Chapter 37
She was pregnant.
Sruthi returned home, locked her room and lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
She didn't know how she was supposed to feel.
Everything had happened too suddenly.
She didn't regret that night with Druve. Not even for a moment. But they should have been careful. They were still in their final year. She hadn't even completed her degree yet, hadn't started working, and they weren't married.
And now she was pregnant.
The reality of it frightened her.
That evening, she couldn't bring herself to eat. She sat at the table moving the food around her plate until Dev finally noticed.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing."
"You've barely touched your food."
"I'm not hungry."
Dev frowned. He had been watching her since she'd returned home, and her behaviour clearly wasn't convincing him.
"Are you sick?"
"No."
"Do you need to go to the hospital?"
"No, Dev." She forced herself to take a bite just to stop the questions. "I just miss Druve."
Dev continued looking at her suspiciously, but Sruthi concentrated on her plate and somehow managed to eat a little before escaping back to her room.
She wasn't afraid of how Druve would react to the pregnancy.
That was the one thing she didn't have to worry about.
She knew him.
If she wanted this baby, Druve would gladly become a father. And if she decided otherwise, he would still stand beside her. He wouldn't force a decision on her or leave her to face it alone.
She had complete faith in him.
It was Dev she wasn't ready to face.
So she decided to keep the pregnancy to herself until Druve returned. Once he was back, they could tell Dev together.
But keeping it hidden became harder with every passing day.
The morning sickness began slowly before turning unbearable. Soon Sruthi struggled to keep down even water. Some mornings, a few sips were enough to send her running to throw up. Food became worse, and the constant nausea left her exhausted.
Missing Druve only made everything harder.
Dev grew increasingly worried.
At first, he questioned her. Then he started watching what she ate. When the vomiting continued and Sruthi visibly grew weaker, his concern turned into genuine fear.
"Sruthi, we're going to the hospital."
"No."
"This isn't normal."
"I'm fine."
"You can barely eat!"
"It'll pass."
Dev stared at her. "What if something is seriously wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong."
"How do you know when you won't even see a doctor?"
Sruthi refused every time.
Days passed, and she grew weaker.
Then one morning, while on her way to college, her vision suddenly blurred.
Sruthi slowed down.
The ground seemed to shift beneath her feet. She tried to steady herself, but her legs gave way before she could reach anything for support.
Everything went black.
That was the day her cruel fate began.
---
When Sruthi slowly regained consciousness, confusion came first.
Her head felt heavy. She tried to move her hand—
and couldn't.
Her eyes opened fully.
Her wrists were tied.
Panic shot through her.
Sruthi struggled upright as much as the restraints allowed and looked around. Several men stood nearby, their faces hidden behind black masks.
Her heart began pounding.
"Who are you?"
No one answered.
"Why am I here?"
She pulled desperately against the restraints.
"Please... I think you've got the wrong person."
That finally earned a reaction.
One of the men turned towards her.
Sruthi's words rushed out before he could say anything. "My brother doesn't have money. There's nothing you can get from us. Please let me go. I won't tell anyone. I promise I won't say anything to anyone."
Laughter broke out around her.
Sruthi froze.
The sound frightened her more than their silence had.
One of the men stepped closer.
"We didn't get the wrong person."
The little hope she'd been holding onto disappeared.
"And we gladly welcome you to your new home."
Sruthi stared at him.
Her new home?
She looked around properly for the first time, fear tightening around her chest.
Where had they brought her?
She silently prayed for someone—anyone—to find her.
What Sruthi didn't know was that someone already had.
---
Dev had been worried about her for days.
That morning, he had followed her without telling her. Sruthi had become so weak that he no longer trusted her insistence that she was fine, and he wanted to make sure she at least reached college safely.
He saw her faint.
"Sruthi!"
Dev rushed towards her, but several people nearby reached her first. They gathered around her, lifted her and quickly moved her towards a car.
Dev slowed.
For a moment, he thought they were helping.
