The man slightly opens the door, Nandini tries to calm herself down as the tears fall out of her eyes nonstop.
He puts his hand in with the gun making sure no one was there, as soon as he puts his hand in Nandini kicks the door hard which hits his hand in force, it causes the gun to fall down on the floor.
"Ahhh you bitch!" The man shouts holding his hand in pain.
Nandini puts her feet on the gun and takes in inside closing the door.
She starts taking deep breaths and picks up the gun pointing it towards the door.
'Just hold it and press the trigger' she remembers Manik's words, she knew this was wrong and the fact that she has never shot anyone obviously but she had to save herself.
She continuously looks at the door with a afraid look on her face,
On the other side, the other guy looked at manik lying down on the floor unconscious, he takes his phone out and calls someone
"What should we do?" He talks to someone on the phone, manik shoots his eyes open and kicks the guys hands with his legs causing the phone to fall down from his hands.
Manik quickly stands up picking up his gun, he points it towards the guy. "Give me the fucking phone!"
The guy who knew manik can shoot him and he would not hesitate, he goes and hands the phone to manik.
Manik takes the phone and puts it on his ear hearing their conversation "kill them both" manik hears which angers him
"Nice try buddy, Hum toh nahi Lekin tumare teen aadmi toh mar gaye" manik points the gun at the guy and shoots him too while talking to that unknown person on the phone.
"Oops I mean 4" manik laughs, as the guy falls on the ground.
"How dare you" the man speaks, manik furrows his eyebrows finding something suspicious it felt like he has heard that voice before and it sounded very familiar to him.
"Shut the fuck up! How dare you ki Tum mere peeche aadmi lagao do you even know who I am" manik talks with anger
"I'm not scared of you manik Malhotra" the man speaks
"Well you better fucking be from now on, Kyunki agar Meri wife ya Meri behen ko Kuch bhi hua then I will personally come there and fucking kill you"
"So quit playing, aur agar himmat hai toh saamne se aa aur marke dikha" manik ends the call and throws away the phone in anger.
Sudden realisation hits him, he quickly goes to the cottage. He sees the man standing there and without thinking he shoots him on the hand which makes him unconscious on the ground.
Nandini who was in the cottage heard the gun shot and got scared. She took a deep breath as she heard the door click open, Nandini continued to point the gun towards the door as it fully opened.
"No!" Nandini screams, she holds the trigger but stops as she sees manik walk in. A sudden relief forms over her face seeing him standing there alive and fine.
Manik looks at her with a poker face even though it was surprising she was holding a gun like that, he saw how scared and traumatised she looked which made expressions soften up.
"Tum zinda ho!" Nandini puts the gun down
Manik nods "abhi ke liye" he replies instantly
"I thought you were dead! Woh usne bataya" Nandini looks at him trying to catch her breath
"Well sorry to disappoint you" manik sarcastically says and turns around, Nandini looks at him trying to process what just happened.
"Let's go" manik says and starts walking out of the cottage, Nandini follows him but she stops seeing the man on the floor unconscious.
"Manik!" She shouts stopping him "Yeh abhi zinda hai"
Manik turns around and looks at the guy laying down then her "should I check him? Mein ek doctor hu I can maybe help" Nandini raises her eyebrows asking him innocently
"Haan so he can get up and try to kill us both again" manik taunts her.
'God she is trying to help the man who tried to kill her, Itna Accha koi kaise ho sakta hai' manik thinks looking at her.
"Then why didn't you just kill him" Nandini looks up at him
"Because ya hi hai jo mujhe uske boss tak pochayega. You won't understand Chalo" manik holds her hand
Both of them walk and walk, and find their ways out of the woods again and to where he left his car, there was another car behind it which manik assumed It would be those guys who were following them.
Manik opens his car and takes his phone out and then closes it shut.
"Sit in the car" manik tells Nandini, she nods and sits in the other car that the guys have bought. Manik sits in the drivers seat and races out from there.
"Ab hum ghar jaa rahe hai na?" Nandini looks at him
"No" manik instantly replies
"What! Why?"
"Because Yeh log abhi bhi humhe follow karenge, if we go back at the house Woh log waha aa sakte hai I don't want Ahana in danger mein hum dono ko ek safe jagah le kar jaa raha hu" manik tells her.
Nandini looks at him "Lekin Maine esa Kya kiya hai that they are trying to kill me! Maine kabhi kisi ka bura nahi chaha then why" A tear drops from her eyes
'I know Tum bohot acchi ho but Yeh duniya esi nahi hai' manik says in his head as he continues to speed up.
"Well life is full of surprises isn't it Nandini" manik smirks at her
"Yeh sab issiliye hua because I married you! You know what isse Accha toh Tum mujhe maar dete I wouldn't have ever experienced anything like this Matlab mujhe abhi bhi sab mere chehre ke saamne dikhai de raha hai I want to get out of this!" Nandini continues fo speak, Manik closes his eyes in frustration hearing her constant bickering
"Well ab shaadi ho gayi hai you have no choice, you will have to live with it" manik replies
"What the—Well can you at least tell me ki what did I do and why are they after us" Nandini questions him again.
