Author's pov-
Siara stood there, her spine straight, her face an impenetrable mask of calm. Her piercing eyes scanned the room, sharp and assessing, revealing nothing of the storm raging within.
Her cold demeanor was as unyielding as a fortress, giving no one even a sliver of insight into what she might be thinking or feeling.
The weight of Avyaan's words hung heavy in the air, suffocating everyone present. Yet, Siara remained composed, an enigma carved from ice. She didn't flinch, didn't blink, and certainly didn't crumble. If her heart was breaking, it gave no sound; if her mind was racing, her expression betrayed no hint of it.
Every person in the room held their breath, waiting for her to say something-anything. But she didn't. The silence she maintained was deafening, a stark contrast to the emotional storm raging around her. It wasn't indifference; it was restraint-calculated, deliberate restraint that only heightened the tension.
Her silence was not weakness; it was power. The room grew colder, not from the air but from the chilling presence of a woman who had mastered the art of concealing her pain behind an unbreakable façade.
This time Aryan started speaking. Aryan's voice cracked as he shouted, his tears falling freely, his composure shattered like fragile glass. Each word hit the room like a sledgehammer, carrying years of pain, confusion, and guilt. He took a step closer to Siara, his hands trembling as he gestured wildly. "I understand, Siara! I understand your anger. Maybe we deserved it! Maybe we failed you that day! But what I don't understand is why you didn't come back. You could have screamed at us, blamed us, slapped us across our faces for not listening to you, but you didn't. You disappeared, Siara! When we told you he was having a heart attack, Did you think about him? About how he begged us to bring you back when he was on the brink of dying?"
His voice broke again as he wiped his tears roughly with the back of his hand, his chest heaving.
"You were our first priority, Doll. Always. Don't you get that? Everything we did, every decision we made-it was for you. Yeah, we messed up that day. I get it. siblings fights, they do but they resolve it also. You used to yell at us when we stole your favorite books, or when we didn't let you win at cards. What happened to that Siara? The one who wouldn't let a single thing slide without shouting back? You should've come back and yelled at us, fixed it, anything-but no. You just left!WHY, HAA WHY???"
Aryan's voice dropped, thick with anguish. "Rey bhai...he lost his baby that day, Siara. His child wasn't even breathing when she was born. Do you understand? We were barely holding it together. How could we have thought practically in that moment? But even then, we were waiting for you the next day, hoping you'd walk through that door and everything would be okay again."
He took another step closer, his eyes searching hers, desperate and he yelled loud enough for the entire mansion to hear,"We've always been there for you. Always. And in the one moment when we needed you, where were you, Siara? WHERE WERE YOU?"
And then it happened-something no one in the room, not even in their wildest imaginations, could have anticipated. The moment that would forever alter the course of their lives. The walls of the Malhotra mansion bore witness to the storm that was unleashed, a storm so fierce it left everyone reeling.
Siara Malhotra snapped,
"SHUT UP, JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" she yelled, her voice thunderous, reverberating through the vast living room like a crack of lightning. Every single person froze, stunned into silence. The calm, cold, detached Siara they thought they knew was gone. In her place stood a woman aflame, her rage searing and palpable.
Before anyone could process what was happening, she practically charged at Aryan, her movements swift and deliberate. Her eyes, once devoid of emotion, now burned with a rage so intense it was terrifying. Her fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white, her jaw locked in sheer fury.
In the blink of an eye, Aryan was on the floor. The resounding sound of her slap echoed in the room like a gunshot, shocking everyone into stunned silence. Blood trickled from Aryan's lip where her hand had struck him. But she didn't stop there.
Before anyone could even think of intervening, Siara grabbed him by the collar, her grip unyielding. With sheer force, she hauled him back to his feet, her fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt. Her face was inches from his, her eyes blazing with unrestrained fury.
The younger clan exchanged wide-eyed glances, unsure whether to intervene or stay rooted in their places. Shivay made a slight movement to step forward, but Kabir grabbed his arm, shaking his head. No one dared interrupt the storm that was Siara Malhotra. Not now.
"You dare-" she hissed, her voice low, trembling with the intensity of her emotions. "You DARE to question me? To accuse me of abandoning you? After everything? After EVERYTHING?"
Her voice rose with every word, the raw, unfiltered anger in her tone shaking the very foundation of the room. Her expression was a tempest of rage, pain, and betrayal-a lethal combination that left Aryan and everyone else too stunned to respond.
Her chest heaved as she continued, her voice trembling but firm. "You want answers, Mr. Aryan Malhotra? You want to know why I didn't come back? Where the hell I was? YOU WILL GET YOUR ANSWERS, TODAY YOU ALL WILL GET YOUR ANSWERS but before that you," she looked around at all her brothers,"YOU, will answer my questions"
The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Everyone held their breath, waiting, bracing for what was about to come. This was no longer just a conversation. This was the breaking point. And every single soul in that room felt the weight of the storm that was about to hit.
"What did you just said, You all were always there for me, REALLY," and after saying this.............
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It happened-a single tear escaped, sliding down her cheek, glistening like a shard of broken glass in the dim light. Siara Malhotra cried.
It wasn't the quiet, restrained tears of sorrow, nor the muffled cries of someone seeking solace. It was raw, unbridled, and uncontainable. That single drop carried the weight of years-years of pain, betrayal, silence, and wounds too deep to heal.
In that moment, the infamous ice queen, the woman who seemed untouchable, invincible, shattered before their eyes. Her carefully constructed mask of cold detachment, of unshakable composure, crumbled into nothingness.
