Standing in shock, Preeta stared at the boy's face. He didn't look like Prithvi but there was the same glint of mischievousness. It was there in his brown eyes.
She gulped and through gritted teeth, she spoke,"Admirers do not threat the people they admire. You and your cousin's ways of showing admiration are too much to bear. Tell me, how do you know Kritika?" With the sudden clench of Pawan's jaws, Preeta noticed that he wasn't happy with the warning tone she used. She felt a bit confident. But still heart shrinked in uncertainty when the boy smiled creepily.
"Do you remember how you and Kritika met?"
Preeta gulped and immediately recalled the scene. She was standing under a shelter waiting for the rain to stop and to hire a taxi. Kritika saw her, helped her by giving lift. That's how, she had met Mahesh Luthra too for the first time. She blinked and looked back at the boy's face. He had exhaled another wave of smoke till then.
"Little Kritika has a bad habit for making friends while travelling. She is too sweet for her own..." He scoffed in humour. "... Well, for her own bad. We met, she chattered her gossips and unknowingly mentioned your name. She told me how you both also met just like us. Preeta, Preeta, Preeta. The name galloped on to the every corner of my brain and finally, I realised."
He again smiled at her while flaring his nostrils. "Preeta is the girl, my cousin was crazy about. The girl whose fiance beat his ass. The girl who ditched the most charming boy of our college and married her stalker. I told Prithvi, Prithvi told me. That's how, we are here. Planning to get vengeance from Luthra. His pretty wife and pretty sister. Won't that be fun..." He stopped when a hard slap hit his cheek and started stinging.
His eyes widened and immediately narrowed to glare at her. He wasted no time in grabbing her hand.
"You bitch."
That was enough for the driver to lose his patience as he held Pawan's arm to make him leave Preeta's hand.
"How dare you! I can punish you hard for this Preeta Karan Luthra. Just like my cousin is going to do..."
Preeta stopped wriggling and looked stunned at him. Anger burst inside her veins as she glared at him. "On my single sign, my husband will break you in pieces. Leave my hand." She yelled while herself tried to wriggle her wrist in his hand. But Pawan was strong.
The driver couldn't see the young lady squirming anymore so he put a punch in the stupid boy's guts and he immediately grunted in pain. He left Preeta's wrist and clutched his stomach. The driver immediately gestured towards the car. "You must go inside the car. Hurry." Before, she could see him speaking more, a hard punch hit Mohan Singh's face and he immediately staggered to the right side.
Preeta cried in shock and immediately rushed to check on the driver. But before she could reach, Pawan had hold the collar of the man's shirt and hit him again on the face. One punch, another and then, one more. Preeta whimpered while holding Pawan's arm but he jerked her away.
Her eyes fell on Mohan uncle's face and she could see his cheeks, nose bleeding. Her heart thumped loudly in fear. She looked back at Pawan who was now glaring at her. She stepped back while he reached her.
"If my husband get to know this..."
"What will he do? Beat me, blackmail me, attack my home, what?" Pawan laughed humorlessly making Preeta gulp. He stepped ahead and pointed his finger at her. "If you try to tell your Luthra about me or Prithvi, worse will happen. Do you know why Kritika and I had fought all of a sudden? She was in love with me days ago and now, she had seen me with another girl. Her heart broke but do I care?" He snickered while looking at Preeta's shocked face.
