Unwanted [COMPLETED]

Chapter 12

Vikrant

Hanging up the phone, I wait for Manish to enter my office.

It has been three days since I told him to find out everything about Nandini.

That reaction from her is still bugging me, and I wonder if that day, I pressed a nerve related to something painful from her past.

"I won't tolerate it if you ever try to touch or even come close to me without my consent."

"I won't ever let anyone take advantage of me again."

These two sentences she had spoken at that time have been repeatedly playing in my mind. And the way she said it, I feel there is a story behind it.

It isn't that I have left everything for the investigator to find out. I had tried speaking with her.

Seeing her crying in the garden pulled some strings in my heart, which surprised me. The protectiveness I felt toward her at that moment was uncalled for, and I have been trying to deny it ever since.

I don't even know this girl. She means nothing to me except for being the girl I married to get back on Myra and Raghav.

So, why does her sad face repeatedly flash behind my closed eyelids whenever I close my eyes? Why, on seeing her sad face, do I feel like reassuring her that everything will be okay?

After taking her inside the house that night, I asked her why she reacted the way she did, and I did it as gently and calmly as I could, but she didn't reply. In fact, her only response was she was too tired and wanted to forget about it.

The way she spoke then made me feel like she was not just referring to the tiredness from the events of that day. It was like she was tired of everything she had gone through for the years, and that made me even more curious.

Maybe that's the reason. I'm curious to know about her and why she behaved that way. Perhaps that's why I'm thinking so much about her these days.

*****

Nandini

Taking the blanket off me, I climb down from the bed, and getting a change of clothes from the cupboard, I head to the bathroom to take a shower, hoping it will wash off the exhaustion of the last few days from my mind and body.

It has been exactly three days since my breakdown in the garden, and I have been down with a fever since the morning following that night.

I can't believe I'm even thinking this, but I'm grateful to Vikrant for understanding my turmoil at that time.

Yes, I'm still angry at him for ruining my life, but I also agree that his being with me then had given me a bit of reassurance. Perhaps it was because I was too shaken to be alone at that moment.

Handling everything alone every time had brought me to the brink of exhaustion, so Vikrant's support that night felt reassuring.

Still, the following day, I felt terrible for being so weak. I felt awful because I allowed myself to depend on the person who had made it clear that I had no place in his life.

Expecting affection from my parents used to give me too much grief, and that's why I have learned not to make the same mistake again.

That's why I refused Vikrant when he offered to be with me the following day. Instead, I asked him if I could have that day off from the office because I wanted to be alone.

I had fully expected him to criticize me for that because it had just been my second day working in his office. On the first day, I ran out of his office before the working hours were over, and on the second day, I was asking for a leave. I even expected him to fire me on the spot.