"He had no one but himself to blame, for he'd opened himself up to it. Just a fraction at first, like a crack in a window. But the funny thing was, once you welcomed in a breeze, there was no stopping what came next. A wind, a storm, thunder, and lightning, until you could no longer reach the window to close it - and didn't really want to anyway. That's what this new darkness was. Evil in its purest form..."

- Gena Showalter

* * * *

"Mumma, please, not anymore!" Pushkar cried out, gently holding back his mother's hand from forcing another chapati down his throat, and before his mother could start her rant, he spotted Shravan, his very personal savior, walking in a rash.

"Bhaiya!" He called him out as soon as he noticed his brother climbing the stairs to his room without looking at their way.

"Bhaiya!" He yelled out loud once again when his brother didn't stop nor did he looked back before slamming his room's door with a bang.

"What happened to him?" He asked his mother with a frown, confused.

"How would I know?!" Kamini said with a shrug, but as soon as he looked away, her eyes narrowed, her sharp brain trying to understand what was happening.

Before he could make his way to his bother's room, the main door opened once again in a rash manner and walked in his bade papa who's disheveled appearance shocked him. With wrinkled clothes, eyes wide open in panic, he was looking around in agitation as he kept yelling his son's name.

"Sir, Bhaiya is up in his room," Pushkar said, alarmed and confused.

'What happened?' He asked himself.

How come his Shravan Bhaiya - the most obedient son ever - wasn't answering his father's call? Pushkar had seen how the son in him would react as soon as he heard his father calling him, countless times he had seen Shravan abandoning everything he had been doing to run to respond to his father's calls even if they were coming from another part of the house. Countless times he had mocked his brother that he may be afraid of his Sir, but it was Shravan who was on duty day and night, only to be told that their motivations were different, that he feared Ramnaath Malhotra while his brother admired and loved his father like no one else.

"He didn't say anything to you, did he?" Ramnaath asked him even though, as soon as he had heard his answer, he had started to walk towards the stairs.

And before Pushkar could respond to him, Ramnaath started to climb the stairs, ignoring him. Without looking back, Ramnaath walked into his son's room and closed the door behind him.

"Shravan!" He called out his son as soon as he spotted him sitting on his bed with his face hidden behind his hands.

As soon he heard his father calling him out, Shravan looked up at him with a blank expression. His body had answered the call automatically, out of habit, but he actually had nothing to offer to the man standing in front of him. As he kept looking up at him, he realized how worthless his love and loyalty had been to whom he had thought as his God.

Slowly, the realization was sinking in, he had been nothing but a blind follower, worshiping the ground his father walked on, doing whatever he was asked, ready to mold his life into the shape his father approved of. And both he and the man standing in front of him were so used to all of that, that they had taken their bond for granted, thinking of it as an unbreakable and unconditional; he had thought his father deserved the blind trust he had in him, ignoring all his flaws and overlooking his shortcomings while Ramnaath Malhotra had taken it for granted, arrogant and reckless it had made him. So busy Ramnnath Malhotra had been playing his God that he had become callous, had been ignoring the pain and destruction his actions were causing in his son's life...

'Why? Why does every relationship have to be so unsatisfying one-sided for me?' He thought as he looked the man standing in front of him who kept on talking, kept on saying something, soundlessly because he could hear nothing. The white noise ringing in his ears had made him deaf to the words he saw coming out of his father's mouth.

When Shravan kept looking back at him with a blank expression, Ramnaath suddenly fell on his knees in front of his son, slowly taking hold of one of his hands in his and pleaded him once again.

"Please, Shravan, don't leave. Just give me a chance to mend the mistake I have made," he begged.

There was no one else Ramnaath would beg or plead to - no matter what - but to his son. He was the father yet he felt no humiliation or shame in doing so. His son was too precious to him to let his pride get the best of him once again because never before the importance of his son in life has been questioned as it was being now.

A son who's light brown eyes had had so much admiration and respect for him when they had looked up at him, those same eyes were now looking down at him with nothing. The emptiness in those eyes was haunting as they looked back at him without any empathy.

