Raymond laughed inside his head after hearing Katherine’s statement. He knew that probably by this time his sister had already planned the names of his future kids too. So to not to add fire to the heap of coal that she was piling, he made a cold and unfazed face and said,

“You indeed have a vivid imagination, Katherine. Probably you can try your hand at writing a fantasy fiction rather than eating my head up.”

“Don’t underestimate my skills. It will be a best seller”, Katherine said and slapped Raymond’s other arm.

“Ouch !!! wao, you have really come to take care of me or make my condition worse?”, Raymond winced and asked Katherine.

“Oh… so now this is hurting you, but a searing knife didn’t?”, Katherine chuckled.

“That was just my adrenaline rush ok. Now, will you let me rest to recover?”, Raymond said and shifted his posture a little bit to his right-hand side and saw an idol placed on his side table. During his study phase in college, he had a couple of Indian friends so he understood that this was an idol of an Indian God. He instantly knew this was Akira’s.

“So she was indeed worried for me”, Raymond thought in his head.

A smile etched on his face.

He picked up his phone, which was placed next to the idol on the side table and opened Akira’s resume to check her contact details. He found her phone number and thought of giving her a call but then realized that it would be too awkward to call her so soon, so he placed his phone back on the table and sighed.

Katherine sat on a chair next to him trying to Google out everything possible related to Akira. She was a curious kind and wanted to know everything about Akira which was available online. She knew that she wasn’t going to get any information out from her lousy brother so she only had to do all the hard work by herself. As the research work that was needed was of paramount importance, she decided to settle comfortably first.

She bent down to remove her shoes and suddenly noticed a small notebook sort of thing under Raymond’s bed.

“Looks like your girlfriend forgot to pick up her notebook in a rush”, Katherine said and picked it up from under the bed.

“First of all, she is not my girlfriend. She is just an intern at my company. And second of all, it’s bad manners to look inside someone else’s property without their consent,” Raymond said and looked at Katherine in a dismissive way as she was flipping through Akira’s notebook.

“Oh shut it up. You have already become her advocate even when she hasn’t become your girlfriend. God only will help me when she actually becomes. Probably you will walk over my body and gloat all over. Here take your girlfriend’s prized possession”, Katherine scoffed and placed the notebook next to Raymond and continued with her Google search.

There were only two people in the world who were dear to him. His sister Katherine and his niece Kate. After his mom died, they were the only family that he had. He was a man of steel, with an exterior of ice which was difficult to breach by the outside world, but he was like a dough for them.

He felt relieved when he saw his sister back being busy with her phone. He rested silently for a while and then picked up Akira’s notebook. He thought that his sister was busy online, so he started checking notebook out, but she was an evil fox who had eyes behind her head. She instantly turned back and said,

“Now what do you think you are doing right now? Practice what you preach brother, practice what you preach.”

Raymond was flipped to hear her sister acting out so much. So he placed the notebook under his pillow and slept again. But his curiosity was at peak because this wasn’t just a notebook, it was Akira’s diary.

—

Akira reached her car and sat inside. The leather seat next to her was still soiled with Raymond’s blood. She froze for a moment when she saw it and took a deep breath. Then she called up Mike and told him that she was starting for home. It was already around 12:30 am and she didn’t want her baby brother to panic any further.

Then she took out wet wipes from her bag and started cleaning up the seat and while doing so the whole episode which had happened in the office parking lot came running back to her mind and unsettled her. On one side was an ex-boyfriend who was ready to shed her blood and on the other a near stranger, who risked his life to make sure she was ok. She couldn’t understand why was she even with that guy for such a long time.

She then started her car and rushed back home.

—

Mike was still up at home and was waiting for his sister. It was her first day at work and he was all excited to know how it went. But when she told that she was handling some problem and will be late, he was genuinely worried. But he didn’t poke into it too much because he knew that when the time was right, his sister will tell him everything. So he waited patiently for her to come back.

The moment the bell rang he rushed to the door. But he got the shock of his life when he saw her.

“Jeez Akira. What happened? Are you ok? Are you hurt? Let’s go to a doctor”, Mike said and pulled her towards the car.

Akira pulled him back inside the house and said,

“I am all fine. This all isn’t my blood. I am just hurt a little bit”, Akira said and pointed at the dressing near her neck.

“What happened will you just tell me?”, Mike was getting impatient.

Akira took a deep breath and said,

“Anthony happened.”