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He looked around to see if anyone else was there in the room, and surprisingly, he was all alone. He walked closer to the bed and peeked at his father. He looked at the man on the bed with white bandages wrapped on every part of his body, and he did not look human.
He appeared like a robot in white. He looked around at the machines and wondered if they were making him stronger by converting him into a machine as he had seen in a movie.
Was this man even his father? There was nothing he could see that told him the still figure in front of him was his father. Did the ambulance people make a mistake? What if his father was still lying on the side of the road where the accident happened in a pool of blood waiting to be rescued?
Rana’s eyes shot open, and it took him a moment to figure out he was in his room on campus. It was dark out like the sadness that had cocooned him for years, and it was now threatening to come back.
It had to be because of her. She needed to go. Not be in his sight. If she didn't get out of his sight, then he would make her, and it won’t be pain-free. He lay on the bed, his chest heaving from what he saw in his sleep.
Unable to fall back asleep, he sat up, unable to push away the feeling that was starting to consume him. The fear of what would happen next. The unbearable thought that he might never be able to talk to his dad.
Every one of those emotions invaded his childhood until his mother intervened. She was so busy taking care of her father that he was separated from his parents and grew up with his grandparents.
The anxiety and anger became the only emotions he had, and he had become a problem child at school. He would beat up kids and destroy their things for absolutely no reason. It was an outlet for his emotions is what the pediatric psychologist had said when he was taken to the hospital after getting into a fight with a student four grades ahead of him.
He was brought back from his grandparents after his father returned home. But that angered him more because his father laid in bed for years, then sat in a wheelchair, and only a few years ago started walking with a walker.
His mother had turned into a machine between taking care of his father, the businesses, and him, a child with deep depression and anger-management issues.
Years later and after hours of training in martial arts, Rana was social again. He was homeschooled, his only interaction with kids being with his cousins, Ved and Abhi. His best friends.
Now, just when he had started to figure out his life and focus on things, a conniving rival showed up to trick him? No way in hell.
I’ll show her hell.
Chapter 10
A few days later…
Rana drove his bike into his designated parking spot. It was late at night, but he wanted to clear his mind. He had woken up in the middle of the night thinking of Nami and needed to shake away the thoughts. The long drive where his thoughts were drowned in the engine’s roar and lost in the dust helped.
He walked away from his motorbike toward the stairs that led to the housing units. He was on the last step when he heard a squeaking noise. He stopped and looked in the direction of the sound but didn’t see anything immediately.
Just as he was about to look away, he saw the movement in the shadows. It was a person moving along the walls of the parking area where cars were parked. The space was dimly lit at that time of the night, and Rana watched as he pulled out his phone to alert the campus security.
It was impossible for any intruder to be inside the campus at any time, so it had to be a student. Giving the person the benefit of doubt, Rana held off on calling the security. He didn’t want to startle them by making his presence known so he stood still, wondering what the person was up to.
Rana watched as the person dressed in all black with a hoodie pulled all the way down and a mask covering their face stepped into the light, their eyes looking at a security camera. He was filled with intrigue when he realized the student was moving along the blind spots.
Smart!
As he stood rooted to his spot, he could not wait to see what the person was up to, but something about the student’s posture and the way they moved with a small bag, he could tell it was a girl. What was she doing in a parking lot at that time of night? Was that a secret rendezvous spot to meet her boyfriend?
Just as he was going through all the possibilities, he kept his eyes on the person and her movements. The girl walked past some of the parked cars and stopped at a light blue one. He had not seen the car on campus before so it must be new. He was curious about the person’s intention as she peeked into the driver’s side window.
Checking if the car alarm is turned on? What does she want to do?
What she did next made his jaw drop. The girl pulled out eggs from her backpack and held them in her hands for a long moment as if contemplating her choice. The next moment, the eggs were cracked against each other and dropped on the car’s hood.
What the heck?
Rana watched in sheer disbelief as the person cracked one raw egg after another that she carried in her backpack. And every time she broke an egg and layered it on the hood of the light blue car, they were placed carefully so the nearby cars didn’t get splashed. He shook his head, half a smile on his face when he realized this girl was vandalizing someone’s car, knowing how raw egg could damage the paint on the car within hours.
Genius!
Torn between stopping her and minding his own business, he was about to look away and leave the scene when something caught his eye. The girl pulled up her sleeve when some of the egg splashed on it, and that’s when he caught sight of the watch she had on—a man’s watch and an extremely familiar one.
Only one person he knew wore a classic men’s watch. Namrata Varma.
