𝐔𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞: 𝐀 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐨 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲

Chapter 21

A U T H O R

Nikshant leaned back in his leather chair, tapping his pen rhythmically against the glass tabletop. His office—sleek, spotless, and pristine—mirrored the life he presented to the world. But beneath that perfectly polished surface was chaos. A violent storm of emotions he didn't know how to name, let alone confront.

It had been a month since the honeymoon. A month of forced normalcy, of shared spaces and stifled words. A month of pretending he didn't feel the fire eating away at him from the inside out.

That damn photograph.

It haunted him like a curse. Aaravi, his wife, captured in a moment far too intimate with another man. A smile on her face, too familiar. A closeness that made his heart clench and his fists tighten. He saw it every time he closed his eyes—etched behind his lids like a scar. Betrayal, framed in pixels.

And yet... underneath the rage, something else stirred. Something he didn't want to name.

A knock on the door broke through the silence. Before he could respond, Yash and Rishabh barged in like a storm of uninvited energy, collapsing onto his office couch with zero regard for his mood.

"Don't you two have jobs?" Nikshant muttered, not even trying to hide his irritation.

"Don't you have a wife?" Yash shot back with a smirk. "How's married life, mister broody?"

Nikshant's jaw clenched. His grip on the pen tightened until his knuckles turned white. He didn't respond—just spun the pen between his fingers like he was trying to hold his control together with it.

Rishabh raised a brow. "So, that bad, huh?"

"I can't talk about it until I understand it myself," Nikshant said, his voice low but loaded.

"You're going to drive yourself insane," Rishabh muttered. "You keep holding onto this... this storm inside you, and it's going to tear you apart, man."

"I can't let it go," Nikshant growled, snapping the pen in half without realizing it. The pieces fell to the table, then to the floor, and he exhaled sharply as if the sound alone could silence his thoughts. "You don't get it. There's too much going on."

Yash's tone softened. "Nikshant... do you know how you look at her?"

He blinked. "How do I look at her?"

"The way you look at her... it's like she's the only star in your sky," Rishabh added quietly.

Nikshant scoffed, but it was hollow, empty. "You don't know what you're talking about. Aaravi is—she's a mystery I can't solve. She hides pieces of herself, cries when she thinks I'm not listening. On our honeymoon, I heard her sobbing behind the bathroom door... saying things I couldn't understand. And Aaransh? He knows. He knows everything, but that man looks at me like I'm the villain in her story. He won't say a word."

Rishabh leaned in, brows furrowed. "You think it's Vikram Sachdeva?"

"There's something," Nikshant muttered, rubbing his temples. "Something twisted and dark that connects them. And until I find out what, I can't trust her completely. Then there's the photograph. Ravi's still investigating whether it's real or doctored, but until I know... every time I see her, I see that. That image. And I burn."

Yash's voice dropped to a whisper. "You don't hate her, Nikshant. That's not hate you're feeling. Maybe... it's love."

The words struck like a whip.

Nikshant shot up from his chair, his hands slamming down on the glass table with a thundering crack. His eyes burned with a mix of fury and desperation.