Chapter 10

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 16:39:18 +0000

The car rattles along NH-44, every pothole jarring my spine. The morning sun is already a white-hot blade slicing through the dusty windshield. I sit pressed against the left rear door, as far from Devraj as the car allows, but it’s still not far enough.My throat is on fire. Raw, scraped, swollen. The taste of him...salty, thick, faintly bitter coats the back of my tongue no matter how many times I swallow. I keep trying anyway, discreetly, like someone trying to dislodge a fishbone no one else can see.I catch my reflection in the rearview mirror and flinch. My hair is pulled back so tightly my scalp aches; there’s a thin red line just above my collarbone where his stubble burned me last night. I shift the dupatta higher. Devraj's eyes flick up to the mirror at the exact same second. As if he has radar for my movements. As if he's always watching, always calculating.