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"Why don't you ask him?" Bhavya asked as she looked at the man, Neeraj looked up from the papers, "the same reason why don't you arrest the culprits when you already know them?" He asked.

Bhavya grew quiet, "I didn't have the fair image of Oberois, the first time I met them, then slowly.....and now this. How can a person keep this much difference in the images of who they are?" She spoke.

"It has always been like this." He shook his head dismissively when she looked up surprised at the statement. He remembered the tense looks that Shivaay shared with his parents, even as a child he could conclude that Shivaay didn't have the best relationship with his parents. Or family for that matter.

His suspicions were confirmed when Shivaay confided in him, one day. And that was the last time he spoke anything regarding that topic. "Besides that's not the main problem." He continued, Bhavya quirked an eyebrow.

"Then what's the main problem?" She asked.

"He doesn't remember anything." He answered, this made Bhavya frown. "What do you mean by that?" She asked.

"Dissociative amnesia. Could be localised or selective. We can't pressurize him to remember the memories that his brain has blocked out to prevent it's body from the stress and trauma."

Bhavya stood frozen at that, she didn't know what to do with that particular piece of information. "How?" Was all she could utter. She watched as the man's jaw hardened and he turned away without a glance.

"Nothing." He frowned, "You aren't concerned with that information, what you have to do is to keep an eye on the transactions that take place from the vaults of the Oberois, there must be a reason why their treasury isn't empty even after going bankrupt." He stopped the spinning globe with the pin point of his finger.

"The Oberois aren't fooling anybody this time." He spoke through gritted teeth.

<>

Priyanka pursed her lips as she stopped herself from speaking anything, her fingers curled around her sleeves as she stopped herself from saying anything, she had agreed to give her a chance, just because Shivaay had already done so. But what happened last night, had her fears evoked once again, he did it again.

It was a mistake.

They shouldn't have been trusted, again. If they could do it one time, then certainly they could do it again, there was no denying the fact for that. She shook her head dismissively.

Shivaay may not have been in his senses, but she was. And if he will not be taking the right decisions, then she can. Because there is no way, they are going to face all this again. The last six years were equivalent to hell for them, she had to focus on his as well as her recovery together.

Even if that meant being bitter, she'd do it. There was no one by her side, Shivaay's was justified, even though she never called anyone from her family, she held them responsible for leaving her out there abandoned, as if she was never the part of the family. No one could erase those parts of the memories that had etched deep into her mind.

<>

Aradhya held back a wince as she stared at the stress ball in Shivaay's hands, it was tightly clenched into his hands. He was getting agitated, she could tell by the tapping of his foot on the foot of the chair that he was sitting on and the way his eyes darted around the room, looking here and there.

"Not all memories." He sighed. He looked at the aged man who was looking at him in contemplation.

"That's odd." The neurologist spoke as he listened to his problem.

"Anything else other than those traumatic recollections that you experience once in a while?" He asked as he looked at the reports from a few days earlier.

"Well, a few more memories from certain triggers, I apologise for interrupting." Aradhya spoke up glancing at Shivaay who remained silent at the topic. He was looking down at his hands.

The senior doctor looked at the cardiologist with a hum, "like we had suspected, a typical case of selective dissociative amnesia. Certain memories were blocked in order to ensure the healthy recovery of his body." He looked at his patient with a sigh.

"But the memory loss that you are speaking about before the accident——as you term it. I can't gather the reason. It could be a case of localised amnesia, another variant of dissociative amnesia. But that's strange, two cases of amnesia, that's quite uncommon, or so to say." He frowned, he noticed how Shivaay stiffened.

"But don't worry, Mr. Oberoi, I am sure we can walk this out."

Aradhya excused herself out.

"You know, Mr. Oberoi, you should never hide a fact from a doctor, they are trying to help, kindly do not take it as otherwise." He spoke. Shivaay frowned.

"Before, I-I woke up in the hospital. Some—something horrible" he hated how his voice shook when he tried to remember about it. "Very horrible happened."

Dr. Bhalla nodded at his words. "I-I keep hearing t-tha-t voice." He knew this extent, from what he gathered from the text that Aradhya had forwarded him, he knew he just needed the right push, not the excessive pressure that he racks his brain through nor the prevention that delays the improvement.

He noticed Aradhya had returned, and was holding a paper for him, he gestured her to stop. She nodded and stayed in the background.

The doctor saw Shivaay's fidgeting and he knew that he was getting anxious.

"Alright, Shivaay, we will perform an exercise while you try to recall what happened with you, after every time I ask you a question, I will ask for a number, on the scale of one to ten, you will describe your anxiety levels." He spoke slowly, Shivaay nodded at the words.

Aradhya arched her eyebrows in surprise, the exercise was used to calm the patient if he was having a panic attack, why was he using it to instigate him?

"Do you remember exactly what happened?"

He shook his head, "R-r-random snippets."

"Number?"

The tapping of his foot increased. "One." Shivaay uttered.

The doctor nodded.