"Nandini there are some things which you don't need to know"
"Of course I need to know! Tumne hi toh kaha ki Woh log Meri wajah se maarne aa rahe hai so I need to know I have all the right to know"
"You talk too much" manik simply says
"we should call the police manik! mera bhai ek police officer hai, if I tell him he won't leave them" Nandini continues
Manik rolls his eyes "yeah right, tumhara bhai aaj tak Yeh Pata nahi laga paya ki Yeh log operate kaise karte hai aur Tum keh rahi ho ki Woh inn logon ko pakde ga? Funny" manik mocks Nandini's brother which angers her
"Shut up! Do not underestimate him, Woh Kuch bhi kar sakte hai aaj tak wo hi hai jinhone humara khayal rakha hai, after my parents died mere bhai ne humare liye sab Kuch kiya hai" Nandini gets emotional talking about him
Manik looks at her and the focuses back on the roads, he feels some connection with her as he has went through almost the same, losing his parents was something that changed his life forever and to the point that he has forgotten how the real him used to act and talk like.
Manik stops the car in front of a really quiet area, there was a house in the middle of the forest area.
"Hum kaha hai?" Nandini asks him "Yeh Konsi jagah hai? Hum safe toh rahenge na yaha pe?"
"Shut up aaj ke liye bohot bol liya tumne" manik tells her, Nandini shakes her head.
Both of them walk to the house, manik knocks at the door and an old man opens it. A wide smile grew on his face seeing manik.
"Manik beta!" He says happily and hugs him, manik too hugs him back which made Nandini surprised
"Aakesh Uncle hum—"
"Come inside" he says happily, manik looks at Nandini and tells her to also come inside.
"So what brings you here manik?" Aakesh asks him
"Uncle this is Nandini, uhm m-my wife" Manik introduces Nandini
"Namaste" Nandini touches his feet seeking his blessings.
"Stay blessed" he smiles at her "mein jaanta hu"
"Uncle we need to stay here, humare peeche Kuch log pade hai" Manik tells him
"Of course Yeh bhi koi puchne ki baat hai, mein paani le kar aata hu" he says and leaves.
"Sit" manik orders Nandini to sit on the couch, she goes and sits on and finally relaxing and taking a deep breath. She puts her hand on her forehead leaning back.
Manik sits across her looking at her, he was glad that she was safe and hoped she would never get to know the truth
"Manik" aakesh comes holding two glasses he gives one to Nandini and the other to manik.
Nandini gulps down the water in one ago, it was like she hadn't drank water in a month. Manik drinks it slowly
"Woh log kon hai?" Aakesh asks manik
He looks at him putting his glass down "Pata nahi, I'm getting to that" He lies as Nandini was there, he knew exactly why they were behind them and what they were trying to do.
Nandini looks at him furrowing her eyebrows as she knew he was lying "I have a night shift today toh mujhe jaana padega thodi der Lekin Tum dono yaha aaram se reh sakte ho" Aakesh tells him
Nandini looks at him and smiles "thank you"
"I'll be back" manik stands up and leaves.
He goes outside and pulls out his phone calling karan, who picks up in one go.
"Manik where the fuck are you man?! Kabse call kar raha hu" karan was getting worried
"I'm fine karan don't worry, it's just Kuch log humhe follow kar rahe the and we can't come back home so hum uncle ke ghar pe hai" manik tells him
"Hum Matlab?"
"Me and Nandini" manik replies
"So this is because of—"
"I think so Woh log mainly Nandini ko harm karna chahte gau but they don't know ki Nandini ko Kuch nahi Pata hai. Mujhe un tak pochna padega so I can get this thing bloody solved" manik cuts him off
"I told you manik! You marrying Nandini will put you both in danger Lekin Tu sunta kab hai.. it's like you are starting to fall for her warna kisi ke liye kabhi Itna nahi karta Tu " karan blurts out
"Shut the fuck up man, esa Kuch nahi hai. Anyway just take care of Ahana okay aur zaroorat pade toh security bada do" manik instructs him
"Okay take care and keep updating me" karan says, and they both hang up. Manik takes a deep breath looking down and wondering how he will solve this mess for Nandini.
Nandini looks at him through the window, she was having mixed feelings.
"It's not what it seems" Aakesh comes from behind
Nandini turns around and looks at him "huh?"
"Manik jaisa dikhta hai Waisa nahi hai" he says out of the blue
"He has a heart of gold" he looks at manik, Nandini also turns her head to manik looking at him out of the window
"Manik?" Nandini questions again
"Yes manik" he replies "Woh mere saath hi bada hua hai mostly"
Nandini looks at him surprised
"Jab koi manik ko bahar se dekhta hai toh they might think ki Woh rude, cruel aur insensitive hai jaise uske paas dil hi nahi hai" he says, as Nandini continues to watch manik who started picking up some woods.
"Lekin esa nahi hai beta... you tell me does he sound heartless to you?" He asks Nandini, she looks up at him nodding in agreement.
"He is heartless" Nandini says turning her head back to him
"Dekho isse jisse Tum heartless keh rahi ho and think again that why is he the way he is" he points at manik, Nandini takes a deep breath.
