Although the past week has been worst for me, it feels like it was Saturday just yesterday and now it is Saturday already. Time flies so fast.

Anyways, tell me - what do you guys like the most about What Heart Wants and what do you guys don't like about it?

Warnings - This chapter contains a portrayal of a panic attack. If you are currently dealing with anxiety, depression, or any mental health challenges, please consider reading this chapter when you are feeling better. Your health matters the most, so prioritize it.

Be careful, please.

And Enjoy Reading!

Manik had no idea about the storm that was about to hit his life. He didn't know of the existence of the article until Cabir came rushing in his room and told him, or more like thrusted his phone in his hand and demanded him to see it.

Manik read every single word written in that article. Once, twice to make sure and thrice to make the outcome of it. By the end, his heart was almost leaping out of his chest and Manik had forgotten how to breath.

To say, he was horrified. No, he was terrified of the extent the old woman went to put Nandini down.

Manik had no intent to leave his room until some hours back, but now he was here, in the living area of his own house and staring at his mother who paced around the hall with her phone pressed against her ear. Probably, trying to reach his father.

It was a futile attempt for Raj wouldn't pick up. Manik knew his father would be fuming somewhere in case he had came across the article already.

He should have gone office today instead of taking a leave. Manik was stupid and so was this article.

Every single line that suggested Nandini was greedy made no sense. Nandini's father was a rich man. Murty's had no competition when it came to wealth. They were blessed with too much already and the article suggested she married a man who couldn't afford luxury only to torment him later?

How did that even make sense? Atleast to him, it didn't even as he re-read the article again.

Sure, Nandini dressed expensive. She ate expensive and she owned expensive but Nandini didn't need a man to provide it to her. She earned that money with her own hardwork. How difficult was it to understand that?

"Man, people are so free these days!" Cabir commented from the other couch where he and Soha were sitting side by side. Manik looked up at him and he gestured to the article."This is so damn messy. The article has already got over thousand comments. People are being so harsh."

Soha bent down to see what Cabir was reading while Manik scrolled down on his screen.

"Damn! I always knew she was like that. Have you ever seen her infront of media? She behaves like she is possessed."

"And here I thought she was the perfect role model, but guess what, she is no different than a gold digger."

"Nandini Murty? Ofcourse, a rich spoilt brat would know nothing else."

Load more comments...

Manik felt the bile rise up in his throat. Nandini didn't deserve this. She wasn't anything like that.

"They literally got no other job." Cabir hissed, turning off his phone and slamming it beside him.

"Your father won't pick up my call!" Niyonika shrieked after the nth attempt. The fear she felt the moment she read the article had been replaced by worry. Her husband never did this before and she didn't know how to reach him.

A call to the office had confirmed he had stromed out of the office, angry and in hurry more than an hour back. Niyonika had been trying to reach him constantly but he just wouldn't pick up.

"Dad must be angry." Soha said,"this article - he isn't going to let it go."

Niyonika didn't reply. She continued to pace around the space, phone still on in a hope Raj will pick it up.

"Maa," Manik took her attention suddenly. He stood up from the couch,"I will go to Murty house. I need to see Nandini."

Niyonika passed him a glare laced with worry,"Manik!" She raised her voice,"Do you want your father to get more angry? Stay home."

"Maa," Manik let out a sigh,"Nandini is my finance. I can't leave her alone in bad times, can I now? I don't even know how she must have took this article. She must be devastated. I should be there for her."

Niyonika didn't say anything this time for Manik was not wrong. Just the timing didn't support him because the moment Manik reached the door, his father barged inside the house. Anger sitting on his face, and hands clutching a set of papers.

And just like that, Manik knew the hell was about to break down on him.

Shame and Humiliation burned her deep. Nandini refused to step out of the safety of her room. No, she didn't cry. She didn't break things. She just sat there, on her bed feeling numb but at the same time feeling everything.

Her mind wandered in hundred of directions, each shoving words after words from the article, from her past, from her own subconscious.

She wanted luxuries.

"Nandini, can you not talk to your father? Maybe he can give Vihaan a better position in your company?"

She wanted more than he could give.

"I am happy, Vihaan. The money, it doesn't matter. You do, and I love you."

She tormented him.

"You are so useless, Nandini."

"I don't know why did I even marry you!"

"You can even get me a fucking good position in your company and you say you love me? Bullshit!"

Useless.

Pathetic.

"Nandini!"

Nandini gasped, eyes shooting up in horror and breath hitching in her throat for who stood before was Vihaan, just a couple of steps away.

He was tall, tanned skin and a broad but lean shoulders. His dark eyes were stuck on her, filled with disgust and hatred.

Nandini flinched back, body hyperactive as she moved back until she was pressed against the head post at one corner of the bed. Vihaan couldn't reach there.

He couldn't, right?

