Aap humein Votes aur Inline Comments dein.. hum aapko Chapter denge

*Trigger Warning

Vyom's pov
Everyone in the conference room raised as I rose from my chair, their faces a clear mirror of pride, admiration and hint of envy.

Success that's the word they associate me with. From calling me foolish for stepping down from the old money legacy my father had served for me, to finally appreciating the blood and sweat I poured, their look of disdain altered with bright reverence, so much that they seek for a chance to flatter me.

"Congratulations, Mr. Somani. When everyone thought the minister's hit and run case would go to the cold box, you gave him the taste of the unexpected."

I barely managed a nod, "It wasn't me but my team's hard work."

My mood was dampened to the extent that I couldn't bring myself to indulge Mr. Mittal's usual wheedling.

Smile faltering, Mr. Mittal's awkward gaze swept back and forth from my indecisive demeanour to Ms. Ahmad. The hand he still had extended in my direction unsurely began to lower, so Ms. Ahmad stepped in, returning the gesture with firmness, a polite smile glued on her face.

"We appreciate your words, Mr Mittal." Ms. Ahmad stepped in again on my behalf.

Waving a hand, Mr. Mittal chuckled, now chipped off of the previous awkwardness, "Only you could choose the cases that are filed insignificant and bring it to justice." His gaze was now back on me.

Words halted, a look of being taken aback crystal clear on his face when I scoffed, spontaneously loud that reached others hearing range.

Justice. The word itself is a figment, hollow and fickle, wrapped in fraudulent beauty of tapestry, disguising it's just ugly shreds pieced together.

I was doing an awful job to maintain the impassiveness, but the weight on my chest was too heavy for me to ponder about something else.

"Please, let me escort you to the elevator, Mr. Mittal."

Mr. Mittal waited no extra second, gesturing Ms. Ahmad to lead the way, trying his best to mask the uneasiness behind the polite words for farewell.

Ms. Ahmad's steps paused as she was about to walk by me, her head bowing with courtesy, voice dropping with the intention of just being heard by both of us, "Boss, please stay back."

And then she stepped out of the meeting room, Mr. Mittal quickly followed her trail.

I wasn't in the right state of mind to yield to Ms. Ahmad's words. Not waiting for her to return, I grabbed my car keys from the large meeting table, marching out to the glass door.

Stepping inside the elevator, my fingers pressed for the underground parking lot. My mind was reeling such that every intruding presence or approach in my vicinity was disregarded. I didn't wait for anyone to step out, and they themselves stepped aside when my glutting presence exempted the elevator with firm and paced strides.

The security lights flicker before I reached my car as I pressed on the keyfob. The door slammed close once I hopped on the driver's seat, veering the engine with life and the tires skidded out, navigating through the bustling roads.

The tyres screeched, halting abruptly, the impact almost throwing my body flailing forward if not for the seatbelt gripping me.

I stepped down from the car, pulling out a note of five hundred and pushing it in the palm of the infuriated parking attendant. "Bas do minute, bhau."

(Just two minutes, brother.)

He beamed at me, waving off his disapproval about my car being at the wrong spot. Meanwhile I rounded the corner, looking through the glass walls, eyes searching for the midnight curls.

And then my eyes caught the sight of her, glowing the entire cafe with her charismatic presence, the golden lights above her head dancing on her skin like gilded glitters.

Head lolling back, she burst into laughter, supposedly on a joke her friends made. Just imagining the melody of her laughter, even only for a moment, dimmed the abrasive voices in my head.

Not able to restrain myself, my hand reached for the device in my pants pocket and in no time it was pasted to my ears. My eyes followed as she picked her phone, gaze lingering on the screen for a brief and then she excused herself from her friends.

And the call connected.

"Hii!" her dulcet voice breathed out from the other side.

The call was made so involuntarily that I couldn't gather words to speak.

After a fleeting second, her voice reverberated again. This time softer than prior, laced with concern, "Aap theek ho ?"

(Are you alright ?)

My throat twitched when I gulped, a lie in the form of No just waiting at the tip of my tongue. Nonetheless, I altered the lie at the very last second, "What makes you ask that ?"

I watched as she caged her lower lip between her canines, pulling the phone away from her ears just for a moment, watching it with a frown on her face.

