𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧: 𝐀𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐎𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐢 (𝟏𝟖+) ✅

36

Akshat

As I emerged, my fist clenched at the sight of his absence. Desperation clawed at me as I called out his name repeatedly, the echoes of my voice fading into the emptiness around me. I dialled Neil's number, my voice strained with urgency.

"Find Kunal, who was with Riya," I commanded in a clipped tone, the words leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. With a heavy sigh, I ended the call, hoping against hope that Neil would locate him swiftly.

But as I turned my attention back to the relentless pounding on the door, a wave of apprehension washed over me. With each thud, it felt as though my heart was being battered along with it. Drawing in a shaky breath, I steeled myself for what lay beyond that door.

How the hell could I lose control like that? How could these hands, meant to protect her, almost become the cause of her pain? The mere thought sends a shiver down my spine. This is exactly why I used to drown myself in numbing drugs, to keep my anger in check. But today, the sight of her nearly brought out the worst in me. I could have hurt her, and the realization cuts through me like a knife.

I need to do so much more than just rely on drugs to fix myself. If she deserves better, then she will have better. I'll prove myself to be better for her. With a deep breath, I pushed open the door and took in her condition — a condition I am responsible for. She had draped a scarf around herself as if to shield herself from the world, but her hair was a tangled mess, her kajal smudged from tears, and her cheeks flushed with anguish. She looked nothing like the radiant angel she was just moments before I arrived. I had tainted her, tarnished her innocence with my own demons. And the weight of that realization crushes me with guilt.

"Princess..." My voice trembled as I reached out to touch her hand, but she jerked it away, her eyes filled with a mixture of pain and accusation as she screamed Kunal's name. Anguish tore through me. Was Kunal all she cared about at this moment?

"What did you do to him?" Her voice was raw with emotion, trembling with fear and anger.

"Please, listen to me. I didn't do anything with him. He's innocent!" she pleaded desperately, my heart pounding in my chest. 

It took every ounce of self-control not to unleash my fury on Kunal for causing this rift between us.

"You're only making it worse, princess," I said softly, trying to calm the storm raging within me.

"I will never forgive you if you do anything to him!" Her voice was filled with a steely resolve, her eyes flashing with determination.

I felt a surge of frustration rising within me as I clenched my fists, struggling to contain my emotions. With each step I took towards her, the tension in the air thickened.

"Like you said, you'll do whatever you want. Well, I'll do whatever the fuck I want," I stated firmly, my voice tinged with a mixture of hurt and defiance as I removed the scarf that shielded her from my gaze, exposing her to the full force of my emotions.

"You can control my body, Akshat Oberoi, but not my soul," she declared, her voice quivering with a mix of defiance and vulnerability. A single tear traced a path down her cheek, a silent testament to the pain she was enduring.

"Slap me, hit me, fuck me all you want, but you'll never get my heart again!" Her words pierced through me like a dagger, each syllable carrying the weight of her anguish.

"Because it now belongs to someone else?" I forced the words out, my voice strained with the effort of masking my own hurt. The mere thought of her heart belonging to another shattered what little remained of mine.

"Because you don't deserve it!" Her words cut through the air like shards of glass, slicing into my already wounded heart.

"What do you think? Am I some damsel in distress that you'll come and tell me I'm your princess again, and I'll follow you like a lost puppy? Or did you think you'd make me orgasm and I'll think everything is nice and great now? Even a freaking porn star orgasms with their partner, it's a normal physical reaction, ever heard of that? I was just sexually frustrated, which is why I got aroused. I'm warning you, stay away from me and Kunal!" Her voice trembled with a mixture of anger and hurt, but I couldn't bring myself to heed her warning.

"Why do you still wear it then?" I questioned, my fingers tightening around the pendant that hung around her neck. Her shocked expression told me she had expected me to back off, to retreat once again in hurt and disappointment. But I was beyond that now. She needed to understand that she was mine.

"What will it take to make you stay away?" she asked wearily, her voice laced with exhaustion.

"My life," I replied, a bitter smile tugging at the corners of my lips.

"Do you trust me?" she asked suddenly, changing the topic.

"What kind of question is that?" I responded, confusion clouding my thoughts.

"Do you?" she pressed, her gaze searching mine.

"Yes," I affirmed, though uncertainty gnawed at my insides.

"Why did you accuse me of sleeping with him, then?" she questioned her words like daggers to my already wounded soul.

"I lost it, seeing him shirtless at your place," I confessed, the truth tumbling from my lips before I could stop it. The pain of betrayal and jealousy had consumed me, clouding my judgment and driving me to accuse her of infidelity.

"Mr. Oberoi, sometimes, things..." Her voice trailed off, and she rolled her eyes ever so slightly, as if searching for the right words. "Sometimes, things see us, hear us, but we don't listen to our heart," she continued, her voice catching in her throat. "We need to listen to our heart. Right now, my heart is not with you." Her fingers grazed the pendant around her neck, a poignant reminder of our shared past. "This pendant is just a reminder of what you did to me."

Her expression shifted suddenly, her demeanour becoming more animated. "I didn't sleep with Kunal," she declared more loudly than required, her hands fidgeting with her hair as she tucked loose strands behind her ears. I couldn't help but notice her restlessness, her flurry of movements betraying the turmoil within her.

I stood there, paralyzed by her words, my heart heavy with regret and longing. She was slipping away from me, and I didn't know how to stop it.

"When we were kids," she began, her voice trembling with emotion, "we had a favourite game of treasure hunt." Memories flooded my mind at her words. "When we were very close to finding the treasure, we would avoid letting the other person know that we were close and sneakily get the treasure out, surprising them," she explained, her voice tinged with nostalgia. "But sometimes, it wouldn't be treasure at all. It would just be bait given to us, so that we felt like we were winning when we were not. Behind the scenes, there would still be things going on that we were not aware of."

"What do you mean, princess?" I asked, my heart heavy with anticipation.

"Find the treasure, Akshat ji," she whispered, her words barely audible. "My heart is your treasure."

But why did I feel like, it wasn't the heart she was talking about?

Before I could fully process the weight of her confession, my phone rang, Neil's name flashing on the screen. She noticed and clasped my hand tightly.

"Get out of here. I don't want to see your face ever again!" she exclaimed; her voice filled with anguish.

As we turned to leave, she caught sight of the bags, flowers, and cards scattered around us, remnants of my futile attempt to win back her affection.

"I made these for you," I whispered, my voice trembling as I held out the carry bag that had slipped from my grasp. With a quivering hand, I retrieved the carefully crafted card from the floor and presented it to her, a hopeful smile plastered on my face.

For a fleeting moment, her expression softened, and my heart dared to hope. But then, like a cruel twist of fate, her features hardened once more. With a swift, merciless motion, she snatched the card from my hand and crushed it without hesitation, her actions a brutal rejection of my gesture of love. I watched in silent agony as she tossed the crumpled remnants into the bin, each tear-stained piece a dagger through my heart.

"Feed these to street dogs!" she spat, her words slicing through the air like shards of ice, before slamming the door shut in my face.

A solitary tear escaped my eye, tracing a path down my cheek as I stood alone in the echoing silence, the weight of her rejection crushing me like a vice.