This story will take a turn when our cute handsome business man will turn into a dangerous ...... unknowingly he kept it a secret and she finds it out
a man cloaked in the shadows of his past, his heart encased in frost. Yet, amidst his icy demeanor...
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Shayatika Armani
It had been three days since I settled into the new apartment. Three days of breathing air that wasn't saturated with shadows of my past, yet wasn't entirely free of them either. The walls were clean, freshly painted, the furniture neatly arranged, everything in its proper place yet every night, the silence pressed in, too perfect, too hollow. It was a home, yes, but it didn't feel like mine. And it was normal as I just moved in
By day, I drowned myself in work. I resumed my company duties as if I had never left, hiding behind meetings, documents, and numbers, as though burying myself in routines could shield me from the storm stirring underneath my skin. My employees looked at me the same way they always had been respectful, expectant, blind to the fractures threading through my heart.
But at night, when I was alone, the mask cracked. Memories gnawed at me like wolves, the shadows of who I had been chasing me through the silence. I would sit by the window, watching the city breathe beneath me, and wonder who I truly was , Shayantika Armani, the woman the world saw, or Riya, the girl stolen by fate and buried by time.
On the fourth day, everything changed.
Adrian came, as he always did, his presence heavy, unshakable, commanding the room before he even spoke. He didn't ask how I was settling, didn't waste words on small comforts. He stood there, leaning against the doorway with that steady gaze that both unnerved and anchored me, and then he said the words that made my blood still.
"I'm taking you to my house."
I blinked, unsure if I had heard him right. "Your house? I went there few times to meet with Anvika"
His lips curved, not in a smile but in something sharper. "Yes. But not as Shayantika." His voice dipped lower, a blade of certainty slicing through the air. His eyes locked on mine, dark and unyielding. "You'll go as Riya."
The name echoed in the quiet room, rattling the glass of my soul. My throat tightened, my heart stumbling into a frantic rhythm. Riya. The name I had buried. The name that had lived only in whispers and forgotten prayers.
I tried to speak, but my voice betrayed me, trembling like a frightened child. "Riya... Are you sure?"
Adrian pushed off the wall, closing the distance between us. His presence towered, suffocating yet intoxicating, his shadow folding over mine. "I've never been more sure of anything." His hand brushed against mine, deliberate, claiming. "It's time they see you, not as the woman the world created, but as the daughter they lost. My moms best friends daughter."
And just like that, the floor beneath me shifted. The apartment, the company, the carefully constructed world of Shayantika, all of it faded. In its place, the ghost of Riya stirred, restless, waiting.
And I knew there was no turning back.
The light from Adrian's home poured out warmly as he led me inside, but my heart was anything but calm. My steps faltered, and he squeezed my hand reassuringly.
