"What did you want to talk about?"

I turned my head when I heard the familiar voice of the person I had grown to hate the most in my life. Mahek Rathi.

She was dressed in a black, off-shoulder bowtie strap dress, accompanied by matching clutch and stilleto heels. Her brown hair was tied in a high ponytail while some strands fell loosely around her face. She looked like a doll. A fake doll.

She came and sat in front of me. She put her clutch and phone on the table and crossed her legs. She examined her nails and eyed me curiously.

"Do you want to drink something first?" I asked.

"Get straight to the point, will ya?" she hissed and checked her appearance in her phone.

"Why are you in such a hurry? Going on a date with your boyfriend? Or should I say boyfriends?" I taunted.

She snapped her eyes at me and put her phone down.

"So, which one is it this time?" I provoked.

"What do you mean?" she stressed her words.

"You tell me. Who is it today? Aditya? Rahul? Uday? Or Kunal?"

Mahek clenched her jaw and fisted her hands on the table. She stared me down with her piercing gaze but I just sipped my tea and smirked at her.

"I don't know what you are talking about," she faked negligence.

"Right. I forgot how small your brain is. My mistake. Here, let me show you." I picked up my phone and opened the gallery app.

I turned the screen towards her and showed her some photos I had collected against her. I put the phone to my side and told her that I had video evidences too. She huffed and gave me a death glare.

"You know why I asked you to meet me?" I asked.

"I know. You just want to blackmail me, don't you? Remember, Sandhya. I will not leave Shree even if you threaten me."

"Hey, you moron. I am not talking about him and stop saying that bullshit already. I am here to warn you. I have the evidences against you and you can do nothing about it. You are trapped. But I wanted to know something else too."

"What?"

"Is someone forcing you to do all of this? If you answer me honestly, then I will not expose you. I am giving you an option here. That's why I called you today to meet me. If you tell me everything, I will help you. But if you won't co-operate, I will have to take this step. You understand me?" I explained.

She stared at me in confusion and I reaffirmed what I just told her. I wanted to know her side of the story and what was the actual reason behind her actions.

She reclined back in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest. She glanced around her and when her eyes landed back on me, she smirked.

"What if I don't want to tell you?" she said arrogantly and tilted her head.

"Are you serious right now? This is not a joke, Mahek. I am talking about your own benefit," I yelled.

"You have no right to interfere in my life. What I do is none of your concern. And I am not afraid of you. As for Shree, I will take care of him. He is my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend, my foot."

"Are you jealous? Don't worry, I will not tell him about this." She winked and picked up her clutch and phone.

"Where do you think you are going?" I asked as she got up from her seat.

"I am getting late for my date. Bye Sandhya~" she sang and blew a flying kiss at me.

This bitch!

I snapped up from my seat and grabbed her wrist. She turned around and tried to free herself but I kept my firm grip on her.

"I am not done yet," I seethed.

"Leave me, you bitch. Didn't I warn you to not mess around with me? Let me go or the consequences won't be good," she challenged.

"What the fuck are you taking about? What you gonna do, huh?" I taunted.

"HELP! Someone help! This girl is harassing me!" she cried and snatched her hand away. Soon, we got surrounded by few customers and employees.

"I know you are pulling an act now, so you better stop it," I warned her.

A waiter came and tried to drag me away but I pushed him off lightly. Mahek started crying loudly and began shouting how I was threatening her and would harm her if she didn't listen to me.

"What's going on here?" A man in a black suit came through the small crowd.

"You are the manager, right? Is this how you run this place? I am going to the police to file a complaint," Mahek threatened him.

"Please madam, calm down," he panicked and turned towards me. "Please mam. Don't create a scene here. If there is any personal issue between you two, I request you to solve it outside. There are other customers too."

"She harassed me and that's all you gonna say to her. You know what? Just wait. You don't know who I am. I will shut this place down," Mahek bellowed.

"Stop over reacting, Mahek!" I growled.

She flinched a bit and glanced around her. She waited for few seconds and started wailing. I so wanted to punch her and drag her outside to solve our matter. She was so refined in her act that no one doubted her.

I took a step towards her but halted when I heard a familiar name slip out from the manager's mouth.

"Ved Sir!"

I froze at my spot and Mahek's reaction was the same. I was shocked but Mahek had a devilish grin on her face; she looked like a psychopath.

