Author pov
Kabir had seen Sona open her eyes before, but never like this.
This wasn't a gentle return to consciousness.
This wasn't confusion.
This wasn't even fear.
Her eyes snapped open like a predator jolted awake mid-hunt wide, sharp, glinting with a storm she couldn't yet understand. And for a full heartbeat, Kabir forgot how to breathe.
Her chest rose in ragged, painful pulls. Her gaze darted around the room, pupils blown wide, hunting something… someone.
Arjun.
Kabir took one step toward her.
"Sona—"
Before he could reach her, a soft, shaky voice came from behind him.
"Kabir…?"
His entire body went still.
The sound was quiet, barely formed…
But it was Riya.
He spun around so fast he nearly tripped. She was standing in the doorway, pale, trembling, holding onto the wall like she'd just fought her way out of a nightmare.
Her eyes lifted to him, glossy, apologetic, terrified.
"Kabir… I—I'm sorry…" she whispered, voice cracking. "I woke up and you weren't— I didn't—"
He reached her in two long strides, cupping her cheeks before she collapsed.
"Riya."
His voice broke into a thousand pieces of relief.
"You're awake."
She melted into him, shaking, her fingers clutching the front of his hospital gown like she needed to anchor herself to something real before she drifted back into the dark.
For a moment a single fragile moment the world narrowed to her heartbeat and his breath.
But then she whispered the name he'd been dreading.
"Where's Arjun?"
Kabir's throat closed.
He pulled away slightly, just enough to look her in the eyes.
The moment she saw the truth in them, her face drained of every drop of color.
"Kabir," she whispered. "No… no, please… tell me he's okay."
His lips trembled. "He wasn't brought here."
Riya stumbled back a step, like the words physically hit her.
"What do you mean… 'not brought here'?"
"There were only three admissions." Kabir swallowed hard. "Me. You. Sona."
Riya placed a hand over her mouth, tears spilling silently before she even realized she was crying. Her gaze flicked toward Sona's room, then back to him, fear blooming across her features.
"And Sona?" she asked.
Kabir exhaled shakily. "She woke up. She… she's not talking. She's not… processing. I think she remembers one thing and one thing only."
Riya's voice cracked.
"Arjun."
Kabir nodded once, jaw tightening.
Riya grabbed his forearm, urgency ripping through her heartbreak.
"Go," she whispered. "Kabir, go check on her. I'll be fine."
"But~~"
"I said go!"
Her voice quivered, but the determination behind it was sharp.
"She needs you more right now. She can't she won't understand. She'll tear this entire place down looking for him."
Kabir hesitated, torn straight down the middle.
Riya squeezed his hand once more, gentler this time.
"Go. I promise… I'm okay."
Kabir nodded, kissed her forehead quickly, and turned
Just in time to hear a crash from Sona's room.
His blood iced.
"Sona!"
He sprinted inside.
The oxygen mask was on the ground.
The IV line was ripped straight out of her arm, blood dripping down her elbow like she didn't even notice.
Heart monitor alarms screamed behind her, but she didn't care. She was halfway off the bed, stumbling, dragging herself toward the door with sheer adrenaline.
Her breath came in jagged, panicked bursts as she shoved aside wires and medical tapes.
"Arjun…"
Her voice was raw gravel.
"Where is he… where… where…?"
Kabir grabbed her shoulders gently but firmly.
"Sona, stop"
She thrashed against him with surprising strength.
"No! Let me go let me go I have to he's he needs me"
Her words dissolved into choked sobs.
"He promised he wouldn't leave he promised"
Kabir held her tighter, grounding her as she spiraled.
"Sona, listen to me"
She shoved him with all the force her trembling body could muster.
"Tell me where he is!" she screamed. "Kabir, tell me tell me"
Her legs gave out mid-cry and Kabir caught her before she hit the floor.
She clung to his hospital gown with blood-stained fingers, gasping like her lungs were collapsing under the weight of a grief too enormous to fit inside her body.
"He's not here," Kabir whispered, voice breaking as he pulled her into his chest.
Sona stopped breathing for a second.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Spiritually.
Like someone had reached inside her chest and crushed that little piece of hope she'd never admitted she carried.
Kabir kept talking softly, even though she didn't respond.
"They didn't bring him in."
His voice shook.
"They didn't find him."
Sona's entire body trembled violently.
Her lips parted. Her voice came out so quiet he barely heard it.
"No…"
Kabir's fingers tightened around her arms as she collapsed against him again, shaking so hard he feared she might break.
Behind them, Riya stood at the doorway, one hand over her mouth, tears streaming silently as she watched the two people she loved fall apart over the one person they needed most.
Arjun.
Missing.
Dead.
Kidnapped.
Alive.
No one knew.
Not yet.
But the moment Sona's shattered whisper filled the room —everything changed.
"Bring him back…"
Sona's voice cracked like glass dropped from a great height. Not loud… just sharp enough to pierce bone.
