Sakshi stepped ahead with her eyes stoned on him. She could see the discomfort on his face. There was a very raw emotion there in his eyes that she concluded, someone really had never asked him this question before.

"I have seen you shirtless before, Shrey. Those marks weren't there before." She whispered, staring at him in confusion.

He gulped, looking away as he shook his head. "Just some allergy from beach sites," he said while turning around.

"Shut up."

He raised his eyebrows, halting his steps immediately. He turned around to look back at her and sighed when he saw curiosity rising in her eyes along with worry.

"Remember, the trip to water park." She reminded him in a shaky voice. "We had spent a whole day. I remember for sure, that you were all clean. And these marks don't even look like tan lines that you are making up."

Shrey clenched his jaws, fisting his hands while staring at her. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to know this."

She swallowed, turning around. "Fine," she muttered while running hands through her wet strands. "But know that, they look bad. Really bad."

He blinked slowly, inhaling a large amount of air as he watched her walking towards the mirror and picking her hair brush.

"Sakshi, please don't mind it. I don't want you to symp. . ." She gave him a straight look which said that she didn't want to hear any excuses. Shrey's mouth shut in disbelief as she ignored him knowingly. "Sakshi. . ."

She combed her hair slowly, not looking at him. "Good night, Shrey."

So, she was really mad at him. Shrey gritted his teeth while walking in her room, shutting the door behind him, making her eyes-wide.

She turned her head at him. "What are you doing?"

He clenched his jaws and breathed, finally deciding to explain, "The marks are from the beatings."

She stared at him in shock. Putting the brush back on the drawer, she shook her head in disbelief. "What?"

Shrey smiled humorlessly, discomfort shown clearly on his face as he further described, "I have told you how they trapped me in the flat. They tied me up and did things. . ."

He blinked and breathed hard, his eyelids trembling as he shook his head. "Bad things."

Sakshi stepped ahead, looking at him in horror as his words were making the worst images in her mind. She observe his struggle when he whispered, "It's not easy to put them in words."

His nostrils flared as his eyes turned glossy, making her gasp. Sakshi immediately held his hand, tugged on it. "First, sit down." She squeezed his hand after sitting beside him on the bed. "If you can't, then don't. I understand."

He didn't meet her eyes. "No, you don't." His jaw ticked as he looked up at the ceiling, remembering the horrors of that night.

"After getting me all drunk to a level that I didn't have energy left in my arms to stop them from holding me, they tied me to a chair. Ropes all around me just like happen in movies," he lowered his tone so Aarush won't hear from the other room.

"I remember all the things because the intoxication was gone the moment, Vikas slapped me hard. His brother-in-law came from the main door, picked this big iron rod from behind the door while Myra tore her sleeves, and did all that shit to frame me. Then, the men finally began."

Sakshi's heart stopped when she felt his hand shaking in her hold. She listened to him carefully with teary eyes as he spoke, "Vikas began with here." He pointed at his temple.

"First punch here, then on my cheek. Big punches right over my nose. My mouth, chin, jaws. He didn't stop. Thirty to forty punches right on my damn face that fainted me in the first round," he described, his voice shaking hard.

"Minutes later, they threw water on my face and I remember seeing my blood draining along the water on the floor."

Sakshi gasped while his jaws clenched. "The brother-in-law had this rod in his hand and he tried to scare me, telling me to repeat after him that I tried to buy his sister."

Sakshi covered her mouth, goosebumps rising on her skin as she imagined the scene.

"When I cursed him, yelled back that my family won't leave him. I helped them and they returned that love by doing this to me. He hit that rod right on leg here," he said while showing her his knee, showing the black mark.

"Then, Vikas had another wooden stick, a thick one. He hit it everywhere, Sakshi. Everywhere," his voice turned aggressive as he described while looking at her. "He didn't stop. They are animals. The other guy tortured me with his kicks hitting everywhere on my legs. I kept yelling for help, screaming hard until she taped my mouth."

