A/N:

Anonymous: "Your stories are trash. Its like you can't even write. Even the story plots you write are terrible, I bet you have fake followers on Instagram because I bet you don't even have any readers. The only reason I'm on here is because I like reading Bollywood stories and when I clicked on yours I instantly hurled. What are you? 12 years old? You could get banned." 7/5/16

I had the decency to not react, and simply deleted that review.. Why? Because chances were, if I wrote a big angry response, this person probably wouldn't see it. And then:

"Good job, you deleted my review on your terrible story. Thought I might see some improvement from you. Guess not, coward." 7/10/16

"I believe that this is probably going to be the third time you delete my review. Stop being a coward and just work on one story at a time, when you get a flame you don't delete it, you learn from it."

Ok, first of all, thank you so much for calling me a coward, when you were the one who didn't even bother leaving a name. Now, the fake followers on Instagram comment just made me laugh. I am a 13 year-old girl, which means I have a life and friends. I love how you think all my followers must be my readers.. Second of all "bet you don't even have any readers". As I'm writing this, this story has hit 35,204 views.. So yeah, no readers. The next comment "clicked on yours I instantly hurled." You reviewed the 25th chapter. That means you read the entire story.. You couldn't possibly have instantly hurled, otherwise you wouldn't have read the entire thing. Actually, since I'm 13, I can't get banned. I don't write M stories, so I get off scot-free, but thanks for the advice. Your second review really made me laugh. The fact that you actually checked back on my story, and saw that I deleted your review? Wow, so much for hating my writing. Now onto my writing. Yes, I'm aware that I have a lot of room to improve, but I don't claim to be the best writer in the world, do I? I have good reviewers, who give me proper criticism and instead of telling me what I did wrong, you just called my stories "trash" and my plots "terrible". And wtf does "when you get a flame you don't delete it, you learn from it" even mean? Yeah if you had given me advice or some way to improve my writing, I never would have deleted your reviews. I'll have you know that one of my poems recently made it into an anthology published by the Library of Poetry. And you obviously don't hate my writing that much, or you never would have said "thought I might see some improvement from you." So yeah I deleted your reviews.. Because I don't appreciate hate without reason, and I don't want your rude comments to bother me. And I never asked you to read my story, so you can't insult me for something that you chose to do. Now unless you have proper criticism, please quit bothering me and stop reading my stories if they are such "trash". And stop acting like you know me. "Work on one story at a time." If my writing is so "terrible" you shouldn't be reading it. If you have criticism, I would appreciate that, not insults

Onto the chapter:

January 11, 2017: Hospital

Shanaya shivered as she sat in the emergency room, her checkup recently completed. Before her eyes, memories of recent events incessantly appeared.

The knife sliding through Abhi as though he were pliable. His blood staining her dress. Her cry of pain.

She still remembered the way she yanked the knife out of Abhi, turning it on Anjali. The way she murdered her. The way she slit Anjali's throat.

She was shaken by the doctor, who had come running hearing her sobs.

"We need to get you to a psychiatrist." She adamantly shook her head, feeling the tears fall off of her cheeks.

"Abhi," she whispered, her voice raw. "I need to see Abhi."

She could see pity in the doctor's face. She didn't want pity, nor sympathy. She didn't want to feel, nor did she want anyone feeling for her. She just wanted Abhi. Wanted him next to her, wanted his arms around her.

She wanted him to tell her everything was okay, that they were going to be fine. She wanted him to tell her it had all been a dream. That he wasn't in surgery right now, fighting for his life, and that she wasn't a murderer.

No one else thought she was a murderer. They all said it was self-defense. The judge, who had seen them immediately, agreed, and she was let off without any consequences. They hadn't factored in her conscience.

Her conscience, which was constantly berating her, convincing her she had done wrong. Telling her she had murdered an innocent, and didn't deserve any of what she had. And she believed it.

May 1, 2017: Shanaya and Abhi's Mansion

Shanaya got up, brushing off Abhi's hand as he reached out to her. She had taken but two steps when she felt her arm being restrained, and Abhi slowly dragged her back towards him. She offered no assistance, but still did not resist.

"You decided to leave on your birthday and come back on Rohan's?" Her voice sounded choked up, as if she hadn't used it in a while.

He froze at her words, realizing how much of an effect his date of departure must have had on her. Coupled with the date he had returned, he was surprised she was allowing him to even touch her at the moment, let alone wrap his arms around her and hold her close.

He took a deep breath, unsure of what to say, his mind blanking. "I love you." He spouted out the only thing that came to mind, the only emotion he was coherently feeling.

"So you thought it was a good idea to just leave." She curtly responded, gaining back some of her famed confidence. She turned to him. "I had absolutely no idea what was going on with you, and if you thought that phone call gave me some peace of mind, you have another thing coming."

He cringed, knowing she was three seconds away from cursing him out in every language she knew. And that was a lot of cursing.

"Listen to me." He held her wrists, taking a step back. "I thought we needed this."

She looked at him, brows raised, but allowed him to continue.

"At first, I convinced myself I was leaving because we weren't meant to be. Because we were bad luck and every time that we were together, something had to go wrong."

Shanaya made a sound in the back of her throat, feeling it constrict slightly.

He gripped her tighter, anticipating her sudden attempt to get away from him.

"Let me finish."

She stopped struggling, but refused to look at him.

"At first, I convinced myself of all that. As this past one month went on, I realized there was no way we aren't meant to be. Every day I was gone, yes I was focused on work, but every second without you felt like there was no air for me to breathe. So I knew we are meant to be. I've always known that. But you needed this. I know you still aren't over what happened 4 months ago, and me being here would have made your recovery worse."

