Chapter 27
‘Are you sure?’
Kashvi took a deep breath and placed her trembling hand in Maithili’s outstretched one. Even the slightest movement sent fresh pain tearing through the split skin of her palm. ‘I’m sure.’
Thin cuts marked both her arms in angry, bleeding lines that burned relentlessly, while the slash on her palm throbbed with vicious force.
Maithili leaned closer to inspect the wound. Blood seeped around the embedded glass shard when she pressed lightly against it.
‘The cut is deep, Kashvi. I’ll have to stitch it, and I don’t have any anaesthesia right now, so it will hurt. We need to go to the hospital,’ Maithili insisted in a firm voice.
Fear climbed hot and suffocating up her throat, but Kashvi only shook her head.
Maithili glanced at the closed bedroom door. ‘Do you want me to call Swayam inside? It helps to have someone to yell at.’
Kashvi stared at the door. Swayam was probably pacing outside the room the way he always did when panic took hold of him. She wanted him with her so badly that her free hand curled into a fist.
But she shook her head. She didn’t want him to see her like this.
With a sigh, Maithili pulled sterile gauze, thread, and a curved needle from her bag. Kashvi rested her head against the wall and looked away.
Now that the adrenaline had worn off, the pain burned through her in hot waves. Even swallowing pulled painfully at her swollen cheek.
‘Take a deep breath for me,’ Maithili said as she gripped the piece of glass with tweezers.
Kashvi bit down on her lip, and Maithili pulled the shard out in one quick motion.
Pain exploded through her palm. Kashvi nearly lurched away from the wall, nausea rolling through her stomach hard enough to make her ribs tighten. The ceiling blurred as tears spilled over.
‘Shh, that’s it. It’s out. Breathe,’ Maithili urged softly as she pressed the gauze against the wound.
Sweat gathered at the nape of her neck, and Kashvi felt feverish from the burning sting. Every tremor through her abdomen reignited the deep agony left behind by Viraj’s kick, making it difficult to sit upright.
Maithili cleaned the wound with slow, methodical care. The antiseptic burned savagely despite her gentle touch.
When the needle pierced her tender skin, a brutal scream tore out of Kashvi. ‘Oh my God,’ she gasped brokenly, grabbing blindly at the bedsheet.
‘I know it hurts. Just hold on. This will be over soon,’ Maithili told her, trying to comfort her as best she could.
Kashvi nodded weakly and forced air into her aching chest. Though she clenched her teeth hard, another cry scraped out of her throat when the needle pierced her skin again.
A knock sounded immediately at the bedroom door.
‘Kash? Are you okay?’ Swayam’s muffled voice came through, strained with alarm.
She bit down harder on her lip. ‘I’m fine,’ Kashvi called back.
After a brief pause, he said, ‘I’m right outside, okay? If you need anything, just call me.’
‘Okay.’
Kashvi gestured for Maithili to stop for a moment as she picked up a scrap of fabric from her torn top. She rolled it into a tight bundle, then clamped it between her teeth.
Maithili chuckled softly. ‘You should know it was nearly impossible to keep him out of the room. The only reason he agreed was because I told him I’d need privacy to check you for injuries.’
Kashvi could picture it too easily. That sounded exactly like her husband.
The frantic look in his eyes when she’d regained consciousness still sat heavily in her mind. She remembered his broken voice as he kept begging her to open her eyes. Even afterwards, he had been unwilling to leave her side, even for the few seconds it took to open the door for Maithili.
Maithili tied off the final stitch carefully before wrapping fresh bandage around her palm. ‘There, done.’
Kashvi let out a slow breath as she pulled the cloth from between her teeth.
Maithili began packing away the needle and thread. ‘Do you have any other injuries I need to look at?’
Kashvi reached for the hem of her camisole and pulled it up, revealing the dark bruise spreading across her abdomen.
Maithili’s eyes widened and shock flashed across her face. ‘Kashvi, that looks like a kick mark.’
She fought the memory of those horrifying seconds afterwards, when she couldn’t breathe, before it overwhelmed her.
Maithili continued, ‘Honestly, looking at that, I wouldn’t be surprised if your ribs are sore too. You also hit your head and lost consciousness, so even though I’ve checked you , there could still be a mild concussion. I’d honestly feel much better if you let me take you for an MRI.’
It made sense now why breathing felt like inhaling fire. Still, Kashvi shook her head. ‘I can’t.’
Maithili’s gaze moved over the trashed room before she pointed around her. ‘Do you know who attacked you? Is he the one who did all this?’
