Chapter 22
"You will lose both."
The Master's words settled over the room with a finality none of them had been prepared for.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
The clock on the far wall continued ticking, each small sound suddenly carrying a different weight. Two years had sounded long until the Master had attached death to its end.
Rana stood beside the window with one hand braced against the table. He had already watched his daughter die once. He had refused to accept it when doctors declared Riya brain-dead, refused again when her heart stopped, threatened men who spoke of switching off the machines and stood beside her body until something impossible returned her to him.
Now he was being told that bringing her back had not saved her.
Not completely.
Sharatha sat rigidly on the sofa, her hands locked together. Vikram stood behind her, silent for once. Rajveer had not moved since the Master explained what had happened between Riya and Sruthi.
Dr. Sinha was the first to break the silence.
"When she wakes, what exactly should we expect?"
The Master looked towards him.
"I cannot tell you which memories will rise first. Riya's half held the stronger will to live when the two met at death. Because of that, Riya's memories may surface more easily in the beginning. But Sruthi has not disappeared."
Sharatha's eyes filled.
"Then my daughter is still there?"
"So is Sruthi."
The Master's tone remained gentle.
"You must stop thinking of them as two women fighting for one body. There is no Riya trapped beneath Sruthi and no Sruthi trapped beneath Riya. The division has ended."
Rana's jaw tightened.
"She is both."
"Yes."
Vikram looked towards the ceiling, towards the bedroom where his sister lay under continuous medical monitoring.
"What if she wakes and doesn't remember us?"
Dr. Sinha answered before the Master could.
"That's possible even without any of this. Her head injury was severe. We'll assess recognition, speech, movement and orientation when she wakes. Memory around the accident may be fragmented. She may remember some things immediately and others gradually."
Vikram's expression barely changed, but his hands tightened.
"What if she looks at me and doesn't know who I am?"
The question came out quieter than anyone expected.
Sharatha turned towards him.
For all his violence, all the fury that seemed built into Vikram whenever his family was threatened, this was something he could not fight.
The Master watched him calmly.
"Then tell her."
Vikram frowned.
"Tell her your name. Tell her who you are. If she forgets tomorrow, tell her again."
His voice softened slightly.
"You do not stop being her brother because her memory takes time to return."
Vikram looked away.
Rajveer did the same, though his thoughts were nowhere near Riya.
One sentence from the Master's explanation had lodged too deeply inside him.
One still held the will to live. The other no longer fought to remain apart.
Sruthi.
Rajveer had never met her in person. He knew her through photographs, reports, medical records and, more than anything else, through what she had done to his son.
Druve had smiled because of her.
That alone had once seemed impossible.
A boy who had shut Rajveer, Arav and Karthik out of every vulnerable corner of his life had somehow let Sruthi walk straight through all of it. She had made him laugh, made him care about ordinary things, made him come home looking less like the child who had killed his mother's murderer at twelve and more like someone who might finally believe he deserved a life beyond violence.
Then she vanished.
Seven years ago.
Sruthi and Dev disappeared, and no one knew why.
Druve believed he had driven her away.
Rajveer had never known whether that belief was true.
But now he knew something else.
Wherever Sruthi had gone, whatever had happened during those missing years, she had eventually reached death with so little left inside her that she no longer fought to preserve even herself.
Rajveer's chest tightened.
What happened to that girl?
He didn't know.
And the not-knowing frightened him.
Rana's voice pulled him back.
"And Druve?"
The Master turned towards Rajveer.
"You said there was one person Sruthi associated strongly with safety."
Rajveer nodded.
"My son."
"When Sruthi's memories begin returning, that association may matter. The memories that carry her pain may also carry whatever once made her feel protected enough to endure it."
The Master did not pretend to know Druve beyond what he had been told.
"How you bring him near her is something you will understand better than I do."
Vikram folded his arms.
"Ask him to take over Riya's protection."
Rajveer shook his head immediately.
