Chapter Seventy Five.
Two Days Later..
Ira swallowed hard, her gaze darting nervously toward her parents, whose expressions were terror and frustration.
She and Devraj were seated side by side on the couch in her family's living room.
Standing directly across from them, her mother and father loomed over them.
"All of this happened right under our noses! And you had the audacity to repeatedly lie us, claiming my daughter was with you!" Her father said.
Devraj subtly leaned his shoulder toward Ira, his face perfectly deadpan as he kept his eyes locked straight ahead.
"Remind me again..." he whispered, his deep voice barely audible, "what exactly were you saying about highly doubting they would get mad?"
Ira shot him a nervous glance before quickly looking back at her parents, her fingers anxiously twisting together.
"Papa... please. I am perfectly safe, no-"
"Ira, you are safe by some miracle." her father interrupted, his gaze shifting into a hard glare directed straight at Devraj. "But it is precisely because of him and his lifestyle that you were dragged into this horrific mess in the first place!"
"Papa, please, let's not assign blame to the wrong person.." Ira pleaded, her voice steadying as she stood her ground for the man beside her. "He brought me home safe. The only reason he kept the truth from you both was to prevent you from being worried sick while he was out there tracking me down."
"Look at your feet, Ira!" her father countered, pointing directly at the bandages peeking out from her hemline, his heart breaking.
Ira lowered her gaze.
Sensing that the tension was reaching a breaking point, Ira's mother stepped forward.
She placed a gentle, calming hand on her husband's back, rubbing it softly to soothe his racing pulse.
"I know you are terrified and angry." her mother said softly. "But we must consider the objective truth. Devraj willingly put his own life on the line and his other friends just to get our daughter back. At this point, arguing over who caused what is entirely in the past."
She turned her gaze toward Devraj, offering him a warm genuine smile that made Devraj inwardly exhale in relief.
"Besides, if anything, I am grateful to Devraj. He saved our Ira from a lunatic for the second time now, and he ensured she returned to us alive."
"But the man is completely unhinged himself." her father grumbled beneath his breath. His wife immediately shot him a warning glare that silenced any further complaints.
He let out a defeated sigh, his rigid shoulders finally dropping.
"Fine." he murmured, his gaze shifting back to Devraj.
"I am grateful that you saved my daughter's life, Devraj. But..."
His voice suddenly cracked, "Please... never lie to me when it comes to my daughter's safety again. I deeply appreciate the fact that you risked your own life for hers. I truly do.."
"As I have given you my word before." Devraj responded. "I will always protect her. With everything I have."
Her father offered a single nod of acceptance. Seizing the moment, Ira stood up from the couch and threw her arms around her father's neck.
"I am so relieved to see you, beta." he mumbled into her hair, his arms wrapping tightly around her.
Ira squeezed him back with everything she had before gently pulling away.
Suddenly, Devraj's phone beeped, he slipped it from his pocket, scanning the screen. As he read the text, the warmth completely drained from his expression, his muscles tightening under his suit. He slowly looked up.
"Ira... I need to leave immediately. An urgent matter requires my personal attention." he stated, his tone shifting.
Ira looked at him, her face falling slightly at the sudden departure, but offered a small nod.
"Okay."
"I will be back for you very soon. I promise." he murmured softly, he wrapped a hand around the nape of her neck, pulling her close to press a kiss against her forehead.
Ira's cheeks flushed with a blush under her parents' watchful eyes.
Devraj stepped back and turned to address her parents, his demeanor perfectly formal.
"Please excuse me."
"Drive safe, Devraj." her mother replied
Devraj offered a respectful nod and strode out the front door.
The exact second the door shut behind him, the gentle aura he had maintained for Ira vanished completely.
His expression turned lethal, his jaw clenched and speed-dialed a direct line.
Advik answered on the very first ring.
"Are you certain she is the one who orchestrated all this?" Devraj demanded as he walked toward his car.
"I am one thousand percent certain." Advik's voice clipped through the receiver, entirely devoid of his usual playful banter.
"The trail leads straight back to her."
"Good." Devraj gritted out, a smile stretching across his lips. "Very good."
Without another word, he cut the line and shoved the phone into his pocket.
He climbed into the driver's seat of his car, fired up the engine, and threw the vehicle into gear...driving down the road at a blinding speed.
