Estranged lovers

Chapter 36

SIDDHARTH'S POV

The following days were a quiet tension in the house. They barely crossed paths in office.

Annika hadn't spoken much since that night. She had retreated deeper into herself, her distance almost palpable. It was as if she were trying to rebuild the walls she'd cracked open in that raw, vulnerable moment.

And Siddharth couldn't blame her. He didn't know how to handle what had happened either. That sudden unraveling of her past, the terror she'd lived through.... it had shattered something inside him.

It made him want to break everything around him just to make it right, to fix what had been so wrong for her.

But the cold distance that had come between them again... it was suffocating. She was still avoiding him, still keeping him at arm's length. He hated it.

But he hated more the thought of pushing her further away.

She needed space, And he had given it to her. An entire fucking week. Now it was becoming difficult.

He spent most of the days working, his focus intense, trying to keep his mind from circling back to the darkness in her eyes, the fear that clung to her like a second skin. But when the night came, and he returned home to that silence, it became impossible to ignore.

He needed to do something, anything, to break this cycle they were stuck in. The contract between them, the cold rules they lived by, it wasn't enough anymore. And yet, even after everything they had shared, he couldn't bring himself to cross the final line.

To claim something real, to demand more from her than what she was willing to give.

ANNIKA'S POV

The days that followed were like walking through a fog.

Day 1

Annika tried, and failed, to go back to some semblance of normality. It wasn't just the memories of her uncle, or the vulnerability she had shown to Siddharth, that weighed her down..... it was the sense of disconnection that began to settle in like a thick fog, suffocating everything around her.

She knew she had to keep her distance. She had to maintain the walls, the ones that had taken years to build. But Siddharth... he was relentless. Even in his quiet way, he watched her, waited for her to break. And every time their eyes met, she felt it. The unspoken words between them—the things they hadn't said but both knew to be true.

So, she did what she had always done when things got too close, too real. She pulled away.

The morning after their conversation, Annika woke up with a heaviness in her chest. She lay in bed longer than she should have, Siddharth's bed. She had noticed. Staring at the ceiling, trying to make sense of everything. What had happened the night before, her breakdown, her confession to Siddharth..... felt like an invasion. She hadn't planned on letting anyone into that part of her life, least of all him.

But when she had looked at him, so certain, so cold, yet somehow understanding... she hadn't been able to stop herself from telling him everything. But now? Now, she needed to shut it all out again.

When she finally gathered the strength to leave her bed, Siddharth was already gone, his absence like a palpable thing in the apartment. She exhaled slowly, feeling a strange sense of relief mixed with regret.

It was easier when he wasn't around. It was easier when he didn't look at her like he understood everything, like he was trying to piece together parts of her that she didn't even understand herself. She spent the day avoiding him in every way she could, distracting herself with work, spending extra hours on her laptop, and making sure she didn't have to face him when he came home later that evening.