The room was suddenly so dark. There was no light, the windows didn't let enough sunlight in. Nandini was stuck in that corner and the door was too far away. Nandini couldn't escape.

Another gasp, and panic gripped her hard.

Vihaan reached down and suddenly, there was no air to breath. Nandini tried. She did, again and again but failed.

"Stop-"

She wheezed, unable to let another sound out. Vihaan was so close. He was going to hurt her.

"S-Stay aw-away-"

The walls were all closing in, the ever so spacious room felt small. Nandini was trapped inside it. She felt suffocated. Her gaze flickered to the door - Nandini needed to get away. Run away.

Vihaan suddenly laughed. It was loud, mocking and filled with sarcasm.

"Are you scared of me?" His voice buzzed in her ear, leaving a dull ache in her head,"are you sure it is me, not him?"

He spoke as if he saw through her. As if, he knew what she didn't want to acknowledge. As if he knew what was in her head.

As if, she would look up and the face she hated the most would morph into the one she was starting to love now.

"Ha? Look at me. See if it is me or him." He laughed more. Louder than before and she shook her head. A whimper escaped her lips and Nandini forced her head down more, hands covering her ears.

She didn't think she would make it alive. Not today.

She was going to die, right there.

Nandini shouldn't have done it. She shouldn't have trusted the silence and looked up became the moment she did - It was no longer Vihaan standing infront of her.

It was Manik. A smile on his face, a mocking smile, not a happy one. He laughed, loud.

"It is me, no?" Vihaan.

It was Vihaan, not Manik. Nandini shook her head again. And as Vihaan reached out his hand towards her, Nandini shrinked back into the headpost, trying not to look at him. He was here. He had always been here.

Run away? Safe? Who was she kidding? Nandini never got away from Vihaan. He had chased her down once again. His presence in her head was a reminder of the sick reality Manik had almost made her forgot about.

His hand was an inch away, his laugh echoed in the whole room and Nandini looked up.

And then, she screamed.

She screamed like a mad woman, like she was running away with a dog chasing behind her. She covered her own ears to block out the voice, and had her eyes shut tightly.

She screamed and screamed, ignoring her throat that begged to stop or the heavy knocks rained down on her door, the franatic voices calling her from the other end.

Ruhi's loud vails reached through her ears but that was not enough to stop her panic today.

She screamed more when the door clicked open and someone ran to her. Someone being her own father who had a spare key of her room for such emergency situations.

He held her arms, trying to pry away her hands from her ears so she could atleast listen to him."Nandini! Oh God! Bacha, stop. I am here."

Nandini didn't know if she stopped or was still muttering some incoherent words that were beyond her own understanding let alone her father's. She didn't know if she was shivering or had gone numb.

Her father drew her shaking figure in his embrace, his hand rubbed at the back of her head,"Calm down, bacha. Appa is here."

Ruhi wailed more loud from somewhere behind followed by Ananya's voice and Mr.Murty shouted at her to take her away before he looked down at Nandini who stared at the door with blank eyes.

"Are you with me, Nandini?" He asked, she blinked.

"Vi-Vihaan. He was here, Appa." Her voice was so small that Mr.Murty wouldn't have heard if he wasn't sitting so close to her.

He shook his head in dismay,"He cannot come here, Nandini. He is in jail, and he isn't coming out anytime sooner."

Nandini shook her head, suddenly drawing back and tears pooled in her eyes this time as she held his arm,"He was. He came here, Appa. He laughed." She chocked on her own breath,"He was here. He - He became Manik and then - then he was Vihaan. He got me, Appa. He did." She cried loudly.

Mr.Murty blinked away his own tears, holding her hands,"He didn't bacha. He can't come here. He is not Manik. And he can never hurt you, not atleast until your Appa is here."

"But he already did, Appa." She sobbed, and with every sob that left her, her body shook harder. Her heart broke.

"I loved him, Appa."

"But he hurt me."

"Why did he do this to me, Appa?"

"What did I even do?"

The questions were heartbreaking but what broke Mr.Murty's heart more was the fact he had no answers.

He had failed his daughter in the past and today, here he was with an enormous bank balance but helpless. He couldn't even protect his daughter, he couldn't protect her in the past and he couldn't do it today and the guilt would claw insides until the day he dies.

"You did nothing, bacha." He spoke after a moment of silence,"It was him who didn't deserve you."

"Then why does he keep haunting me, Appa? What am I being punished for?"

"You are paying the price of loving a wrong man. It is the price of love that you must pay. You can't escape from it."

"Love isn't supposed to hurt."

Mr.Murty would have agreed, if not for the 'talk' he had with the old man who was now driving home in absolute frry.

A broken engagement. Mr.Murty was yet to tell his daughter about the price she would have to pay this time for the love that was starting to home her heart.

And he could only hope it would be a little easy to gather her this time.