"What's the problem?" Ved asked as he came towards us and observed the situation.

He glanced between Mahek and me before his gaze settled on me. He told other customers to relax and go back to their seats. He also assured the manager, who was hyperventilating and seemed like he would have a panic attack any second now.

"Sir, this girl assaulted this madam here," one of the waiters spoke up and pointed his finger at me and then at Mahek.

"Excuse me? I didn't assault her," I defended.

I knew I had grabbed Mahek's hand but the grip was firm. I was not intending on hurting her though I felt like murdering her.

"Did you see it?" Ved enquired, his steel gaze still on me.

The waiter nodded in response and told him how I had stopped Mahek when she was leaving and wouldn't let her go when she was struggling to get away from me.

"Ved, she hurt me." Mahek sobbed and went closer to Ved.

"Madam is telling the truth, Sir. I saw it," another waiter spoke up.

"And she tried to stop me too when I interfered. I was just helping this madam and she pushed me off harshly," the employee who had earlier tried to help Mahek added.

"Why are you here, Sandhya?" Ved asked in a cold tone.

"She called me here to threaten me that she will hurt me if I didn't break up with Shree. She purposely called me alone here and blackmailed me too," Mahek lied and grabbed Ved's right arm.

"What? I never said that!" I retorted.

"She is a liar, Ved. Trust me," she added and hugged his arm.

I noticed Ved tense a bit but he didn't say anything to her. Why did everyone always sided with her? Couldn't they see she was acting for goodness sake?

"Stop lying already!" I shouted at her and she faked getting scared and hid behind Ved.

"Leave," Ved stated.

"What?"

"Leave right now, Sandhya."

"I won't. I didn't do anything wrong." I fisted my hands.

Why was he ordering me around?

"There's no way I would tolerate such behaviour here. I let you off the other day but this time, you hurt my employees. I won't let it slide so easily. This is my last warning, so you better get out of here," he warned.

His employees? Oh, just great. He owned this place too? What a great timing!

I pursed my lips and glanced at Mahek. She was still crying and using Ved as a support. Everyone was on her side and now that Ved was here, there was no way he was going to let me near her.

"OUT!" Ved boomed.

I gritted my teeth, and grabbed my bag and phone.

"Fuck my luck," I mumbled as I pushed past them and stormed out of the cafe.

I quickly hailed an auto and got in. Argh! I was so angry. I wanted to hit something so badly. If Ved hadn't arrived there, I would have seriously punched that bitch.

And Ved? He had to be the owner of that cafe?! Damn it!

My temper rose and I guided the auto driver to take the rickshaw to Rajeev's gym. I needed to cool down before I murdered someone. Surprisingly, I wasn't angry on Ved because he was right in his place. If I was in his shoes, I would have also trusted my workers' words instead of the person I hated.

I ran up the stairs of the building as soon as I got down from the rickshaw and entered the gym. There was still time before the place closed down for the day, so I pushed past Dhruv who tried to stop me and asked me what I was doing here.

I ignored him and went in the girls' changing room. I removed my current clothes and got dressed in my gym clothes. I tied my hair in a tight bun and put on my boxing gloves. I went out of the room and grabbed the first punching bag I saw.

Punch, punch, kick, punch, kick, kick!

I imagined the punching bag as Mahek and increased the tempo of my hits.

"I will fucking kill her!" I shouted and kicked.

I was so enraged that I thought my brain would explode. I had a serious problem with controlling my temper since I was a kid which landed me in quite a good share of fights during school time. I was aware of how bad it could be when I lost it and was really thankful to Rajeev, who had taught me how to channel my anger.

I continued my onslaught on the sack as I cursed alongwith it. There were few other gym members who were practicing too and they only yelled more curse words for me to use.

"What got into her?" I heard Dhruv ask as Rajeev came out of his cabin.

"I don't know but her moves have improved," Rajeev commented.

"You okay, kid?" he asked.

I just nodded in response and punched the bag with full force. After few more hits, I stopped and slumped down on the floor.

"This was a new one, man," Dhruv complained as he checked the sack.

"Broke up with your boyfriend?" he mocked.

"If you won't shut up, I will break your bones instead," I deadpanned.

"What did you say?!" He moved towards me but Rajeev stopped him.

He dragged his pissed off cousin away and that was the signal for me that I could murder the newly bought punching bag.

There was just one tiny problem. I would have preferred if it was Mahek.