"That won't keep him here."
Vikram frowned.
"If I tell Druve Rana's daughter is in danger, he'll send enough men to surround this house twice over. He'll redesign the security himself if necessary. Then he'll leave."
Sharatha looked towards Rajveer.
"Then how do we make him stay?"
Dr. Sinha's gaze shifted towards the stairs.
"Her head injury."
Everyone looked at him.
"If Riya had information before the accident, there is no guarantee she could remember it immediately after waking. Memory can return in pieces."
Rajveer understood.
Then Rana did.
Sharatha's expression changed more slowly.
"You want to tell Druve that Riya knows something about Sruthi."
"Not that she is Sruthi," Rajveer said.
The distinction hurt more than he allowed his face to show.
Rana studied him.
"You'll lie to your son."
"Yes."
There was no attempt to soften it.
Rajveer remembered Druve's voice over the phone earlier.
The instant Sruthi's birth date had been mentioned, every trace of distance had disappeared.
Why does he need it?
Did you find something?
Where are you?
Rajveer had only told him that an unusual man might have a clue and had asked for Sruthi's exact birth details.
Druve had said he would be there within an hour.
Rajveer lowered his gaze.
"If Riya becomes the first real lead he's had in seven years, he won't walk away until she wakes."
"And when he finds out what she really is?" Sharatha asked.
Nobody answered immediately.
Because eventually, if everything worked, Druve might recognize Sruthi without anyone telling him.
And then someone would still have to explain how Sruthi had come to exist in Riya.
Someone would have to tell him that the woman he had searched for all these years had died.
Rajveer's voice roughened.
"I'll deal with his hatred when that day comes."
His eyes lifted.
"I would rather have him hate me than tell him today that Sruthi died and watch whatever that truth does to him."
A scream tore through the house.
"VIKRAM!"
Vikram's face emptied.
"Aadhira."
He was moving before anyone else.
Aadhira entered Riya's room expecting nothing more than a routine check.
She took two steps before instinct stopped her.
A man stood beside the bed.
Gloves covered his hands.
A syringe rested between his fingers.
Its needle hovered over Riya's IV line.
For one fraction of a second, shock held Aadhira still.
Then—
"VIKRAM!"
The chart fell from her hands.
She grabbed the steel tray beside the bed and swung.
Metal struck the assassin's wrist. The syringe flew from his fingers and disappeared beneath the bed.
He turned on her immediately.
Aadhira hit him again.
The tray caught his jaw hard enough to send him sideways into the cabinet.
Then movement came from behind her.
Two more men entered.
Aadhira's eyes moved once towards the door.
Then towards Riya.
This wasn't an intruder who had slipped past security.
It was planned.
One of the men drew a knife.
Aadhira backed towards the bed until the frame touched the back of her legs.
She could have moved towards the door.
She didn't.
Riya was behind her.
"Move," the attacker said.
Aadhira lifted her hands.
"No."
The knife rose.
"You'll die with her."
Aadhira's heartbeat thundered.
"Then come through me."
Vikram never reached the stairs.
A blade flashed towards his stomach.
He caught the attacker's wrist, twisted hard and slammed the man into the wall.
"AADHIRA!"
No answer came.
Another attacker emerged.
Then another.
Rana and Rajveer were hit from opposite sides almost at the same moment.
The hall exploded into violence.
Vikram's eyes kept returning to the stairs.
They were not trying to kill him.
They were keeping him downstairs.
Keeping all of them away from Riya.
Understanding turned his fear vicious.
The next man who stepped between him and the staircase barely managed to raise his weapon before Vikram drove him through a side table.
The knife cut across Aadhira's side.
Pain ripped through her.
She stumbled into the cabinet and pressed one hand against the wound.
Warm blood spread instantly across her palm.
The attacker smiled when he saw it.
He expected her to fall.
Aadhira straightened.
Then hit him hard enough to erase the smile.
