Year: 2021

Khanna and his guards searched for him the entire night in the woods, breaking the restriction that men are not allowed. They searched everywhere but couldn't find him. The search lasted almost 12 hours all over the forest. Since men were not allowed, forest officers had no idea about the forest. They felt like they were going in circles in the forest but couldn't find him anywhere. At last, they found an old hut. Instead of going to that haveli, Khanna entered the hut first. There were footprints of Shivaay in the dust, but he wasn't there. They finally got a clue about him after 12 hours.

Khanna urged the guards and asked them to go inside the haveli, which was 1 km away from where they were. When they were all set to go, they saw Shivaay approaching them with some packages in his hands. Khanna was relieved to see him there, but he looked lost.

"SIR..." Khanna called and ran towards him, but he didn't respond; instead, he looked at him, lost. Khanna tried to take the package he was carrying in a sack bag from his hand, but Shivaay refused to give it to him.

"Let me..." he said. No words came from him for the next half an hour of travel. Khanna tried to ask him, but he didn't speak anything. Villagers looked at them shockingly as they were the first group of men to come from the forest alive. But Shivaay was still lost; he neither cried nor spoke anything. He just held the bag tightly in his hands and gazed at it with pain.

"Sir, I have some information to share about that journalist," he said. Shivaay's eyelids raised in a jerk as his heart woke from a deep sleep after hearing it.

"Who? An...Anika?" Shivaay asked in a low tone.

"Sir, actually, our guards broke into the house when there was no one inside. Unfortunately, they found this note on the floor," he said and gave his phone to him, which had the picture of the letter written by her father to her. Shivaay took the phone from him and read it in one go. But it took time for him to understand the meaning as it was written that her own father sold her to someone else.

"WHAT THE HELL?" he asked Khanna, shocked.

"Yes, Sir. Even I was shocked. We are searching for her all over the city. I hope we will find her soon," Khanna said, consoling him when he started to suffer, clearly seeing that image. He was in his worst condition.

"First find out who this Mathur is. What the hell does he want from Anika? I can't let her suffer in pain this time," he said, and the last few words of his turned into a whisper but were heard by Khanna, who was still in shock, looking at his newly budding feelings for a lady in his life for the first time. He had been with him for the continuous five years but had never seen this phase. Khanna immediately made a call to a private detective to find out about Mathur. On the other hand, Shivaay took his phone and proceeded his own way to search for her.

*****

Two days before

Anika was clueless when she found the letter written by her own father to her. She was left with nothing, not even a decent bank balance. Now, after experiencing everything, she felt that she shouldn't have trusted her father so much, even after knowing that he was responsible for her mom's death. She had a cardiac arrest after her father sold all her jewelry and mortgaged the house with his gambling habit. Neither her tears accompanied her this time. She was clueless; none of her family members accepted her when they came to know that her father sold her to the dangerous don. She ruffled her hair when she found no other way to go. One side of her became so tired of running her whole life. She was ready to give up; at that point, she had no hopes with life other than giving up. But the warrior part of her asked her to fight till the last breath. That's it; she was ready to leave.

Taking her bags, grabbing her mom's bangles with her, she made her way out of her house without having any destination to go to. She was clueless but her inner feelings said she was doing the right thing. But her breath hitched when she saw Mathur's men on the roads when she was inside the autorickshaw. Her feet started to shiver. They missed her, and she got her breath back.

"Thank God!" she breathed. This time her tears accompanied her while her phone started to ring; Truecaller showed the name of Mathur. She threw her phone out of the autorickshaw when she couldn't understand what to do next.

"Ma'am, where should I drop you?" the taxi driver asked her. She didn't know where to go, without having anyone to help her. Even she didn't have any friends in her contacts to help. Never in her lifetime had she felt so helpless.

"Bhaiya, bus stop!" she said in a choking tone. He glanced at her in the rearview mirror and turned towards the bus stop. Her tears didn't stop; she was constantly crying. The feeling of loneliness and her helpless situation hit her so badly.