"Shayad Woh dusro ko takleef de raha hai Kyunki Woh Kudh takleef mein hai, kudh andar se toot gaya hai"
"Maybe he is hurting because he is hurt" he says,
Nandini shoots her head up at aakesh.
"Lekin Maine toh uske saath Kuch galat nahi kiya hai" Nandini defends
"Shayad Woh tumhe Kuch prove karna chahta hai... Tum doctor ho na?" He looks at her
"Haan ji" Nandini replies
"Tum log toh kitni baar diagnosis karte ho na, Kya Tum sirf ek baar mein dekh ke bata deti ho ki Woh insaan ko Kya hua hai Woh kaisa hai" he tells her, Nandini looks at him, his theory was making sense to her
"Judge karna bohot hi aasan hota hai, it really confuses your eyes and mind... usse apne dil ke nazariyen se Dekho tumhara dil kabhi galat nahi ho sakta bacche" he tells her, Nandini looks down going in her deep thoughts all of what he was saying was making sense to her.
Nandini looks on at manik, she bites her lips and takes a deep breath.
"Anyways you must be hungry.. khana ready hai" he tells her and was about to walk.
Nandini stands up "Aap akele rehte ho? Why not with manik?" She asks him
"This is the house jaha mein apni wife ke saath apni puri life raha hu. I have a lot of memories here" he replies to her
Nandini looks at him with sad eyes "oh I'm so sorry mujhe Pata nahi tha"
"Don't be sorry beta , Chalo" he tells her, manik too comes inside and they settle around the small table and the food was served.
All of them started eating their food in silent, Nandini had a lot in her mind she kept thinking about uncle said to her about manik she was wondering whether she was wrong about manik the whole time or maybe she needs to change how she sees him to realise.
All of them finished eating, Aakesh stands up "Mujhe abhi jaana padega, I'm getting late take care" he said and leaves.
Nandini stands up and lays down on the sofa, she turns around sleeping on her right hand with it resting on her cheeks, manik settled on the other sofa but he was sitting up.
'Woh jaisa dikhta hai Waisa nahi hai'
'He has a golden heart'
'Usse apne dil ke nazariyen se Dekho'
Aakesh's words kept ringing in her head, she takes a glance at manik who was just staring in to space with no expressions on his face, she closes her eyes dozing off.
Manik looks at her as she was in a deep sleep, he stands up and walks over to her sleeping peacefully he knew he had to get her out of this. Manik grabs the blanket and pulls it over her tucking her in.
He then goes back to his seat sleeping.
————
Manik eyes shot open as the sun ray hits him, he stands up and looks over to Nandini who was still sleeping. He goes over to the window and opens it slightly checking if everything was okay but he notices three men walking in sight holding guns. Manik closes his eyes in anger, he turns around and goes to Nandini.
"Nandini!" He says waking her up, she shoots her eyes open "h-Haan"
"Get up!" Manik tells her looking around
"What happened" Nandini says trying to fully be awake, manik gets his gun from the table
"Just get up and stay quiet" he tells her
"Kyu! Kya ho raha hai?! What happened manik!" Nandini starts to panic
"Shhh! Come on" he says going to the back door while Nandini follows him
Manik opens the back door, Nandini was behind him he looks around "wait" he puts his hand out, he goes out a little and stands in the edge.
Manik puts his hand out in Nandini's direction as he looks in the other way to see if anyone was coming, Nandini looks at his hand and puts her hand in his as manik pulls her closer.
He looks at her "no matter what, chahe Kuch bhi ho jaye run aur peeche mat dekhna" he tells her
Nandini looks at him with a frightened look "aur Tum?"
"Just run"
"Aur Tum?!" Nandini asks him again
Manik catches her eyes "I will be behind you" he assures her and rubs his fingers on her hand which calms her down a bit.
She looks at him taking a deep breath, manik turns around and looks to check again "now!" He tells her, Nandini starts running towards a direction, a never ending way to a forest.
Manik looks at her, he also starts running behind her but a little far away from her. The guys notice them running away.
"Woh log jaa rahe hai catch them!" One of the guy says, the three of them start running behind them.
Nandini continues to run without looking back as being told by manik.
Manik who was running hears some noises he takes his gun turning around and shoots at the guy that was first in sight running behind them, he falls on the floor dead but Manik's gun bullets finish.
"Fuck!" He says in anger and throws the gun, he turns around and continues to run faster behind Nandini.
The two guys catch up to manik and running Nandini, they stop and point the gun towards them. The guy pulls the trigger and the bullet hits Manik's back which makes manik drop to the ground causing a loud thump which Nandini hears.
Nandini stops and turns around and sees manik on the ground being shot, she looks at him as her eyes and mouth widen.
"Manik!" She shouts, the guys continue to point their guns towards Nandini.
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Author: such a long chapter! I hope you guys like it! After what aakesh told Nandini about manik, she definitely will look at manik differently and will this bring a change in their lives? Will manik survive the bullet? Stay tuned! Avoid any mistakes
Don't forget to vote and comment please! I appreciate all you guys loving this book those who are voting and commenting and please recommend to others as well!