A/n - This chapter has a lot of trigger warnings, Abuse/domestic violence discussed, and shown in little flashbacks. Scars and burn marks, discussed. Please read at your own risk, if it makes you uncomfortable, it probably isn't worth reading it.

And although, I hope no one would relate to this chapter, but in case someone does - I am really sorry. I hope you are at a better place now. If anyone needs an ear to vent, I am here..

Happy Reading! ✨

When Nandini was eleven years old, she had been trying to make a simple dinner for her Ananya. Their Appa had been running late because of an important meeting that got delayed. He had already informed them through text along with a series of apologies that Nandini only shook her head at.

She understood him. Ananya was only eight, she didn't. Ananya didn't like the food cooked by the cooks. So, it was her little sister's sad face that convinced Nandini that she needed to cook.

The glass was too heavy, or maybe it was her hand that was slippery because of the oil. Whatever it was, the glass slipped and Nandini flinched, stumbling backward and then she was falling ass down.

A small glass piece struck her waist.

It was the first scar Nandini had.

Mahesh Murty took a week's work from home leave.

Then, the clock ticked at its pace and Nandini got married. Vihaan. The man that had made it so easy to fall for himself. He was a gentleman, someone who loved her despite all her shortcomings.

On their first night, he had traced a finger on her scar, and Nandini believed him when he whispered in her ear, "You are beautiful, Nandini." She really believed him.

Then, life happened. Vihaan got busy at work. Work that didn't give him any satisfaction. Work that left him with more frustration than he could handle.

Nandini still remembers the stench of alcohol radiating from him as he held the lit cigarette at her waist. One. Two. Three. Four. She screamed so loud that he had to push the bedsheet in her mouth to stop her.

He was drunk.

Nandini had five scars on her body after that day.

Vihaan got her a bouquet of flowers and took her out on a dinner date as an apology. Sat down on his knees with tears dripping from his eyes as he promised he would never do it again. He didn't mean it.

Then, one of his colleagues from work insulted him at work. Said "you got a rich wife, man. You could have been a ceo by now." Vihaan broke the whole room that day, and when Nandini was worried he would hurt himself and stepped ahead to hold him, he pushed her.

She got her sixth scar that day. A tiny slash wound near her thigh.

The next day, Vihaan told her she was stupid.

"When you know there was glass, why were you standing there?"

She could have gotten away, he had added.

She could have stepped out.

He didn't do it deliberately.

There were no flowers this time, no dinner dates.

Just Nandini and her scars.

Now, Manik's finger was a ghost against the same scars that Nandini had started to hate. The burn marks and the mark that the cut left behind. Nandini's scars have faded a little over the past four years, but she wondered why it still hurt the same.

"You should have broken his face," Manik's voice brought her to the present. Nandini stared at him in response through the mirror. He was kneeling at her feet, eyes locked onto her scars. "You should have punched him. Tell me you did, Nandini."

"I didn't." I was too scared to even come in front of him. Because it wasn't a novel. It wasn't a daily soap opera. Nandini was not strong. Manik closed his eyes, the other hand fisted near his thigh. "But I made sure he would rot in jail for what he did to me."

Manik chuckled. "That bastard deserves it."

"He wasn't a bad man, Manik." Nandini turned around, and as she did, Manik took back his hand and stood up.

"Nandini,"

"He was just poor," She said, "He wanted more." She looked at him, eyes so innocent and Manik is reminded again that this woman doesn't know what hatred is. "We all are hungry, Manik. Some more than others, but at the end, we all need something." Because at the end, his hunger was about position and power.

Sometimes, Nandini would sit in darkness and wonder if she had given it to him, if she had talked to her Appa, would she still have been with Vihaan?

Sometimes she wondered what would have become of her if she hadn't run away.

And then she looked at Manik and her heart skipped a beat, something it had done only out of fear in the past four years.

Take him somewhere. Manik had said. So Nandini decided to bare her heart to the man she loved. Take him to places where nobody had been, show him the scars which she wouldn't dare show anyone else. Because there was not anything she wanted to hide from him now. She didn't want the ghost of her pasts to ruin her anymore.

She wanted Manik. She wanted to be loved. She wanted to love. She wanted to feel something again, something other than the resentment that she tried so hard to suppress every single day.

Everyone who heard her story told her Vihaan deserved hell. He was a bad person. Maybe he was. Nandini didn't know. She didn't think she was allowed to have an opinion. Because Nandini was the first person who ruined herself. Because Vihaan didn't tell her to stay. Nandini was a stupid woman who just wanted love. Because Vihaan never told her to stay when it all got bad. He never told her to stop loving herself. No. It was Nandini. She did that to herself.

And now, she didn't know how to undo that. Ruining herself had been much easier than picking up her own pieces. There were far too many for her to collect and she bled more than she could endure every time she tried.

"Nandini," Manik cupped her cheek and made her face him, "you are one of the strongest women I have met in my life." Nandini tried to shake her head but he held her firm, not tight enough to harm her but strong enough to stop her from stepping back. "Baby, you have even so strong passing through the storm. You don't have to do it anymore. I have got you now."