She had collapsed in public. Taking her to a hospital made sense.
So he followed.
But the route immediately felt wrong.
And when the vehicle finally stopped, Dev stared at the building ahead.
A psychiatric hospital.
His confusion deepened.
Why would they bring his unconscious sister here?
Keeping his distance, Dev followed them inside.
What he found made his blood run cold. Dev stopped the moment he saw his sister.
Sruthi was tied, blood at the corner of her mouth from the slap she had just received. For one second, neither of them moved.
"Sruthi!"
Relief flashed across her face at the sight of him, but it lasted barely a second before fear replaced it.
"Dev, no! Go! DEV, GO!"
He didn't listen. He rushed towards her, pushing aside the first man who tried to stop him. But Dev had never been trained to fight the way Druve had. He was simply a brother who had seen his sister hurt and forgotten everything except getting to her.
There were too many of them.
Sruthi watched helplessly as they surrounded him. Dev fought, trying repeatedly to break through and reach her, but every time he managed to push one man away, another struck him. A blow to his face sent him stumbling, another hit his stomach, and before long he was on his knees with several men still attacking him.
"Stop! Please, stop! He doesn't know anything!"
Sruthi pulled against the restraints with everything she had. The ropes cut painfully into her wrists, but she barely noticed. All she could see was Dev trying to get back onto his feet and being struck down again.
"Please! You wanted me, you have me! Why are you hurting him?"
Another blow landed, and Dev collapsed.
"DEV!"
Sruthi screamed until her throat hurt, fighting the restraints so desperately that the skin around her wrists had turned raw. She begged them to stop, promised she wouldn't run, promised she would do whatever they wanted, but nothing she said made a difference.
Then one of the men touched the earbud in his ear.
An order reached them.
Let her watch her brother die before her eyes. I would love to see that face. Untie her, but don't let her kill herself. I want her alive. I have bigger plans for her.
Sruthi heard none of it.
She only noticed that the men suddenly stopped and looked at one another. A few seconds later, their attention shifted towards her, and the laughter that followed made a fresh wave of fear crawl through her.
Two men approached and untied her.
Sruthi didn't question why.
The instant the restraints fell away, she rushed towards Dev and dropped beside him.
"Dev..."
Her hands shook so badly that she didn't know where to touch him. His face was swollen and bloodied, his body completely still.
"Dev, wake up. Please."
She cupped his face carefully, wiping at the blood with trembling fingers.
"Don't scare me. Nothing is going to happen to you. I'm here. Just open your eyes."
He didn't respond.
Sruthi looked up at the men surrounding them, and whatever fight remained in her disappeared. She folded her hands before them.
"Please let him go. You can keep me."
The words came without hesitation.
"Do whatever you want to me. I won't run. I won't fight. I won't tell anyone. Just take him outside and leave him somewhere. Please. He doesn't know anything about this."
They laughed.
Sruthi didn't care.
She moved towards them on her knees, hands still folded. "Please... he's the only family I have. He came here because he was worried about me. That's all. He hasn't done anything to you. If I've done something, punish me. Please don't hurt him because of me."
One of them grabbed her hair and dragged her backwards.
Sruthi screamed, trying to crawl back towards Dev, but a hard slap threw her onto the floor. Her ear rang violently from the impact, leaving the room strangely muffled for several seconds.
Through her blurred vision, she saw them moving around Dev.
At first, she didn't understand.
Then the smell reached her.
Fuel.
Sruthi's entire body went cold.
"No."
She stared at the liquid being poured over her brother.
"No... please."
She scrambled up so quickly she nearly fell again.
"Please don't do this."
For the first time, her voice wasn't loud. Terror had stripped the strength from it.
She rushed towards Dev, but someone caught her before she could reach him.
"No! Please, please, I'll do anything!"
She fought against the arms holding her, reaching desperately towards her brother.
"Take me instead! You can do anything you want to me. I'll stay here. I swear I won't try to escape. Just let him go. Please, he's my brother!"