She trapped his wrist, twisted and kicked the knife from his hand. Another man came from behind, but she turned into the attack, drove her knee into his abdomen and shoved him backwards.
Every movement pulled painfully through the wound.
Still she returned to Riya's bedside.
Still she remained between them.
The assassin looked at the blood staining her clothes.
"You're bleeding out."
Behind Aadhira, Riya's monitor continued its steady rhythm.
She listened to it once.
Then looked back at him.
"Then move faster."
Druve's car stopped outside the Rathore house.
For the entire drive his thoughts had remained on Rajveer's call.
A Master.
Questions about Sruthi.
Her exact birth time.
It was almost nothing.
But seven years had taught Druve that almost nothing was still more than nothing.
A crash sounded inside the house.
He stopped.
Another followed.
Druve entered.
The hall was chaos.
Rajveer was fighting near the staircase. Rana had blood across one sleeve. Vikram was trying to force his way through two men whose only real objective seemed to be keeping him downstairs.
An attacker rushed Druve.
Druve caught the man's arm, pivoted and drove him shoulder-first into the wall. His elbow followed into the man's jaw before he had fully registered who he had attacked.
"Druve!"
He looked towards Rajveer.
"What happened?"
Rana shouted from across the room.
"They're trying to kill Riya!"
Druve's eyes snapped towards the stairs.
Riya Rathore.
Rana's daughter.
Nothing more.
But an unconscious woman was upstairs while armed men deliberately kept her family away.
Vikram drove his fist into another attacker.
"GET TO HER!"
Druve ran.
A man blocked him at the bottom of the stairs.
Druve caught the knife wrist, drove his shoulder into the attacker's chest and threw him over the railing.
Another came at him halfway up.
Druve took the first punch against his shoulder rather than waste time avoiding it. His fist buried into the man's abdomen and he slammed his head into the wall.
He kept moving.
A gunshot exploded through the upper corridor.
The bullet tore into the wall beside Druve's head.
He drove forward before the man could aim again, seized the gun hand and forced it upward.
The second shot went into the ceiling.
Druve twisted the weapon free and struck the attacker across the face with it.
Then he heard Aadhira scream.
"RIYA!"
Druve hit the bedroom door with his shoulder.
It crashed open.
He saw everything at once.
Aadhira bleeding heavily while fighting one attacker.
Another man recovering near the floor.
Riya unconscious on the bed.
And a syringe being pushed towards her IV.
Druve crossed the room.
His hand closed around the assassin's wrist just before the needle entered the port.
The man shoved downward.
Druve held.
An elbow struck his mouth.
Blood split across his lip.
Another strike caught his cheek.
He still didn't release the wrist.
The assassin pushed harder.
Druve twisted.
Bone cracked.
The syringe dropped.
Druve kicked it beneath the cabinet and dragged the man away from the bed.
The attacker reached for another weapon.
Druve drove him into the wall.
"You want to kill someone?"
The man spat blood.
Druve's expression went cold.
"Try someone who's awake."
He slammed him across the bedside table.
Behind him, Aadhira tore free just as Vikram burst into the room.
His eyes immediately found the blood covering her side.
He froze.
"Aadhira—"
"Focus!"
The warning came just in time.
Vikram turned and caught the strike aimed at him.
Aadhira moved with him.
They fought side by side without planning it. Vikram automatically covered the side weakened by her wound. Aadhira struck the man moving towards his blind spot. When one attacker tried to force her backwards, Vikram broke his balance and Aadhira finished the movement.
Only after the final man fell did Aadhira turn towards Riya.
Vikram caught her wrist.
"You're bleeding."
"Riya first."
"You've been stabbed."
"I know."
"Aadhira—"
She looked directly at him.
"Riya. First."
He let her go.
She checked the IV immediately.
Dr. Sinha entered moments later and moved beside her.
"Did anything enter?"
Aadhira inspected the port.
Then again.
"No."
She finally breathed.
"He stopped it."
