Raghav set the files aside, signing the one he had in the middle of the table. After reading it thoroughly, he moved on to the next one. Suddenly, his intercom beeped, making him look at it.

He pressed the button, "Meera? What's up?"

"There's someone to meet you, Sir."

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I had told you, I wasn't doing meetings for these two days. I need to go through these projects. Who is it?"

He heard Meera taking a long breathe. "Sir, it won't take long. I. . . Should I send him in?"

"Unless it's that irritating Mr. Kashyap," he said, rolling his eyes remembering the man who wouldn't stop wasting his time by talking about deals, he was never interested in.

"Okay, sir. Sending him to your office."

He sighed, while rubbing his forehead. He was in no mood to meet anyone because the latest projects done by their new recruited employees were important to be checked by this week. Nakul was busied with the Christmas gifts shopping for the staff as he had gone to order the stock. Otherwise, he could have used some help.

He heard a knock on his door and without looking up from his sheets, he answered, "Come in, please."

The door opened and walked inside the man. Raghav could hear the sound of the formal boots. When no greetings came, he stopped writing and looked up slowly only to get off guard.

Standing in front of him was the boy, he had seen years ago, beaten and tattered. The boy whom he wanted to kill with his bare hands because he dared to play with his sister's heart, playing with the heart of a child and supporting that dumbass brother of his.

"What are you doing here?" asked Raghav, going rigid while his eyes watched the man in front of him like a hawk.

Shrey was nervous to the hell. He had rehearsed this scene in his mind a thousand times. But he was still not prepared a bit. After reaching Chandigarh in the evening, he had managed to contact an old friend who had came to receive him. The contacts he made when he had arrived in this city years ago to play with Sakshi's childish heart.

He gulped, looking the calm fury in her brother's eyes. How he wished that Sakshi didn't have any brother? It would have been easy to just go to her home and approach her uncle rather than this Ironhead brother.

He had wore formal clothes just to impress him. A light blue shirt with black pants and boots, he knew he would still be the careless, womaniser kind of a guy in his eyes. No one was at fault but himself, he made his image on his own years ago.

"I needed to meet you. I need to talk." He managed to say with a firm grip on his confident tone. Shrey's chest was burning with nervousness. Because he had nothing to impress this guy, but his real-self.

Raghav closed the file, and raised his eyebrows, looking at him. He leaned back on the chair, putting his one arm on the table. "What is it about?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

Shrey could swear, he saw the warning. As if saying that he shouldn't dare even mention Sakshi here. Raghav wouldn't listen a bit. He was done with their bullshit years ago. He wouldn't deal with it.

"I have a lot to explain. I need your time and patience," Shrey spoke, his nostrils flaring in collecting confidence.

Raghav's jaws clenched. "Sit and talk," he said, for some reason, getting curious about knowing his case details and the health of his uncle.

"I am not here to sit," Shrey said, quietly. "Because whatever I'll say next, you'll not even have me stand in the same room as yours. But you will have to listen to me because this is about your sister's safety."

Smoke came out of Raghav's ears, his blood turned hot. "Boy, you think before speaking," he warned, now turning straight.

Shrey fisted his hand, not stepping back. "I know that your family is thinking about marrying her to that professor. But you need to know, that Sakshi is not happy about it. She isn't in love with him. The man's a-"

Raghav got up from his chair.

Shrey's heart curled up. In the back of his eyes, he could imagine himself screaming the truth out and shaking this man so he could understand the truth. But there was so much to explain before.

"How do you fucking know about this?" Raghav asked calmly, glaring at him.

"Sakshi told me," Shrey said confidently. "I didn't know anything about that professor. I just know that when I was on my hospital bed, fighting with death. Sakshi reached out to me and helped me. If I am alive today, it's because of her."

Raghav couldn't believe his ears. This wasn't some film. It was reality. A boy he had thought, was out of his sister's life was now talking about her personal life.

Shrey was scared if Raghav would blame it all on Sakshi. So, he quickly explained, "I thanked her, and a new friendship formed. A new chapter of our lives started. I asked her forgiveness for what I did to her years ago. And she forgave me."

Raghav's nostrils flared, his jaw ticked.

"We have been taking care of each other from these past two months," he said, observing the furious eyes. His heart was filling with dread as he fearfully said the most important words.

"We love each other-" The hand came right on his neck, choking him then and there. Holding his collar with another hand, Raghav pushed him back in the office.