"That's not needed. You don't need to do anything. And don't worry about me. With time I will learn to forgive and forget, I will find it in me to overlook everything that happened. If you are afraid you are going to lose me, you don't need to," he said in a firm tone, his face epitome of calmness.

Confused, Ramnaath looked at his son, the pain and grief he had witnessed last night were missing, no longer he looked like his son who had cried in front of him, in his arms, the young man sitting in front of him was someone else. As he kept looking at him, Ramnaath noticed he wasn't acting like the Shravan he knew. His son had expressive eyes that would give away his secrets, whatever he was feeling, but the eyes of the young man sitting in front of him were dark, flat, and callous. Empty...

"I never meant to hurt you, Shravan. I can not afford to lose you!" He pleaded.

"I had promised you last night, hadn't I? You will never lose me. Who do I have apart from you?" He reassured his father in a very monotonous voice.

"Aap ne chora hi kise hai mere pass? You made sure that I would have no one but you," he whispered with a sardonic smirk, and just a for a second, a glimpse of life and pain could be seen in his eyes before they became dull once again, dead and empty.

"Shravan, that's not true!" Ramnaath said, shaking his head, before pleading his son to understand his motives; "Whatever I had done was only for your good. Believe me!" he cried out.

Continuing as his father had never said anything, Shravan kept looking down at him with his face devoid of expression, without blinking;

"So, Mr Ramnaath Malhotra, all I ask from you now is for you to give me enough space to get over it because looking at you, being around you does nothing but remind me of everything that has gone wrong. And all I want is to forget each and everything until I have no memory left, no a single memory of any one of you," he said in a very detached manner.

"Don't say that, Shravan...Forgive me!" Ramnaath pleaded, hurt and wounded.

"Oh, I am. For once, I actually want to forget and forgive because I am so tired of holding grudges no one cares about. Why hold grudges when no one even gives a damn," he whispered with a sigh and closed his tired eyes, before opening them to look down at the man sitting on his knees in front of him.

"If it's my forgiveness that you want, then I forgive you, Mr Ramnaath Malhotra, and in return, all I ask you is to leave me alone," he said, dispassionately.

"Shravan, don't go..." Ramnaath pleaded.

"Now!" He demanded with a straight face, slowly inclining his head towards the door.

When he made no move, he saw Shravan sighing out loud before standing up to walk towards the door and hold it open for him. Suddenly grief-stricken Ramnaath closed his eyes, shaking his head before letting out a shuddering sigh, he stood up and walked out of his son's room.

As soon as he had walked out of the door, with a last look at him, the door closed on his face despite him standing in front of it, praying his son would say something more, but he didn't. And as Ramnaath stood there, the unmistakable sound of the door locking up was heard and that made him feel as if all the doors to reach his son were closed with it.

He knew the son he had raised had his blood running through his veins and despite being a kindhearted and compassionate person by nature, Shravan was incapable of forgiving and forgetting as he himself was...

He would never be forgiven, nor his deeds would be forgotten...

Unless he proves his innocence...

* * *

"Bhaiya, please, open the door. Please, tell me what happened!" Pushkar pleaded as he kept knocking the door of his cousin's room, again and again.

It was his third attempt, at least once every member of the family had knocked down the door of Shravan's room with the same request but no response has come from the other side. Something was wrong, anyone could say it, but no one could tell what had happened or what was happening...

Pushkar had come back home late last night only to get to know that Suman's marriage didn't happen. He had been confused ever since then even though there was a big part of him who was relieved because that meant his brother and Suman now would have another chance and time to realize their feelings for each other...

He had been waiting to talk to Shravan, but when he had woken up in the morning, he had gotten to know that his Bhaiya was not home, and when Shravan had come back, he had hurriedly climbed the stairs - ignoring him as he kept calling out his name. And after the son and father duo had finished their talk, the door of his Bhaiya's room was locked by him as soon as Ramnaath had walked out from the room.

