MaNan: Breaking Free

27|Rebuilding

Nandini's POV

"Nandini..." He says softly.

"Manik..." I croak, a fresh stream of tears rolling down my face. I open my mouth and take a deep breath. Instantly, the taste of blood fills my mouth.

As he takes in what is going on, his body starts shaking. In a swift movement, Shahid gets off me and advances towards Manik. He is about to attack Manik. Manik remains standing in the same position. Slowly, he raises one hand which is balled into a fist and punches through the air. Shahid makes a 180° angle and falls to the floor, flat on his stomach.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Manik kicks him in the stomach. With a groan, he rolls over and passes out.

"Manik Malhotra..." Harshad yells angrily and gets off me too. He tries to hurl a punch at Manik, but Manik grabs his fist just as it is an inch away from his face.

"You shouldn't have done this." Manik says through gritted teeth, lowering Harshad's hand. His eyes are red and he looks like he a monster whose slumber has been disturbed. "YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE!" With that, he kicks him real hard in the chest. He falls backwards, moaning in pain. Manik bends over him, grabs him by the collar and pulls him up again, only to punch him square in the face. Soon, blood starts oozing out of Harshad's nose. The asshole again tries to kick Manik, but Manik effortlessly hoists Harshad over his shoulder and smashes him hard on the floor.

"Manik..." I mumble again, trying to get up. He sees me and quickly comes to my side.

"Are you alright?" He asks, cupping my face and wiping off my tears. I just stare at him. His beautiful face is etched in anxiety and concern. His soft eyes blaze in anger on noticing my bleeding lip and red cheeks.

Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath and removes his jacket, placing it on me and zipping it up to cover my upper body completely. Next, he marches across the room, grabs my jeans from the other side and carefully pulls it up my legs. I take support of his arm and arrange myself in a sitting position, just as a bunch of cops enter the room, followed by Abhimanyu, Manik's friend.

"Miss. Murthy, are you okay?" One of the cops asks. I give him a brief nod as some other offices start searching around the room.

"We need to know what exactly happened over here." He continues.

"Can't it wait? Nandini is hurt. I need to get her to a hospital." Manik says impatiently, bending over me.

"No. I am afraid not. Who are you, by the way?" The cop continues.

"I am Manik Malhotra, her bodyguard."

The cop nods at him and turns to me. "Miss. Murthy, I am very sorry about this. But, we need your statement to be able to take further action."

"That's Harshad Saxena. He lured me to this place by texting me through my best friend's phone. As soon as I came here, I had some fruit punch, after which, I started feeling sick. I came upstairs to get to the loo. That's when the other guy, Shahid, pulled me into this room. Harshad followed in soon after and they were about to rape me and tape it. I couldn't move an inch. The drink I had must have been spiked." I managed to say, breathless by the end, my head pounding.

"Why do you think these two men tried to assault you?" The officer asked after I finished. "What could their motive be?"

"Harshad said something about his dad being Singhania's...I mean my step father's arch rival. The other guy, Shahid, has some personal grudge against me because apparently, I am a bitch and he is a joke in college." I say, trying to remember Shahid's gloating. "That's not all. He once tried to squish me with his car. A friend saved me then. At that time, we thought it was an accident. He confessed to it being planned by the two of them some time ago." I mutter, my head spinning like a whirlpool. "Manik came right on time and saved me." I look up at him. He is looking at the two motionless figures on the floor, his face masked by fury and pure disgust.