The Crimson Evidence
In the sterile, white silence of the hospital room, Nandini sat upright on the edge of the bed. The doctors had cleared her of any major injuries, but her mind was far from calm. She looked down at the "Color of Blood" saree draped over a chair. On the shoulder, there was a dark, dried stain.
It wasn't her blood. It was his.
She touched the fabric, her fingers trembling. A wave of confusing empathy washed over her. She had spent weeks insulting him, labeling him a "Heartless Chairman," and viewing him as a cold-blooded monster who tried to buy her dignity with a car. Yet, when the world literally exploded, he hadn't hesitated. He had jumped into the chaos to shield her, getting hurt in the process.
Why? she wondered. Why would a man who supposedly has no heart bleed for someone he barely knows?
The Impossible Logic
But as the empathy settled, a sharp, cold realization took its place. Anger began to simmer beneath her skin. She closed her eyes and replayed the moment of the explosion.
She remembered the roar of the water and the scream of the metal—and then, the silence. The absolute, terrifying silence where gravity seemed to die. She remembered looking up and seeing Aditya already there, moving through the air like a phantom.
Third floor, she thought, her grip tightening on the bedsheet. He was on the third-floor balcony. I saw him there just seconds before the pipe burst. No human—no matter how fast—could cover that distance and tackle me to the ground in a blink.
She thought about the crew members. When she had looked at Arka, he had been frozen like a statue in a museum. The water droplets had been hanging in the air like glass beads. None of it made sense. None of it followed the laws of the world she knew.
The Silent Vow
A nurse entered the room to check her vitals, followed by Arka, who looked exhausted and pale.
"Nandini? How are you feeling?" Arka asked, his voice full of genuine concern. "That was... a freak accident. The pressure in the old estate lines just gave way. You're lucky the Chairman was nearby to help."
Nandini looked at Arka. She saw the confusion in his eyes, but also a strange blankness—as if his brain had filled in the gaps of those missing seconds with a lie it could handle.
She opened her mouth to ask him: Did you see the world stop? Did you see him fly? But she stopped herself. If she spoke the truth, they would call her traumatized. Or worse, she would alert Aditya that she knew his secret.
"I'm fine, Arka," she said quietly, her voice steady despite the storm inside her. "The Chairman... he's certainly a man of many surprises."
She looked back at the bloodstain on the saree. She wouldn't ask questions. Not yet. But she would watch him. She would look for the "flicker" again. Because now she knew: Aditya De Cruz wasn't just a powerful man. He was something else entirely.