Prithvi... [Volume 4]

Chapter 91

Feeling peculiarly sluggish, Nandini rose to her feet. Her disoriented mind didn't register the rain falling lightly on her numb body, or her little friends squeaking loudly and running off, or the chalk dropping from her hand. Her heart was evidently the only living organ in her body at present. It was thumping hard and loud...

And yet, the shock wasn't as severe as it should have been. She had sensed his presence acutely, hadn't she? Just like she always had in the past. He was a disease in her psyche...

And as the astonishment subsided, rage began building within her.

He had done this. She couldn't fathom how he had pulled it off, but it was obvious he had manipulated events to bring her here.

But why did he look so stunned...

He had succeeded in forcing her to meet him. He should be grinning smugly in triumph. But there was no infuriating smirk. No sign of self-satisfaction or arrogance.

He was pale, and the disbelief on his features was stirringly real. He seemed to be preparing himself for the moment when she would vanish in a puff of smoke.

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She was going to vanish any moment, Prithvi mulled in a stupor. He would blink and she would disappear. He'd go back to house in a state of crippling despair and then spend the evening trying to locate a good psychiatrist in the area.

Despite his efforts, his lids closed momentarily. When they opened, he could still see her.

A slender girl with hair tied neatly and tightly in the precise fashion that he loathed. Disbelief, uneasiness and the beginnings of a tantrum writ on her features. Her body so motionless that she could be mistaken for an enchanting figurine in the lightly falling rain.

She's here... she's actually here, his mind repeated in amazement as a fierce elation thundered through him.

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Nandini unconsciously clenched her fingers as she watched him take the first step in her direction.

She had imagined this scene countless times since he had left Shamli. This moment when he would return and she would inform him that she was ending the relationship.

She'd believed she was completely prepared for the confrontation. But she hadn't expected to see him without forewarning. It had thrown her completely, and the frenzied efforts to compose herself were not working at all. Her heart continued to pound and there was a painful cramp in her stomach.

And the while, he kept coming closer and closer...

Mentally, she angrily demanded that he stop and go away. But her lips didn't part to utter the words. She hadn't known it was possible to feel angry and panic-stricken at someone's arrival, while also feeling concerned about the person's health, she mulled hazily. But she was experiencing it firsthand at the moment.

A part of her mind victoriously pointed out that she could give vent to her anger at last. But mere words wouldn't be sufficient. The harshest of them would fall short in this case. She wanted to hurt him physically. She wanted to inflict a wound that would cause an agony as deep and lingering as the pain she had gone through mentally for more than a month.

Simultaneously....and ridiculously, she felt worried about his drawn and exhausted appearance. He had become leaner, and in spite of the beautiful light in his eyes, he looked almost ill.