Page 17 of Mrs. Pandey
My eyes blazed. "Not. A. Word." My gaze swept over them all. Daring anyone to challenge me. "If you can crawl, you can run. If you can breathe, you can fight. Now GO!"
Rishi pushed himself to his feet on shaking legs, face streaked with tears and sweat. He started to run. He stumbled like a man learning to walk for the first time. Each step was agony, but he kept moving.
Ira stepped forward, her voice cutting through the air. It was sharp and clear. "Captain, he'll collapse."
I turned to her, my expression unreadable. A mask forged from years of training.
"Then let him collapse. At least he'll learn where his limit is." I knew it sounded harsh and cruel, but this was the only way. The only way they would learn, they would learn not to fail.
"That's not training," she said coldly, her eyes meeting mine, full of defiance. "That's punishment."
I stared at her. Her words hit a nerve as my jaw clenched.
"This isn't Dehradun, Solanki." My voice was low and laced with the grim reality of our world. "This is the desert. The line between soldier and corpse is discipline." I needed her to understand the stakes, not some theory of life and death.
She held my gaze, breathing hard. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly.
"And what about the line between discipline and madness?" Her question hung in the air. It was a challenge and an accusation.
I just stayed silent. There was no answer I could give her that she would accept. There was no explanation for the darkness I carried. The fire that fueled my methods.
Behind us, Rishi kept running. His legs buckling with every painful stride. His eyes were glassy and unfocused, but he was still moving. He was more afraid of the man behind him than whatever waited in the sand ahead. And for now, that was enough. At least he was learning not to give up.
After training, I entered the office where Ira was working. It was empty, silent, except for her.
She looked up. The moment she saw me, the expression on her face twisted something in my chest. The same look. The one she had when I left that boy half-dead in the sand.
"What if something happens to him?" she spat, the moment I stepped inside. She didn't care that I outranked her. She didn't give a damn about the trouble she could get into for speaking to me like that. She just hurled her accusation like I was some kind of criminal.
"If I hadn't ordered him to finish his task, then something probably would have happened to him," I shot back, my voice cutting. "Warrior," I added, mocking her title.
Her eyes narrowed. "If you fail to defeat your enemies, not everyone will..." she snapped, laced with sarcasm.
That. That was where she went wrong. That was where I wanted to snap her beautiful neck.
A hot burn coiled through my veins. My pulse thundered. I shot out my hand and grasped her forearm, yanking her closer until she could feel my coal-burning eyes on her skin. My jaw clenched. I stared straight into her eyes. My voice was a low growl.
"Don't talk about things you'll never understand, Solanki. Judging someone is easy, isn't it? But you only start to understand once you've walked in their shoes. You'll never know what it feels like to be stabbed several times in the same spot... until it's you getting stabbed."
My breath hissed out as I shoved her into the chair. She winced, her eyes wide, pale, and shocked. She stared at me like I was a stranger, aggressive, heartless, and a cold bastard.
That's what she must've been thinking. Because I had never been like this before. But there was a lot about me she hadn't seen yet, and I was not intending to show her. I had lost all feelings for her except one: hatred.
"Prashant..." she began, her voice trembling.
I raised a hand, silencing her. I didn't want to hear another word from her mouth. Not when everything she ever said came laced with poison. She had never truly seen me, never once tried to understand me. Because to her, I was just the poor boy, the driver's son, and she was the princess of a corporate empire.
Once. I had loved her. Madly. Completely. But I was a fool. I was a fucking fool for falling for a woman like her who never thought about anyone else but herself.
I never realized she was just using me. To feed her dark fantasies. She didn't care about my love. She only craved my body. I despised her for it.
While she leaned on Aryan for emotional comfort, she used me to satisfy her desires. Two men. One heartless woman.
My jaw locked. I stormed out of the room, marched straight to my office, and slammed the door shut. My hands gripped the desk as I exhaled hard. Rage pulsed through me. Ira's words kept replaying in my head like a fucking movie.
She thought I was weak? A failure?
She never once asked what I had been through. She never truly cared about me. I never thought she could be this heartless.
