Shivaay saw his entire family there. What he had dreaded had happened. He saw the disappointment in their eyes. He knew they were ashamed of him. Once, there used to be pride. He was the one who held them all together. Now, they couldn't bear to look at him. He had broken their hearts.
They had broken his heart, his trust too but he wasn't ready for that conversation yet.
"Look at you," Tej bit out in disgust. "Such guts to still come and attend business events? How can you still face people after what you did?"
His Bade Papa was right. He wasn't so shameless. So he ran out. Out of breath, he sat down on the sidewalk. He had to go back to his home. It was far. He couldn't possibly take the auto or the public transport. He blindly called someone. He sat in a car, reached home and passed out. He couldn't deal with so many thoughts, so many feelings, so many emotions at once.
In his sleep, nightmares of that day, that moment haunted him. The glares, the distrust stared at him and laughed. His blood curled.
Heart pounding and threatening to fly off his ribcage, he woke up with a snark.
"Bhaiya?"
Shivaay felt Rudra's cool and comforting hands on his shoulders. He turned to look at the worried face of his brother.
"Did you see a nightmare?" he asked.
Shivaay shook his head. Then he grabbed the bottle lying by the foot of the couch and drank it whole. His throat still felt parched.
Wiping his lips, Shivaay looked at Rudra in confusion. "When did you come here?"
Rudra's face twisted. He moved closer to Shivaay. "Bhaiya? You only called me to pick you up from the venue. You felt sick. Then we came and you were tired so you slept."
"Oh."
Memories came flooding back into his head. He had seen his family, lost his mind and desperately reached out to Rudra for help. He pressed a hand on his head. "Yeah, right. I called you. I freaked out after I saw them."
"Them? Who, them?" Rudra knitted his brows.
Shivaay let out a tired sigh and swallowed hard. It hurt him to even take his own family name. "Oberois."
The confusion on Rudra's face deepened. He took a moment to absorb all of Shivaay's words and then make sense of them. He still couldn't comprehend it all. Still, he stayed quiet. He didn't have the heart to say anything to his brother. He was just grateful that Shivaay had allowed him to visit him anytime he wanted. He couldn't bear to stay at the Oberoi Mansion and was fully prepared to shift with Shivaay. But his brother was right. They couldn't burden Anika like that. And she wouldn't let Shivaay go and stay at his own apartment. So for the time being, Rudra had agreed to stay back at the Mansion and come see them. He was grateful for that. He didn't want anything else for now.
"Ah." Rudra nodded and looked away, the worry for his brother deepening in the pit of his stomach. If it was anything serious, Anika would have told him, right?
"Shivaay, you should go sleep in the bedroom."
Rudra looked up to see Anika standing at the main door with her hands on her hips. She was staring at the two of them sitting on the mattress on the floor with poorly hidden contempt.
"No. I..."
"Shivaay. I am tired. I don't want to walk here and take your temperature in the night. I wanna do it while sitting on my freaking bed so you will listen to me and sleep beside me!" Anika wagged a finger at him and dumped her purse on the side table.