"How fucking dare you!" Raghav said through gritted teeth. "I had warned you to not show me and my sister your face again."

Shrey could feel the veins in his neck getting pinched. His face was swelling from the pressure that came in. This man was literally choking him. He couldn't speak because of the anxiety that rose deep in his chest. He finally managed to palm the man's chest, pushing him away.

Raghav didn't budge but removed his hand from the neck. He pointed his finger, "My sister doesn't love you. She has had enough. You don't fuck with her life, and leave already before I kill you."

Shrey clenched his jaws, breathing harshly and looking in the man's eyes. "How do you know everything? You think you know her? She had been living there for four years but never showed me her face. I didn't know about her. We never met until we saw each other in the hospital, three months ago."

"Sakshi had never forgotten me," he spoke with determination. "She doesn't want to hurt her brother by confessing about her love for me. So, she came here leaving everything. Me and my love to marry that sick-perverted man, you've chosen for her. It's a shame, of all you don't give a shit to her life."

Raghav grabbed the chin of the boy, pressing harder making Shrey wince. "I know what my sister wants. You are no one to tell me around. I was done with your shits years ago. Both you brothers. First my wife, then my sister. For their sake, I left you both on mercy. But now, you'll go to jail."

Shrey let out a laugh, pushing Raghav away. "For what? Loving your sister?" He turned serious while confessing, "I am ashamed of everything that happened years ago. Rishabh is a freak and now, I know it very well. I am not here for him or for my family. I am here for myself, and for Sakshi."

"The professor is right for her or not," Raghav smirked evilly. "There are plenty of men. But you are not even at the bottom of the lane. You are nothing but a criminal. Undeserving of my sister. Leave this town, before I file an FIR against you for following my sister till here. For what you have done already, visiting courts and police stations, you must not take me lightly."

Shrey's heart shivered in terror as the memories filled his mind. But he didn't have anything to lose.

"Sakshi will hate you forever," said Shrey, looking in his eyes. "I'll will give you time. Go home, ask her the truth. Get to know if she sees herself getting married to someone like that professor or me. She isn't talking to me because she loves her family more than me. For her family, she is ready to leave me behind."

Shrey stepped ahead, his height matching Raghav who was deadly furious. "But I love her too much to let her leave me like this."

He saw the man breathing angrily as he explained, "I didn't rape anyone. The woman had framed me because I had helped her husband with the money they could never return. I tried suicide because I couldn't handle the false blame, the media, my parents' pain. But I was saved by your sister."

"I know, she can get better men than me. But I am no less. I am a management graduate with specializations in entrpreneurships and innovations from a reputed foreign University. I have studied more than you could have ever thought, Raghav Singh Rathore's. I have my internships done with one of the most trusted companies and have experiences of content more greater than yours," said Shrey, his confidence rising. "I am capable of earning more than that professor, more than you. I can take care of Sakshi more than any of you."

"I was an idiot to follow Rishabh out here to hurt Pihu and Sakshi wasn't even the plan until we had met in a train and my brother organized the plan. I feel ashamed about it because now I know, I have hurt Sakshi in the most brutal way. But I am capable of improving and making new memories. If you let me make her happy, she will have a great life ahead."

Raghav wasn't going to listen anymore. He had enough as he eyed him furiously.

"Get out."

Shrey was shocked. "But I am telling the truth-"

"Whoever you may be, you aren't the most civilized person in my eyes for my sister. Fucking leave!"

Shrey flared his nostrils. "She loves me but she won't tell you about it. Because she is scared of you. She respects you. I respect you too, Raghav. Which is why, I am here confessing it to you, not at the home to your father and mother."

He stepped ahead, smirking humorlessly. "Because I am capable of impressing them in bits just like you did to Pihu's parents-"

Shrey's face was turned with the extreme force, his cheek was throbbing. He could swear, he would faint if he got any more punch like this.

"Security!" Raghav yelled, high on anger, mad as a beast.

Shrey straightened himself shakily, touching his nose to sniff the blood leaking already.

Raghav grabbed his collar, dragging him out of his office.

Meera gasped, getting up from her chair, screaming when Raghav punched the boy another time. "Shrey!"

Two reputed employees came forward to stop Raghav when Shrey freed himself and pointed his finger at him.