Kashvi wanted to answer, wanted to ask for guidance, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Viraj knew personal things about her, her life, and the people close to her. He had attacked her inside her own home. The violation of it still crawled beneath her skin.
She refused to drag danger to Maithili’s doorstep too.
Kashvi lowered her camisole. ‘I do, but I can’t tell you.’
Maithili held her gaze for a moment before asking carefully, ‘Is it Swayam? Did he do this?’
A laugh scraped its way out of her. ‘Oh God, no,’ Kashvi said.
‘Good. I’m sorry to ask that, but you’d be surprised how often I see cases like this, so I had to make sure,’ Maithili said, visibly relieved. ‘But am I right in assuming it’s someone you know closely?’
‘Swayam does,’ Kashvi said, hoping that would be enough.
Understanding flickered in Maithili’s eyes as she leaned back with a quiet sigh. ‘Is that why you refuse to go to the hospital?’
‘If I go to a hospital and it gets out that I was attacked, there’ll be an official investigation, and the media speculation would be endless. I just... need to deal with this by myself.’
Maithili fixed her with a hard stare. ‘That’s how you’ve handled things all these years, and I think it’s safe to say it hasn’t worked out well.
I’ve always tried to meet you halfway, but I have to put my foot down here.
You’re badly hurt, you’re clearly in trouble, and you cannot deal with this alone. ’
‘You don’t know, I can be thrifty.’ Kashvi pointed to the bloodied shard resting on the folded gauze inside the disposable kit, trying to distract Maithili. ‘I slashed my attacker’s cheek with that.’
Maithili refused to back down. ‘Good, but you also hurt yourself more in the process. That’s probably why the piece was lodged so deep.’
Viraj’s threat had been choking her like poison. It was the only damage she could return. ‘I had to do something.’
‘Kashvi, there’s no wrong move when you’re trying to save yourself from danger. Absolutely none,’ Maithili assured her firmly. ‘But what’s wrong is hiding from your family when you clearly need their help. I nearly called Siya twice myself.’
The ache in Kashvi’s chest deepened, and she went still. ‘Please don’t.’
‘You really think keeping this from her is a good idea?’ Maithili asked, tilting her head in disapproval.
‘You know how my sister is. Probably more than most people. I need to get everything in order before I tell her.’
‘I understand Siya will go on a mission to fix things, and you need time for that. But, I really insist that you talk to Swayam.’
Kashvi lowered her gaze. ‘Did he seem angry at me?’
Maithili frowned. ‘No. Why would you think that?’
‘Nothing.’
Maithili studied her closely. ‘Honestly, Kashvi, he seemed angry, protective, terrified, but all of it was for you. Not once did I get the impression he was upset with you.’
She swallowed against the guilt rising inside her. ‘I hope that’s true.’
‘But you seem convinced otherwise. Why?’ Maithili probed gently.
Kashvi played with the frayed edge of the bandage. Shame burned hot beneath her skin as she confessed, ‘Because I pushed him away. I had to do it, but that’s no excuse for hurting him like I did. And now, I’m sitting here selfishly hoping he hasn’t given up on me after all that.’
Maithili squeezed her knee. ‘It doesn’t seem like he has. Swayam is still here, isn’t he?’
‘That doesn’t mean he’s forgiven me,’ Kashvi whispered. ‘I called him right before the attack, so maybe he only came because of that.’
‘You know, when you mentioned during our last virtual consultation that you were marrying Swayam, I had my doubts. I understood your father was the reason behind it, but it made me worry this might not last.’
A bitter laugh slipped out of Kashvi. ‘Clearly, I was stupid to think either of us would walk away from this without getting wrecked in the process.’
Maithili said gently, ‘No, you’re focusing on the wrong thing.
Tonight, the fear and determination I saw in Swayam erased every doubt I had.
There was this cold madness in his eyes when he told me the condition he found you in.
A man doesn’t look that feral unless someone has hurt the woman he loves. ’
Kashvi shuddered as she recalled his heartbeat hammering wildly beneath her cheek while he held her in his arms. He had sat there, pressing soft kisses to her forehead and telling her she was safe. There had been wild panic in his eyes, and she never wanted to see him like that again.
‘I don’t know how we get through this,’ Kashvi admitted in a whisper.
How was she supposed to look him in the eyes and tell him his own cousin had done this to her?
‘I wish I could give you a magical answer that would make this easy. Unfortunately, sometimes you survive one ugly step at a time until you make it through,’ Maithili said softly. ‘But what I can tell you for certain is that you cannot deal with this by yourself.’
