"Did they kill you? Or did they kill us?"
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NYRA VORA
The morning after Kray followed me home, I didn't sleep.
I stood at my window in silk and smoke, watching the city slowly rise.
Bombay was cruel. Bright on the outside, rotting within.
Kind of like the men who haunted my name.
The ghost of Kray's voice lingered in the air.
That whisper—"I'd let her take me apart."
It should've satisfied me.
But it didn't.
Because I wasn't here just to haunt them.
I wanted to end them.
And yet, something… distracted me. A presence pulling from behind the veil of old memories.
A name.
Aaric.
---
FLASHBACK – 3 YEARS AGO
The first time I met Aaric, he wasn't a billionaire in a suit.
He was a storm behind a glass of whisky, sitting at a jazz bar like he was born in the shadows.
I was still Meher back then—unhappily married, quietly breaking.
I remember leaning against the bar, trying to drown the scream Ravian had left in me that evening.
And Aaric had turned to me, his voice quiet but sure.
> "If someone makes you cry and you still go home to them, that's not love. That's slow death."
I'd laughed bitterly.
> "What do you know about love?"
> "Enough to recognize when it's starving in someone's eyes."
I never slept with Aaric.
Not back then.
But I gave him something else—my truth. My real self. My name, even.
And maybe…
Maybe I gave him a piece of my heart.
Before Ravian buried it under glass and games.
---
PRESENT – VORA MANSION
Kai was waiting by the dining table, coffee in hand, crisp and unreadable.
> "You were out late," he said without looking up.
> "So was your knife," I said, nodding at the blood-stained blade drying near the sink.
> "I handled someone who asked too many questions."
> "About me?"
> "About the woman you used to be."
I took my seat. Eyes on him.
> "Someone will come for me soon. Not from Ravian's world. From mine."
He didn't flinch.
> "Let them. We'll bury them like the rest."
But then, as he pushed a velvet envelope across the table to me, his fingers hesitated.
> "This came for you. No stamp. No delivery man. Just… placed at the gate."
I looked at it.
Velvet black. Silver seal. No name.
My stomach twisted.
> "Who touched it?" I asked.
> "No one but me."
I broke the seal.
Inside, only a card.
Handwritten. Cursive. Clean.
> "Did they kill you?"
"Or did they kill us?"
—A
My heart slammed against my ribs.
I knew that handwriting.
I knew the way he used silence as punctuation.
> "Aaric," I whispered.
Kai looked up.
> "Should I find him?"
> "No," I said quickly.
"He'll find me. If he's already watching… it means he's close."
---
LATER THAT DAY – PRIVATE GARDEN
I sat under a blood-red umbrella in the Vora estate's private garden, sipping bitter tea and replaying every memory of Aaric.
He had been my escape in words.
The only man who looked at me like I was not a victim, but a woman filled with unshed rage.
He was the one I never got to say goodbye to.
Because I died before I could say I loved him.
---
Kai returned with a folder.
> "New intel on Ravian. He's been asking around. For you."
> "He suspects?"
> "He's obsessed. Doesn't trust his own memory anymore."
> "And Kray?"
> "Drunk. Angry. Tearing his office apart. He told Ravian you remind him of her."
I smiled.
> "Let him choke on his guilt."
Kai hesitated.
> "There's more."
He handed me a photo.
Aarav.
My son.
Holding a book titled My Mom Is a Star.
My throat clenched.
> "Is he…?"
> "Still under guarded watch. But someone's been visiting him every week, bringing that same book."
He flipped another photo.
Aaric.
Walking out of Aarav's school. Hat low. Scarf up. But it was him.
> "He's watching our son," I whispered.
> "Which means," Kai said, "he's about to walk into this war."
I looked down at the card again.
> "They didn't just kill me, Kai."
"They killed the only man who ever loved me without touching me."
"If he's back…" I met his gaze. "We might have an ally. Or a second fire to feed."
---
THAT NIGHT – ROOFTOP
I couldn't sleep again.
So I stood barefoot on the rooftop, wind licking my skin.
And then—I felt him.
Not Kai.
Not Ravian.
Aaric.
He stepped out of the shadows.
Black coat. Clean-shaven. Eyes like winter.
My heart stilled.
> "You died," he said simply.
I stepped forward.
> "But not enough."
> "I waited for you."
> "I didn't mean to leave."
He stepped closer. Inches away now.
> "They think they broke you," he said.
"But I see it, Nyra. I see Meher underneath."
I touched his chest. His pulse thundered.
> "She never stopped loving you."
He took my face in his hands. Didn't kiss. Didn't rush.
> "Then let's kill the men who stole her."
---
🩸 End of Chapter 7
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