Shell-shocked, with his eyes wide open, Pushkar had stood in the middle of the hall and had gasped at what was happening in front of him. If it wasn't for Lala ji who had dragged a very agitated and depressed Ramnaath down and took control of the situation, he was sure the old man would have been standing in front of his son's room until the room was once again open for him to walk in.

Even after a lot of coaxing from Lala ji's side, Ramnaath still not had been able to say anything other than a few words which made no sense to any of them apart from Lala ji. After pacing from one end of the hall to the other, his Sir had walked away without saying anything other than ordering everyone to make sure Shravan didn't leave Malhotra mansion.

"Pushkar," suddenly someone called him out, snapping him out of his thoughts, and when he looked down, he saw Suman hurriedly climbing up the stairs.

"Is he still in there?" She asked him as soon as came to stand by his side.

"Yes he has been in there ever since he came back," Pushkar answered, worried.

"Good. Do you have his room's spare keys?" She asked in a whisper.

"Kiya? Sumo, Shravan Bhaiya is already upset, we can't go into his room without his permission," he said as tried to reason with her.

"We aren't going in, only I am," she clarified before demanding him the keys and telling him to trust her.

Seeing no other way to deal with his stubborn Bhaiya and his equally stubborn best friend, he gave in and did as she asked. After finding the keys with the help of Bahadur, he handed her it with the hope that she would be able to get to his Bhaiya, help him out.

With a sigh, Suman took the keys and opened the door of Shravan's room before locking it up once again and taking possession of both sets of keys as soon as she entered. She sighed and turned back only to run into the wall standing in front of her. Looking up, she found Shravan glaring down at her.

"What are you trying to do, Suman?" He demanded with a very stern tone, scowling down at her

"What does it look like I am doing?" She asked with a shrug, forcing herself to not back into the door frame behind her as he moved in close, towering over her.

"Give back the keys and get out!" Shravan snapped at her.

"No," she said before pushing him away and running all around the room as she tried to find ways to hide the keys.

"Not again, Suman," he yelled, and suddenly the numbness he had been feeling was replaced by irritation.

He sighed in frustration when she continued to ignore his yellings, before chasing her around the room with the intention to snatch the keys from her and throw her out of his room. And as soon as he was close to that, she made her way to the bathroom and before he could stop her, she threw the keys in the commode while he could only gasp, looking at her with his eyes wide open.

Snapping back from his shock as she moved past him with a smug smirk on her face, Shravan clenched his hands into fists and subjected her with the most ferocious glare of his.

"Do you even understand what you have done, Suman Tiwari?" He growled, grinding his teeth together.

"What I should have done a long time ago," she responded calmly before stepping into the room and sitting on his bed as she dumped her bag on the floor near the bed.

Gaping at her calm behavior, he wondered what was going on her mind and when she looked up at him with determination shining in her eyes, he let out a sigh and moved to sit next to her on the bed.

"You are going to accomplish nothing by doing whatever you are planning to do!" He told her as he stared at the wall in front of them.

"Don't you think that you are being over-confident? You don't even know what I plan to do or say," she said and when he looked at her, she gave him a smile that looked forced.

"Don't waste our time, Suman, I have to complete my packing and I am sure you too have some work to do. So, leave!" He calmly told her before standing up and opening the drawer of the writing-table to grab the duplicate keys. Turning around, he looked at her with a smirk as he showed her the keys.

"What the hell?" She yelled in exasperation when she saw the keys in his hands.

"When you had locked me in the bathroom, the first thing I had done was to make duplicate keys. You can't be trusted!" He said with a small smile on his lips that didn't reach his eyes.

"Prevention is better than the cure!" He smugly said out loud, before letting out a bitter laugh and shake his head when he realized what he had said.

'Prevention is better than the cure', the philosophy he had thought he had applied on every expect of his life when it came to letting anyone in his life, but every rule of his had an exception, didn't they? He trusted no one but his father and he took prevention, was cautious around everyone but her...

As he kept looking at her, he realized how any prevention, hesitation, or caution from his side couldn't have stopped him from falling in love with the girl sitting in front of him, again and again. Exhaling roughly, he leaned back to the wall near the table as a striking realization hit him; he had never been able to run away from her, could never fall out of love with her...