Her eyes moved towards Druve.
"The poison didn't enter."
Vikram closed his eyes for half a second.
Then his attention returned to Aadhira.
Blood continued running between her fingers.
"Sit down."
"I'm fine."
"You're covered in blood."
"I'm still standing."
His anger disappeared.
That frightened her more.
"Don't do that."
Aadhira looked at him.
"Do what?"
"Stand there bleeding and tell me you're fine."
Her expression softened slightly.
"I'm still here, Viki."
Rana and Rajveer had reached the room by then.
Neither commented.
They didn't need to.
Whatever Vikram believed he had hidden for years had never actually been hidden.
Only Riya had ever openly tortured him about it.
You're staring again, Viki.
The memory hit him as he looked towards the bed.
His sister remained unconscious.
Vikram swallowed.
"Wake up."
His voice dropped.
"Wake up and annoy me yourself."
Aadhira didn't tease him.
Not this time.
They got nothing from the attackers.
Every surviving man chose death before capture.
By the time Rana's security team secured the house, there was no one left to interrogate. The identification they carried was false. There were no usable phones. Nothing obvious tied them to whoever had sent them.
Vikram stared at the bodies.
"They came knowing they wouldn't leave."
Rana's expression became unnaturally calm.
"Find something."
His men moved immediately.
But for now, there was no trail.
The Master had remained away from the violence.
When Druve entered the study, blood had dried at the corner of his mouth and bruising had begun to darken one cheek.
He barely noticed.
His attention went directly to the unfamiliar older man.
"You're the Master?"
"Yes."
"My father said you asked for Sruthi's birth details."
"I did."
"Why?"
The Master regarded him quietly.
Druve took one step closer.
"If you know something, say it."
Rajveer started to intervene, but the Master lifted a hand.
"You have been searching for Sruthi."
"For seven years."
"And you still believe you will find her."
Druve's expression hardened.
"I didn't come here to discuss what I believe."
"No."
The Master looked at him steadily.
"Then find her."
Druve frowned.
"What?"
"You have two years."
The room went silent.
Druve stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
"Find Sruthi within two years."
Something in the certainty of the words changed Druve's face.
"And if I don't?"
Rajveer's chest tightened.
The Master held Druve's gaze.
"Then you will not meet her again in this lifetime."
For several seconds, Druve did not move.
The meaning came slowly.
Then all at once.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means you no longer have the luxury of believing time will wait for you."
Druve stepped forward.
"Where is she?"
"I don't know."
"You just gave me two years."
"Yes."
"Then tell me what you know."
"I have told you what I can."
Druve seized the Master's arm.
Rajveer moved instantly.
"Druve."
The Master did not flinch.
Druve's fingers tightened.
"You don't drag her name in front of me, tell me I have two years and walk away."
His voice dropped dangerously.
"Where is Sruthi?"
"I cannot give you Sruthi."
Something about that answer struck him harder than refusal.
The Master gently removed Druve's hand.
"I can only tell you this. If you intend to reach her, do it before those two years are gone."
Druve's jaw clenched.
"What happens after that?"
"You lose the chance, with in these 2 years she will face a life threatening event save her if you can if not you will loose her forever."
The Master stepped towards the door.
Druve stared after him.
"That's it?"
The older man looked back.
"Your time has already started."
Then he left.
Until that moment, Sruthi's absence had never felt final.
Painful, yes.
Punishment, perhaps.
But not final.
Druve had believed she could take ten years if she needed ten. Twenty if she needed twenty. Somewhere beneath all his guilt lived one stubborn certainty.
One day he would see her again.
The Master had just put an end date on that belief.
Two years.
Druve turned towards Rajveer.
"What aren't you telling me?"
Rajveer said nothing.
Druve crossed the room.
"What did he find?"
"Druve—"
"No."
His eyes were already burning.
"You called me because of him. He asks for Sruthi's birth details, gives me a damn deadline and leaves. What do you know?"