Then she saw the flame.
Sruthi stopped struggling.
For one horrible second, she simply stared at it as though her mind refused to understand what her eyes were seeing.
Then they set Dev on fire.
The scream that tore out of her didn't even sound like her own.
"DEV!"
Sruthi threw her entire body forward. The man holding her was forced to tighten both arms around her as she kicked and twisted desperately, trying to reach Dev.
"Put it out! PLEASE PUT IT OUT!"
No one moved.
"Dev! Wake up! DEV, PLEASE!"
She knew he couldn't hear her.
She screamed anyway.
"Please, please, somebody help him!"
Her legs gave way, but the man behind her kept her from falling. Sruthi continued reaching towards Dev, her fingers opening and closing helplessly in the empty distance between them.
"Kill me! Please! Kill me instead! I don't care what you do to me, just save him!"
The men laughed.
Sruthi screamed Dev's name again and again until her voice became raw. She begged the same people who were laughing at her, promised them anything they wanted, pleaded with them to put out the fire, to take her life instead, to give her brother even one chance.
Nothing worked.
Her pleading slowly broke into helpless sobs. She could no longer reach Dev. She could no longer even recognise the brother she had been desperately trying to save through what remained in the flames.
Something inside Sruthi shattered.
Her tear-filled eyes moved towards the man who had set the fire, and helplessness turned into rage so suddenly that she fought with everything left in her. She twisted free for barely a second, but it was enough.
Sruthi rushed at him and slapped him hard across the face.
"You killed my brother!"
She tried to strike him again.
The humiliation of being slapped wiped the amusement from his face. His foot drove hard into her stomach before anyone could stop him.
Sruthi flew backwards.
Her back struck the wall, and she collapsed.
Pain tore through her abdomen so violently that she couldn't breathe. Both hands immediately clutched her stomach as she curled into herself, gasping through another wave of unbearable pain.
Then she felt something warm between her legs.
Sruthi froze.
Her trembling hand moved down, and when she brought it back, blood stained her fingers.
Her heart stopped.
Her baby.
"No..."
Both hands flew protectively over her stomach.
"No, please... my baby..."
Panic tore through her harder than the physical pain. For weeks she had carried this secret alone, waiting for Druve to return, believing that once he was back she could finally tell him and they would face everything together.
Now she was bleeding.
"Please... please don't take my baby too..."
She pressed both hands desperately against her stomach as if she could somehow keep the baby safe inside her. Another wave of pain ripped through her, and a broken cry escaped her.
"Druve..."
She needed him.
She needed him now more than she ever had.
She had waited for him every day, missed him, been angry with him for leaving without seeing her and imagined all the ways she would punish him when he finally returned. She had been so certain there would be time to tell him everything.
Now Dev was gone.
Her baby was slipping away from her.
And Druve didn't even know.
"Druve... please..."
But he couldn't hear her.
Sruthi's strength finally began to disappear. She had already been weak from weeks of sickness, and the pain and blood loss were pulling her consciousness away no matter how desperately she fought it.
Her hands remained wrapped around her stomach until she no longer had the strength to hold them there.
In one day, everything had been torn away from her.
Her brother.
Her baby.
Her freedom.
And her Druve.
Present day
Early morning had already begun to creep in by the time Druve heard a knock at the door.
His eyes moved immediately to Riya. She was still asleep beside him, but her brows were drawn together in a faint frown. Whatever she was dreaming about wasn't peaceful.
Druve watched her for a moment before leaning down and placing a small kiss on her forehead. He carefully moved away without waking her and walked towards the door.
The moment he opened it, he found Rana standing outside.
One look at his face was enough for Druve to understand why he was there.
Druve hadn't intended to bother explaining himself to anyone, but the thought came almost immediately after. Whatever their differences, Rana was Riya's father.
He forced himself to speak.
"Uncle, what are you doing here?"
Rana stared at him. "Shouldn't I be the one asking that? What are you doing in my daughter's room?"