Closing his eyes, he realized that his love for her was an incurable sickness that no amount of medicines, prayers, or caution could cure him, that no amount of time, distant, or wrongdoings would make him fall out of love with her. A love which was unrequited, unneeded, and one-sided...

A love which would be never mutual, never wanted, would be never accepted by her...

"Why can't you understand that the best thing I can do right now is to go back, to leave?" He asked her with a shuddering sigh, grief-stricken.

"Because I have never been able to tell you how much you mean to me, Shravan. When you weren't here, I had come up with thousand ways to tell you that how important you are to me, but when you came back, I was so happy that I forgot everything because I thought my telling you any of that wasn't necessary," she whispered with an awkward shrug, as always uncomfortable with the confession of her vulnerability.

"I thought you are Shravan, you must already know, it doesn't matter if I say it or not, you should already know. But I was wrong, I should have told you, I should have told you all the things I had been planning to tell you from the past decade," she whispered with regret shining in her eyes.

"And I want to do it now. I want to tell you everything you want to know, I will not hold back, I promise!"She said with sincerity as she looked up at him.

"It's not needed, Suman!" He told her with a sigh as he came to sit near her once again.

"Yes, it is. My pushing you away has caused you so much hurt, I realize it and I..." Before she could finish her sentence, he interrupted her;

"And now you want to compensate? It's your attempt to mend your mistake, isn't it?" He completed her sentence and when she nodded, he let out a sigh.

"It's not needed, Suman. I don't want a compensation nor I want to force your hand into giving in to my demands. You don't need to!" He told her in a firm tone.

"But I have hurt you, we all have hurt you, so why won't you let us mend the situation?" She asked him confused and irritated.

"Yes, you have. I got very hurt, I was so angry, but no longer I am going to let you all define me. No more, Suman Tiwari, Nirmala Ahuja, and Ramnaath Malhotra are going to decide what or who I shall be. Therefore, no longer the pain any of you have caused me mean anything. And I can't tell you the peace that thought brings to me, Suman Tiwari, that no longer I have to spend the rest of my life proving any of you my hatred, loyalty or love," he said in a tone devoid of any emotion.

"What happened to you, Shravan?" She asked before standing up and coming to stand in front of him, she kept looking at him with a frown and eyes full of tears.

"Yesterday night made everything clear, Sumo, I got to know everything. I had given myself too much importance - aur kafi khush-fehem bhi tha, but now I see the truth, so clearly, I am not important enough for anyone of you. And I have finally realized that I have to accept it, and stop crying over it, stop being angry at any of you for that. I am just collateral damage in the battle of egos between my parents and for you...Well, that never has been important," he whispered in a very flat tone as he stared at the wall behind her with an expressionless face.

As she kept looking at him, tears of despair choked her throat, before closing her eyes, she slowly leaned towards him and rested her forehead on his shoulder, hiding her face in the side of his neck as a desolate silence evolved them. Her mind was mutilated by the fact that she got no solution to the challenges pillared up between them. She felt trapped and suffocated by the unbreakable walls around him. The more she thought about it, more gnarly, dark and cold the world around them appeared to her and she kept questioning herself on how to find a way to reach him?

As he felt her tears soaking the side of his neck, their warmth on his skin slowly melted away the coldness settled upon his heart before being absorbed into his skin, infusing in his system to fight off the numbness he had been feeling ever since he had walked out of his room after confronting his father.

"Why are you hurting yourself, Sumo? Am I not enough to hurt you that you too have started to hurt yourself?" He whispered as he rested his head on hers.

"It feels like you are so far away from me, Shravan. So far away that I can't even ask you anything, can't demand something from you - koi haq bhi nahi jata sakti!" She whispered as she cried silently, her voice trembling as her shoulders shook violently.

"I had done all of that, Sumo, haq bhi jataya tha tum pe - I had asked you, demanded you to tell me what has happened that you are pushing me away, but what did you do? You pushed me away once again, walked out as if I never ever meant anything to you. As if I am not even important enough for you to even give an explanation, not even worthy of being answered, not even worthy of a petty excuse," he whispered after exhaling roughly.

