know how I felt at the time, but today I understand what dad must have gone through in that single night when Lavanya and Anjali were kidnapped by Shyam.
It's never going to leave me.
. . . ∞ . ∞ . ∞ . ∞. . .
Jhanvi meets us by the entrance as we walk out of the tunnels. She heaves a sigh of relief seeing us all. "Oh, thank God! I was so worried I wanted to come down myself but," she glares at Aarush's men at either sides of the tunnels, "they wouldn't let me. They physically restrained me, can you believe that?"
Aarush stops in front of her, rubbing her upper arm and leaning in to kiss her shoulder. "That's their job."
She scowls at them, "Then we are going to have a long conversation about what your people are allowed to do when protecting me." She then looks past him to see Arshiya in my arms and not far behind me, Randeep has his hand over his bleeding wound. Vikas is supporting Randeep's father. She gasps, "What happened?! We need to get them to the hospital!"