The raw helplessness from earlier still clung to Kashvi’s skin, sending a chill down her spine. More than anything, it was the terrifying realisation that no help was coming, because she had left Swayam entirely in the dark. For those long, awful moments, she had known she was utterly on her own.
Now, in hindsight, the decision tasted like poison.
Maithili was right. If Kashvi had told Swayam sooner, if she hadn’t been so stubborn about handling this alone, maybe tonight wouldn’t have happened. She had to rectify her mistake.
Kashvi took a slow breath to calm her nerves. ‘I learned my lesson the hard way tonight, so I won’t make that mistake again. But honestly, I don’t know where to start.’
Maithili watched her quiet struggle. ‘You know, I think you forget sometimes just how brave you are. The first day you came to my clinic, you’d stolen my number from Siya’s phone because you knew she was seeing me. You told me you were scared to sleep because of your nightmares.’
‘I barely remember that appointment,’ she admitted with a heavy sigh.
Back then, Kashvi had stayed awake for three days straight. Energy drinks, coffee, cold showers, anything to stop herself from falling asleep because the nightmares were always waiting for her.
‘I do,’ Maithili said. ‘You looked like you were about to faint.’
Mostly, Kashvi remembered the exhaustion becoming so severe she’d started hallucinating. By the fourth night, she had been sure she was losing her mind.
‘I was desperate.’
Maithili disagreed with a firm shake of her head. ‘You were brave enough to ask for help before it was too late. Now that I’ve known you for nearly a decade, I understand what a difficult step that was for you. You can do it again now.’
It took effort to shed years of resistance and coping mechanisms, but she managed it. ‘I don’t want to do this alone. Especially not without Swayam. And I know I need my family with me, so yeah, I’ll talk to Siya too.’
The concern etched into Maithili’s forehead finally eased. ‘I’m so happy this breakthrough finally happened, though I hate the awful way it did. But for what it’s worth, I genuinely believe that whatever this situation is, the two of you will find your way through it together.’
Hope flickered through Kashvi. The wall between her and Swayam still felt impossible to break, but she wouldn’t rest until she did.
‘You defended yourself well, and all I want now is for you to focus that same energy on taking care of yourself.’
Kashvi nodded. ‘I will.’
Maithili added with a smile, ‘I know you can handle anything, but if you need my help to deal with this mess, you know I’m here for you.’
Kashvi reached out and clasped her hand. ‘I can’t thank you enough for coming today, but I don’t want to drag you into this. It’s not safe for you.’
Maithili nodded reluctantly. ‘Well, regardless, I’m so glad Swayam called me. I’ll admit, though, he scared me with his shouting when I answered the phone.’
She winced. ‘I’m sorry about that. I know he didn’t mean to.’
‘Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just relieved he found you in time.
’ Maithili checked her watch, then stood, slipping the strap of her bag over her shoulder.
‘I’ve got an appointment. Try not to strain your hand too much for the next few days.
Keep it dry and take your medication. If the pain worsens, call me. ’
‘Yes, doctor.’
‘I’m serious,’ Maithili said, narrowing her eyes.
‘I know.’
Maithili reached over and brushed a gentle hand through her hair. ‘I’m really glad you’re okay. I was worried too.’
‘Thank you,’ Kashvi whispered, fighting back tears.
Maithili gave a firm reminder. ‘This kind of incident can scar you. If anything triggers your seizures, you call me. I don’t care what time it is.’
‘I will.’
The reminder sent a cold unease through her. God, the last thing she needed was for her body to betray her. She had too much to handle now.
Maithili leaned forward and wrapped her arms gently around her. ‘Take care of yourself.’
Emotion clogged Kashvi’s throat, so she quietly returned the hug.
Maithili carefully picked her way through the wreckage scattered across the floor and headed towards the door.
Just before she opened it, Kashvi said quietly, ‘Will you please tell Swayam to come in?’
That made Maithili laugh. ‘I really don’t think anybody can stop that man from barging in here at this point.’
With a small goodbye wave, she slipped out of the room.
The sudden silence turned suffocating, and her nerves felt frayed at the thought of telling Swayam everything. Trying to distract herself, she looked around the room.
Immediately, she regretted it.
The full extent of the destruction hit differently now that the panic had faded enough for her to really see it. Every broken object, every ripped photograph carried the dark shadow of Viraj’s rage. Her room barely looked like hers anymore.
No matter how desperately she tried to outrun it, this threat had carved itself into her home, her memories, and her body. Tears sprang to her eyes because Maithili had been right again.
This would leave a scar.