~??~
"Ira?"
Her mother called, drawing Ira out of the trance she had fallen into while staring blankly at the closed front door.
She blinked, turning her gaze back toward her parents.
"It certainly doesn't look like you merely like Devraj." her mother observed.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, you silly child." her mother teased gently, stepping closer. "You love him... don't you?"
Ira instinctively bit her lower lip.
She let out a shaky sigh.
"I feel like I do," she confessed. "But... I don't know if what I'm feeling is completely real yet. I only truly consciously realized the depth of it when I was trapped on that island with Samar, facing the worst. But I'm just terrified that-" She abruptly cut herself off,
unable to voice the rest of her chaotic thoughts.
Her mother and father exchanged a deep, communicative look before focusing their attention back on their daughter.
"Why exactly are you harboring so many doubts, Ira?" her mother asked in concern.
"Is it because you still hold a lingering affection for Kunal?" her father suddenly interjected.
His wife gasped, whipping her head around to glare at him in disbelief.
"What? No! Absolutely not.." Ira rushed to clarify, her eyes widening as she fiercely shook her head.
"Papa, I don't harbor a single romantic feeling for Kunal anymore. I grieved the end of that relationship, I processed the pain, and that was the end of it. There is no such thing as reopening a past chapter of my life, right?"
A deeply relieved smile finally broke across her father's face at her certainty.
"Ira... it is completely obvious to anyone with eyes that Devraj loves you fiercely." her mother reassured her, reaching out to gently squeeze her hand.
"And he is undeniably, terrifyingly obsessed with you, too." her father added dryly.
His wife shot him an exasperated, deadpan look that practically shouted really? right now? but the man merely shrugged his shoulders.
"What? It's the truth." he maintained flatly.
Her mother shaked her head and turned her full attention back to Ira.
"Listen to me, Ira." her mother continued, her tone softening with a deep, maternal wisdom.
"Devraj loves you. Yes, his methods can certainly be... intense. But tell me, what other man would willingly risk his own life just to pull the woman he wants out of the jaws of death? Who else would orchestrate a web of lies just to protect her parents from being consumed by worry,
nurse her back to health, and quite literally worship the very ground she walks upon?"
"Kunal would do that.." her father muttered, stubbornly holding onto his old biases.
His wife slowly turned her head, fixing her husband with a deadpan glare.
"And yet, the moment Devraj threatened his comfortable life, he abandoned her."
He instantly fell silent
Turning her focus back to her daughter, her mother gently patted Ira's cheek.
"Take your time and truly listen to what your heart is trying to tell you, okay? But if you ask for my perspective... all I see when I look into your eyes is a woman in love."
Ira felt a warmth bloom in her chest.
"Thank you, Maa." She smiled.
Suddenly, a knock echoed through house, shattering the moment.
"I'll get it." Ira offered.
After two days of Devraj's obsessive medical care and premium ointments, her feet had healed remarkably well.
Only a few faint, fading cuts remained, causing nothing more than a dull, easily ignorable twinge of discomfort as she walked across the living room.
She reached the front door and pulled it open, only to be instantly collided into and pulled into a tight desperate embrace.
Startled by the unprompted contact, Ira immediately put her hands against the intruder's chest and pushed him away with surprising force.
As she took a step back, her eyes widened. Standing on her porch, looking absolutely disheveled and frantic, was...
"Kunal?"
"Ira... I-I'm so sorry.." Kunal stammered, his voice laced with a breathless panic as he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I shouldn't have just grabbed you like that... I know. It's just... I completely lost my mind with relief when your father called to tell me you were finally here."
Ira's head snapped toward her father, her eyes narrowing in accusation. Her mother was already throwing a silent glare at her husband, who suddenly found the crown molding of the ceiling incredibly interesting.
"I was so worried about you, Ira." Kunal ranted. "You didn't call, you didn't text, and nobody would give me a straight answer about where you had vanished to! I kept calling your phone over and over, but your line was completely dead..."
Ira forced herself to look at him objectively. He still possessed the same familiar, handsome features that had once defined her world, but the pristine, put-together boy she used to know was gone.
Instead, dark circles shadowed his eyes, and a messy, neglected stubble dusted his jawline and chin, speaking to his unraveling state.