Rajveer looked towards Rana once.
Then back at his son.
"We may have a lead."
Druve went completely still.
"What?"
The flash across Druve's face made Rajveer continue immediately.
"A possible lead."
"Who?"
Rajveer looked towards the upper floor.
"Riya."
Druve stared at him.
"Rana's daughter?"
"Yes."
"What does she have to do with Sruthi?"
"We don't know exactly."
Druve's face darkened.
"I've heard we don't know for seven years."
"There are indications that before her accident Riya may have come across something connected to Sruthi. Something she saw, heard or knew."
Druve's eyes locked onto him.
"What?"
"We can't know until she wakes."
Dr. Sinha stepped forward.
"And even then, she may not remember everything immediately. Her head injury was severe. Memories around the accident may return gradually."
Druve looked towards the ceiling.
Upstairs.
Riya.
The woman he had stopped an assassin from poisoning only minutes earlier.
"Someone just tried to kill her."
"Yes," Rana said.
"And now you're telling me she may know something about Sruthi."
Rajveer answered carefully.
"She may."
Druve's eyes sharpened.
"The men downstairs?"
"Dead."
"All of them?"
"Yes."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
Druve looked towards the stairs again.
Then he started walking.
Dr. Sinha moved first.
"She's unconscious."
Druve didn't stop.
Vikram stepped into his path.
"Move."
"No."
Druve looked at him once.
"My sister isn't something you get to push because someone connected Sruthi's name to her."
"Move."
"No."
Druve grabbed his shirt and shoved him aside.
Vikram came back immediately.
Rajveer moved between them.
"Druve!"
Druve had already broken away.
By the time Vikram reached the upper floor, Druve was inside Riya's room.
The door slammed.
The lock turned.
"DRUVE!"
Vikram struck the wood.
No answer.
He stepped back to break it.
Dr. Sinha caught him.
"Wait."
Vikram rounded on him.
"He locked himself inside with my unconscious sister."
"I know."
"Then move."
"Look at the monitor."
Riya's heart rate had changed.
Only slightly.
But almost immediately after Druve entered.
Dr. Sinha moved closer to the display.
"If she becomes unstable, we go in."
Vikram's jaw tightened.
"Immediately."
"Immediately."
They stayed outside the door.
Inside, Druve walked straight to the bed.
"Riya."
The monitor shifted.
His eyes moved towards it.
"Open your eyes."
Her fingers moved.
Barely.
But enough.
Druve leaned closer.
"You can hear me."
Another faint movement.
That was all the proof he needed.
"I saved your life. You owe me."
Her breathing changed.
"Wake up and pay me back."
Nothing.
His jaw tightened.
Then he said the only name that mattered.
"Do you know Sruthi?"
Riya's heartbeat jumped.
Her fingers clenched against the sheet and a sharp breath caught inside her.
Druve froze.
He stared at her.
Then said it again.
"Sruthi."
A tear slipped from beneath her lashes.
Something changed in Druve's face.
Rajveer had been right.
Whatever the connection was, it existed.
Druve reached for her hand.
"Then wake up and tell me how to reach her."
Riya's fingers closed around his almost immediately. He looked down at them. For one second, the strength of her grip unsettled him. Then desperation swallowed the question.
"Where is she?"
Riya's heartbeat climbed.
Another tear escaped.
Druve watched it disappear into her hair.
"You know."
Her fingers trembled around his.
"I can see it."
For seven years Druve had searched cities, faces, records and rumours for something that might take him back to Sruthi. He had suffered disappointment often enough that hope itself had become dangerous.
But Riya was reacting to her name.
That was real.
"Open your eyes."
Her eyelids fluttered faintly.
Then stopped.
Druve's patience snapped.
"Don't give me this much and stop."
Outside, Vikram reached for the handle.
Dr. Sinha stopped him.
"She's responding."
Inside, Druve's frustration slowly gave way to something older.