"You are awfully quiet," she muttered softly. "Is anything wrong ?"

"I just needed to listen to your voice."

I couldn't really make out her expressions since she had turned sideways. However, I didn't fail to catch how instinctively her hand reached for the scarf around her neck that was hiding my engravings on her skin from the world. Even after four days of her leaving the penthouse, the mark remained as new. I made sure of that.

One day.

There would come a day when I would be announcing to the world about how bewitched I'm with her. That it's me she belongs to. That it's her I've oathed to devote my life.

Wanting to assuage her, I further said, "Don't pressurise that little head of yours. It's just office issues."

"Pakka na ?"

(You sure ?)

"Pakka."

(Positively.)

Ahead of her sensing my sombre mood I disconnected the call, telling her to enjoy the evening with her friends.

"Mr. Somani," as soon as I pocketed my phone back, a familiar sounding voice diverted my focus from my beautiful rose.

Having my attention, Srashti Leima, who had been shadowing Apeksha, wobbled her head in a polite nod.

"Is something wrong, Mr. Somani ?" she queried, her gaze fleetingly drifting to Apeksha before settling back on me.

The mask slipped on again, my countenance a meticulous replica of stoicism.

"Everything is fine," my tone revealed no bits of the inner havoc. "Keep close eyes until she is safely back home."

Exchanging another curt nod, I deviated my heels back to my car and then drove away.

~
~
~

With a thud I slammed the glass on the bar counter, the golden liquid spilling in the process, my movement so unsteady that the empty glass beside it tripped over.

"Refill," I called out, beckoning a finger at the bartender.

A look of uncertainty crossed his eyes as his gaze surfed across the counter, clearly the number of empty glasses more than usual. I wasn't a heavy drinker and I would prefer a hot cup of coffee over a glass of alcohol any sane day.

But on this day, like every year, I wanted to drink until the alcohol dulls the surge of guilt, until my head is throbbing to the extent that the sneering voices dims. Until my senses are no longer in my control, until I am just an effigy of bones and flesh.

My phone kept vibrating incessantly, left discarded in the confines of my pants pockets.

Clutching the edge of the bar counter, I pulled myself on my feet and a sudden upsurge of dizziness spun my head, disorienting my steps to reel.

I took a moment to steady myself, the room slowing down gradually from the merry go round. Nodding at the bartender, I turned around towards the exit, making my way through the crowd.

The familiar faces in the crowd made me halt in the middle, an invisible force tethering my body, senses clouding with the rush of rage and condemnation. As if feeling the intensity of my stare, their eyes searched around before landing on me.

My jaw locked, face a mastered canvas of indifference, refusing to give them the benefit of my reaction.

My brain was a stupid excuse in the name of quick decision making because they have already reached me, pouring acid on my already sore self.

"Vyom, long time no see." I barely spared her a glance, my gaze fixed on the man she had her arms around.

As I was about to walk away, the strident voice filled my ear, the voice itself pricking at my eardrums.

"Come join us for a drink, Vyom. Let's put aside the old grudges." Simultaneously, he raised his glass trying to showcase the earnestness in his words.

The fucker was doing an awful job in cloaking his unctuousness.

If it was possible, he would be lying in ashes like his brother, by how hard I was glaring at him.

"Let me make something very clear. I am not your friend or even acquaintance for you to address me with first name," I gritted out, the rage keeping the slur in my voice at bay. "And by no means am I interested in getting along with anything related to that trash."

The fawned smile dropped off Binod Reddy's face, crumbling into smithereens, leaving behind the ugly true mirror. Beside him, despite the makeup, Nitya's own face appeared blanched at my frosty behaviour.

Binod Reddy's nostrils flared, striving hard to keep his pretense of hospitality intact. "That's my brother you are talking about."

"You mean a rapist." I sneered, my words a sharp slice of a blade.

Even for a fleeting second, but I caught it. The brief tensening of his shoulders, the way colour bleaked from his face in that jiffy.

His throat wobbled in a noticeable swallowing twitch, a poor attempt to chuck it off, "I guess you were sleeping when were taught the basic lesson- innocent until proven guilty. My brother was declared innocent by your law."

A scathing guffaw ascended up my throat, a loud scoff rumbling.

