RUINED SOUL

Chapter 8

The picture on the cover is of James.

Privi's POV

When I woke up, I felt a sharp pain in my head. It was so bad that felt it travel all over my face. When I tried to open my eyes properly, I realized that I was in the nurse's room of the office. I touched my cheek and could feel a pang of sharp pain hit me. I think the nurse saw me waking up and started coming near me. I looked around myself and found Eliana seated right next to me.

"How are you, Privi?", asked the nurse, very softly. I wanted to respond to that but my jaw hurt. I couldn't tell her that so I tried to raise my hand to ask her what happened.

"Privi, can you hear us? Why can't you talk?", Eliana asked me sounding very worried.

I wanted to respond to that so bad that I tried to signal them that I can't move my jaw. I think the nurse understood the situation and started examining me. It looked like she knew the reality. She knew what had happened to me.

"Privi dear, you have a swollen jaw and I'm afraid you won't be able to move it for some days which means no talking. Here, keep this heating pad on your face so that you feel better", she said assuring me that I'll be fine soon.

"But what exactly happened?", Eliana tried to pry the answers out of the nurse. The nurse just shrugged her shoulders as even she didn't know about it.

How was I going to tell them what happened to me? What James did was way out of the limits. I'm going to leave this company as soon as possible. He doesn't have the right to hit me that, too, over a small picture! He gotta stop obsessing over me!

I tried to move my hands to ask Eliana how did I end up here but she couldn't understand my actions. So asked her for a pen and a paper and soon I was provided with it. I wrote 'How did I end up here? How did you come to know about me? And who brought me here?'

"I have no clue but the nurse told me that the receptionist on our floor brought you here. I didn't have the time to ask her about you but she's waiting outside. She was also the one to call me here", Eliana said. As if on cue, the receptionist knocked on the door and stepped in. She asked about my health and what happened. I was baffled on hearing that question, so was Eliana and the nurse. All four of us looked at each other for answers but none of us said anything. Eliana broke the silence by asking the receptionist about how she got to know about me.

"I was sitting on my desk when I received a call from Jamess office saying that he needs help. I went to his office to find Privi lying on the couch, fainted. I rushed to her and asked him about what had happened but he ignored my question and told me to take her to the nurse's room. He looked infuriated so I didn't say anything and just brought her here", said the receptionist.

Now all eyes were on me because they knew that only I could tell what happened in that room. As it is I was not able to talk about anything so they all let me be. But I saw Eliana's eyes. They held a lot of questions. She knew something was up. I did not want to give into her looks so I moved my eyes away.

Eliana called Josh and I was faced with all worried little brother who could not hold back his tears. That was the first time I saw him crying after our parents' death. I touched his face and assured him that I was fine. I didn't have any particular injuries except a swollen cheek and head. Of course, none of them were blind because I could sense that they knew I was slapped, hard. Soon after that, I was escorted home.

Liam's POV

It took Luke a day and a half to find about both the girls. We spoke to the McDonalds employee who told us that she posted that picture on her social handles but nowhere else. Luke was cleaver enough to find out that some journalist must have taken up the hint and published in the newspaper. We also found out about the girl in the car with me. The CCTV footage of the Drive Thru gave the number of her car and from there we found her. Her name was Privi Sihag who lived with her brother Josh Sihag. The rest is history. I had all the details in front of me. I decided to meet her because I had her address and number too. It was important to apologize to her for all that I did and this stupid article, too. However, I couldn't muster the confidence to call her, forget about gate crashing her house. She lived in one of the oldest areas of the town. Due to that, I wasn't even sure if the address bought by Luke was correct.

"What are you looking at, Liam?", Luke asked me when he noticed me eyeing the information. I looked up at him and said, "Are you sure, that's where she stays? This is the oldest part of the town!"

"That's all I got from her documents. But one thing is still not clear to me, why are you so adamant on meeting this girl? What did she do?" Luke asked me.

"She didn't do anything, Luke. It was me who did it!", I earned a narrowed-eye look from Luke on this comment. He didn't say anything so I continued.

"I behaved in an extremely bad way with her. Remember I told you about being rescued from the paparazzi? Well, she was the one to do that. Since both of us were hungry, we went to McDonalds and she paid for everything."

"What??? She paid? Since when did normal people start paying for celebrities?", he said, earning a smack on his hand from me.

"She was feeling bad for hitting me and leaving me alone that night when you found me in a distorted condition outside the stadium. So, she decided to pay for our meals. That's when the picture was clicked", I said.

"But., before Luke could complete his sentence, I put my hand up to silence him. That was a whole lot of information. Right now, I was focused on meeting her.

For a few days, I didn't have the courage to call her. I didn't know why but I felt a bit apprehensive about it. Finally, after a few days, I decided to call her up. There was no answer for the first time. That made me anxious. I rechecked the number before dialing her again. The second time also there was no answer so I thought I would call her later.

Later that night, I got a call for the pending recordings so I decided to work on them. The next day, I had to run for some errands and meet my son. He was getting well day by day and I got more time to spend with him. I was happy for him but a bit curious as well about Privi. The next few days went in a blur as I kept calling her while spending maximum time with my son. I decided that once I get completely free from all the work, Im going to go and look for her.

Hey guys, finally we see Liam after Privi. Hes been quite anxious. But Little did he know about what had happened to her. Theres a lot of things between James and Privi which will be cleared in the following sections. So please be updated and dont forget to like, comment and vote.