"Are you alright?" Ramit asked Geetha soon after they were left to themselves.

"I don't know." She had no intention to speak to him. If he did not insist on living together, he'd have still been working at Chimera without a worry. Perhaps he would not have been aiming so high with Hidden and he wouldn't have dragged her into danger. She was not oblivious to his thoughts all this time. But she just didn't know how to confront him, because she also had doubts about how big his dreams were for his company. After all, how much weight did one person have in another's life?

"I really hate you very much, really. I should have searched a little before marrying you. I could have found someone with similar wants. I'd have had a peaceful life then."

He decided not to take her words seriously, although they cut deep into his heart. He moved to her and hugged her. "If this didn't happen we would be alright. We were getting along well, weren't we?"

"I don't know about that, but I don't like any of this, really."

"Why?" This was yet another chance for him to know the reason.

"I don't know! You tell me, why should I live with you? I'm fine by myself."

"Won't you feel lonely?"

"Instead, I feel disturbed and tired when I'm with you!"

After some silence, he said, "Don't worry, everything will be over soon."

She looked away from him. When he saw her crying, he released her without saying anything.

It was time to wake up and face reality. They were never meant to be. If she was in so much discomfort everyday, it was better to part. He tried to understand her and tried everything to fit into her puzzle and change her a little to give their bond some hope. He failed miserably. She clearly hated his company so, so much. She asked him why she should live with him. Well, she shouldn't. He could have said that it was because he loved her. But he had said so enough times. That reason was not enough for her. Those words never carried any weight for her, so why should he keep saying them? His thoughts became clearer and clearer. After this ordeal, they are over.

"Say. Should I apologise and say Hidden fabricated their information?" Ramit asked her, still pining for her affection one last time.

She stayed silent.

Just when Ramit stood up to knock on the door, the guy barged into the room and approached Geetha, startling her.

She tried to move away from him, but there was a wall.

Alarmed, Ramit shouted, "What are you doing?" He caught the guy's waist, trying to keep him from moving any further.

"You!" The guy elbowed his shoulder and flung him away. The pain was sharp but the fear in his heart was much greater. Fear for his wife rather than for himself. He willed himself to run to her before the mad guy did anything.

The moment the guy's raised hand flew down to punch her, he stood between the two, taking the punch to the same shoulder that had been elbowed.

"You bitch! When did you send messages to that Papa?" He looked at Ramit, "Isn't he in America? How's he going to save you, eh?"

Ramit's eyes widened at the accusation. His SOS was sent but it did not get erased and they were caught. "Look, you kidnapped us right in front of the police."

"I just want to kill that bitch. Acting so obedient, do you think I'm an idiot?"

Geetha was stunned. She was still shivering. She hugged herself looking at Ramit's back. He was fighting that guy, trying to stop him from doing anything to her.

"It's my phone and I'm the one who sent it!" he said after he took another punch and fell to the side, losing his balance.

"I did!" he asserted. His shoulder was excruciating.

"Oh yeah, very well. Since you want to protect her so much, I'll just beat you up and then see what I should do with her."

"Look, she's innocent. Your problem is with me. Give me my phone, I'll tell my staff to issue an apology for you."

"Forget about it!"

"Why? It isn't midnight yet. Didn't you give me that deadline?"

"Just now, my boss changed her decision. The share value of her company crashed too steeply to recover. She said your apology won't be able to do anything."

"Then why are we still here?"

"Why else? She wants revenge." The guy gave them a sick smile.

"Do you think she'll pay you for all this after losing so much?" Ramit tried his best to divert the guy's thoughts.

"Why do you care about that? Tell me which one wants to see the other die? I guess you don't want to see her die at all. Why don't I kill you first?

"But you should be the one who should feel the loss that my boss felt."

Seeing his movements, Ramit screamed, "No!"

The sick guy pulled Geetha up holding her hair. Once she stood up, he slapped her across the face. She didn't say anything and stared on, with deep fear in her heart. Ramit was trying to hold him back as much as he could.

"Bitch! Why the hell are you giving me that look!"

When he was going to slap the other side of her face, Ramit punched him in the face. Angered, he turned his full attention to Ramit.

"Good then. You die first!"

He kneed Ramit in the stomach and when Ramit crouched down, he noticed how his victim did not put any weight on his right hand. He hit him in the same spot on the shoulder as before.

"Ah!" The pain was so sharp, Ramit could not hold in his scream.

Lying on the ground, he said holding the guy's leg, still trying to keep him away from her, "It was me that spoiled your boss's company. She has nothing to do with it."

The guy kicked away him with a lot of force.

He retrieved a gun and pointed it at Geetha, who had slumped down to the ground by then.