Now, she couldn't trust anyone. Not even her shadow. She got down from the car as soon as it stopped at the entrance. She paid the taxi driver, but before she could take another step, Mathur's men had already reached the place and stood ahead of her. Her 0.001% hopes also shattered when she saw them. But her wrist was soon grabbed by the taxi driver to the passenger side, and he closed the door. He drove his taxi at his highest speed; she didn't know what was happening with her, but she understood she was left to live for a reason. Her wrist hit the door when he took a sharp turn and took a way she had never seen before.

"My papa sold me to them," Anika managed to give the taxi driver an explanation. He was shocked to hear that. But he didn't stop the car. He managed to drive, but he couldn't do anything when they surrounded the taxi on the highway and grabbed the taxi driver and slaughtered him in front of her. His blood splashed on her face. Then, she understood how powerful he was and gave up every hope she had with her.

****

YEAR 1888 

"Milady, what's this?" Shivaay asked about her scratching her veins; he saw it when she was cooking in the kitchen with him. But she took her hand back and didn't reply anything to him. For the past five years, she hadn't behaved with him this differently ever. But today, after asking that question, she was not even ready to meet his eyes. Throughout the day, she didn't meet him once until Shivaay made a drawing of a crow saying sorry to the princess in the drawing. He crushed it and threw it inside the room through the window from the garden where he was standing. He hadn't even thought about what would happen if the thakur saw that drawing, but thankfully, ten-year-old Anika peeped outside the window and smiled at him.

"Why are you standing there?" he heard the thakur's voice and immediately hid behind the tree.

"Watching the crow in its nest, Thakur Sahib," she lied to him loudly. Shivaay heaved a sigh of relief after hearing her reply. After ten minutes, she ran downstairs, covering her face with a shawl. Seeing her arriving, Shivaay ran towards their safe spot, a small barricade near the mango tree. Nobody visited there as one of their house help had hanged on the tree. Due to that fear, nobody visited the garden after 6 in the evening, but it eventually became their safer spot to speak.

"I'm sorry, Milady," he said as soon as she arrived.

"It's okay," she said with a smile and sat next to him.

"You don't look like a crow!" she continued, giving him his drawn images.

"But you're a princess," he said while looking at the princess drawing he made, using her as a reference.

"Maa Ji asked me not to say anything about it to anyone," Anika said, looking at her scratches on her hand.

"But you can tell me; I'm your secret keeper, right? Say it to me," Shivaay said. Then, she turned around and showed the scratching on the nape of her neck and showed her foot, which was swollen in a particular place.

"Harre, what happened? Where did you fall from?" he asked while touching all her wounds.

"You know, last night, Thakur Sahib was not feeling well. He didn't walk straight, and he smelled terrible. Then, he pushed me to the bed, covering my mouth tightly. I didn't know what happened, but it pained a lot. I cried a lot then. In the morning, Maa Ji changed my clothes and asked me not to say anything to anyone as it happens with everyone. But still, I have no idea," Anika said while holding his palm tightly.

"Did he beat you?" Shivaay asked her innocently.

"No. Actually, I don't know. I was so scared. Thakur Sahib was behaving like that for the first time to me," she said. Without even knowing what had happened to her, tears crossed his eyes, sensing her pain.

"Why are you crying? I'm fine," she said while holding his hand tighter.

"Still

paining?" he asked her.

"Some parts," she said with a smile.

"Where?" he asked her.

"I can't say. You're a boy," she said, chuckling.

"From next time, I will add sleeping pills to Thakur's milk. So that he won't hurt you anymore at night, but sleep," he said, looking at her with a smile. Both chuckled with a spark.

"And change the crow to a cat while drawing next time. And look at the princess's nose. Does my nose look like this?" she asked, eventually starting to hit him when he nodded yes to her. After talking to him, she forgot every pain she was going through, and Shivaay just wanted to see the smile on her face, nothing else.

****