AUTHOR POV

_______



_____________________________________

THE NIGHT ADHVAY KILLED KIARA'S FATHER

The prison corridor was suffocatingly silent as Adhvay walked through it, his steps slow, controlled, but burning with a rage powerful enough to make even policemen shrink back.

Every officer in that block knew why he was there. The moment kiara's father laid his hands on Myra-choking her, bruising her-Adhvay stopped being a man. He became an animal hunting its prey.

Officer Raghavan unlocked the cell with shaking hands. "S-sir... w-we'll turn off the cameras for ten minutes. Nobody will know."

Adhvay didn't answer. He stepped inside.

The man looked up from the corner, his eyes widening the second he recognized him. "No- no, listen, I didn't mean to- she attacked me first-"

"You touched her." Adhvay's voice was low, deadly. "You put your hands on Myra's throat."

The man scrambled back until his spine hit the wall. "I... I panicked- I didn't know who she was-"

"You knew she was a girl." Adhvay's jaw tightened, a muscle ticking violently. "And you still dared."

The man held up his trembling hands. "Please... I'm sorry-"

"No sorry can save you." Adhvay grabbed him by the collar and hurled him against the wall. The impact was so hard the prisoner collapsed, coughing. Adhvay didn't give him a second; he dragged him up again by his shirt and slammed him onto the metal bed frame.

"S-stop- p-please-" the man cried, voice breaking. "I didn't mean to hurt her-"

"You choked her." Adhvay's voice cracked with lethal anger. "She couldn't breathe because of you."

The man whimpered, "I made a mistake-"

"You made your last mistake."

Adhvay punched him-once, twice, brutal and merciless. Blood splattered across the steel bed frame. The man's breaths turned ragged.

"My men informed me that she was shaking ," Adhvay said quietly, grabbing the man's throat. "Her skin was red where your fingers touched her. Do you know what that did to me?"

The man choked under Adhvay's grip, clawing weakly at his wrist. "I'm sorry- please-"

"Do you know who she is?.....She is my wife..... MYRA PRATAP VARMAN, THE QUEEN!!."

With a single, furious motion, Adhvay tightened his hold, crushing the man's windpipe. The prisoner's legs kicked helplessly, eyes bulging as he gasped for air-exactly how Myra had.

"For every second she struggled to breathe," Adhvay whispered, "you will struggle more."

The body went limp.

Adhvay dropped him like nothing more than trash, breathing hard but steady, the storm inside him finally exhaling.

Outside, Officer Raghavan waited, pale. "We'll... we'll file this as suicide sir . No one will ever know."

Adhvay stepped out, wiping his blood-stained hand on his sleeve.

Adhvay didn't look back. Men who hurt Myra never lived long enough to regret it...

After Myra left, Adhvay became a version of himself no one had ever seen. Power, control, anger-none of it mattered anymore. Every night he drowned himself in alcohol, glass after glass, trying to numb the ache tearing through his chest. But alcohol only made it worse. His breathing turned shallow, fingers trembling as he whispered her name into the empty room, realizing for the first time in his life that he genuinely didn't know how to exist.

He stopped going to his room. Every corner carried her shadow, her scent, her laughter. Instead, he spent his nights in the drawing room, surrounded by canvases and colours.

He painted her again and again-her eyes, her smile, the curve of her face he used to touch so gently. Some paintings were soft, broken; some were violent, smeared with strokes of anger and regret. He painted because it was the only way to breathe, the only way to keep her close even when she was gone.

Sleep refused to come. Every night he lay on the sofa, staring at the ceiling with tear-burned eyes, replaying her words until they tore him open all over again.

Rayaan is better than you.

The first time she said it, he thought he misheard. The tenth time it played in his head, he felt all his insides shatter. But the one that hurt the most-the one that stabbed him every night-was her whisper, low and trembling:

All I can see is lust in your eyes.

The mighty, untouchable Adhvay broke. He pressed his palms to his face and cried silently__, painful kind of crying that comes from the soul.

His shoulders shook, breath hitching as he tried to understand how she could believe something so poisoned about him, when loving her was the only pure thing he had ever known.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and eventually a year passed. But nothing changed for him. He still drank more than he should. He still painted her every night. He still woke up reaching for someone who was no longer there. And he still heard her words-sharp, cruel, unforgettable-echoing in the silence of the mansion that had become his prison. Every syllable kept him alive and dying at the same time, trapped between guilt and love, waiting for the one person who never left his soul even for a heartbeat.

Regret was something Adhvay had never tasted before Myra, but after she left, it became the only thing he lived with-regret for pulling her into his life, regret for making her fall for him, regret for teaching her what love felt like only to drown her in pain.

And yet, even with guilt clawing at him, he couldn't let her go. When she moved to Vizag, his men followed her from a distance, in a shield of protection she never asked for.

Every corner she walked past had one of his men; every street she crossed, a guard's eyes were watching; every unknown face in the crowd was a soldier trained by him.

He didn't touch her life, didn't interfere, didn't dare show himself-he only watched her from the shadows, making sure the world didn't hurt her the way he did. But he accepted it, because this was the price of loving her wrong. He regretted pulling her into his darkness... yet he couldn't stop protecting her, couldn't let anything touch her even though she no longer belonged to him.

It was his curse now-loving her fiercely, letting her live freely, and still keeping the entire city wrapped in the invisible grip of his army, just so she would never suffer again.

Sreehan's voice cracked as he shook the half-empty bottle from Adhvay's hand, his face burning with panic.

"Anna... you will die!!!" he roared, scooping water from the bowl and splashing it hard against Adhvay's face. "Stop drinking, please... please," he begged, his voice breaking into sobs.

But Adhvay didn't even blink; he just stared ahead with hollow eyes, his breath smelling of alcohol and heartbreak. "Nothing is left for me to live, Sreehan," he whispered, voice raw and defeated, every word soaked in a pain so deep it didn't sound human anymore.

Sreehan grabbed Adhvay's shoulders, tears streaming down his face. "Anna, please... Nannagaaru collapsed today after seeing you like this," he choked out, voice shaking. "Please bring her back... or I will. I swear I will."

Adhvay pushed Sreehan's hands away, his voice low and broken but edged with a warning. "Don't interfere in her life, Sreehan. You think I couldn't bring her back if I wanted to?"

Sreehan fell to his knees beside him, clutching Adhvay's hand with trembling fingers. "Please, Anna... I beg you, don't drink anymore... please," he whispered, his voice shaking as if his heart was breaking right there in front of him.

Adhvay leaned back against the sofa, eyes unfocused, voice trembling as if every word scraped against his chest. "Sreehan... I love her. You know that, na... you've always known," he whispered, swallowing hard as his throat burned.

"But do you know what she said?" His breath broke, anger and heartbreak twisting together. "She said Rayaan is better than me... she thinks I lied to her the entire time." He laughed weakly, a sound filled with pain instead of humor. "She said all I have is lust for her... that's all she ever saw in my eyes."

Watching Adhvay closing his eyes__ into sleep, broken and defeated, something fiercely settled in sreehan's heart.

At that moment, Sreehan made his decision. He would bring Myra back-no matter what it took.

Like Lakshman who vowed to bring Sita back to her Rama, Sreehan bowed his head with the same unshakable devotion, silently promising that he would reunite them.

______________*0*0*0*0*0____________