"That scumbag! Did he-did he touch you inappropriately? Is that why you agreed to marry him?" asked Sunaina. She knelt beside her sister, who sat in the chair, supported by Rajeev.

Sunaina could not muster the courage to look into the bloodshot and agonized eyes of her darling sister. Her piercing gaze shot daggers of accusations at her wounded conscience, and waves of remorse incited by her tempestuous heart tore through her soul.

She had sheltered and cared for Shikha as a mother hen, and she did not know that she would abandon her to vultures and hawks in the same way too. She could not find the will to seat herself beside her sister after her vicious words in the hospital.

Shikha sniffled. "No. No, he has not. He-He threatened to-to kill you all. You. Jijaji. Rohan. My entire world and the reason for my existence. I could not. I could not let him carry out his threat."

Sunaina sank into the vortex of regret and anguish. She felt the repentance strangulate her from within, and her breath refused to replenish her with the quintessential oxygen.

Her sister. Her baby sister. She consorted with the Devil to gift them freedom and life. And what did she, the ignorant and delusional sister, do? She walked away, and instead of lending her support, she added to the worries.

"You did not have to do it for us, Shikha. It is OUR duty to safeguard you, not yours. You did not have to take the responsibility of my life or Sunaina's life. The life won over at the cost of your freedom is not a life that we would have wanted."

Sunaina held her sister's arms and forced her to look her in the eyes. "Yes. Yes. Reject him. Don't marry him. Don't do this, Shikha! If it costs our life, so be it. You cannot be an offering to the Devil. I won't let that happen!"

Shikha shook her head in negative and let out an exasperated sigh. "What good will that do? He will still do what he wants - claim me. Except, I will lose you. That does not help the situation at all, Jiji! I won't have anyone left in the world. I will be bereft of all the peace if I allowed that to happen."

"You cannot resign to fate this way, Shikha. There must be a way-"

"There is not, Jijaji. You know what he is capable of. You know he won't hesitate before turning his threats into reality. You know he always gets what he wants. I did not, and now I have learnt my lesson. There is no way to stop him!"

Shikha broke out into sobs. The ocean of darkness drowned her and made it difficult for her to breathe. She could not and did not want to imagine her future. Her insides churned with dread and she felt nauseous. She could feel the bile rise in her throat. How could she trust the man and idolize him?

"We can't just give up! We can't let him win!"

"He has already won, Jijaji. He has nothing to lose. No heart for the repercussions to wrench. No conscience for his deeds to scar. No soul for his intentions to tarnish. He is all brains, and filled with lust - of power, of women, and of control. Nothing to lose."

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"Do you love her, Bhaiya?" asked Nikita. She sat across Vikram, whose mind had drifted elsewhere. She tapped him on his shoulder to gain his attention. Nikita could feel the shift in his behavior. If she had read into the signs correctly, nothing was as it seems, and that made her wary.

"Bhaiya! I asked you something! Do you love her?"

The question had knocked at his door several times. He dismissed it, distracted himself and ran as far and as fast as he could to avoid answering that question. Love was a pristine emotion bearing uncanny semblance to the ray of light in the darkest tunnel. But Vikram Singhal knew otherwise.

The love he had known and see had filled lives with darkness. It was not the harbinger of light, but a Blackhole that sucked everything right in.

Without mercy. With no discrimination.

Vikram Singhal told himself that fear had no place in his life. But, in the darkest of moments, sworn to secrecy, his vulnerability revealed itself. His inexplicable and unsurmountable fear of love expressed itself.

To him, love was forgoing the lifeboat while sinking in an abyss of immeasurable depth, and the depth being the unpredictability of human behavior and the lifeboat being the rationality that held one back from losing oneself to the Id.

But there he was, contemplating his answer to the question asked by his sister.

Did he love her? Did he love the woman he wanted to possess and never let go? Was a man terrified of love capable of it? He knew not.

Nikita placed her hand over his, and he jolted back into the reality. "Bhaiya. I hope you know I cannot let you marry her if you don't love her. Not after what happened. After everything that happened, I cannot take the risk. So, I will ask for the last time. Do you love her?" she asked.

Vikram could not believe his sister was comparing the situation with the past. His palms balled into fists.

"I cannot believe you just said that, Niki! How can you compare them? You have nothing to worry about. The history will never repeat. I won't let it happen. Go to her home and get the wedding date fixed. She has an elder sister, who is engaged. You can speak to the couple and start the wedding preparations. And, I will not have questions linking this situation with the past. I am going to rest for a while."

Nikita tried to stop her brother, but it was to no avail. She knew it was a sensitive issue and a sore spot for him. She hoped and prayed that he was right, and would not let the history, because she would hate it to happen on her watch.

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