Manik's voice was gentle, as if he was afraid any higher would break her and maybe it would have. Nandini felt the tear well up in her eyes. Her heart hammered in her chest and she shook her head, eyes lowering and she watched her own hand fisting his shirt. She had no idea when she did that.

Manik broke her chain of thoughts with a simple kiss above her temple and it felt like the last straw before Nandini cried.

Sobs, so soft at first and then it grew louder and louder. Manik's heart broke with every tear that fell from her eyes, with every single sob that shook her frame. He wished he would have found her earlier, before that bastard did.

Now, all he could do was watch her cry.

An hour or so later, Manik sat with his back against the headboard while Nandini took place between his spread legs. Her back against his chest and Manik's hands trembled as he wrapped them around her. Their legs tangled like knots in threads.

It was intimate. He was close to Nandini. He was so close to her at that moment. Manik had gently slid the hair away from her neck, and rested his chin there. He didn't know what he was doing. If it was okay. If he should have asked. If he should have warned her. If she could hear his heart beating. If she knew he was losing it at the moment. Manik had imagined this, but none of the versions he hoped for could compete with this.

"He wasn't always like this," Nandini said, "He loved me, Manik." Because he did. Nandini had seen it in his gaze, and felt it every time he touched her. It had to be love because there was no way there were monsters who could pretend to love her like Vihaan did.

While Manik didn't believe her. No man would raise his hand on a woman he loved. Manik cannot even think about raising his voice at her, at Soha even though she tests his patience the most. He doesn't even dare look his mother in the eye. It is because he respects them. It is because he loves them, his sister, his mother and Nandini. He cannot even beat the idea of them hurting. "He was good to me." And oh. If this isn't the kind of love Nandini believes in. If she doesn't love Manik because Manik is so good to her, have always been from their first meet to when she broke his heart and when he ran to take her even when he didn't even know the address to her place.

"Being good doesn't mean they love you, Nandini." He hated that he had to say all this to her. But it was the truth, bitter or hard to digest. "Love comes with respect. If he couldn't respect you, he never loved you."

Nandini shook her head, desperate and stubborn. "He wasn't like that always. He changed."

"Maybe. But he didn't love you in the moment he raised his hand on you."

Nandini nodded at that, looking down and tears slipped from her eyes. There was no escape from the truth.

"I still see him." Manik leaned back, letting his mind process it all. He had known, through the bits he had from Mr.Murty, or from what little he knew about Nandini. "He still haunts me in my dreams, sometimes in the day. It is like he is everywhere, Manik."

"He is not." Manik said. "Even if he comes here, I promise you he will never touch you again, or Ruhi too."

Nandini bobbed her head. She had made sure of that. She had full custody of her Ruhi, all of her in laws had restriction orders from the court to stay away from her daughter.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"Can I - Can I kiss you?"

And Nandini was not breathing anymore. Manik's question lingered in the air and to ease her out of the predicament he put her in, he let out a low chuckle near her ear. "I mean, take your time. Because -" he paused, thinking, making her wait, "this is the last time I am going to ask you that, Nandini."

And then suddenly, just like that, Nandini was reminded of where they were and why. She leaned back, turning and twisting and Manik frowned as she moved out of his embrace to face him. He could read all the doubts she had on her face. The differences between them, his parents unlikeness to their alliance and her father's worry, her daughter's future. Manik was not a stranger to responsibilities.

He could see the moment her heart broke at his question, could see the self doubt that seeped in her mind. Could see the questions gearing in her head. Was that it? Was he choosing an out? He must have gotten tired of running behind her all the damn time.

And God. Manik was such an idiot to tease her like this at a moment this fragile.

“Why?”

He hoped his face showed the love he held for her in his heart. Manik smiled and took her hands in his, "Because - the next time I kiss you after this? I won't ask you." He leaned in, mouth near her own where he could feel her breath on his skin. "I am going to steal kisses from you from now on, Nandini."

Nandini gasped at the indication. "What do you - You -"

Manik laughed,  "Yes, I am asking you again. Marry me, Nandini Murty?"

"Manik. I -"

The longer she didn't say yes, the faster Manik's smile dimmed. Nandini hated that.

"Nandini?"

"I just - Your parents don't like me." And they might never. Was left unsaid.

Manik nodded, "I know but it is me you are marrying, right?"

"But why me, Manik?" You could have anyone. Anybody will love you. Then why me? Why this broken version of me who can hardly love herself?

Manik shook his head. "Because - I don't know, okay?" He said, "I have never questioned my heart why it wants something. If I feel something for you, I just do. I have never felt so much for anyone else before. You are the first woman to capture my interest, and my heart and if this is not the sign from the universe, then I don't know what it is." Manik desperately believed that. "I would be a fool to let go of something so beautiful only because my parents don't want it for me."

And in her answer, Nandini had leaned in and kissed him.

If there was anyone she would be with, it would be him.

And not because he was good to her or because he wanted her,

But because her heart wanted him too.

the end.