Akira stood there all stunned. She couldn’t believe that he was the same guy with whom she had dreamt of spending her entire life together. He was the same guy for whom she was ready to leave her life in the US and move to Singapore. She couldn’t fathom in the wildest of her dreams that he would physically hurt her like this. The pain of the silver piercing through her skin was negligible compared to the pain of disbelief that she was going through.

“You all think you can run my life? You can parade me the way you want huh? I will no more be run by your whims”, hissed Anthony and pushed her body harder on the car.

“Listen, Anthony, I think you are high on alcohol right now. You don’t want to do this. This is not who you are. Just listen to me and..”

But before Akira could pacify him any further, Anthony interrupted her and said,

“Who gave the freedom to come and go out of my life anytime the way you want? Do you think I gave you the freedom to do that? Do you think you have an upper hand because you dumped me? Huh?”

“It was me who dumped you. I dumped you, you bit**. Do you understand? Not you, Me. You get it?”, Anthony was screaming loud like a mad lunatic. Akira didn’t know what to do. The right thing to do now was to just pacify him somehow.

“Yes, I get it, Anthony. Let’s talk it out normally later ok”, said Akira as she was already feeling helpless because of the way Anthony was torturing her. She was restlessly searching for someone in the parking lot, but to her bad luck, she couldn’t see a single soul around.

—

Meanwhile, in his cabin, Raymond felt restless when he saw her leaving in such a bad condition. He was worried if she could drive back to her place properly. So he immediately picked up his jacket and called up his driver.

“I am going to take the car home by myself. You can leave now”.

Then he picked up the duplicate car keys and rushed to the basement so that he could drop her home. Given that she had left just a few seconds back, he was sure that he would be able to catch up with her at the basement. He didn’t want her to drive with such a state of mind. He was worried for her safety. He didn’t know why he was so concerned, but at that point finding her was more important than sorting out what he was feeling.

The moment he entered the Delphie parking area and saw the scene in front of him, his heart came into his mouth.

He saw Akira pushed mercilessly on a car with a guy blazing a knife on her throat, ready to slit it open any second. He didn’t need a second guess to know that it was Anthony. The blood in his veins dried up when he saw the damage that had already been done by the knife. The collar-line of her dress was slowly soaking in blood. Although the wound wasn’t deep, a little pressure here and there could prove fatal for her given that the knife was dangerously close to her jugular vein.

“Hey, you. Stop right there or I am going to call the cops”, Raymond shouted at him and rushed towards him cautiously.

Anthony shifted his attention from Akira and looked at the man calling him out and said,

“You Mr.Whosoever you are, I am warning you not to mess with our personal matter. Don’t you have any manners? Can’t you see that I am trying to have a meaningful conversation with my girlfriend?”,

Then he looked back at Akira and said,

“Tell him, baby, not to interfere”.

Akira remained silent and that enraged him even more.

“Akira can you tell him to go away. Don’t you want to live or you have a death wish huh?”, he screamed and increased the pressure on her neck.

Akira winced in pain and said,

“Raymond please go away. He won’t listen. I will try to handle him”.

Raymond’s heart was torn into pieces when he saw her wince in pain. He wanted to kick away that guy but was scared if he would really hurt her. So he started approaching very slowly.

“Oh, so you know him. Who is he? Your new boyfriend? And what did you say? You will handle me? Who do you think you are huh? You know what, you only ruined our relationship. You and your orthodox 80’s based Indian mentality. If you don’t give me the things I need then obviously I will go and take it from someone else. And yes I was making out with her. So live with that.” Anthony said and started laughing hysterically.

He was staggering as he was heavily under the influence of alcohol. So when Raymond saw that, he decided that this was the right time to push away that jerk before he could hurt her any further. He ran and pushed him away hard. Anthony fell down on the ground as he couldn’t brace the impact. He hit his head and fell unconscious instantly.

Raymond quickly pulled Akira to his side. He took out his handkerchief immediately and tried dabbing on her wound with utmost care like she was the most fragile thing on the world. Although the wound not that serious, she had bled quite a bit and he was really worried to see that. When he dabbed in the area where the cut was bit deep, she winced in pain and grabbed his arm. Seeing her like this he literally felt bad for letting her leave alone. He had no idea that such a thing would happen.

He wrapped his left arm around her waist and brought her close to inspect her wound properly. The moment he pulled her close, her heart skipped a beat. His musky smell and his touch was too much for her to handle. For a moment she just wanted to surrender herself to Raymond, so she immediately took a step back and said,

“It’s ok, I will take care of it”.

She took the handkerchief from Raymond’s hand and kept in on her wound. Before they both could think or process further what had happened, Akira let out a shrill scream.

“Raymond move”.