"I thought I had time."
Riya's fingers tightened.
Druve stared at their joined hands, but his thoughts had already gone elsewhere.
"I thought whenever she was ready, I'd still be there."
Riya's brow drew together.
Another tear escaped.
"I know why she left."
The words came harder now.
"I know what I did."
Her breathing changed.
"She doesn't owe me forgiveness."
Druve swallowed.
"But I thought I'd get one chance to stand in front of her again."
The monitor climbed.
He didn't notice.
For years, those words had belonged only to him. Now they were spilling out in front of a woman he barely knew simply because she might be able to lead him back to Sruthi.
"I thought if she needed ten years, I'd wait ten. If she needed twenty... fine."
Riya's fingers trembled violently around his.
Druve finally looked at her. Tears were slipping steadily beneath her closed eyes. Confusion crossed his face.
"Why are you crying?"
Her grip tightened. She couldn't care about him. She barely knew him. Yet every fracture in his voice seemed to hurt her. Druve didn't understand it. Then the Master's warning came back.
You will not meet her again in this lifetime.
The anger drained out of him.
"I believed I could wait forever."
Riya's heartbeat rose.
"But he just told me I can't."
His voice lowered.
"Two years."
Riya's breath caught.
"Seven years gone... and suddenly I have two left."
His fingers tightened around hers.
"What am I supposed to do if I never reach her?"
Riya's face tightened.
The monitor alarmed.
Outside, Vikram moved.
Dr. Sinha raised one hand.
"Wait."
Druve no longer heard anything beyond the room.
"I've been without her for seven years."
His voice cracked.
"I breathe. I work. I kill whoever needs killing. Everyone sees me standing and thinks that means I'm living."
Riya's fingers crushed his.
Druve looked at her.
"It isn't."
The admission tore through her. Her head shifted against the pillow and her breathing became uneven. Outside, Vikram's expression changed. Inside, Druve's restraint finally broke.
"I could live knowing she hated me."
Riya's breath caught.
"I could live knowing she never forgave me."
His jaw trembled.
"But I can't lose her without seeing her once."
Riya's heartbeat surged.
"Not like this."
His eyes closed briefly.
"I need her."
Her fingers began shaking around his.
Then the truth came out before pride could stop it.
"I don't know how long I can keep living if she is really gone from me."
Riya jerked beneath the sheets.
The monitor screamed.
Vikram struck the door.
"DRUVE!"
Riya's breathing broke into desperate gasps. Tears streamed from beneath her closed eyes and her hand clung painfully to Druve's.
Druve stared at her.
"Riya?"
Another violent rise.
Outside, Dr. Sinha checked the monitor.
"Break it."
Vikram drove his shoulder into the door.
Inside, Druve leaned closer to Riya.
"Hey."
No response.
For the first time since entering, the need for an answer disappeared beneath confusion.
Why was his pain doing this to her?
Another crash shook the door.
Druve tightened his hand around hers.
"I'm here."
Riya's breath caught.
The rhythm hesitated.
Druve froze.
Then instinct took over.
"I'm right here."
Her grip changed.
Still desperate, but no longer fighting.
"You're safe."
Her breathing stumbled into a deeper breath.
The monitor began falling away from its peak.
Outside, Dr. Sinha lifted a hand.
"Wait."
Vikram stopped.
Inside, Druve stared at Riya as though she had become a question he had no language for.
His thumb moved once over her fingers.
He didn't know why those words worked.
He didn't know why she was holding him.
He didn't know why his grief for another woman brought tears from Riya's closed eyes.
But he had no emotional connection to Riya Rathore that could explain any of it.
And he had no time to understand.
He needed Sruthi.
The moment Riya's breathing steadied, his gaze hardened again.
"Then wake up."
Her fingers tightened.
"You heard everything."
Her heartbeat lifted.
"So open your eyes and give me one chance to reach her."
Riya's brows drew together.