"I was here to talk decently. But you didn't listen," he said through torn lip. "Now, you see me getting dirty. Because I might be Rishabh's brother," Shrey let out a humorlessly chuckle. "But I am nothing like him."

"He is a nerd, doing all those plans and getting creepy. I do action, and play bluntly," Shrey said, looking in his dark eyes. "I am just like you. Pihu was my senior," he said. "She knows, how bad I could be. Don't let your sister out in the city, I might kidnap her."

Raghav was shaking in trauma.

"You know the best thing about me being Superior to you?" Shrey asked confidently, his nose bleeding and cheek bruised. "I will not have to make your sister fall in love with me. She loves me, crazy."

The security guards arrived, including the lift man who all caught Shrey's elbows. Raghav stood petrified seeing the confidence in that boy's eyes.

"Leave him to the main gates. Get him taxi and don't hit him for God's sake," Meera whispered to one of the men while pressing the lift button.

She walked back to observe Raghav whose eyes were now bloodshot.

Before she could even ask anything, he felt the gazes of employees and left for his office.

_______

Pihu couldn't decide on a plan to ask Sakshi about everything. About her relation with Shrey, about everything that had been going on. It was a good chance to ask because everyone else was out for their chores. They could talk easily but Sakshi had built this big wall and didn't get out of her room.

During the lunch, when she had taken her plate to her room, she could see her dull eyes. She knew, she had just cried. But Pihu couldn't say anything. She didn't know what to do. On top of it, her own heart was getting overwhelmed by the situations. She did not know if she could handle any kind of truths.

Her chest was burning and body was tired from the pain she felt during the love making last night.

Her heart was on edge, and she was scared if it would drop down by tiring herself to the limit. So, she tried to rest because she felt heavy from these past week. She needed to take care of herself because she had to do all the chores and take care of the further schedule of her year. She had to study and take care of her home.

Suddenly, she heard the familiar honk and her eyebrows narrowed.

"Raghav?" She whispered to herself. "This early?" She asked herself while looking at the clock. It was just four in the noon.

She hurriedly got off the bed and covered Rian with sheet who was exhausted from a happy school day.

Walking downstairs, she smiled watching Raghav entering the house, loosening his tie already.

Her mother-in-law was already out in the drawing room, watching TV because her father-in-law was taking an afternoon nap.

"Where's Sakshi?" Raghav enquired, immediately.

Pihu frowned, reading the anger in his eyes. "What happened?"

The next they saw, had shocked them.

"Sakshi!" Raghav yelled on the top of his lungs, roaring,

Pihu was scared when her mother-in-law asked, "Why are you screaming? What happened?"

Sakshi came running downstairs, her eyes wide and scared. She looked around hesitantly, finally back in her brother's eyes.

"What is your relation with Shrey?" Raghav asked, calmly while throwing his coat on the couch. His eyes were furious and everyone could see a disaster approaching.

"Raghav! This is not the way to talk! Sakshi, go to your room," his mother ordered, already scared.

Sakshi was utterly horrified while Pihu's heart had fell from the cliff.

"Who is he to you?" Raghav asked again, calmly while folding the sleeve of his shirt and finally putting hands on his waist.

Sakshi gulped, exchanging a glance with Pihu that he didn't fail to notice.

"He is nothing. . ."

A harsh slap hit her cheek, echoing around, making everyone numb as dead.

Raghav glared at her furiously, turning his phone screen towards her. "Then, what is this?"

Pihu covered her mouth observing Sakshi in a spaghetti top, sleeping with a shirtless Shrey. Both seemed content and for a minute, she glanced at Sakshi, looking for answers.

A tear leaked out of her eye, Sakshi couldn't believe what she was seeing. She remembered the moment, it was one of those nights when Shrey had spent nights at her flat. They would talk until falling asleep in each other's arms, sometimes accompanied by long make-out sessions too.

But who took the pic?

Shrey could never do this. It was zoomed enough to have a possibility that he must have taken a selfie.

Dread filled her chest.

"This is what she had been doing all along," Raghav spat, looking in his mother's eyes, in hurt.

Pihu shook her head in horror as she looked Sakshi. No, she couldn't let this happen, she can't handle any fight happening in her home. A young woman getting slapped.

Pihu gulped and stopped Raghav from moving ahead when he got more angry by remembering the pic.

It all turned petrifying when Sakshi collected herself and looked dead in Raghav's eyes.

"How dare you raise your hand on me!"

______

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