VIKRAM POV

[ PRESENT ]

I stood there… but I wasn’t standing anymore.

I was falling.

Falling inside my own guilt.

Tears burned my eyes.

Even I was the villain of her story.

The man she is scared of today…

The man whose footsteps make her tremble…

That man is me.

“I broke her…” I whispered.

Me and Maya were college lovers. I thought she was just a rich, ambitious girl. I never knew that her father, Ram Khurana, was the kind of man who could destroy lives just to satisfy his ego and greed. A manipulative monster hiding behind wealth, power, and fake respect.”

The same Ram Khurana…

Who destroyed innocent lives.

I looked at Dad.

“Dad… what exactly did her chacha and chachi do to her?”

My voice wasn’t calm anymore.

It was shaking with rage.

Dad inhaled deeply.

“Listen carefully, Vikram.”

His tone changed.

“After her parents’ death… when she was just 21… I promised her I would take her away from that house.”

I looked at him sharply.

“Then why didn’t you?”

My voice rose.

“You knew how her chacha and chachi were! You knew they would make her life hell! Still you left her there?”

Dad closed his eyes for a moment.

When he opened them… they were moist.

“Vikram… except me and your Dada and dadi , no one in this house ever accepted Aroras.”

He paused.

“You. Your mother. The entire Raichand family hated them.”

I went silent.

“I was unaware that her chacha-chachi were treating her badly. I thought if I suddenly brought her here… you all would destroy her.”

His words hit me like a slap.

“Which… you all eventually did after marriage.”

I clenched my jaw.

Dad continued,

“After a few months, my men informed me that she was being treated mercilessly. Slapped. Beaten. Forced to give money.”

My breathing grew heavy.

“That day,” Dad said slowly, “I decided I would not wait anymore. I would bring her out.”

“That’s why… after one and a half years… when she was 23… I met her.”

I looked at him.

“And when you saw her?”

Dad’s voice broke.

“When I saw her condition… I was shocked.”

His hands trembled slightly.

“She had lost weight. Bruises on her arms. Fear in her eyes.”

Silence filled the room.

“Dad…” my voice cracked, “please tell me… what happened that time?”

He looked at me — not as a father now.

But as a man who failed a daughter.

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