Estranged lovers

Chapter 29

SIDDHARTH

As Siddharth walks back into the room, he finds Annika sitting up in bed, her face pale but composed. He notices how she's avoiding his gaze, the way her shoulders are stiff, as if she's trying to put up some invisible wall between them.

He feels a pang of frustration, but he doesn't show it. Instead, he stands by the door, crossing his arms, his expression cold.

Why the hell do i care?

He watches her in silence for a moment, the atmosphere thick with unspoken words. He doesn't understand why he's still thinking about her. She's just a woman he barely knows, just his wife by name, an arrangement to satisfy the conditions of the agreement.

But every time he looks at her, his chest tightens, like there's something pulling at him that he can't control.

"Are you feeling better?" he asks, his voice colder than he intended, but he doesn't soften it. He can't afford to.

Annika doesn't meet his gaze, her hands nervously fiddling with the blanket. 

"Yes," she replies softly, the word barely above a whisper.

Siddharth stares at her for a moment longer, then looks away, running a hand through his hair, his frustration growing. He can't get her out of his head, and he hates that.

"Good. Get some rest. I'll ask someone to bring your lunch and dinner in room." he says as he leaves

As he walks down the hall, he's consumed by an urge to do something, anything, to make sure she's really okay, but he fights it back. His brain tells him to distance himself. His heart, however, isn't listening.

ANNIKA

"Good. Get some rest. I'll ask someone to bring your lunch and dinner in room." these words lacked warmth. They didn't hold any meaning. They were just words that were said for the sake of it.

What did I even expect? It's better this way. 

Annika sat in the room, as the time goes by, the silence starts wrapping around her like a suffocating blanket. Her mind raced, the same thoughts looping again and again. She couldn't escape the image of the envelope Poonam had handed her. She could still feel the weight of it, the cold, cruel weight of the threat it held.

Her pulse quickened as her mind drifted back to that moment in the hallway. The feel of Poonam's hand on her shoulder, the mocking tone in her voice. 

She tried to push it away, to force her mind to focus on the present. But the images kept intruding. Pictures of her younger self, the innocence of the little girl she once was, tainted.

The memories of his hands, his voice, everything so vivid, so raw. Her body tensed, and a cold sweat broke out on her skin. That monster.

No. Not now. Not again. I can't let this happen.

Her heart was pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. The thought of Siddharth seeing those pictures, of him knowing the truth, it was unbearable. It wasn't just the shame of what happened, but the fear of him seeing her as broken, as nothing more than the victim of a tragedy that had scarred her forever.

Annika had worked so hard to bury that part of herself, to rebuild and convince herself that she could be normal again, that she could live a life without being haunted by the memories. But now. 

now the past was creeping in on her, threatening to drag her back into the darkness.

She couldn't let it happen. She couldn't let Siddharth find out. The thought of him looking at her with pity, with disgust—she couldn't bear it.