CHAPTER 56! LET IT BURN #3
Shaurya pushed the sandwich into his hand. "So you fight too."
Vivaan's grip tightened on the wrapper, his jaw clenching as he forced himself to take a breath.
Shaurya let out a long sigh. "Vivaan. Don't make me force-feed you in front of a hallway full of nurses. It's bad for your reputation, and mostly for mine."
Vivaan turned his head. In his eyes, there was only a hollow fear.
Shaurya broke the sandwich in half and shoved the larger piece directly into Vivaan's hand. "Eat it."
Vivaan stared down at the bread. "Shaurya... if she dies..."
"She isn't going to die," Shaurya cut in sharply. "And even if the world falls apart tonight, you don't fight a war on an empty stomach. Eat."
Vivaan stared at him for a long moment. "Shaurya..."
"I know."
Shaurya didn't offer fake comfort. He simply sat beside his brother, shoulder to shoulder.
Slowly, Vivaan lifted the sandwich and took a forced bite.
Shaurya took a bite of his own half. "Remember when you broke my nose back in college?"
Vivaan wiped a hand over his face, a ghost of a shadow flicking across his expression. "You broke my nose."
"You hit me first."
"You stole my motorcycle."
"You said I could take it."
"I said, 'If you touch my bike, I'll kill you.'"
"Same Thing."
A quiet stillness settled between them. The fluorescent lights overhead hummed softly.
Vivaan chewed slowly, staring down at the paper wrapper, the air finally moving in his lungs.
Shaurya sat beside him, shoulder against shoulder, keeping watch.
Aadhira stood up slowly from her chair and walked over to them, her feet silent. Vivaan looked up at her.
"Did she say anything?" Vivaan asked, his voice rough. "Before?"
"She was happy," Aadhira said softly.
Vivaan's chest tightened. "What did she say?"
Aadhira remembered Kashvi's laugh from earlier that morning.
"She..She said she wanted a future with you."
Vivaan froze. He closed his eyes, his breathing growing shallow and jagged, unable to say another word.
A heavy silence fell over the corner of the waiting room.
A few yards away, near the chapel doors, Kashvi's mother sat hunched over in a wheelchair, her trembling hands clutching a rosary as she wept softly.
"She hates hospital food..." the mother's broken voice echoed faintly down the quiet hall. "She's going to throw a fit when she wakes up and sees the broth. I want to hear her complain about the cold soup..."
Aadhira turned her eyes toward the chapel doors, watching the older woman's shoulders shake.
Vivaan heard it too, his hand tightening around the paper wrapper until it crushed entirely.
Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. The words simply hung in the sterile air, heavy and unanswerable.
Down the long, sterile corridor, beyond the double glass doors leading out into the rain, a faint red light blinked once in the dark parking lot.
Then vanished.
The paper cup of espresso Aryav had brought sat untouched on the wide windowsill, the steam long dead, the surface film turned cold.
Aadhira leaned her head back against the wall, her tired eyes shifting down the long corridor.
Aryav stood by the glass window at the far end of the hallway, his towering silhouette framed against the dark city skyline below.
His phone had been vibrating continuously against his palm for forty minutes-a relentless, flashing stream of high-priority calls from underbosses, international logistics managers, and security teams.
He ignored every single one. He didn't even look at the screen.
Aadhira watched the tense line of his broad shoulders.
She pushed herself up from the chair and walked slowly over to him, her steps unhurried in the dim light.
"What if something goes wrong with the empire?" she asked softly, stopping right behind him. "You had a meeting to attend."
Aryav didn't turn around immediately, but his body reacted to her presence, his posture shifting as he registered her warmth behind him.
His phone buzzed again in his palm, a sharp red priority alert lighting up the glass screen.
"Then it does."
Slowly, deliberately, Aryav raised his hand and placed the phone face-down on the granite window ledge, cutting off the light entirely.
Aadhira looked down at the dark phone resting on the stone, then back up to the back of his neck.
She realized what that gesture meant-he was deliberately choosing to stand in this quiet hallway with her while his world burned outside.
Aryav turned slowly, trapping her against the windowsill.
He didn't touch her right away. He simply stood there, his shadow falling over her, his dark eyes searching hers in the quiet of the corridor.
Aadhira looked up into his face, the distance between them closing without a word.
Only then did he reach out, his hand sliding deliberately around the back of her waist, pulling her flush against him until her chest rested against his suit.
He looked down into her eyes.
"Let it burn."
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They'll be together soon. But are you ready to see just how shameless he can be for her... and all the regret she's about to feel?