The Elite Bride ( I was enchanted to meet you, princess )

《 19. The Confrontation 》

R A G H A V E N D R A

I hated lying. Especially lying to hide the truth and now I just lied to Janaki about me being upset over a business deal. And it felt like I have been punched in my gut. I don't know but the text that I received yesterday night from that unknown number wasn't pleasant at all.

Everything was going good until that text popped up in my phone. I had fun with Janaki while I was with her the whole day. Her jealousy. The way she deliberately chose to wear the white saree despite knowing that I was going to wear a black tux, her little protest as acting defiant was what I liked. Knowing that she got jealous of my assistant showed me that she liked me enough to care about my involvement with women.

Then how I held her close on that highway where I assured her that's it's only her for me no one else. How I breathed her lavender scent that calmed my overtly anxious nerves so much that I wished to sink my nose in her hair forever.
Breathe her. Feel her.
Let her soothe me.
And how she applauded me when I received the Businessman of the Year Award showed that she is ready to be my companion, my life partner. She is prepared to be with me in all of what is to come.

And what did I do? I fucking lied to her. Because I couldn't gather the courage to tell her that my ex had texted me out of the blue like after silence of 8 years. The audacity of that woman to text me :

Have you forgotten me? You better not cause I am still not done with you.

Like yeah, she is not done with cheating on me. She isn't done with begging for apologies from me. She isn't done with propositioning Aditya. She isn't done with with .....
I have to shut my eyes from preventing the inflow of all those nasty memories. But they win.

The camera flashes of the reporters.

The culprit feels.

The disgusting questions.

The disgusting looks.

The defeated look in the eyes of my father from fighting for his 21 year old son who just couldn't man up, who was infatuated with a woman so much that he blindly let her destroy everything his whole bloodline has worked their asses off for.

God!! I was such a coward.

And how can I tell Janaki all of this? Like I don't think she will believe me and if she does she would definitely think of me as a coward. This all soured my mood so much that I couldn't look into her eyes. So I ignored her.

But thank the lord she didn't pry a lot. Otherwise the guilt and the shame would have been enough for me to jump off the building.

I get a text from Matteo saying that he would be attending tonight's ball.
For those who don't  know that he is a mafia, he is a hardworking Italian businesman who lives in India because apparently he finds India interesting. But for those who really know him like me and Adi, he is a mafia don who is in search of his twin sister Alessandra Bianchi who is missing since she was 7.

I had asked Janaki to accompany me so that I could show her around the hotel but she said that she doesn't have a dress for tonight's ball so I told her that I would send a suitable dress for her to which she agreed. Meanwhile, I decided to have a meeting with the manager and director of this branch and check if some issues have arose.
While Janaki stayed back in the room to binge watch some Korean series as she says 'I hardly have time to watch TV so I might as well drool over some Korean oppas'.
Which pissed me off! I didn't know her type was Korean men but then again they seem to be in trend.

After a long ass 2 hours meeting I quickly drive to a designer store called The Peacock and select an off-shoulder thigh slit golden dress for her.

I rode back to the hotel as it is already 4:30 and the ball starts at 7 sharp.