"Your savior."
"Huhh?"
With large strides, he came in front of her and leaned over her face. His overbearing attitude made him look like a king and made her feel more intimidated.
A hoarse voice fell into the silent room as his lips parted.
"Yesterday, you broke the signal and came in front of my car in the middle of the road. My driver stepped on the break on right time but you seemed to be in complete shock. So you fainted. We admitted you here and…"
Steven paused for a second before continuing, "Doctors said that if you were anymore late then your heart could stop pounding due to the shock you felt."
Mantisha was dumbfounded. She just remembered that she was going to cross the road, then a pair of lights approached her in a lightening speed. And it seemed like the signal changed earlier, but she was in a daze due to the incidents happened earlier, and that person, Matteo De Sica's last words to her. Yesterday, it was so eventful like she spent a decade in a day, so she could not notice the signal at all.
But then for a split second, why did he seem a little guilty?
She looked at his face again, but couldn't find any trace of emotions. What she did not notice is somehow this made her a little unhappy in her heart.
'He doesn't need to be so cold right? Atleast he could ask me how am I doing but he is just, blaming me all along. But still, he saved me.'
"I saved you. Now you owe me one." He said with a cold, stern voice.
"Thank you for saving me. I would not forget your kindness, ever." Mantisha bowed her head to show her sincerity. "I won't go for any materialistic things to show you my sincerity, cause you are one of the wealthiest families, and you don't lack anything. But I will remember this, and if I ever get a chance to pay for it, I will go beyond my ability to help you for it."
Steven's throat tightened. He knew this voice, this stern voice. She was saying in genuinely.
His breathing was becoming quicker as he felt his most anticipated moment was coming over.
For the entire night, he had planned many ways to convince her to stay with him. But every reasons seemed shallow. Then he thought of this and planned to give it a try. Nobody knew better than him how stubborn she was. So he had to do it.
He decided to burden her with her morality and blackmail her a little. If he managed to convince her then he would have plenty of time to say the truth and ask for her forgiveness.
He knew that it was wrong but... Nevertheless, he had to do something. He could not just fold his arms and watch her being tormented or worse, die.
In order to save her and her secrets, which she protected with her life, he needed to take precautions.
He planned the first one to be to recover his eyesight fully, then persuade her to stay close to him.
But after witnessing what happened yesterday, and her being tormented in her dreams, he felt like his plans needed to be reversed.
That's why when he heard her muttering Anna Akhmatova's poetry in her half awaken state, he understood that she was having visions of them together.
And if he was not wrong then that incident happened on their last meeting. He did not know that would be his last goodbye kiss to her.
Steven's jaw clenched at the thought of her sitting in a wheelchair, not saying anything other than smiling like a lone tulip surrounded by snow. He was a little upset that she did not bid him good bye, completely oblivious of the fact that she was upset because of his last meeting with his first love.
He did not get the cance to say that he had already ended everything with her, and the last time was her plan to convince him to marry her.
After Mantisha's death on his last life, he got to know that she misunderstood him, and like a foolish, she prepared herself mentally to sacrifice herself in order to protect whatever that secret behold.
Steven was in a panic not to let her remember more than she already did, so he just started reciting the last part of that poetry, then started spouting whatever came into his mind, particularly targeting her soft corner.
He knew that she would react if she was teased about her height or being drunk. To his relief, she did.
But now, he was going to say the thing he was preparing for so long. After almost four decades, he was going to take the first step of being together with her.
He took a deep breath, and asked, "Are you sure?"
Mantisha nodded sincerely. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Then be with me."