Hellooo 😊 here's an os requested by Ankita. Takes place after Jeevika tells Viren she killed Karan.
Viren sat back on the bed, his legs unsteady at his wife's revelation.
Jeevika stood before him, with trembling hands.
How many times had he convicted criminals for murder? He recognized the posture, the fear, and the guilt. Never had he thought he would see it in his wife, his beautiful, sweet, innocent Jeevika. And none of it had been truly her fault. Because if anything, he could see her bravery and her love for her sister.
The muscles in his arms tensed as he thought of how they had been so deceived by Karan. Of what he had tried to do to Jeevika...what he almost did...
"V-Virenji," she whispered, wringing the material of her salwar tightly. Was he disgusted by her, now that he knew what she was? She had killed someone. Shot him down. She was tainted with blood. And now Virat would pay for her actions. "Virenji, you need to take me to the jail. Tell them that it wasn't Virat, it was me."
"No, no..." he shook his head, putting his face into his hands, but he knew his mind was clouded by desperation and his love for her. How could he see her behind bars? But, he couldn't have his own brother suffer for a crime he hadn't committed either.
She knelt down before him and pulled his hands away from his face, "Virenji," her voice was stronger now, "He's innocent. I'm guilty. I am a murderer."
He caught her face in his hands, "You only did it to save Manvi. What crime did you commit?"
"The court won't see it that way," she said softly, "I killed him."
"I'll find a way out of this, I promise."
They were empty words and she knew it.
"You can't leave me," he whispered, "I won't leave you." He closed his eyes, resting his forehead against hers, but there was no peace to be found.
"You have to," she told him, tears falling from her eyes.
He kissed them away, "No, no, no..."
His cheeks were wet. Were those her tears or his? He didn't know because he didn't know where he began and she ended. Who was he without her? She was his first and his last. His beginning and his end. Life started with her and ended with her. And if she ended, he ended too.
She pulled back and her eyes burned into him, as though memorizing the contours of his face with every fibre of her being. "You need to let me go."
"How can I let you go? You are me." He closed his eyes, "I know you better than I know myself," his fingers swept up her neck, "You're always straining yourself in order to help others..." he traced the curve of her ear, "You prefer to listen than to speak, you listen to the sound of another's pain and ignore your own..." her temple, "You're wise, yet innocent," he brushed upon her closed eyelids, his touch gossamer-light, "You see everything. My happiness, my pain, I can't hide anything from you," his finger drifted down her nose to her lips, "You speak only the truth. Your conscience will never let you escape with a lie."
"And that is why I can't hide. I have to tell them the truth. Virenji, Virat's not just your brother...he's a husband and a son...this isn't your decision to make."
"Give me some time...please..." he had to do something, something that would free both his wife and his brother. He just didn't know what he could do. Never before, had he felt so powerless in his life.
"I know you, as well as you know me," she said softly. She placed her hand over his heart, "This. You have the largest heart of any man. And that is why you need to make the choice that helps the many over the one."
"How can I, when you're the one. This," his hand covered hers, over his heart, "is yours and no other's. What crime did you commit? If you hadn't killed him, he would have killed you and Manvi."
"But I'm still guilty as charged. You know. You're a lawyer. How many criminals have you convicted for murder? You know there is no escape for me, no matter my reasons for killing him," she told him. Her eyes suddenly closed tightly and her face contorted in pain and fear.
She was suspended in memory. Karan holding the gun to Manvi's head. Pushing her to the floor, when she tried to stop him. Telling them both of his plans in gruesome delight. And then she held the gun and Karan told her to shoot him. The utter disbelief in his eyes. She hadn't thought she could possibly kill him, herself. But, she had. In a split second, the gun had fired, blood bloomed from his chest and he fell, with shock in his eyes that mirrored her own.
"Jeevika? Jeevika!" Viren shook her slightly and she came back to reality with a terrified gasp.
Karan. That man, that snake, he had done this. He had tortured his wife and even now, in death, he tortured them still. Viren pulled Jeevika towards him by her shoulder and she winced in pain.
"Jeevika? What happened?" he demanded anxiously, pulling the sleeve of her salwar downwards. There was a bruise. His jaw clenched. "He did this?"
She nodded.
He opened the drawer of his dresser and pulled out a tube of Neosporin. He sat down on the bed next to her, pulling her sleeve down again, but before he applied the cream, he kissed her there, very gently. "Did he touch you anywhere else?"
"He tried...Manvi slapped him, before he could."
Viren was furious, shoulders tense, as he smeared the cream as softly as possible to the bruise on her skin. "If you hadn't killed him, I certainly would have."
She covered his mouth with her hand, eyes wide with fear, "Virenji, don't say such things!"
"I'm sorry," he inwardly cursed himself. She was already so emotionally in distress, how could he hurt her more with words spoken so without thought. She didn't want him in her position anymore than he wanted her in hers.
He pulled her closely in his arms, "It was my fault, I should have realized what he was sooner. I knew there was something not quite right about him, but I still did nothing-"
"This is no one's fault but mine. I killed him...I killed him...I killed him..." she repeated her words in a sort of mantra and he hushed her, stroking her hair back and holding her in his lap as though she was a child. How he wished he could protect her like one.
He carried her to bed, tucked her under the covers, all the while she clung to him and he to her. "I need some time," he murmured, unsure of whether he was attempting to convince her or himself.
She managed to utter in shaky breaths, "You can't let your love for me cloud your judgment."
"Yes, I love you!" he said fiercely, "I can't leave you!"
"It's a crime to shield the one who's guilty," she whispered.
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