"Geetha!" Ramit called, no longer having the strength or energy to step in and shield her.

She was too much in fear to register what he was saying. All that had her attention were the beatings and punches that replayed in her mind and a gun that looked into her eyes.

"Geetha!"

"Geetha! Come here! Geetha, fast!"

"Get behind me!"

She could not take her eyes away from the man or the gun he held. The moment she did not look at it could turn into the last moment she looked at anything.

Still, her legs moved towards the voice that called out.

That voice was like the rope rescuing from the abyss.

After two steps, the guy shouted, "Stay right there!" But she was too focused on her task at hand to register his words.

When she took another step, Ramit could reach her hand. He caught her arm and pulled her behind him.

"See her die!" The guy shot at them but the lady still escaped at the last moment. She was right in his aim but her man pushed himself into his aim, standing up, with only the support of his left hand.

The bullet pierced through the left part of Ramit's abdomen.

Just then another gunshot sounded from afar. It went through the guy's head before he shot another bullet at them.

When the guy's body fell limp on the ground, Geetha snuggled towards Ramit, who was unconscious. She felt an unusual sensation in her stomach. The slight pain brought her back to reality. She took a few deep breaths and calmed herself.

"Ramit, Ramit?" she called and tapped on his face.

When he did not respond she went out of that room and found her mobile. With shivering hands she dialled the emergency services and requested an ambulance.

They asked for her location. She said she did not know. She said it was very urgent. She told them there was a gunshot in the stomach as she tried to hold up his head. It was an instruction from the other side in the meantime. They asked her to tie a cloth around to control the bleeding. The door to the room was opened, but she did not want to take a step away from him in search of a cloth. She removed his shirt and found a cleaner part on the inside. She put it to the wound and tied it around his waist.

Then they asked her to keep him conscious.

"Ramit!" She called him louder this time. But still, she failed.

Soon, the police barged in. The embassy officer was also with them. "Oh my God!" It was shocking to see a person who was fine just two hours ago be in such a condition. He asked her, "What about you? Are you okay?"

Geetha nodded with tears in her eyes.

"The ambulance is here," someone said. They soon lifted Ramit and rushed to the hospital. She sat by him. She soon fell asleep due to mental exhaustion.

∼•∽

Ramit woke up after a week. His haze cleared after a few minutes. "Ramit."

It was his father. "Papa."

"Don't move too much." When he received his son's SOS in the grave hours, he did not delay calling up the embassy. They told him they were already on the case. Yet, his son had to suffer a hole through his body. He sighed and called for the doctor.

Soon a doctor came and did some check ups. After he left Ramit asked, "Papa, Geetha... How is she?"

"Calm, calm, calm. She's all good. Nothing happened to her." He handed him some water.

"That's good."

"But she was very scared. So the doctor asked her to take a good rest since she's pregnant."

Ramit fell silent. There was still a baby between them. What should he do with it? For a moment he stopped and shook his head. He had to think through everything properly. Then he had another thought. There was no need to think so much.

"Papa." His father stood up to come near him.

"Sit... I want to talk to you."

"Say."

"I want to get a divorce."

∼•∽

The elder was stunned. He was quite angry about his son's injuries and he put some blame on his daughter-in-law. Every injury his son had was a result of him protecting her. And now his son said something that did not match the situation at all.

"Then why did you get yourself injured so much for her sake? Geetha said you were protecting her."

"I did not. That guy thought she sent you the SOS but I was the one who sent it. It felt bad to let a woman take beatings in my stead." He may have done it to save her, but he also knew it was not rightful for her to suffer.

"Whatever. Why do you want a divorce?"

"We don't love each other anymore." She told him she was living her second life. At some point after she told him that, he caught that quote on his phone. He might have scrolled past it if she did not tell him about it. It read, 'You start living your second life when you realise you only have one.' It made little sense to him at that time. He laughed at himself. He had to literally be put in the grip of death to finally understand it. He also had only one life, like her. And he realised it now. This life, he vowed not to let himself be walked all over by her. He did enough. He tried a lot. He wanted none of that anymore.

His father narrowed his eyes on him. "Really? But she's asking your mom every hour to come here to see you. She's making your mom angry not staying still."

Ramit paused. It was hard to believe. "She is just acting out of guilt."

His father hit him on the head, albeit softly. "Shut up and sleep. You are not thinking properly." He threw an ear and listened to his son's nonsense for the sake of listening.

"Call her and ask her to come over. I should talk to her."

"What will you talk with her? Same nonsense? Both of you just came out of a life and death situation. If anything, you should celebrate. I already called your mom. They'll come anyway. Don't say any nonsense. She's pregnant."

"She hates me."

"Sleep." He dismissed his son's words and went out of the room.

∼•∽