Druve took a slow breath, keeping his irritation under control.
"Why does it matter when I'm staying with my wife?"
Rana's eyebrows rose. "You're not married yet."
"We will be soon."
"Shouldn't you discuss that with me first?"
Druve remained silent.
Rana sighed. "Druve, it's not that I don't trust you. I know she's safest when she's with you. But that doesn't mean that, as her father, I can simply accept you staying in my daughter's room."
Druve's expression didn't change.
"And regarding the marriage, don't you think you're rushing this? Can't you give Riya some space? I nearly had a heart attack when Rajveer called me."
"Uncle," Druve said, his voice controlled, "as you said, she's safest with me. And before she was your Riya, she was my Sruthi."
Rana fell silent.
Druve looked directly at him.
"We've already spent more than eleven years waiting for each other. Do you still think I'm rushing this?"
Druve held Rana's gaze.
"And do you know she's been having nightmares? Even in her sleep, she calls for me. She couldn't settle properly until I stayed beside her. Do you still think I'm going to leave her alone in that state?"
Rana's expression shifted slightly, but before he could respond, a scream came from inside the room.
"DEV!"
Druve turned instantly.
"Put it out! Please, put it out!"
The terror in her voice sent him rushing back inside, Rana following close behind.
Riya was still asleep, but her face was twisted in distress, tears slipping from beneath her closed eyes as her body struggled restlessly against the sheets.
"Dev! Wake up! DEV, PLEASE!"
"Sruthi."
Druve was beside her in seconds. He cupped her face, trying to wake her.
"Sruthi, open your eyes."
"Please... please, somebody help him!"
Her cries grew more desperate. Druve's brows pulled together as he tried again, but she remained trapped in the nightmare.
"Please... I'll do anything..."
"Sruthi."
"Kill me! Please!"
Druve's hand stilled.
His breath caught as he stared at her.
"Sruthi..."
"Kill me instead! Please... just save him!"
"STOP IT, SRUTHI!"
His voice rang through the room, fear tearing straight through his control. He pulled her up into his arms, one hand cradling the back of her head as he held her tightly against his chest.
"Don't say that."
But she continued to sob.
"Please... kill me... just let him go..."
Druve's arms tightened around her.
"Sruthi, please."
The plea came out rough, nothing like the shout before it. His hand trembled against her hair as he held her closer.
"Dev..." A sob caught in her throat. "Please... save him..."
"What happened to Dev?"
There was no answer. Riya only cried harder.
Druve wiped the tears slipping continuously from beneath her closed lashes, his own composure rapidly slipping with every broken sound she made.
"What did you go through, Sruthi...?"
Footsteps came rushing towards the room.
Vikram appeared first, his face changing the moment he saw Riya. Aadira hurried in behind him, followed closely by Sharada.
"Riya!" Sharada started towards her.
Rana raised a hand slightly, stopping her before she reached the bed. Riya was already clinging to Druve's shirt in her sleep, and none of them wanted to disturb whatever small connection he seemed to have with her through the nightmare.
"Please... don't..." Riya whimpered.
"Sruthi." Druve bent closer to her. His voice was shaken, but he forced it softer. "I'm here."
Her body trembled against him.
Then, through her tears, his name finally came.
"Druve..."
"Yes."
The answer left him instantly.
"I'm here, Sruthi."
"Druve... please..."
"I'm here." He pulled her closer, his palm supporting the back of her head. "I'm right here."
Her fingers tightened around his shirt.
"Druve..."
"I've got you."
Druve pressed his lips to her forehead and kept them there for a moment. His heart was still pounding from hearing her beg for her own death, but he forced everything down for her.
"I'm not leaving you."
Something in his voice finally seemed to reach her.
The desperate cries weakened. Her breathing slowly began to settle, and the trembling running through her body eased little by little as she remained pressed against his chest.
Druve continued stroking her hair.
"That's it... I'm here."
Her grip on his shirt gradually loosened.
