Book #1 of Bounded series
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Sign the papers! She said
I'm not into child marriage Miss Mishra! Shaadi karke mujhe jail bhejne ka irada hai? His tone dripped with sarcasm.
"Can't you be serious with me at least for once Avyan?!!"
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The room had already been thick with unease, but Ananya seemed to know—almost instinctively—how to turn discomfort into suffocation.
She stood near the entrance, framed by the soft golden lights of the Chauhan mansion, her posture composed, her hands folded neatly in front of her as if she were attending a formal gathering rather than standing at the center of a brewing storm.
Her heels echoed faintly against the marble floor, and that sound alone had drawn everyone’s attention to her earlier.
Now, however, it was her silence that held them captive.
She didn’t speak immediately. She let her eyes roam across the room—over the elders seated rigidly on the couches, over the cousins pretending to be serious while struggling to suppress reactions, over the women who studied her with curiosity and caution.
And finally, her gaze lingered on Vihaan.
Vihaan stood frozen.
It felt as though time had stopped for him the moment he saw her. His breath had hitched, his body reacting before his mind could catch up. The girl standing there wasn’t just a stranger walking into his home—she was his past, a chapter he had shut tightly and never expected to reopen like this.
His heart thudded violently against his ribs.
No…
Why is she here?
Ananya inhaled slowly, deliberately, as if steadying herself before delivering a performance she had practiced a hundred times in her head.
“I didn’t come here to create a scene,” she finally said, her voice calm, soft, carrying just enough vulnerability to sound genuine. “I came because I felt… it was my responsibility.”
The elders exchanged looks. Sunidhi’s brows furrowed deeply, already sensing drama of the highest order. Vihaan swallowed hard.
“What responsibility?” someone asked.
Ananya paused again.
That pause—long, heavy, deliberate—made the room tense. Even Lily, who had been standing slightly apart, felt a strange tightening in her chest, as if something unseen was pressing against her ribs.
“There’s something,” Ananya continued slowly, “that all of you deserve to know.”
Her eyes flickered briefly toward Vihaan once more. And then— “I’m pregnant.”
