He cleared his throat to get her attention. She looked up and pulled her hand down, immediately. "What were you doing?" He asked out of curiosity diverting his attention to look at the sky.

"Nothing." She replied curtly.

"Great. Everyone is waiting downstairs while you're doing nothing." He kept the conversation cold.

"They are waiting for me?" She asked slightly surprised.

"For my wife." He uttered looking down at her, into her eyes. 

She could just stare at him. His words confused her. Wife? The one he did not accept? The one he forced into the wedlock? It still hurt. She was freezing under his coldness. He was crushing her self-worth under the "my wife" tag now. A wife, she never was. A wife, he never accepted. Stark irony.

"Now! I have no time to waste. Come, now." The dominance in his voice still made a part of her shudder. Who was he? Certainly not the man she thought she had known. He wasn't that BilluJi who made her heart melt. He was somebody else. Cold and cruel. 

She finally got to her feet, her eyes still not meeting his. "I don't want to attend any function." Her voice was distant. She said that and walked away. Shivaay stared at her. Who was she? Certainly not the Paanika who would splash a little water at him and yet warm his heart. This woman was hurling ice crystals at him. She wasn't the Paanika he trusted. Her mask had peeled off. He loathed what lay underneath. Maybe, it was the mask he had fallen for. The mask of his Paanika. He swallowed hard, he couldn't find the cure for the pain that still tormented his heart. 

Shivaay entered his room with a determined spirit. He wasn't going to let the past ruin him again. He was going to accept that it was his mistake to have a soft corner for her. She was not what he had taken her to be. He had fallen trap for a mask. Not again. His jaw muscles tightened. "Get ready and be down. Five minutes."

Anika looked up at him, her eyes throwing daggers at him. "You're no one to order me Mr.Oberoi. What will you do?" She asked walking up to him. "Boom?" She scoffed. 

"It feels like I have never known you," Shivaay uttered meeting her eyes. 

"The feeling is mutual then, Mr.Oberoi. I was restrained that day because of Saahil. Not today." Having said that she stepped back and turned around. However, in a matter of minutes, he had held her and pushed her to the wall. His hands pinned hers to the wall, caging her between his body and the wall. "Don't challenge me, Anika. You don't know how..."

"I have heard that before." Anika snarled struggling against his hold. "I am not scared. You've already broken everything. Everything is into pieces now. Pieces are harder to break. There's nothing more you can break."

Shivaay breathed heavily, pressing her hand against the wall. He stared at her. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. This... felt very wrong. Yet, she had rekindled the fire of hatred and disgust in him. 

"You will physically abuse me, will you?" She gave a sadistic smile. "Go ahead. Do what you want, as you please." She spoke, stopping her struggle. She couldn't look at those eyes that shied the sky when it came to displaying hues. She closed her eyes. He couldn't help but stare at her.

Everything was so beautiful, so surreal between them. How could she spoil it all by giving in to Daksh? Is that why she wasn't scared of being touched against her will? He steadily released her hands stepping back. With every step, he took back the throbbing pain in chest got deeper. How could she? Why did he trust her in the first place? It was his stupid fault. He turned around walking to the door. He stood beside the door momentarily, "I am waiting out." He walked away shutting the door. 

Anika opened her eyes, tears flowing down her cheeks. She dragged herself down against the wall. He brought her pain. Ever since she got closer to him, her heartache has increased in proportion. Wiping her tears she got up and picked up the saree that was placed on the bed for her. She reminded herself that she mustn't cry. One shouldn't cry over spilled milk. 

* * *

Anika walked down the stairs beside him. Although they were barely inches apart the distance between them was too much. Shivaay was lost in his thoughts, in those tormenting flashbacks. The image of Daksh and her together made his heart swell in pain. He wasn't paying attention to her or anything around him. One wedding had changed everything. It was wrong to him, it wasn't the wedding. It was her betrayal. 