"He can't go… he can't be dead…" Her fingers trembled as they fisted the blanket, knuckles drained of color. Her breath hitched, small and uneven, every inhale sounding like her lungs were refusing to participate in this nightmare. "I'm still breathing… he has to live. I'll bring him back. I will. I swear I will."
Riya didn't even walk. She ran.
Her hospital gown fluttered around her legs as she burst into the room, IV hanging from her arm like a forgotten accessory, and she folded Sona into her chest before any nurse could stop her. The impact of the hug jolted Sona's weak body, but she didn't protest. She grabbed on like she was drowning and Riya was the last chunk of wood in an ocean that hated her.
But then, slowly… painfully… Sona leaned back. Her hands slid away from Riya's shoulders, and something inside her eyes dimmed.
"I lost everything, Riya."
Her voice wasn't broken. It was… empty.
That scared Riya more.
"I lost my Arjun." The way she said my felt like she was clutching a ghost. "My man. My love. I was supposed to protect him. I promised him… and I failed. I let him slip away. I… I knew something was off. Someone was watching us. I felt that creep for days but"
Her breath shattered again.
"I hid it. I hid it because he was smiling. He was happy for once. And now he's gone because I wanted a few days of peace. I did a huge mistake, Riya. A huge one."
The room froze.
Not because of her crying.
Not because of her words.
But because truth landed at their feet like a body.
Riya's eyes snapped to Kabir, who stood stiff near the door, face pale, jaw clenched so tightly it trembled.
He was processing.
Calculating.
Connecting dots they hoped would never align.
Because they knew.
They had known.
Kabir had sensed it first. The shift in the air. The shadow that lingered too long. The surveillance that wasn't his.
Arjun had confirmed it silently a week before the Paris trip.
Riya had pieced it together when she found the anonymous note slipped under their hotel door, the one Arjun burned before Sona could see it.
And Sona…
They thought she was oblivious.
They thought Arjun managed to shield her.
They thought they could pretend everything was normal until they returned home.
But she had known.
She had felt it too.
"Riya…" Kabir whispered.
She didn't look at him.
Couldn't.
Because the pounding truth was beating through both of them:
If Sona sensed danger…
If Arjun sensed danger…
If all three felt the noose tightening
Then whoever took Arjun didn't just want him.
They wanted her.
"Sona…" Riya reached forward again, voice trembling. "Listen to me"
"No." Sona shook her head, tears sliding down her cheeks in thin, unstoppable paths. "Don't tell me it'll be okay. Don't lie to me. Don't do that thing where you soften the world because I can't handle the sharp edges. I can. I will. I need the truth."
Riya's lips parted.
Nothing came out.
The truth was a storm neither of them were ready to face.
A storm Arjun had tried to stand between Sona and.
A storm strong enough to rip metal apart and bend destiny to its own will.
Kabir stepped closer, slow like approaching a wounded animal.
"Sona…" His voice was hoarse, unfamiliar. "We didn't know where he went. We didn't know who took him. But we're going to find him. You're not alone, understood? You hear me? I'm not letting anything happen to you."
Sona looked at him, eyes drenched and hollow.
"No," she whispered. "You don't understand. Something took him because of me."
Kabir inhaled sharply.
Riya's fingers curled.
And for the first time, Sona felt it
the shift in both of them.
That tiny, flickering panic they'd been trying to hide behind brave expressions.
She saw it.
They were scared too.
Her breath faltered. "You both knew… didn't you?"
Silence. Heavy, suffocating silence.
Kabir dropped his eyes.
Riya closed hers.
That was the answer.
Sona's heartbeat collapsed inside her chest. A painful, squeezing pulse that echoed through the room.
She let out a small, soft laugh.
Not happy.
Not hysterical.
Just… broken.
"Well," she whispered, wiping her tears with the back of her shaking hand, "now everything makes sense."
She tried to stand again.
Riya held her shoulders.
Kabir stepped forward to help.
But Sona wasn't listening anymore.
Her mind wasn't in that hospital room.
It was somewhere dark, cold, distant following a trail she didn't yet understand.
She pushed their hands away, eyes burning with grief that had turned sharp and feral.
"If he's alive," she said, voice trembling but steady in a terrifying way, "I'll find him."
"And if he's dead," she breathed, "I'll burn the world that took him."
Riya and Kabir stared at her like seeing a version of Sona they didn't know existed.
Not soft.
Not cheerful.
Not the girl they tried to shield.
Something else.
Someone else.
A blade instead of a heartbeat.
The monitor beside her beeped wildly, warning her body wasn't ready for this much emotion. But she barely noticed the rising alarms, nurses rushing, Kabir calling her name.
Her vision blurred.
Her knees buckled.
And then, just before darkness swallowed her
A faint memory flickered behind her eyes.
Arjun's fingers intertwined with hers.
Warm. Steady. Alive.
She reached for it.
For him.
Then the world tilted sideways, and she fell into unconsciousness with one final thought:
Don't leave me.