For the first time since he'd rushed into the room, Druve felt her body relax in his arms. Then all of her weight suddenly fell against him.
It wasn't the gradual relaxation he'd felt moments earlier. One second, Riya's fingers were still weakly holding his shirt; the next, they slipped free. Her head dropped heavily against his chest, and every trace of tension disappeared from her body.
Druve's arms tightened around her immediately. "Sruthi?"
Nothing.
He pulled her away from his chest just enough to see her face. Her head rolled limply against his arm, sending the first real wave of panic through him.
"Sruthi." His hand went to her cheek, tapping it gently. "Open your eyes."
She didn't respond.
"Sruthi!"
He tapped her cheek harder, but there wasn't even a flicker beneath her lashes.
Vikram moved before anyone asked him to. He grabbed the water nearby and rushed back, sprinkling some over Riya's face. "Riya... wake up."
Sharada hurried closer. "Riya? Kanna..."
Druve kept tapping her cheek, his voice growing more urgent with every second she remained unresponsive. "Come on, Sruthi. Open your eyes."
Nothing.
His hand slipped down and caught hers. The instant her fingers settled inside his palm, Druve stopped.
They were cold.
He enclosed her hand between both of his, rubbing it quickly. "Her hand is cold."
The fear in his voice immediately brought Aadira forward. She crouched beside them while Druve continued rubbing Riya's hand between his palms, trying desperately to warm her fingers.
Vikram touched her feet and visibly tensed. "They're cold too."
He immediately began rubbing them between his hands.
Sharada stared at her daughter, panic taking over her face. "Why is she so cold?"
"Aadira, check her," Vikram said quickly. "Please."
Aadira was already reaching for Riya's other wrist. She pressed her fingers against the pulse point and concentrated.
Vikram watched her face. "Aadira?"
She shifted her fingers slightly.
"Aadira, what is it?"
Aadira looked up. "Her pulse is very weak. We need to get her to the hospital. Right now."
Druve moved before anyone could say another word. He slid one arm beneath Riya's knees and the other behind her back and lifted her against his chest.
"Vikram, get the car!"
Vikram was already running.
Rana immediately took hold of a shaken Sharada while Aadira hurried alongside Druve. Riya's head fell limply against his shoulder as he carried her out, and Druve tightened his arms around her without slowing down.
By the time they reached the car, Vikram had it ready.
Druve climbed into the back with Riya still in his arms.
Aadira got in beside them while Vikram took the wheel and pulled away almost immediately.
Only then, with Riya lying completely unresponsive against him and the car racing towards the hospital, did the fear Druve had been forcing down truly hit him.
He caught her cold hand between both of his and began rubbing it again.
"Nothing is going to happen to you."
His voice shook.
"You'll be fine, Sruthi."
He rubbed her fingers harder, trying to put warmth back into them.
"You'll be fine."
It sounded less like reassurance now and more like something he desperately needed to believe.
He had only just found her.
After all those years, after searching for her without knowing where she was, he finally had her back in his arms.
He couldn't lose her again.
The thought alone terrified him.
Druve pulled her closer, one arm tightening protectively around her.
"Stay with me, Sruthi."
There was no response.
"Please."
His throat tightened around the word. He looked down at her still face, fear making it harder to breathe.
"Just stay with me."
Her hand remained cold and motionless inside his.
Druve brought it against his chest, holding it there as though his own warmth could somehow reach her.
"I waited for you. You don't get to leave me now."
His voice broke.
"Do you hear me?"
Nothing.
Druve bent his head towards her, his forehead almost touching hers.
"If you dare leave me again..." He swallowed hard, struggling to get the words out. "I'll come with you."
Aadira's eyes snapped towards him.
Druve didn't even notice.
"I swear, Sruthi. I won't think twice."
His hold around her tightened.
"So don't you dare leave me."
He pressed a trembling kiss against her forehead and closed his eyes for a second.
"Please."
Whatever command had been in his voice was gone.
"Stay with me."