"What kind of memories do you remember?" He asked.

"O-of-f fire?" He sounded unsure. "T-the-er-re was water" he paused, "everywhere." His fists curled around the material of his trousers.

Aradhaya motioned for Priyanka and Annika to keep quiet when she noticed them standing at the doorway.

"Number?" The doctor asked again.

"One." Shivaay answered again.

"Were you drowning?" He pried gently.

"N-nno-o." And this time the answer made everyone frown.

"Number?" He asked again.

"One." The doctor sighed in relief, he wouldn't want the patient to over exert himself.

"Can you elaborate?" He asked.

Shivaay didn't say anything for a few seconds, before he gave a slow nod. "S-someone was h-ho-h-hold-di-ding m-me. I-in-n-sside. I-I——" he stopped abruptly.

"Number?" The doctor asked.

Shivaay didn't answer this time.

"Shivaay, number?" He asked again.

But instead of answering the question, he continued, "—I-I was t-trying to break away."

"But they kept holding you?" The doctor finished for him. Shivaay nodded.

"Number?"

"Three." He stilled, should he press him further?

And before he could ask anything, Shivaay continued himself. "And t-the-nn ev-ev-ry- every-t-th-thing was silent. I-I couldn't breathe." He continued.

"Number?"

Shivaay took a deep breath before shaking his head, "f-four." He answered.

"Can you answer a few more questions?" The doctor asked.

He nodded. "Take deep breaths." He instructed, Aradhya handed him the paper that she was holding and passed the glass of water to Shivaay. He sipped through it slowly.

"That's glass, not a stress ball. It'll break." She frowned as she pointed at the tight grip around the glass.

"Whenever you are ready, we can begin."

Shivaay nodded.

"Alright, before we begin, I am asking you again, you don't have to answer or force yourself to recall if you can't remember." Shivaay nodded again at the words.

"Number?"

"Two." Shivaay answered.

Dr. Bhalla simply hummed. Not ideal for him, but it'll do. He thought as he turned to look at his patient again, his eyes flickering to the papers for a moment, "What's the last thing you remember before you completely lost consciousness?" He asked.

Shivaay frowned. He didn't want to answer that question, he couldn't process which one he should go with.

"Veer." He answered finally. "Fire."

Annika's eyes widened at that, Priyanka frowned. Veer? She had never heard the name before.

"Number?"

"F-five." Shivaay breathed. "Slow and deep." The doctor reminded him.

"Can you answer more?" He asked. Shivaay shook his head.

"N-nno-o." He said.

"It's alright, great start for today. Though I would have suggested you shouldn't have dropped therapy all those years ago." The doctor spoke.

"Bhaiya, you should rest." Priyanka said she led him back to his room, his hand grazed Annika's and he froze at his step. He turned to look at her, he could see the fear around her eyes but Priyanka tugged him on the way to his room, he averted his gaze, turning to follow his sister.

"These two medicines are banned. How can a hospital prescribe these?" He asked as he turned to face Aradhya.

"Because the hospital doesn't exist, it's a well planned conspiracy. We are suspecting the aim was to reduce the functionality of his brain, and the doses must have affected—"

"—amygdala. Yes, you are going the correct way. If that's the case, then the memory loss isn't natural, but artificial? That's horrifying."

"As sad it is, we're afraid that's the truth." Aradhya concluded with a sigh.

"Well, we can try our best to help him recover his memory, that's all I could say at the moment, his anxiety is as bad as before." He observed.

Aaradhya hummed. "If not worse."

They didn't notice Annika standing by the door listening to the conversation attentively, she needs to do up her own research, because she can't push Shivaay around for the explanations that he can't provide.

Priyanka won't answer her questions, she pursed her lips and stared at Aradhya, maybe she could tell her about what happened to him all these years?

<>

"There was a raid at the warehouse." She informed.

Veer chuckled, "looks like someone is gaining back the grip of the game."

Svetlana frowned, "Why do you sound so jovial?"

Veer merely chuckled, "at first, it was just a revenge for my mother, but now, the game has changed. It's between him and me." He stepped into the light and Svetlana winced.

The fire that day didn't leave anyone unscathed in its wake.

Not even the one who started it.

<>

"You shouldn't have dropped the therapy sessions, bhaiya." Priyanka said as she arranged the pillows. "Continue these sessions."

Shivaay looked at her pleading, quietly. "I-I d-do-o-n't wa-an-tt-t to..." He spoke shaking his head vigorously. He would never resort to this option again, he remembered what happened last time.

She held his hands, rubbing them, "it's okay." She tried to calm him. But his mind was already reliving those painful moments those sessions brought him.

The chapter above is subject to medical inaccuracies. Though I have tried my best to keep it as authentic as I could.

Also, I would be changing some things, I will be changing a few of the sentences that Shivaay spoke in the earlier chapters into slight stammers. I was re-reading the book to look for the gaps and areas of improvement, so I will be editing those out.

Feedback would be appreciated <3