"I had promised Ramnaath Uncle, Shravan, I had promised him that I will stay away from you. I had to do that. I had to do all of that," she reminded him as she leaned back to look up at him.

"Am I only my father's son to you, Suman Tiwari? Is that only how you see me? Is that only what I am to you? Your Ramnaath uncle's son?" He asked with the previous harshness back in his voice.

She saw the transformation before her eyes; his body which seconds before had let her lean on it was stiff, backing away to create distance between them, his face which had started to display his hidden feelings were once again hard and expressionless, the coldness of his heart which had melted by her pain was back once again, his eyes once again guarded as they glared at her.

"That's not what I meant, Shravan. I..." She was interrupted by him before she could complete it.

"Then what? What do you mean by you had to do as he asked?" He asked her in a hard tone.

"I know how important your father is to you, Shravan, how could have I?" She asked, explaining to him the situation she had been in.

"His importance in my life doesn't mean that you had no importance for me," he snapped at her before exhaling roughly in exasperation.

"You both have your own place in my life, he is my father and you are..." He stopped before sighing and continuing, "You are you, Sumo, you both have different places in my life, I don't understand how can my father feel threatened by you and how can you let him decide for us," he yelled, pulling his hair out in exasperation as blind rage evolved itself around him.

"I didn't..." she whispered with her eyes wide open, frightened by his sudden display of aggression.

"You didn't? Then what was last month all about, Suman Tiwari? And don't you dare to tell me you have done it for Pushkar and Preeti, their marriage would have happened anyway because they were willing to fight for each other, for their love for each other. There was no need for your greatness and, Suman, even if you had not 'sacrificed' us they would have found their way back to each other," he snapped at her as he glared down at her.

"I can't believe you - the Sumo, the Suman Tiwari - had let Ramnaath Malhotra manipulate you. It's amazing how much power he has over you women, really!" He said before sardonically smirked at her as he shook his head as continued; "you too are like Nirmala Ahuja, Suman, I cease to exist for you too, in the same way, I cease to exist for her, only because Ramnaath Malhotra wanted it that way," he said before letting out an ironic laugh as tears slowly slipped his eyes.

"Why is that, Sumo, that no matter what I do, whatever I become, whatever I say, I have no importance, for neither of you, because after all, the words of Ramnaath Malhotra are - must be obeyed by you both," he whispered as his voice trembled.

"You and my mother, you both think of yourself as 'independent' women, don't you? Yet you do everything he wants. How come you never fight back? Why do you obey his demands? How did that happen, Suman Tiwari?" He asked her.

She had no answer, not even a word to say in her defense. How could she justify her actions with the excuse of being suddenly cornered by the man she had always thought of as father because he was his father. How could she tell him she was overwhelmed by the sudden hate she had seen in his father's eyes? How could she tell him too much had been happening in her life and everything else, her family, her sister, her mother's name took priority over him? How could she admit before him that she had once again started to take his presence in her life for granted?

"You don't have an answer, Suman Tiwari?" He asked her when she just kept looking at him without uttering a word.

"Well, lucky for you, I know the answer. It's because letting go of me has always been convenient to you both, leaving me behind has always been easier than staying back. Both of you poor women couldn't fight the big bad man, isn't it?" He asked mockingly.

"So, let me tell you, Suman Tiwari, that is the reason why everything stops now. I refuse to continue with the never-ending cycle. I refuse to hurt you and refuse to let any of you hurt me," he told her in a flat tone.

"Last night you had told me that 'You and me, we are done', right? I hadn't understood the reason, those few words of yours had broken me from inside out, but now I understand why you had said those words and I agree, you and me, we are actually done!" He said in a tone that left no room for any doubt before nodding at her with finality.

"Are you back on the revenge game of yours? I told you, I made a mistake, Shravan. Don't punish me by leaving, please. Choose any other punishment, anything but not this, please!" She pleaded with him as the fear of losing him gripped her heart in its fist before squeezing it, leaving her lifeless.

