Page 49 of Obsession

“I need you to find out who tried to hurt my sister, and I need you to make him pay for it. Promise me that you’ll do that. She was… is innocent in whatever war you have going on. She didn’t deserve this, Mihir.”

Mihir swallowed thickly. Anna was hurt because of him and Rajiv was too kind to not say it out loud.

“I will.”

“I’ve got to go now…” Rajiv sighed. “You’re coming?”

“I’m on the way,” Mihir replied, disconnecting the line.

He took the elevator back to the basement, signaling Chekov on the way. His bodyguard joined him in the elevator. Just as he was seated in the car, his brothers pulled him in on a conference call.

“We heard,” Armaan said. “I’m on the way to the hospital. Navya is panicking.”

“So is Reina,” Vedant said. “I’m reaching there too. We need to talk, Mihir.”

“And we will. Let’s talk in the hospital. Right now, I need time to think.”

Mihir disconnected the line and pressed his foot on the accelerator. Fear had settled like a roiling ball in his stomach. He needed to get to the hospital and see for himself how Anna was. She had to be fine. She would live. Anna was a fighter. She was tough. He couldn’t perceive a world where she didn’t exist.

13

Time always seemed to creep at a snail’s pace when one was in a hospital. Mihir looked through the ICU glass, studying the woman on the bed in front of him. Anna looked pale and wan, her body connected to a dozen tubes. But she was safe and alive, and that’s what mattered the most.

The knife had penetrated the side of her rib cage. Twenty mm higher, and it would have ruptured a major vessel. She could have died. His heart rate stuttered. She could have died because of him, because he hadn’t been able to protect her.

He was so busy fighting with her, getting angry at her, that he hadn’t put enough people around her to keep her safe.

Anna’s whole family was seated in the waiting room. He didn’t know how to look them in the eye. He didn’t know how to face them.

“Are you okay, brother?” Armaan said, coming to stand beside him.

“What do you think?” Mihir replied.

“It’s not your fault, you know,” Vedant said, flanking his other side.

“Isn’t it?”

“None of us expected Ivan to be so bold as to order an attack on Ananya, that too in broad daylight,” Vedant said.

“The question is why her…” Armaan said. “I mean, does Ivan know about your history with her?”

“It’s not that hard to find, if one were to go digging into my past. Too many people at LBS knew we were dating back then,” Mihir sighed. “I’d hoped he’d never learn about her. Obviously, I was wrong.”

“She’s going to be fine, Mihir,” Armaan assured him. “They’ve put her in the ICU only for observation. She’ll be discharged tomorrow, if all goes well. We already sent Ananya’s parents and Sheena home.”

Mihir nodded.

“The team found Paul. He’s at the warehouse,” Vedant said. “We will get some answers from him and the guy who stabbed Ananya.”

Mihir faced his brothers. “Not you. I—I’m going to get those answers. I want you both to stay here and look after her.”

“Absolutely not,” Armaan protested. “Rajiv and the girls are going to stay here with her overnight. We are coming with you.”

Vedant touched Mihir’s shoulder. “This is our fight too. You know that.”

“Alright then. Let’s go.”

“We’ll just go and tell the girls what’s happening,” Armaan said. “Wait here a moment.”

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