Love in the air by Vatsal Bhargava - HTML preview

CHAPTER 13 – WRITTEN IN BLOOD

The storm had turned savage outside the mansion, the wind howling like a beast, its cries echoing through the dark night. Inside, Meera sat on the cold floor of Aarav’s study, a single lamp casting a weak, flickering light over her trembling hands. They were covered in blood. His blood. The realization struck her again, a hard, painful punch to her chest.

Aarav. Aarav is bleeding. The sound of his labored breathing broke through the silence that had overtaken the room. She could barely hear herself think over the rush of blood pounding in her ears, but her eyes never left him. He was slumped against the desk, his once-steady hand pressing against his wound. His blood seeped between his fingers, staining the wooden desk below him, marking the floor with deep, red streaks. He was barely conscious. “Aarav… please,” Meera’s voice cracked, her throat constricted with emotion. “You need to stay awake. Talk to me. Stay with me.”

He lifted his head slightly, his eyes glassy and unfocused, but there was something in them. Something that screamed guilt and despair. He tried to smile, but it was more of a grimace than anything else.

“I told you... I’m broken, Meera. You shouldn’t have fallen for me.” His words were labored, as though every syllable took something from him. Meera shook her head furiously, wiping her tears away. “No. You’re not broken. Don’t say that.”

But his eyes didn’t soften. Instead, they hardened as though he knew the truth, a truth he wasn’t ready to share with her. Not now. Not ever.

“I don’t deserve you,” he murmured, closing his eyes for a brief moment before opening them again, locking them onto hers. “The truth will destroy us both.”

Her breath hitched. She couldn’t let him go there — not now, not like this. “Aarav…” she whispered, crawling toward him, her movements frantic, desperate. She couldn’t bear to see him like this, so fragile, so vulnerable. “Please, don’t do this. You have to fight. For us. Fight for me.” His lips quirked slightly, a sad, hollow smile, and then he chuckled darkly, a rough sound that sent a chill down her spine.

“There is no ‘us’ anymore, Meera. I’ve already lost everything. And you will too.”

The words hung heavy in the air, suffocating her, and in that moment, Meera saw the brokenness in his eyes — something far deeper than the wound on his body. It was as if the entire world had crumbled beneath him, and he was still standing at the edge of a cliff, teetering between redemption and damnation.

He was hiding something. Something more than just a few bad decisions. There was a darkness to him — a past he’d never shared, and now it was catching up with him, pulling him under, drowning them both. Her hands trembled as she moved toward him, her fingers gently pressing against the bloodied wound on his shoulder.

“I can’t lose you,” Meera breathed. “I won’t.”

But he jerked away from her touch, his body tensing as if her proximity hurt him more than anything else. “I told you to stay away from me, Meera,” he growled through clenched teeth. “This is who I am. This is all I’ll ever be.”

Her heart shattered as the words hit her like shards of glass.

“Don’t you dare,” she whispered, her voice shaking with raw emotion. “Don’t you dare push me away now. Not after everything. I love you, Aarav. You don’t get to make that decision. I do.” Aarav flinched, his eyes widening in disbelief, as if hearing those words from her hurt more than the physical wound he was nursing. His hand clenched into a fist, trembling with the effort of holding it back, as if the emotions were too much to contain.

“Love?” His voice was a bitter, strangled laugh. “What do you know of love, Meera? What do you know about the kind of love that ruins everything it touches?”

Meera’s chest ached, and for the first time in a long while, her doubt began to creep in, gnawing at the edges of her mind. What if he was right? What if her love wasn’t enough to save him from himself?

What if she was already too late? Before she could answer, the door to the study slammed open with a deafening bang. Meera spun around, her heart racing in her chest, and saw two shadowed figures step into the room. “Meera…” The voice was low, hushed, dangerous. The familiar figure of Dev, Aarav’s oldest friend, emerged from the darkness, his gun glinting in the dim light.

Aarav’s eyes shot to Dev, a flicker of recognition — and betrayal — crossing his features. “What are you doing here?”

Dev’s lips curled into a bitter smile. “I should be asking you that, Aarav. You never could stay out of trouble, could you?” His eyes shifted to Meera, and she shuddered, her hand instinctively moving toward the gun hidden in her bag. “I came to finish what you started. I came to make sure you don’t drag her into your mess any further.” Meera’s heart skipped a beat. She had been so focused on Aarav, so consumed by the depth of his pain, that she hadn’t seen the real danger closing in on them. Dev — the one person Aarav trusted most — had a knife twisted into his back as well.

“Get out,” Meera said, her voice cold, the anger burning through her like a fire. “I don’t care who you are. You’re not touching him.”

Dev chuckled darkly. “You think you can protect him? You think you can save him? He’s already been damned.” Aarav’s head snapped toward Dev, the two men locking eyes. There was a silent understanding between them, a history so tangled, it could never be unraveled.

“Leave her out of this,” Aarav spat, blood dripping from his lips as his voice broke. “She doesn’t deserve any of this.”

Dev stepped closer, his smile widening. “Too late for that. She’s already written in blood, just like you.” Meera stood her ground, the intensity of the moment electrifying the air between them. This was it. The storm outside matched the chaos within these four walls. There was no turning back. Aarav stumbled to his feet, his face contorted with pain and fury. “You think you can control me, Dev? You think you can use her as a pawn in your game?” Dev didn’t flinch. He stepped closer, a whisper away from Aarav’s face. “No. You were never my pawn, Aarav.

You’ve always been the king. But now? You’re about to fall.”

In that instant, everything broke apart. A shot rang out.

The world seemed to stop. Meera’s heart clenched as she screamed Aarav’s name, the sound of gunfire echoing in her mind as everything went dark.