She woke up feeling dead. Her mouth felt bitter. She scrunched her nose as the smell of the saline hit her nose. She was a doctor herself but no matter what, this smell never felt pleasant. She rubbed her face with her hands in an attempt to leave her misery behind, but the thin metal band on her ring finger rubbed against her skin making her remember about the evening she badly wanted to forget as well as remember.

She turned to her side and saw him seated by her side. His eyes were closed but the worry lines on his forehead were so evident. She suddenly remembered how she had asked him not to be his knight in shining whatever but in the end he did turn out to be one. His eyes opened as if in cue and they clashed with one another's.

He carefully approached her in an attempt to not scare her. She had only wanted him when he had found her like that but now he was wary of her reaction. She shuffled her position in the bed and patted on the remaining seat. He almost jumped at the invite and took her in a tight embrace.

"I thought I lost you" he said whilst peppering her hair with kisses.

A sob threatened to escape her lips. This wasn't her first. She had to go through the whole ordeal another time once again with people around her. She felt filthy but once again she had to learn to live with the trauma.

He saw the pain in her eyes. She had not acted violently upon waking up as the doctor said but she was surely bottling her emotions. He saw the bruises on her wrist and felt like caning that bastard till he begged for his life but he was under custody. She tried moving her left leg and winced. Both their eyes travelled to her bandaged left ankle. She sighed and held her head.

"Kahin dard ho raha hai (is it paining anywhere) ?" He asked.

She shook her head in denial and took a long breath. She knew her wrist were bruised and even expected a few on her neck. She dreaded to see them afraid she might come to hate herself.

He had been observing her since the time she woke up and as expected she was acting differently. She had been having a conversation with herself in her head. Her preoccupied eyes were a proof to it. Nothing would change unless she opens up herself he knew. It wasn't going to happen right away either. Did he want to provoke her for a reaction ? A part of him said yes and another part of him was scared of another breakdown.

Before their families could come in, he did what he had been wanting to do since the time she woke up. A hug alone wasn't enough. He placed his waiting lips on her forehead and kissed her as if conveying that he would wait for her. He let his lips linger on her skin for a while and moved from her.

He had expected her to push him away or even worse just go in to silence but the dam broke. Tears started to stream down her eyes.

"I feel filthy" she said between all the sobbing.

He enveloped her shaking body and cradled her head against his chest and kept shushing her. But she simply wouldn't stop.

"You are beautiful" he told her and rubbed her arms.

"I had to go through all this on the day we got betrothed and now I want to forget it all together" she said remembering the events of the evening.

"You don't have to" he told her.

He simply knew that placing himself in her shoes and thinking would be an absolutely rubbish thing to do given the situation. The thought of abusing a women sexually nauseated him. Thinking from an abused person's perspective felt like an insult to all the ordeal one had to go through to save herself in the end or worse become a victim. He'd rather stand by her and help her fight it.

"You don't understand" she said angrily.

"I will never Aadhya. Whatever you went through is not something, someone will want even in her darkest of dreams and to have gone through it twice is no easy thing to do" he said.

He wanted her to fight and not give up at the end of the day.

She looked at him unbelievably. She had expected him to say all the cliché and cheesy dialogues but he wasn't. He simply was different in every possible way. She was damaged and he was an epitome of perfection. She suddenly felt unworthy of him. She was once again toying with the ring on her finger deep in thought.

She slipped the ring out of her finger and handed it to him without giving too much of a thought to her decision. She simply couldn't. No matter what how much she craved for someone like him, the truth was she would never be enough.

His face paled looking at the ring sitting on his palm. He had expected extreme reactions from her but this was outrageous. He thought she was sensible but this foolishness was not going to be accepted.

"All of this doesn't mean, I am letting go of you" he said and grabbed her left hand.

"Quit this nonsense Avinash. I was almost raped. I can't. I will always feel unworthy of you. You need someone of your caliber. I am damaged. I can't do this" she reasoned.

"If I needed someone to walk with me to parties, I don't need to get married. If I needed someone to satisfy my sexual desires, I don't need to get married either" his voice almost boomed across the room.

She flinched at his tone and his reasoning.

"I need someone who can fight her own battles. I need someone who would drive me to do things that I wouldn't otherwise. That is you Aadhya. Last night, when I saw you like that I wanted to burn the person who was responsible for this. You make me want to punish every man who offends women for their own desire" he said exasperated.

She lowered her eyes and replayed all that he said in her head over and over again. They had a nice ring to it but was that even possible. Maybe it was the guilt talking. Maybe it's his guilt, that he couldn't protect his fiancé at his own yard was all she thought.

She looked at him and of course she could not say that from his eyes. He had been on some phone calls since then and had not made any attempt to convince her further. That was the thing, he pushed her to do things but he knew where to apply his brakes.

Their families had arrived soon after and they had only motivated her. Not once did they shame her. It was his mother who had pushed her to not spare the man who had cornered her. Her reasoning was, such men don't deserve to be out on the loose. She had also told her that he was their cousin but they had nothing to do with him and his mother. Amidst all this, he had not uttered a word. He had walked away with his family, leaving her with her ring and her family.

A week had passed since then, she did have a couple of nightmares but nothing more. Her bruises were almost healed and her ankle was also normal. In this entire week, he had not failed to message her or send flowers almost every single day but not once he called her. She had put the ring back on to her finger but every time she saw the ring, she had this urge to run in to his arms.

What she did not know was he had come every single day to personally deliver those flowers and he had watched her bruises heals but all from a distance. He was going to give her the space till she got out of her house and after that he would court her and they would get married. All he wanted was to marry her and he would he decided.

To be continued ~

A short chapter and this definitely needs editing. I am tired saying this but here I go again, do remember to like and comment. Thank you all !