Her lips quivered as she fought to hold back the storm of emotions threatening to consume her. But it was too late. The dam had broken. She had held it all in for far too long, and now, the world was seeing the cracks in her armor-the raw, vulnerable Siara beneath the ice.
The room was frozen in stunned silence. No one dared to speak. No one dared to move. Because this was a moment none of them had ever imagined they would witness. Siara Malhotra, the woman who had faced storms without flinching, was breaking. And in her breaking, she was devastating them all.
Her grip on Aryan's collar tightened, her nails digging into the fabric as if trying to hold on to the fragments of her shattered soul. Her voice, trembling yet sharp, pierced the air like a blade. "Then... then where were you," she began, her tone breaking with raw emotion, "where were you when those f-four people drugged me?, WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU, when they touched your only sister with their filthy hands.
Her voice cracked, and her chest heaved as the memories clawed at her but her telling didn't stop,"Where were you... when they tied my hands behind me and... and touched me in places I can never forget? Where were you WHEN THEY FUCKING RAPED ME, haa where were you when they assaulted me the whole night, where were you when they took their turns on me, where were you when they raped me again and again, again and again until I passed out, m-m-maybe after that too."
Her knees threatened to buckle, but she refused to let go of Aryan. "Where were you... when I was thrown out of our home like trash? Where were you when I walked on that highway, ready to end it all?" Her voice dipped, shaking with anguish. "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS LYING ON THAT HOSPITAL STRETCHER... BARELY ALIVE? HAAA, TELL ME!"
Her words came in rapid, choked gasps now, each one dragging her deeper into the memories she had fought so hard to bury. "Where were you when they performed surgeries... after surgeries... to bring me back to life? W-when my body was refusing to respond, and the doctors didn't know if I would make it? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WENT INTO A COMA?"
Her sobs grew heavier, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably, but she didn't stop. She couldn't. "W-w-where were you when I woke up... after an entire year, waiting... hoping you'd come for me? WHERE WERE YOU, BHAI? HAA, TELL ME!" Her voice faltered as the tears blurred her vision. She stammered, choking on her own cries. "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I... I tried... I tried to end my life again, MR. ARYAN MALHOTRA" she whispered, her tone breaking, her strength slipping away. "where were you?"
Her cries filled the room, raw and unrelenting, a symphony of agony that silenced everyone. The weight of her pain, her brokenness, was too much for anyone to bear, and in that moment, it was as if the world itself had stopped to grieve with her.
But she didn't stop. Her grip on Aryan's collar tightened further as her voice rose again, trembling with rage and despair. "WHERE WERE YOU," she screamed, her words vibrating through the room, "WHEN I HAD MY FIRST ANXIETY ATTACK?"
Her breathing grew heavier, her chest rising and falling as she struggled to speak through the storm of her emotions. "WHERE WERE YOU... when I was dying every second, when I couldn't even breathe without feeling like I was choking?" Her voice cracked, her anguish cutting through every soul in the room like a knife.
Her trembling hand shot out, pointing directly at Mahir, her voice laced with fury and pain. "LOOK AT THAT MAN!" she yelled, her words striking like a thunderclap, silencing even the faintest murmur in the room.
"I NEVER HAD ANY EXPECTATIONS FROM HIM!" she continued, her voice cracking with raw emotion. "But you know what? HE WAS THERE!"
Her eyes bore into Aryan, her tears now a mix of anger and heartbreak. "HE WAS THERE WHEN I WAS HAVING ANOTHER ANXIETY ATTACK" she spat the word, her tone dripping with bitterness.
Her voice grew louder, more demanding. "BUT WHERE WERE YOU? HAA? WHERE WERE YOU? TELL ME!"
The room seemed to shrink under the weight of her accusations. Her pointed finger remained steady, her voice now trembling but unwavering.
"THE ONE PERSON I DIDN'T EXPECT ANYTHING FROM-HE WAS THERE WHEN BREATHING FELT THE MOST DIFFICULT TASK TO ME! BUT MY OWN BLOOD? MY BROTHERS? MY FAMILY? NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!"
Her words stabbed through the air, each one a dagger that left everyone in the room gasping for breath.
Siara stood there, her chest heaving with anger and pain, her eyes wild with a fury no one had ever seen before. She was looking like a storm of rage.
She took a slow, deliberate breath, then looked at every single person in the room, her gaze searing through them like fire. Her hands clenched at her sides as she spoke, her voice steady, but the weight of her words was unbearable.
"You all wanted to see the real Siara, right?" she asked, her tone biting, her eyes flashing like a storm.
She pointed to herself, her finger trembling with a mixture of rage and anguish. "Here, take a good look."
Her chest swelled with the force of her words as she continued, "This is Siara Malhotra shedding tears. This is Siara Malhotra, the one who was stripped of her dignity. This is the woman broken beyond repair."
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"You know the most important thing?" Siara cried out, her chest tightening with every word. "I don't even know who did that to me. I don't know how they look, except the eyes that haunted me, that still haunts me" Her voice quivered, She clutched her head as though trying to shut the memories out, but they were relentless.
Her pain was evident, radiating through her words, her shaking hands, and her inability to stop herself from falling apart. It was as though everything she'd buried deep inside her had finally risen to the surface, and there was no hiding it any longer. But does that mean, she will again become what she was? No, never because the past, the scars, the memories-they didn't define her.
She is the woman she chose to become. Dr. SIARA is not just a badge name, ITS HER IDENTITY.
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Hey readers â¤ï¸
Well, this was the chapter you all were waiting for. Hope you all like it.
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