David's mouth was still open in shock. It took him time to digest it all.

He couldn't speak anything for a couple of minutes.

Raymond saw him in a dazed state and said,

"Kate doesn't know about it and we would like to keep it that way"

"I get that", David said and then took a couple of steps ahead.

"Actually there is something else that you should know. All the surveillance data at Scarlett's place has been tampered with. I am not sure how but it looks like a well planned cyber attack. Either we have missed on some important or they just want to erase any traces", David said and showed the link to the surveillance data which had been swiped clean using his tab.

"Let it be, at least we now know that Scarlett and Anthony are in this together, thanks to timely retrieval of the video by you. I just want to know who is the mastermind who is running these two. If only we can unlock that IP source", Raymond said and sighed and then slumped back on his sofa.

---

As he couldn't come and meet her the day before, Vikram came to Akira's place the next day morning. He knew that she would be in a bad mood given that she had to leave the man she loved the most and parcel him on a platter to Scarlett, so he got along with him all the things that she liked, red velvet cupcakes, a baby's breath bouquet, and assorted chocolates.

"Hey !!! Are you ok?", Vikram asked

"Mmmm... ", Akira replied and went back to the sofa and covered herself with a rug. She looked like she had been sick for weeks.

"What have you done with yourself Akira? Why are you acting like it is the end of the world?", Vikram said and pulled the rug out.

"Come get up. Look what I have got for you? Your favorite flowers, cupcakes and chocolates", Vikram said and gave her the flowers first.

She looked at the flowers and kept staring at them. Then she hugged Vikram and said,

"Why am I the unlucky one always Vikram. Why?".

Tears started rolling down her cheeks but the pain started searing in his chest. He couldn't bear to see her crying for some other man, but he knew that she needed his support the most at this time, so he stayed still and let her cry. He kept patting her back till her sobs melted down.

But on the other end of the line,

Someone was hearing her soft sobs and with every single sob of hers, a part of him just died. So he got up and typed something on his laptop and then closed the flap. He rested his head on the laptop and continued to listen to her.

"Enough Akira. You are going to get sick if you are going to cry this much. I thought of you as a woman of strength and character but here you are wailing like a lamb. I do not like this version of you", Vikram said and wiped her tears.

"Be strong and feel good about your decision. Now dust yourself and think about your career and Mike. There are so many things that you need to focus on right now. You have a new job that you need to start from tomorrow and we have this Gala night coming up next Sunday and you don't even have shoes to go with your dress. So today evening I will pick you up at 6 o'clock and we will go shopping first and then have food", Vikram said and lifted her chin up and asked again,

"Ok?"

Akira nodded her head.

Vikram ruffled her hair and said,

"Will you then go and freshen up. We have yummy cupcakes for breakfast", Vikram said and pushed her up from the sofa and made her go to the washroom.

A part of Raymond was happy to hear that Vikram was there to take care of her, but a part of him was jealous because she was his girl and it was paramount to him that it was he who took care of her and not some third person. He sighed and then removed his headset and went to the washroom to take a cold water bath to get his head sorted.

Akira came out after taking a shower and joined Vikram in the kitchen who had already made scrambled eggs and coffee for her.

She smiled looking at him and asked him,

"Looks like you are prepping well for marriage".

"What marriage?", Vikram asked looking at her.

"Nothing", Akira said and smiled and drank her coffee.

Vikram started checking his phone for office emails, so Akira also got her laptop and opened it to check her blog post. Although she hadn't posted anything she was just curious to see if RodeoMaverick had posted anything after she had replied yesterday.

And then she saw that there was a message which had been uploaded just 30 minutes back.

"Well I cannot do anything to mend your broken heart but just know one thing - No matter how hard you try to run from your own heart, you just can't get ahead of it. So listen to your heart. You are feeling broken right now but maybe someone else is devastated. Maybe he had flowers to give you, but you threw them into mulch. Maybe he wanted to pamper your sweet-tooth with chocolates, but you gave him nothing but bitterness. Just maybe?

So did he break your heart or did you break your own and shattered his?"

@RodeoMaverik

She was stunned to see the message. It was so cryptic. She was vaguely connecting the dots but her heart wasn't able to accept the fact that even remotely there was a chance that it was from Raymond.

"It cannot be!!!", she said and jerked her head.

"What cannot be?", Vikram asked and shifted his attention from his phone to her.

"Ugghh nothing", Akira replied and then shut down her laptop.

Just then Vikram received a message on his phone and his expressions suddenly changed. He got up and said,

"I need to attend to something. Will drop by in the evening ok? Don't sulk again", he said and kissed softly on her forehead and left.

Akira opened her laptop and read the message on her blog again and again. She wasn't ready to accept that it was from some random stranger.

---

David had asked his trusted people to keep a tab on Scarlett after the surveillance had been wiped clean. So when she was on move, the head in-charge Pollock immediately informed David about it.

"She is going towards Golden Avenue road", Pollock reported.

"Follow her discreetly", David said.

"She has entered a cafe but looks like someone has put the shutter down after she entered. We cannot get in", Pollock said.

"Is there any other car around? Get me the number plate", David asked.

"Yeah, there is only one car in the street just outside the cafe. It's an AUDI RS7 with a plate number - BGY -3883", Pollock said and tried looking everywhere to see if any other car was parked.

In the meantime, David made some calls and requested access to the DMV database. Once he had the hotlink, he immediately ran the number to find out the owner's name in the database.

The next second he saw the result hit on his screen.

His eyes opened wide in shock

All that he could do was to scream,

"FUCK !!!"