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~AUTHOR POV~

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2:00 AM.

The clock on the surgery room wall said that. And honestly? Time doesn't exist in here. No windows. No sunlight. No way to know if the world outside is sleeping or falling apart. The only thing that exists in this room is that sound -

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Dr.Himadri Malhotra.....

Eight hours Standing.

Her back was killing her. Her neck was stiff. Her glasses kept fogging up behind her mask and she didn't even bother fixing them. Because that's who she is - she doesn't stop. Not here. Not ever. Her parents didn't raise a girl who stops.

They raised a warrior.

Her hands moved over the patient like she'd done this a thousand times. Because she had.

One wrong move and someone's family gets a phone call tonight.

She didn't let that thought stay. She pushed it down, the way she pushes everything down - deep, where no one can see it.

"More light."

Her voice came out tired. But bold. Always bold like a diva...

The nurses moved immediately. Nobody argued with her in the OT. Nobody even breathed wrong.

And then - finally - it was over.

The monitor beeped on. Steady. Strong. The patient would live.

She stepped back. Exhaled. And for just one second - one - her hands shook.

That's the thing nobody knows about Himadri Malhotra. Every time she saves someone, there's this tiny flash of terror underneath. What if I wasn't fast enough?

She never answers that. She just moves on.

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~ HIMADRI POV ~

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I ripped my mask off the second I was out of that room.

Locker room. Cold water. Face. Repeat until I feel soft again.

I looked at myself in the mirror. God, I looked dead. My eyes were darker than usual - that's what exhaustion does. My hair was a disaster under my cap. There was a smudge on my left lens I apparently hadn't noticed for the last three hours.

I pushed my glasses up.

"Go home, Himadri."

The hospital at 3 AM is a different world. Half the lights off. Nobody around. Just that hollow, quiet feeling, like even the building is tired. I walked fast, head down, glass doors, outside -

Cold air. Wet ground. The smell of rain and mud.

I stood there for exactly three seconds. My three seconds of peace.

Then I saw him.

Arnav.

Leaning against the pole near my car. Holding - I'm not even joking - at least a hundred red roses. His shoes were soaked through. He'd been waiting for God knows how long.

My stomach dropped straight to the floor.

Oh no. Not tonight. Please, not tonight.

"Himadri!" He was already walking toward me, that look on his face - desperate, hopeful, and completely unaware that I had nothing left in me. "You're finally out. I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about what you said, please just five minutes-"

I was so tired I could barely stand. And he was here. With roses. At 3 AM.

"Arnav." I kept my voice flat. Calm. Because if I let the anger out right now I was going to say something I couldn't take back. "It is three in the morning. I have been on my feet for eight hours. I have blood on my shoes. I have told you - yesterday, and the day before - I do not love you. That is not going to change."

"But I can make you-" Arnav reply to her.

"You can't." She cut off him in middle.

"My brother says you don't have a heart." His voice cracked a little. "He says I'm a fool. But I know he's wrong, Himadri. I know there's something-"

His brother.

VEERANSHU SINGHANIA

Okay even I - even me, someone who couldn't care less about rich men - even I felt that name land differently.

Veeranshu Singhania.

India's youngest billionaire. Cold. Dangerous. The kind of man that makes an entire room go silent just by walking in. I'd never met him. Never needed to.

Just his name was enough.

"Your brother is right about one thing," I said, pulling my car door open. "You are wasting your time. Go home. And Arnav -" I looked at him one last time. "Don't come back to the hospital."

I got in. Locked the door.

He banged on the window. I didn't look. I started the car, pulled out, and in my mirror I saw him standing there in the rain - roses falling out of his hands, red petals hitting the wet ground like something broken.

The guilt hit me fast and sharp.

I shook my head.

Don't look back. Warriors don't look back.

I drove through empty Jaipur. Yellow streetlights. Wet roads. I was already thinking about my bed, about Namita and Himakshi waiting at home, the only two people who made me feel like myself again.

I didn't see the headlights behind me.

I didn't know.

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~AUTHOR POV~

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Arnav got in his car the second she was gone.

He was driving too fast. Crying without realizing it. Reaching for his phone on the passenger seat because he needed to call her, needed to hear her voice even if she picked up angry -

He didn't see the turn.

He didn't see the tree.

CRUNCH.

The sound was horrible. The kind of sound you don't forget. The front of the car just - disappeared into the trunk of that tree. Glass everywhere. Rain coming in through where the windshield used to be. And then nothing. Just silence and the soft sound of rain on broken metal.

●A few minutes later, headlights.

A black SUV stopped beside the wreck. The door opened.

Veeranshu Singhania stepped out.

He didn't run. He didn't panic. He walked to the destroyed car the way he walked into boardrooms - like he owned whatever space he entered. Dark suit. Hard jaw. Black eyes scanning the damage without flinching.

Arnav was inside. Not moving too much but his breath is still running.. he is trying to move but he can't....his eyes were near to close... he is trying to open his mouth...

He went to near him and made his head on his lap.. his eyes are near to close... he was trying to say something...

He said to him in his trembling voice before he out of zone -" who did this with you arnav?? Tell me his name?? "

Arnav who trying to keep his eyes open and trying of focus on Veeranshu.. he took his hand ... he breaths were getting heavy.. his eyes are getting close...he said to him with a high breath -" bhai!! Bhai vo.. himadri use--".... before he complete his sentence he got faint...

A tear escaped from Veeranshu's eyes he leaned down on Arnav's chest and felt that his breaths are still running....

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~ VEERANSHU POV ~

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I didn't scream.

I never scream... butt this timeee...

He looked up at the hospital visible in the distance. I already knew she worked there. I'd known for six years. I'd watched from a distance for six years - her stubbornness, her fire, the way she moved like the world owed her nothing and she was fine with that.

Six years of staying in the shadows.

I looked at my brother.

"You did this," I said quietly.

Not to Arnav. To her.

I called my team. "Get here. Now. Take him to the private medical wing at the villa. No police. No public hospital. And tell the media-" I paused. "

"Sir - is he dead?"

I watched my brother's chest move. Barely. But it moved.

"He's dead to the world," I said. "That's enough."

I got back in my car.

She thought tonight was over. She was probably already home, pushing her glasses up, falling into bed, thinking she'd won.

Himadri Malhotra. Let's see how long that fire lasts.

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