Myra's sobs didn't stop.
They only grew softer… broken… unhinged.
She stayed on the floor, forehead pressed to the glass, whispering apologies that no one could erase.
"I'll fix it… I swear I'll fix it…"
"I won't hate you anymore… I'll hate myself instead…"
Her breathing began to stutter.
Sharp. Uneven.
Too fast.
Anika noticed first.
"Bhabhi…" she whispered fearfully, kneeling beside her. "Bhabhi, look at me."
But Myra wasn't there anymore.
Her fingers clawed at her chest, nails digging into her skin as if she was trying to tear her heart out.
"I can't breathe…" she gasped.
"Maa… it hurts… it hurts too much…"
Rajeshwari rushed to her side, cradling her face in her palms.
"Myra, listen to me," she said desperately. "Breathe. Look at me. You are not alone."
Myra's eyes were wide empty, terrified, drowning.
"I killed my mother…" she whispered hoarsely.
"I killed him too…"
Her body began to shake violently.
The monitor alarms inside the ICU spiked.
A nurse rushed over.
"Doctor!"
Myra suddenly went limp in Rajeshwari's arms, her head lolling to the side, breaths shallow and erratic.
"No—no, no—" Rajeshwari cried. "Doctor, please!"
The doctor arrived quickly, checking Myra's pulse, her oxygen levels, her dilated pupils.
"She's having an acute emotional breakdown," he said firmly. "Severe shock. She needs to be sedated immediately."
Anika's hands trembled.
"Will she be okay?"
The doctor nodded.
"She needs rest. Her mind has shut down as a defense."
The syringe glinted under the hospital lights.
Rajeshwari held Myra close as the doctor injected the sedative.
Myra flinched weakly.
Her lips moved one last time.
"Ranvijay…" she whispered.
Then her body slackened completely.
She fell into unconsciousness, not sleep, not peace, but a fragile pause, because her soul could no longer bear the weight.
Rajeshwari pressed a trembling kiss to Myra's forehead.
"Sleep, child," she whispered through tears.
"The truth can wait. Love cannot."
Outside the ICU, Ranvijay remained suspended between life and death.
And Myra
was finally silenced by the only mercy left to her.
Ranvijay woke up with a sharp gasp.
"Myra!"
The name tore out of his chest like a wound reopening.
Machines beeped violently around him. White lights burned his eyes. Pain screamed through his ribs, his shoulder, his lungs but none of it mattered.
"Myra," he whispered again, hoarse. "Where is she?"
The doctor rushed forward.
"Mr. Ranvijay, stay still. You've been shot twice."
Ranvijay tried to sit up anyway, veins standing out on his neck.
"Bring her to me," he demanded, voice raw. "Right now."
Rajeshwari stood frozen near the door.
"She's… not in a state to come," she said gently.
Ranvijay's eyes snapped to her.
"What do you mean not in a state?" His voice darkened, panic slipping through the cracks. "Where is she?"
Across the hospital corridor, behind a locked room
Myra stood pressed against the door.
Her hands were shaking so badly she had clenched them into fists until her nails cut into her palms.
She had heard it.
Ranvijay is awake.
He wants to see you.
The moment those words reached her ears, something inside her shattered all over again.
Her breathing grew erratic.
"No… no… I can't…" she whispered.
Her mind replayed Rajeshwari's words like a curse.
The hand you saw… was yours.
She staggered back, knocking into the mirror.
Her reflection stared at her pale, hollow, eyes too large for her face.
"What if I hurt him?" she whispered to herself, horrified.
"What if I go near him and something happens again?"
Her hands began to tremble harder.
"What if I destroy him the way I destroyed everything else?"
She slid down the door slowly until she was sitting on the floor, knees pulled to her chest.
"I shouldn't be near anyone," she murmured, tears spilling freely.
"I'm dangerous… I ruin lives…"
She hugged herself tightly, rocking back and forth.
"If I go to him… I'll kill him," she sobbed.
"Or I'll kill myself."
A knock came at the door.
"Myra," Anika's voice broke through softly. "Please open the door."
Myra didn't move.
"I can't," she whispered. "Tell him… tell him I don't exist."
Another knock harder this time.
"Myra," Rajeshwari said from outside, voice trembling. "He's calling your name."
Myra pressed her hands over her ears.
"No," she cried silently.
"If he looks at me… I won't survive."
Back in the ICU, Ranvijay's fists clenched in the sheets.
"She's hiding something," he muttered, eyes burning.
"I can feel it."
He ripped the oxygen mask away.
"Myra doesn't run," he growled. "She disappears."
Rajeshwari rushed to him.
"Ranvijay, please your body"
"Forget my body," he snapped. "Where is my wife?"
No one answered.
And that silence
That silence terrified him more than bullets ever had.
Because for the first time in his life
Myra wasn't running from danger.
She was running from herself.
"Enough, Ranvijay."
Rajeshwari's voice cut through the ICU like a blade.
Ranvijay froze.
Slowly, he turned his head toward his mother.
Rajeshwari's eyes were wet, her hands trembling as she clasped them together.
"She knows," she said softly.
"She knows the truth you were protecting her from."
The world tilted.
Ranvijay's grip on the bedsheet loosened.
Rajeshwari shook her head.
"She asked for it."
Silence swallowed the room.
Ranvijay stared at the ceiling, chest rising unevenly.
Rajeshwari hesitated just for a second too long.
"She thinks…" her voice broke,
"she thinks she is the danger."
That was it.
Something inside Ranvijay collapsed completely.
His eyes shut, jaw tightening so hard his teeth ground against each other.
"She thinks she destroys everyone," he murmured hollowly.
"She thinks she's cursed."
His hand shook as it lifted, pressing over his heart right where the bullet had missed by inches.
"I kept the truth buried so she wouldn't look at herself like that," he said, voice cracking for the first time.
"So she wouldn't hate herself."
Rajeshwari stepped closer.
"She locked herself inside a room," she said quietly.
"She said if she goes near anyone, someone will die."
Ranvijay's eyes flew open.
Fear ,raw and primal,flooded his face.
"She's isolating herself," he whispered.
"That's worse than hating me."
He tried to push himself up again, pain ripping through him.
"I need to see her."
Rajeshwari placed a firm hand on his shoulder.
"You can't go to her like this," she said.
"She doesn't think you're safe around her."
Ranvijay laughed short, broken.
"All my life," he said hoarsely,
"I thought protecting her meant keeping secrets."
His eyes burned.
"But I forgot one thing."
Rajeshwari looked at him.
"She's not afraid of monsters," he continued.
"She's afraid of being one."
His fists clenched.
"And if I don't reach her now…" his voice dropped dangerously,
"She'll disappear inside herself forever."
He looked at his mother, eyes fierce despite the pain.
"Tell me where she is."
Because for the first time
Ranvijay wasn't fighting enemies outside.
He was fighting to save the woman he loved
from herself.