Arranged Marriage to Kill Him

Chapter 15 : Seduction

"Don't see her," Ahanay said, swirling a glass of golden whisky and gazing out of the window at the view of Worli ceiling. His girlfriend, Priya, remained silent. "You should have dropped the phone here."

"When are you going to kill her?"

"Soon," he said, bringing the glass to his lips to wash away the distaste that the word "soon" had left on his tongue. He thought that avoiding Naina would work, that disappearing before she opened her eyes could solve all his problems. Boy, was he wrong.

He had gone on business trips to Paris and San Francisco where he could have sent his assistant, but those trips were supposed to be an escape for him. Little did he know, his wife had found a cushy spot in his mind that she refused to leave, driving away his sanity. Every moment, be it in the plane or near the Eiffel tower, she travelled with him in his mind, eating croissants next to him with crumbs falling all over or slurping a Dr. Pepper till she burped.

Once, as he stooped to kiss her forehead in her sleep, he considered carrying her to one of his business trips for real.

"I should kill her soon," he reminded himself, despite recalling how different her hair had smelled when he had kissed her forehead. Something earthy like leaves and oxygen. How innocent she had looked in her sleep . . .

"How?"

"Seduction."

* * *

Ahanay couldn't stand business trips anymore. As the CEO, he had always worked smart, not hard. Yet this time, he threw himself into work that he could have handed to his subordinates, to distract himself from the tiny thing that snored in his room. But he had to kill her too, for that, he needed to be closer to her.

He could finish her within a snap of his fingers, but he knew that the dirty paparazzi and his rivals would dig anything to frame him and push him into a scandal. Besides, the investment committee would lose trust in him if anything suspicious happened and his bastard of a father wouldn't hand him the company. He had to convince everyone, including her, that he was in love with her so when she visited heaven, nobody would catch him as the conductor who filed her the heaven tickets. For that, seduction was the easiest route.

Food. Sleep. Sex. Naina got plenty of the first two, but none of the last and it was only natural for her to want that too. After all, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Ahanay had forgotten another need that sat at the top of Naina's hierarchy of needs : money.

As he entered their home, feeling his heart pick up its pace at the thought of seeing her, the butler announced, "Madam is not at home."

"What do you mean?" He frowned and even the butler thought that he looked handsome while frowning.

The butler leaned forward to whisper and Ahanay had to stoop down to hear him, "She went out with a man."

"A man?"

"Yes." The butler nodded gravely. "He was as tall as you, as handsome as you."

"As handsome as me?" Ahanay caught his reflection on the shining floor before clearing his throat. "It must have been her brother."

"She doesn't have one, sir."

"A cousin."

"Cousins can marry each other in her community, sir."

"She's married to me," he growled and the butler bowed, hiding his cheeky smile. "Where did she go?"

"She didn't tell---"

"Of course, she didn't." Clenching his fists, Ahanay strode towards his secret dungeon and slammed the door so hard that the entire house shook as if an earthquake was summoned.