Shanaya opened her mouth to speak, but quickly shut it when she saw his look.

"Me being here would have reminded you every second of the fact that you killed Anjali."

His eyes softened at her gasp, and he pulled her into a hug, speech be damned.

"I know that you didn't do anything wrong. Everyone does. Except you." He whispered into her hair. "And I know you. Me being here would only have made it harder on you to accept that you were correct in what you did."

Shanaya simply buried her face in his chest, letting her tears flow freely and wet his shirt.

He brought the two of them back over to the couch and sat them down.

"I want to tell you you're wrong," she began. "But you aren't."

Abhi took a deep breath, sensing there was more.

"Yes, you were correct in leaving. But you didn't do it the right way. You should have told me, you shouldn't have left on your birthday, and you definitely shouldn't have made me believe you didn't love me." She paused, looking up at him. "Because that shifted the focus of my healing. Abhi, it made me focus on getting over what you did, not what I did! I only recently started to even think about Anjali, because I thought I was finally over what you did, but I obviously didn't do a very good job, considering that happened." She pointed to his tear-soaked shirt, which was clinging to his defined torso even more than before, but Shanaya tried to ignore that.

Abhi glanced at her apologetically, eyes widening when he noticed the lust that was slowly gathering in her eyes.

"Hey." He pulled her close again, smiling when she wrapped her arms back around him.

"I love you," she breathed into him.

August 11, 2017: Rohan's Mansion

Rohan was haphazardly dashing around, trying to find his left shoe. It had been flung off last night in the throes of passion, but he needed this pair of dress shoes, as they were the only the pair that matched his shirt. According to Priya.

Rohan on the other hand couldn't tell the difference. All his dress shoes were black anyways.

"Rohan." Priya's lilting voice gave away an air of teasing. He glanced back at her, eyes widening as he took in her legs, teasing him from underneath the shirt she was wearing. The shirt, he dimly registered was his.

A whistle brought his attention back to her face, and the shoe she held in her hand. "Here."

He smiled gratefully, jumping on one foot as he slid the shoe on.

When his balance was restored, Priya pulled him into a hug.

"I love you," she spoke, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Love you too, Shanaya."

He froze, time stopping. Priya slowly let go of him, stepping away. She took a breath, glancing at the worry and pain on Rohan's face, coupled with the love that was clearly for her in his eyes.

"You're going to be late for the meeting." Her voice had no emotion.

"You know I love you, I just got caught up in memories. It's her birthday, remember?"

She nodded silently, ushering him out the door.

September 13, 2017: ICUC Office

Abhi rushed towards the meeting room, stopping only to make sure there were no lipstick marks on his face, and his hair seemed remotely acceptable.

He stepped into the conference, doing his best not to meet his new assistant's eyes. He knew Raj was aware of exactly what had just happened in Abhi's cabin.

He settled himself, trying not to think of the fact that Shanaya was in his cabin right now, waiting for him to get back.

He turned towards the board with a sigh, steeling himself as he stood up to give his presentation.

Shanaya was settled into Abhi's comfy desk chair, her legs propped up on his desk. She had been looking over the pictures of her that littered his cabin when the door suddenly opened.

"Shanaya?"

She turned around, slightly confused, as that wasn't Abhi's voice.

"HI. I'm Raj, Abhi's new assistant."

Shanaya smiled. "Well, if you've heard about his last assistant, you'll excuse my cautiousness around you."

Raj smiled, his dimples flashing. "Of course."

She was caught off guard by how open and friendly he was, so decided to start with a slightly aloof approach. "You wanted to tell me something?"

Raj nodded. "Abhi wanted me to tell you he's running a little bit late, some buyer stopped him on his way out."

Shanaya nodded at him slowly, her mind working double speed.

Abhi must trust Raj quite a bit, to leave him alone with Shanaya for even a second. Ever since returning in May, he had allowed next to no males near her, save for himself and those related to her work.

So Raj must be extremely trustworthy.

She continued dawdling as she twirled a pen around, waiting for her fiancé to return.

When she heard the door open again, she twirled around, batting her eyes. Abhi raised his eyebrows at her display, smiling as he saw her dimples. Taking a couple steps toward her, he noticed the question in her eyes.

"What?" He paused, looking behind him."

"What's the deal with Raj?"

Abhi looked at her, confused. "The deal with Raj?"

She chuckled. "I'm not stupid, Abhi. I know there has to be a reason you don't turn into a jealous monster when he's alone with me." Seeing Abhi's protests, she quickly smoothed over her insult. "Not that I mind too much, you're cute when you're jealous." She grinned at him.

"Raj is… Well, he's…"

Shanaya rolled her eyes at his stuttering, picking up the pen she had been twirling before Abhi's less than stellar entrance.

"He's gay."

Shanaya started giggling, eyes widening. "And you had such a problem saying that why?"

"Well, it's awkward."

Shanaya stood up, eyes burning. "What's awkward about it? So he's gay. Is that supposed to make him a different person?"

Abhi shook his head, smiling. "You know I support all human beings just as strongly as you do. But I grew up in a different environment than you, so yes, I openly accept it, and don't judge anyone who is gay, but it's still awkward for me to say it."

Shanaya shrugged, moving towards Abhi.

"Love you too."

A/N: Yes, I updated early. Mostly because I wanted to reply the guest reviewer, and didn't want to reply without a chapter. The reason this chapter is so much longer than the others is because I'm going to be gone for a while. This is my last update until August 9, where I promise I will be back with a 2k word chapter.. AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 35k+ views! Review, and check out other stories and social media, in my bio.