"Please, Shravan, don't leave. You had promised me that you will always stay by my side, remember? How can you break your own promise?" She reminded him as she held his hand between hers in a tight grip.

"Never before you have broken a promise you made to me, then why now?" She asked him as she cried out loud, her shoulder trembling violently.

"It's not about you, Suman, nor it is a punishment, I already told you that," he whispered, grief-stricken as he looked at her. Shaking his head before letting out a shuddering sigh.

Brick by brick, her pain and constant pleading were breaking the wall of numbness around him. His decision of leaving was rational, clear and he wanted to follow it, but her tears were clouding that clarity, her words confusing him with their warmth, her touch reminding him of the desperation he had felt just the night before at the thought of losing her for good. She looked like the mirror image of what he must have looked last night...

He had no control over it, easing her pain has been an instinct of his for as long as he remembered, a tendency he couldn't help. That always happened between them, no matter how bad things were, her pain has always been a liability, his Achilles heel. And it worked it's magic on him even now, slowly melting his resolve, cause confusion and created doubts within his brain...

"I am just tired of dealing with everything. Ever since I came back, my life has been transformed into a drama I never wanted it to be. It has limited me to be a dutiful son, to be loyal to him, to do as he asks while trying to not get in the way of Chachi's brilliant plans for her sons and my mother coming back, and then there is you..." He whispered before sighing out loud.

"What about me?" She asked, with a frown, sniffing as she wiped away her tears with the back of her hand as with the other hand, she tightly held his cold hand.

"You cause so much confusion in my life, Suman. So many insecurities and so many uncertainties. So many questions I would have no answer of. I tried to run away when I had first realized that I am still standing where I had been standing when I was sixteen," he whispered as he looked at her, the sight of her crying for him making him let his guards down, revealing secrets he thought she knew nothing off.

"But I could not, because, Suman Tiwari, you had always been the mystery that fascinated me the most but you also are the most difficult Rubik's Cube, the one I would never be able to solve. And I am tired of trying, so give up..." He whispered before letting out a shuddering sigh.

There were so many faces of Suman Tiwari that he could never to associate them as one. There was his childhood best friend and then there was his adult best friend, both had some trait in common, both took him for granted, both were self-centered, both were self-absorbed and gave others priority over him, both never gave a thought to his pain...

But then there had been times when both had let him lean on them, become his support system whenever he had crumbled down by the emotional baggage he had been carrying around since forever...

The teen Sumo never made fun of him for crying over his parents' constant fights, whenever his fragile heart was broken by the words said by any of his parents, she had healed him with her strength. Sometimes by coaxing him with her wise words and sometimes by distracting him with her insignificant problems, she had always made him see beyond the breaking marriage of his parents. And when he had come back, the adult Suman had done the same, she became his support system, the best friend he missed, the ally he needed, the security he craved...

For him, in any and every aspect of her, Suman Tiwari had been his home. And despite everything, there was one thing in common with the past and present her, be it self-centered her and the selfless her, Suman Tiwari had a hold over him that no one ever had. By falling in love with her, again and again, he had handed her complete power over him to mold his life into good or to destroy him completely...

But she only ever broke him, little by little, and then whenever he would lose hope, she would storm back into his life, pick up every fragment of his broken self, fuse them back together before healing him with the warmth of her care...

As he stared at her, he found determination shining in her eyes, a promise to fight back for him, the stubborn set of her jaw and the tight grip of her hand on his, everything about her told him to give in to her pleadings, to not fight back...

But should he trust her after she had broken it, again and again? Should he once again risk his heart, soul, and sanity for her? Did he want to give her a chance?

Would he?

* * * * *

A/N:- Here it is, the new chapter... Sorry for the late update, that happened because, 'life'...*sigh*

I hope you all like the chapter, leave a comment or two to let me know if it was worth the wait, and if you cried or got emotional, let me know your thoughts and feelings... :)

Thank you for your patience, support, and encouragement. Thank you for the sweet and kind comments... :)

Thank you! :)

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