LOVE OR ARRANGED - 2

CHAPTER-6

At the office, Viraj was in damage control mode. For the next several weeks, he worked around the clock, pouring every ounce of energy into saving the deal. He called emergency meetings, negotiated with investors, and spent sleepless nights reworking the proposal. His absence at home grew longer, and the distance between him and Ananya widened once more.

She tried to reach out, sending messages of support, but Viraj remained distant, too consumed by the pressure to respond. He used to come late night and left even before the dawn and Ananya didn't even see him for almost three weeks. It felt life was easier when they were apart from each other for four years in a long-distance relationship as they atleast communicated properly, but now it all seemed even more tough to her as he wasn't even reachable on calls.

Ananya, left alone in their home again, found herself reliving the pain of the early days of their marriage—the loneliness, the isolation, the feeling of being invisible in Viraj's world. But this time, something inside her shifted. She realized that as much as she loved Viraj, she couldn't continue to live like this. She needed him, but more importantly, she needed him to understand that love couldn't survive on neglect. She felt isolated, suffocated and abandoned in their lavish mansion with nobody to talk.

Weeks later, after what seemed like an eternity, Viraj managed to turn things around at work. The investors returned, the deal was salvaged, and the company breathed a sigh of relief. Viraj's father praised him for his efforts, and the crisis was averted. But instead of feeling victorious, Viraj felt empty.

As he sat in his office late that night, staring at the city lights through the window, the weight of what he had lost in the process hit him. He had saved the company, but once again, he had sacrificed his marriage. His thoughts drifted to Ananya—her words, her tears, her presence that he had pushed away.

He came home that night, hoping to find her waiting for him, but the house was quiet. Ananya wasn't there. On the kitchen counter, he found a note:

"Viraj, I love you, but I can't keep waiting for you to choose us over everything else. Please decide what matters more. Kindly figure it out for us. It's really suffocating me to live a lonely life like this."

The words hit him harder than any failure at work ever could. He realized, in that moment, that fixing the deal had cost him something far more important—his relationship with the woman he loved.

And now, as Viraj stood alone in their once warm, bustling home, he was faced with a new challenge—one that couldn't be solved in a boardroom or through negotiation. He had to win back the trust, the love, and the partnership he had so carelessly jeopardized. This time, the stakes were even higher, and the solution wasn't found in saving a business—but in saving his marriage.

After cleaning himself in the guest bedroom, he tiredly moved towards their room and saw Ananya sleeping hugging herself, wrapped in his shirt. His heart leapt in happiness that she didn't leave him and go anywhere, but it ached at the same time seeing her wrapped in his shirt to feel his presence, which he couldn't provide her with all these weeks.

He roughly ran his hands through his hair, not knowing how to handle things altogether without hurting Ananya. It's been too much pressure on him, but unknowingly he is pushing her into taking the pressure along with him, which she didn't deserve at this moment. What gnawed at him was how she never shouted on him, no matter what he did. Just as he was about to move towards her, he receives a call from one of his business partners in London, Dheeraj.

He rushes out to take the call, so that Ananya's sleep won't be disturbed. As he answers the call, "Hey, Dheeraj. How are you, is everything fine? Why are you calling this late?" As Dheeraj spoke from the other end, Viraj's eyes widened in shock and he replied, "I'll take the first flight to Delhi tomorrow morning, don't worry."