My head throbbed, a newfound headache forming. I decided to leave before I'm enticed to drag them to the bungalow and torture them until battered and begging for for an escape only death could bestow.

Turning on my heels, I was ready to walk away when a feminine hand clasped on my wrist. Beknownst to the owner of the hand, my body recoiled on instinct, throwing it off my skin with a force that caught them both off guard.

Next, I spatted, tone akin to a warning and threat, "Don't fucking touch me."

I exit the club, walking straight to my car before I drive away, briskly pacing past the other cars, carried by the lingering effects of alcohol.

It was damn reckless and so unlike me.

But even I need a day to embrace and accept every feeling that scorches me, every fear that continuously whispers to trample me down. Where I'm stripped off miserable and vulnerable, barred from the mask of stoicism and the brittle cloak of perfection.

Just a fickle human.

Failed and defeated.

The whole place was bathed in capped darkness, the moonless night showing no reprieve, still my steps navigated on the rooftop, aptitude on the path from several years.

A silhouette illuminated by the broken bulb flickering at distance faltered my pace briefly.

"What are you doing here ?" I questioned, my voice hoarse from the initial drinking while throwing the third or fourth -I don't remember at this point- cigarette on the ground, crushing it beneath my shoes.

The light from a flashlight falls on my face, my eyes squeezing shut momentarily before opening them back after composing my vision.

The flashlight drew closer so did the silhouette. "Bhai"

"Vamika." I scolded gently. "It's past midnight. Why are you here ?"

The flashlight diverted past the barely intact guardrail. "Sana brought me here. Even Apeksha texted me. According to her, and in my words, you were losing your shit the whole day."

Just because I was selfishly trying to solicit respite, my emotional residue wasn't supposed to worry her. She is meant for everything bright and beautiful, the thorns are mine to walk on.

I hardly suppressed a groan, spotting a familiar feminine figure perched against the car parked near this abandoned twenty-floor building environs. I took another route, or else I would have spotted them beforehand.

Over the years, Vamika has gotten eased around Ms. Ahmad to settle on the first name basis outside the professional field.

"Bhai, why do you have a watermelon with you ?" To exaggerate her question, the flashlight goes on the carrybag in my hand.

I bought it on my way.

My expressions twitch more sombre, lips twisting in a grim line. She studies my body language, heaving out a sigh and moving a step closer, her arms slipped behind my back. I melt in her embrace.

"It's been years, bhai." Worry seeped through her words.

My head bobbed atop her shoulder, seeking strength, when I should be the to carry her baggage, not deposit my own to her.

I whispered out, "Seven years."

A tender hand ran along the rigidness on my back. "Relent towards yourself. Please."

I take refuge in the warm confines of her embrace for a few more minutes, then retreat away, her arms falling lax at her side, a frown repleting her face.

"Bhai, what_"

Skipping ahead before she could finish, my finger gripped on the ill-fitted guardrail, body leaning in the air, neglectful towards the precaution, eyes trained on the height beneath.

There was no sane explanation of what kind of twisted reprieve my head seeks by peeling open the wounds haunting me till date.

It's like a never ending cycle, tethering me in the same moment, dredging me up about what a big failure I am.

I picked the watermelon that had rolled on the floor, bringing it out of the carrybag.

"What do you think would happen if I let it fall off the guardrail ?" I was already back against the said guardrail, the watermelon hanging in the air, barely secured between the bounds of my palm.

"Bhai" Vamika chastised, leaping towards me. But the watermelon had already slipped off, tearing through the air, leaping towards a fate I've already seen someone meeting years ago.

Dainty fingers divert my face from the sight beneath, concerned eyes pleading at me. "Bhai, stop it."

"Did you_" By this point, my sanity was barely hanging on a thin line, words upheaved in slur. "Did you hear it ?"

"Bhai, please... Stop." Her words lacked conviction, laced with despair instead.

I was already out of sorts, barely perceiving anything sensible. "Did you hear the crack ?"

Her shoulders slumped as she softly muttered, "No."

"Then why do I still hear the crack of the skull loud and clear ?"

Chapter Words- 2480

My heart aches whenever my babies are in pain 🤧

Humare saath bane rahne ke liye Wattpad aur Instgram pe Follow karien...

Signing off
~T.R