"I'll take whatever Sruthi gives me. Her anger. Her hatred. Even if she tells me never to come near her again."
Another tear escaped.
"But she has to tell me herself."
Riya's fingers crushed his.
Druve's voice broke.
"I need to see her once."
The monitor began climbing again.
"I need to know she's somewhere in this world."
Riya's head shifted.
Druve swallowed hard.
"Because if she's truly gone where I can't reach her..."
He couldn't finish.
For several seconds, he simply stared at Riya.
Then all the anger, pride and control left his voice.
"I don't want a life where Sruthi doesn't exist."
Riya's body jerked.
The monitor erupted.
Vikram slammed into the door.
"DRUVE!"
Rajveer joined him.
Inside, Riya's fingers were crushing Druve's hand. Tears streamed freely down her face and beneath her closed lids her eyes moved violently, as though something inside her were fighting its way upwards.
Druve's own face changed.
"Riya."
Her lips parted.
A breath escaped.
"Wake up."
The door cracked behind him.
Riya's eyelids trembled.
Druve saw it.
Everything inside him stopped.
"Come on."
Another tremor.
The door burst open.
Vikram entered first with Dr. Sinha and Rajveer directly behind him.
"Get away from her!"
Druve didn't look back.
Dr. Sinha saw the monitor and moved quickly towards the bed.
"Druve, let go."
"No."
"Her heart rate—"
"Riya."
Vikram grabbed Druve's shoulder.
"Enough!"
Druve resisted him, his eyes still fixed on her.
"Open your eyes."
Riya dragged a sharp breath into her lungs. Her entire body tensed. Sharatha screamed from the doorway. Vikram pulled Druve harder. Druve's hand began slipping from Riya's. And Riya held tighter. Everyone saw it.
Druve stopped struggling.
His gaze dropped to her fingers wrapped desperately around his hand. Then returned to her face.
Her eyelids trembled.
Once.
Twice.
And then, slowly, painfully, as though even that tiny movement demanded everything remaining inside her—
Riya opened her eyes.
No one moved.
Even the voices stopped.
The monitor continued sounding, but for one suspended moment the entire room seemed to forget it.
Her eyes were barely open, wet and unfocused. The light made them narrow immediately, exhaustion already trying to drag them closed again.
But her hand still held Druve.
Vikram stood inches away, his hand frozen on Druve's shoulder.
Dr. Sinha stopped halfway towards the monitor.
Rajveer stared from behind them.
Rana and Sharatha remained at the doorway.
Nobody had expected her to wake.
They had broken into the room to stop Druve.
Instead, they had watched Riya fight her way through the darkness while he was breaking beside her.
Her gaze moved weakly across the room.
Nothing seemed to settle at first. Faces were only shapes, voices pressing against a mind that had been silent for too long.
Then Druve spoke.
"Riya?"
Her eyes stopped moving.
Slowly, they found him.
Druve went completely still.
There was confusion in her gaze.
Exhaustion.
Pain.
But not fear.
Her eyes filled again the moment they settled on his tear-streaked face.
Druve's brow tightened.
He didn't understand why looking at him made her cry.
Riya's fingers tightened weakly around his hand, almost as though she needed to reassure herself that he was still there.
And somewhere beneath the name Riya, beneath memories that had not yet returned and a soul that did not yet understand what it had become, one truth had reached the surface before everything else.
Her Druve was hurting.
Because of her.
And Sruthi could never bear that.
She had endured pain for him before.
She had stood between him and danger.
She had once believed his warmth was the safest place in her world.
Now, even without a name for the man before her, even without memories she could consciously reach, that same part of her had heard him say he did not want a life without Sruthi.
And it had been enough.
Enough to fight through the darkness.
Enough to open her eyes.
Enough to come back to him.
Druve stared at Riya Rathore, still believing she might be the woman who could lead him to Sruthi.
He had no idea that the hand refusing to let go of his already belonged to the woman he had spent seven years searching for.