“NINA?”

Nina slowly opened her eyes when she heard Suraj’s voice. She stared at him blankly. He was dressed casually and was seated next to her on the bed. Standing behind him was Radha.

Nina didn’t know what day it was.

“Nina, I thought giving you time to recover might help. But obviously it hasn’t. You are wasting away, sweetheart.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“I’m not blaming you, Nina. I’m just saying talk to me.”

Nina knew she had to talk to Suraj. She was being selfish, wallowing in self-pity rather than warn Suraj. But her brain seemed to be stuck in the freeze mode.

She knew that once she warned Suraj about Gaurav, the danger would then shift to Gaurav. Nina did not want any of the men she loved to be in any danger.

“Tell me about him, sweetheart.”

She was silent for a while. Then making up her mind, she answered. “He asked me to call him as Gaurav. I don’t know if that was his real name or not though.”

Suraj and Radha were watching Nina curiously.

“I’m sorry for not revealing this earlier. I was scared for his life. I still am.”

 “So, it was just him who took you?” Radha asked.

“No, there were two other men who were helping him.”

“Did they… touch you?” Suraj asked with an agonized look.

“No. Not in the way you mean. Only he touched me… because I wanted him to.”

“I see.”

There was silence.

Taking a deep shuddering breath, she looked at her husband. “Suraj… did you pass an order to have an innocent woman murdered as a warning to her brother to back off from an investigation?”

Suraj looked shocked. “No.”

Nina believed him instantly. She stared at him, and then burst out crying.

Nina knew she was a mess, and she needed help. But Suraj’s answer broke a dam inside her.

She hated herself for even having a smallest of doubt of whether Suraj was capable of something like that. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, throwing her arms around her husband and hugging him close.

He patted her back gently. “It’s okay. Nina, tell me what happened.”

She wiped her tears away and sat up straight. “I was kidnapped as retaliation against you, Suraj. Because he thinks you got his sister killed. As a way to ask him to back off.”

“Back off from what?”

“An investigation. He is a reporter. Or at least I strongly think he is one.”

A slight frown marred Suraj’s face. “What was he investigating?”

“I don’t know either. Another man told me what had happened and I couldn’t get the details completely at that time. All I got was that because of you, my captor’s sister was murdered, making it seem like she killed herself due to medical college pressure.”

Suraj frowned.

“We have dozens of reporters reaching out to us on a daily basis for some enquiry or the other,” said Radha. “But I can’t seem to recall anything big that would cause a scandal.”

Nina tried to think of what the possible damning information might be. “What demands did you receive after I was kidnapped?” she asked.

“None,” Suraj answered. “That’s what drove me crazy with fear and worry.”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, knowing Suraj must have gone through hell not knowing what had happened to her. If things had been reversed, she would feel the same about his safety as well.

“It’s not your fault, Nina.”

They were silent again as each tried to understand the motivation.

“The police found you passed out somewhere near a highway before taking you to a hospital. How did you end up there?” Suraj asked.

“I was trying to escape. But I don’t recall even making it anywhere close to a highway.”

“So, he shot you when you tried to escape from him?” Suraj asked in a careful manner.

“No. I was shot by another man when I was trying to escape. Gaurav must have wanted to save my life, so he probably dropped me where I would be discovered.”

“I see.”

Suraj held her hand as though he wanted to reduce the blow of the next question. “If you fell in love with that man, then why were you trying to escape him?” he asked softly.

Nina’s head throbbed as pressure built once again. She didn’t want to slip back into darkness where she didn’t have to decide whom to pick for saving their lives from one another.

She took several deep breaths.

“Because he still wanted to hurt you and eventually kill you,” she replied after a long silence.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Suraj gently squeezed her hand to comfort her. “We’ll sort out this mess soon. You just stay safe until then.”

“I don’t know, Suraj. I’m scared that either he or you might get hurt in the process.”

Suraj was quiet.

“Suraj… until I find him, I want you to stay alert. I know there’s always security around you, but please, be careful. Meantime, I’ll try my best to find him. And when I do, I’ll have him talk to you in my presence. I know we’ll have this sorted.” She took a deep breath. “I know he’s a wanted man. But I-I don’t want him to get killed when he’s found.”

“We’ll try our best not to let that happen.”

Nina nodded.

“Media and the police want a statement from you, Nina. I’ve been putting them off for a while saying you weren’t conscious.”

“I need some more time, Radha. I’ll speak to them in a few days.”

Radha nodded. “Okay, I’ll hold them off.” And then, Radha looked at Suraj. “We have a meeting with Bhansals this afternoon at two.”

“Move it to tomorrow.”

“It is okay, Suraj. I’m fine,” said Nina.

When Suraj still stood with a hesitant look on his face, Nina slowly stepped down from the bed. “Please, I insist. I-I just want to stay in the room alone.”

Suraj began shaking his head. “Nina—”

“No. It’s not to wallow in some more self-pity, I promise,” she said with a wobbly smile. “I need a proper shower. A bath maybe. And I need to catch up on my duties.”

“You don’t have to, Nina. Radha has been taking care of some of the committee work. The rest, you already hired people to take care of operations.”

“I know I don’t have to, but I want to,” she said. “Just give me one more day. And I’ll pull myself together, I promise.”

Suraj watched her closely.

Although Suraj and she did not have a conventional marriage, they still had a strong bond of friendship. Nina knew Suraj could read her to know most of her thoughts like she knew about him.

“Please, Suraj. Go. You’ll be late otherwise.”

He nodded and then kissing her on her forehead, he left with Radha.

Nina walked into the large bathroom.

Since she had returned to the Bhupati residence, she had been showering regularly with cold water. She had wanted the cold water to numb her pain. Although, most of her physical pain hadbecome numb, her other pain remained.

Setting of the water temperature to warm, she stood under the multiple jets to wash away the doubts and cobwebs in her brain.

Even though the shower didn’t succeed in doing that completely, she felt much better.

She went out of the bathroom and called her housekeeper to send in her lunch early. And while she waited for it, she pulled out her laptop and settled back on the bed and opened the browser.

She typed ‘Suicide of a student due to stress.’

She was taken aback by the number of results that came back.

Then she added the keywords ‘India’ and ‘medical college’. Still a significant number of results came back.

Then she narrowed the search by sorting them by date. She knew it happened close to a year ago.

She filtered the cases that had happened in the last one year. And then, she scrolled through them and bookmarked the ones within the neighboring states.

Nina noted down the names of the victims.

Picking up the phone, she dialed a number.

“Radha,” she said when the phone was answered. “I need your help in finding a PI.”

Radha went completely silent for a few seconds.

“For what?” Radha asked.

“I need help in putting together the list of medical students who had committed suicide recently in the past one year. I need information of all the victims and their family members.”

“I’ll try. We might have to take help from the police along with the investigators.”

Nina began to panic. “No. Don’t reach out to the police yet. Please. Just the PIs. Please, hurry. Also… can you put together a list of reporters who have reached out to us in the last one year with anything to be used a blackmail.”

There was another significant pause before Radha answered.“Okay.”

“Radha… please keep this away from the police investigation. I don’t want… this to be made public.”

“Okay.”

Although Nina had known Radha for ten years and trusted Radha implicitly, Nina knew Radha’s utmost priority was Suraj.

Radha would rather save Suraj from a possible attack or from getting badly hurt than save Gaurav who was criminal in the eyes of the world.

Although, guilt tore at her, it was one of the reasons why Nina didn’t give Suraj, Gaurav’s name. Because Suraj and Radha had no secrets between them, and Suraj would do anything that Radha asked him to.

In fact it was Radha who had insisted that Suraj marry Nina.