Shivaay was propelled out of his reverie as he reached the foot of the staircase. He turned to her and their eyes met. Funny how he hated meeting her eyes now. The same ones, he'd do all foolery to look into just once. Anika left his side and walked towards Daadi. Daadi smiled hugging her and placed a small impression of her kajal behind her ear,  using one of her fingers. A traditional practice performed in India to keep one away from bad eyes. 

Anika tried smiling and in a hushed voice told Daadi about being hit by her menstrual cycles. Anika had no clue whether it was a superstition or had a religious background but a woman in those days of the month was refrained from taking part in religious customs. Daadi smiled at her with understanding and asked her to simply hold Shivaay's hand during all the customs. Anika nodded.

The pooja had begun. The Pandit jii came to hand Anika the flowers. She simply folded her hands before him and then held Shivaay's hand. A surprised Shivaay looked at her but didn't say a thing. 

Throughout the entire worship, Anika held onto his hand. This stung him hard. The same woman who slept with his friend for money was now holding his hand, being his better half. His ardhangini as Daadi called it. He distinctly remembered how Daadi had once explained to him the reason behind a man and wife needed to perform the pooja together. "The wife and husband, being the equal halves of one substance, are equal in every respect; therefore both should join and take equal parts in all work, religious and secular." If he remembered right, Daadi had said that it was from Rig Veda.

After the Pooja, Shivaay distanced himself from the family members. Everyone around congratulating him on the wedding. No one dared to ask about the new bride. Seemingly his family had taken care of everything. He stood alone by a tree sipping from his glass of whiskey. Anika walked up to him and stopped a reasonable distance from him. "Daadi wants you to have dinner."

"Tell her I am not hungry." He spoke without looking at her. His gaze was fixed admiring the color of his drink. "I am not your servant, go tell her yourself. I came to tell you out of respect I have for Daadi." He gazed up at her and smiled. 

"You confuse me. In a moment something, in another something else." 

Anika stared at him as he stepped closer, a weird feeling sparking in her heart. "Mr.Oberoi, you are no different," she replied. He smirked and walked past her.

Anika didn't know what to understand. She was tired of trying to figure a way. He was this maze of woods, dense, dark, thick and now even dangerous. She no longer wanted to, try to find the way to the nub of it. No. She was done. She turned and saw his retreating figure. She began walking following his trail. That's when she noticed a red dot that was moving over his right shoulder. She hurried her steps. She wasn't mistaken, the red spot certainly was moving over his shoulder and as he turned around it was on his back. Anika looked to her right and up. She spotted someone. Her eyes widened, without wasting a second she ran towards him. "Shivaay!" She screamed.

Shivaay slowed his steps when he heard her scream. His head responded by skipping a beat. Why was Anika screaming? He turned around swiftly. Anika stared in dread as the spot was now on his chest. She put all her energy to run and pushed him down. She landed over him. Shivaay stared at her eyes flummoxed. Her tears sprinkled over his face. A seizing pain stung Anika at her arm causing her to wince.

Shivaay's heartbeats were like constant maddening hammering. Her tears - they made his heart contract in pain. The pain in his own arm was forgotten. Soon she was helped to get off him. Shivaay sat up holding his arm and then looked at the grass. A bullet laid embedded there. He saw his arm that was now bleeding as the bullet had very closely touched him and escaped. He held his bleeding bicep and looked up. She had fainted and her firearm was bleeding. 

The bullet had whizzed past the two of them. Anika's right forearm was on his left bicep due to the fall. The bullet had passed them two, yet hurting them. Shivaay sighed the commotion making him crazy. The security guards were shouting and running around to catch the sniper. Shivaay passed out due to anxiety. 

Author's Note: During the Lohri track I felt that Shivaay taking a bullet for Anika was a very easy redemption opportunity for Shivaay. So hence the twist here. They both are wounded but none hurt. The difference being Anika saved Shivaay and not the other way around. 

Hope you enjoyed reading it, fo leave your views. 

Also, I would request you to leave your favorite dialogues between them when they were in the falling in love phase before the Daksh drama. It would help me to write the flashbacks or refer to those scenes easily without much waste of time in hunting for the dialogues.

-Anami!♡