Sakshi whimpered mentally as she saw him squeezing his eyes. "I couldn't scream and for the first time, I was scared for life. I tried my best to squeeze my hand out of the knots, I kicked my legs hard but they overpowered me. The woman pulled my hair like a wicked witch, it was painful. The torture they together did was horrifying."

"Vikas had tried to twist my arms many times, making me pee in my pants." He told her sorrowfully.

Sakshi only felt a tear escaping her eye while he further explained, "Vikas was looking so deadly. He warned of things I never really thought people could do in real life. Even when we guys watch thriller movies, even when we are so full of these things, but facing it so real, I had lost my faith in humanity, Sakshi."

"He threatened to murder me. He brought a knife from the kitchen told me that he will pull out my eyes." He chuckled humorlessly. "For a first, I had laughed at him. But then, he brought that knife closer to my eye, giving me cut right on my cheek."

He showed her, making her eyes wide as she observed the faint line on his cheek. "It has healed, now."

He gulped. "I was now really terrified. I feared death. I cried and begged him to forget all about money but leave me. He didn't. He told me that he won't until I confess that I tried to rape his wife and all that money was given to buy her. I again denied to do that, Sakshi."

She sniffled while holding his hand as his voice cracked. "But then he was filled with fire. He started beating me for minutes. Kept kicking me, punching me for how long. I didn't know. The whole life was playing in front of me. I felt like I was dying."

He looked at her, showing his eyes to her. "A last kick came so hard on my chest, the chair fell with me tied to it. My head banged hard against the floor. Finally, she opened the doors and started calling her neighbors, sobbing and blaming me. The neighbors came. Two families with men on the Frontline, entered the room I was lying in, begging for mercy."

"They took anything that came in sight and hit me the place they found. Women too didn't stop. They started beating me with slippers, cursed me, cursed my mother-"

Tears fell from his eyes and Sakshi didn't waste a minute to wrap her arms around him. The moment she breathed on his shoulder, her heart filled immense pain as if it was receiving it from his. She could feel him shaking, his throat warming on her shoulder.

She rubbed his back shakily, feeling herself weeping silently.

"That was horrible, Sakshi. The most disgusting phase of my life. I didn't want to live anymore. I was punished for a crime I didn't do. It was not just about money. It was more than that. They didn't pity me. They hated me for asking my own money." He whispered in a cracked voice.

"The woman were all screaming on my head, suggesting the men that criminals like me should be burned without any proceedings in the court. I was so scared for my life, Sakshi. I never had thought I would die like that.

"Later, it came out that they had taken me to the police-station and registered FIR against me. The police called my family and in the middle of the night, Rishabh came there. He called an ambulance and while they were all putting me on a stretcher from the stands of the station, that's when I opened my eyes and digested the scenario."

She pulled back as he smiled sadly. "I kept awake in the ambulance, groaning and sobbing as every part of my body ached, was bleeding."

She wiped her tears, blinking rapidly. "Can I see them?"

He stared at her, gulping hard. Nodding slowly, he raised his arm, removing the light yellow T-shirt and sighed when he heard her gasping.

Sakshi watched quietly as he pointed at his abs, showing her a thick red scratch across it. "This was that iron rod." He pointed on his shoulder. "This one's the knife."

A sob broke out as she touched them slightly, observing them and imagining how brutal they would be. "You came late, but you came." He chuckled softly.

"One month ago, I was admitted in the ICU. Weeks passed and I recovered. I couldn't attend counsellings, I couldn't talk to lawyers again and again. The media. I couldn't even describe to Rishabh and mom the whole story three days. Until finally, my mouth healed and I was able to speak. When I told them the truth, they were all shattered."

He smiled sadly. "Rishabh was so horrified seeing the wounds, he thought that no one could be so angry unless the crime has happened. He took Vikas' deadliness from a different angle. He thought that I truly must have tried to rape. . ."

She breathed hard, wiping her tears.

