The Corporate Monster ✅

R E S T O R E D

Aniket watched as Preesha styled his hair, scrunching her face in disgust. Chinna had brought her to Prakash's house, revealing to his wife that Aniket was still alive. She held her children in an makeshift baby carrier, clutching onto to the two beautiful little babies as she fainted.

After Maykala sprinkled water on the woman's ghostly face, the woman sat up and shrieked at the image of Aniket standing over her.

"You died. They told me you died. Tell me this is a nightmare." She has cried, trying to sit up. Her twins were fast asleep by the time the trio calmed her down and explained everything.

Preesha agreed to the terms and conditions, without knowing her husband's evil plans. The innocent woman, whose only intention was to become a popular model, had no greed. Sure, she had first set her eyes on Chinna for his money, but once she fell in love with him, his wealth didn't matter to her anymore.

To anyone else, their love story was cliche. A aspiring model falls in love with a businessmen with illegal connections. A story of a one night stand and it's consequences. But to her, it meant everything.

Preesha had never inquired Chinna about where the money came from. Besides, she was happy him, not with his money. She had Krithi to thank for her change of perspective. Without the amount of time Krithi had prolonged to talk to their family about Preesha's pregnancy, she wouldn't have realized her love for Chinna. If not for her, she would have aborted his baby.

Her sister made her realize how hard it was to sustain a life; how hard it was to sustain love.

She would never be married to Chinna if it were not for Krithi and her husband.

After all that Krithi had done for Preesha, freeing Krithi from another arranged marriage and helping her husband get Krithi back was the least she could do.

"Your hair smells like eggs." Preesha said, fixing his hair into a pompadour style I. Front of the vanity. His sister-in-law seemed to have taken a step back from him from the odd smell he was emitting.

Like I took a proper shower in the past week, Aniket thought, internally snorting at his own lack of hygiene.

"Your hair smells like roses." Aniket replied, scrunching his nose. Aniket hated roses.

He hated all flowers, except when they were on her Krithi. He reminisced in the smell of Krithi's hair. Orchids. Freshly cut orchids.

Her skin was jasmine. Not like the ones in his mother's garden, filled with fertilizers. They were soft, like the most organic, pure kind of flower. He couldn't help but want to see her, to cherish her with the softest of caresses.

Her eyelids. If anyone had seen the opening of a Venus-flytrap— that was her eyes. Her orbs trapped him, killing him slowly like he was a mere fly.

Her lips beckoned him, her eyes smiled as she would teasingly pull away. And every time, he fell for it, for her.

"And that's a bad thing because...?" Preesha asked curiously.

"I'm a allergic to pollen. Not all flowers have pollen, but ma's obsession with gardening just made me hate flowers." Aniket explained.

Preesha nodded, but didn't quite understand what he was saying. Her mind was off about her sister and Aniket's relationship. Even though she was grateful for having Krithi in her life, she desperately wanted to know how her sister, who thinks that hygiene is the number one quality in man, became to love this pig of man.

"Can I ask you something?" Preesha started.

"Yeah?" Aniket asked, wondering what the dumb, meek woman would have to ask him about. "Shoot."

"How did you and Krithi fall in love? I mean, you're so...different." She stated, with a confused look on her face. "Why do you love a woman like Krithi? Not to be rude or anything. But you're so you, relaxed, chill, while she's just—eesh." Preesha shudders in fear of her sister's authoritarian behavior at home.

"You want to know why I love Krithi?" Aniket asked, kind of offended with the way she styled her question.

"Basically."

Aniket laughed for the first time since his separation from his wife.

No wonder Chinna had a one night stand with this woman and didn't make her one of his usual flings, he said inside his head, laughing internally. Chinna's barbie dolls of the week usually had more gray matter than the one standing in front of him.

He can be sure about his sister-in-law, and say that she's as weak-minded as a caveman. One of the most significant things he noticed about Chinna's pretty little model is that she based other people in a ladder—the ugliest being at the bottom and the most beautiful at the top. Aniket knew the woman would step over the people at the bottom like they're grains of sand in a beach, in order to reach the top and cling onto the popular people in the hierarchy of the most attractive.

She's as shallow as they come, and she was perfect for Chinna.

"She's smart. I love her for her brains." Preesha raised an eyebrow, as if she objectified. "Fine, also because she's beautiful—inside and out." Aniket couldn't explain his feelings. Love cannot be explained, only felt. "She's like a pearl. They're hard to find and hard to keep. But why I love her, I will never know. I wasn't looking for love at the age of three. She found me, and I'm not willing to lose my pearl— no matter how hard it is hold onto."

"That's not a good answer."

"I think it's a beautiful answer." Maykala interjected, as she entered the plainly painted bedroom.

"Good going, man. I never thought of you to be poetic." Called out another voice.

Chinna strode into the room with the twin girls strapped in the makeshifts baby carrier slung around his built frame. Aniket noticed how Preesha's eyes wandered over her husband's defined torso, and he knew that the white shirt that cling onto the man's body didn't help the woman's hormone endorsed state.

It was disgusting to watch— a relationship that was purely based on appearances alone will never last was his conclusion.

Yet, his (former?) friend seemed happy.

"So what's the plan, now that you got a makeover and all?" Chinna asked.

Aniket knew what the man must be thinking. Aniket was the first man to change his appearance in order to get a girl. In this case, his love.

It was very unreal. The machismo beliefs swirling inside Chinna and his wife's brain simply repulsed him, however.

"First, I need a shower."

That brought a smile onto everyone's face, as they had all suffered being in the same room as Aniket, with his disgusting smell from not showering for more than a week.

"Good choice!" Maykala laughed.

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