Page 76 of Born in Ruin

Amay took it from him and let him go after a quiet, murmured exchange. He shut the door and exchanged a loaded glance with Virat.

“It’s from them,” Ishaan said flatly, getting to his feet. Mayukhi tried to hold him back but he was having none of it. He held his hand out for the card Amay had plucked out of the flowers.

We see you now. We see you all. Come for us and we’ll see that the world sees you too, every lovely inch of you. Get well soon, Yukhi. We miss you. Our last meeting just wasn’t long enough…

“They have pictures and videos,” Mayukhi said, her voice a thready whisper. “Of me. Naked. That’s what they’re saying, aren’t they?”

A hushed silence fell on the room. Ishaan turned to meet her devastated eyes.

“I was naked when you all found me? All of you?” She was starting to hyperventilate, her chest heaving and her breath catching. Amay tossed the flowers at Virat and walked forward but Ishaan stopped him with a hand on his chest.

“No.” Ishaan strode forward, grabbing her and pulling her into his arms. “No,” he said again, into her hair. “Nobody saw you other than me. I had you wrapped in my coat before anybody else entered the room.”

“Buttheydid!” Her voice was shrill, tears standing in her eyes. “And they have pictures!”

“I’ll get them, Yukhi,” Virat promised. “Every last image and clip. I swear to you.”

“I-I-I-“ Mayukhi’s breath hitched as she looked around the room, her pride and dignity in tatters.

“No.” Ishaan cupped her face with his palms and turned her to face him. “Don’t you dare let them reduce you to this. You’re Mayukhi Chatterjee remember? Come on Kraken, you eat men like this for breakfast.”

“I know what you’re feeling in this moment, Yukhi.” Dhrithi’s soft voice came from somewhere over his shoulder. “They’ve taken something from you that they have no right to. But we’re going to take it back and when we do, we’ll raze their fucking world to the ground.”

“I promise you,” Virat said, stepping forward, his normally calm eyes blazing with fury. “That I will wipe this world clean of anything they have of you, online and offline. Give me time and I’ll wipe it clean of them too.”

Ishaan held her shuddering body close as Mayukhi wept, her composure shattering in the face of everything that had been done to her. He heard the others file out of the room, giving them privacy.

“I want them to suffer,” she told him, big, gulping sobs escaping her. “I want them to feel what I’m feeling right now.”

“They’ll feel all of it and more,” he swore. “Trust me, Yukhi. You tell me what you want and I’ll make it happen. But for now, Kraken, I need you to calm down. I need you to allow your body and mind to recover. I need you to be my Kraken again. Please sweetheart, I need you back. I need you,” he whispered brokenly.

Slowly, tentatively, her hand came up to stroke his back, her breath steadied and her body relaxed. “I’m going to have their heads for this,” she murmured, pained exhaustion leaking through the words.

“I’ll bring them to you on a silver platter,” he answered, leaning back to look at her. “For you, I’d destroy the world and rebuild it to your satisfaction. Just, please, give me the chance to do so.”

“What happened to you were going to use me and dump me?” she sniffled.

Ishaan rested his forehead on hers, his eyes shutting in anguish. “I’d rather cut off my hand than cause you a second’s pain, Kraken. You have to know that.”

A pause and then she scoffed, “Just a hand? I would have thought I’d rate at least both hands and one leg.”

Ishaan laughed, an aborted bark of sound. “How about my heart? I’d cut my heart out before I hurt yours again, Kraken.”

She reached up to stroke his face, a trembling touch.

“When Virat was telling us what the DD’s did to that girl, all I could think about was how I blackmailed you into helping us, how I bought your father’s company out from under him, and how I was no different from them. I couldn’t stand myself in that moment.”

“You stupid, stupid man,” she sighed. “Sure, you did a lot of shit but then so did I. And none of it is comparable to those evil fuckheads. Your intent, your heart was in the right place. I can’t say the same about mine.”

“Yours?” He stared at her.

“I watched as they smashed your tomato plants. I laughed when they gave you wedgies in gym class. I passed on the rumour that you got an STD from sleeping with the school nurse.”

“That was you?” he stared at her outraged. “The school nurse was sixty five years old.”

“That’s the part you’re offended by? Her age?” Mayukhi started to laugh, the sound lightening his heart.

“I love you.” He blurted the words out with zero finesse.

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