"When he started showing it in his behavior too, with the way he used to burst out on me. He was ashamed of me. He was traumatized by taking rounds of courts and everything. Even my parents took me as the spoilt one, and behaved like I truly had that intention behind the money I lend," he told her.

"It led to me going into the depression that I wanted a new start. I wanted to quit it and start afresh which could only happen if I take another birth-"

"And you tried to kill yourself," she completed his sentence, making him nod quietly.

Her eyes moved over his shoulders, narrowing when she found marks of wounds going towards the back, she stood up. Shrey watched her quietly while standing up too as she slowly turned him around.

She gasped at the sight.

There were more marks that looked like of whiplashes on his back. It made him sigh heavily. "They'll heal. Don't worry," he told her.

He turned around to smile at her tightly. "I'll heal too."

She clenched her jaws, lowering her eyes as tears fell out of them, making him groan. "Sakshi, don't make me feel bad by doing this," he muttered. He tugged on her hand, waiting for her to calm down as she sniffled and wiped her eyes.

"What happened to your fate? Why such things happened? That is so unfair." She sobbed. "You only helped them," she sniffled, making him watch her quietly.

Shrey clenched his jaws, trying hard to not show his emotions anymore. But Sakshi looked troubled and it made him feel so embarrassed thinking that he was the cause of it.

"How did you survive all of that, Shrey?" She breathed hard. "I wouldn't have. No one would have. You are so strong. . ." She sniffled while looking up in his eyes. "You are so strong."

He shook his head, smiling sadly. "I didn't survive it, Sakshi. I was going to kill myself. I almost had. Even if they had caught me, saved me, I would've tried another way. I am not strong, Sakshi. Not anymore."

She blinked. "But you lived. You are living now. You came today, tried to have fun, to smile and forget these sorrows, these cases going on. You are strong," she said slowly.

"Not without your loving words," he confessed. "They gave me hope. They repaired me. Otherwise, I was left as a broken soul. I was shattered. I was getting eroded by my own stupidities. I became a coward. Too scared to live anymore."

She shushed him while giving him warning eyes. "Don't say that," her voice cracked. "You were never a coward. You have always been brave. It was you who dared to fight those hooligans that night."

Shrey was stunned as she further said, "You had a bat in your hand and you challenged them, warned them to leave me. You weren't afraid to get wounds. You weren't afraid to risk your own life. You just fought them. That showed how of brave you are. To me, you are not a coward."

He blinked, feeling his throat shaking as a nervous smile came upon his lips. Words weren't forming in his brain so he could express how grateful he was to meet her after years and to know that she valued that act of his from that night. Because that was his true intention. He couldn't think of anything but to save her.

Stepping ahead, he wrapped his big arms around hers, breathing in her scent soothingly. He could feel her relaxing too in his hold as her hands palmed his back and rubbed along his skin. And that was when, her eyes widened at realizing in what situation they were.

She had nothing but a spaghetti top on and he was shirtless. Oh God! Sakshi gasped immediately, jumping from his arms and stood back apart, not meeting his eyes.

Shrey too blinked rapidly, now understanding how lost they were that they didn't realize what it could look to others and to themselves. He watched her cheeks turning red and couldn't stop smiling to himself.

Shying away, she turned her back on him, running fingers through her hair, making him finally notice her night clothes. "We should sleep now," she suggested.

His nodded and took the T-shirt from the bed. "Yeah." He walked ahead of hers, not looking at her and was about to murmur a good night when she held his wrist.

He halted and looked at her questioningly. "Thanks for sharing it with me," she spoke slowly while glancing at his marks. "They are not ugly to me anymore. Ugly were the memories. But they'll be gone too, especially now that you have started making new ones."

As if she hadn't caught his wrist but his heart. He couldn't pull himself back until she left his wrist. "Night, Shrey."

He smiled back. "Good night, Sakshi," he replied while getting out of the room and thinking, it was indeed a good night for him.

_______

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