Living in a Mirage

Chapter Sixteen

"All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair."

-Mitch Albom

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Dedicated to @Popololo3006 who is the force behind the early update! <3

And also dedicated to all those people who have always wondered about the 'Malhotra' family, about Mr & Mrs Malhotra's relationship and their marriage but more than anything else, about Manik's childhood...

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As she walked in 'Chiltern Firehouse', a very famous restaurant in London city, Nyonika Malhotra felt very smug that she had ended the part A of their plan successfully. The midnight blue designer dress she wore moved elegantly with her as she stepped closer to the table booked under her husband's name.

A smirk made its way to her beautiful red-tinted lips when she looked at the man sitting at the table.

After staring into each other's eyes a few minutes, she knew he wouldn't move, so she gave up and moved to sit down because her high heels were hurting her legs.

"Still a perfect gentleman, aren't you, Malhotra?" She mocked him as she sat down after waiting for him to stand up for her.

"Oh, I am a gentleman for women, Nyonika, I just don't count you as one," he jabbed back in the same mocking tone.

"You haven't changed, have you?" She stated as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Nor have you, still a power-hungry gold digger as you always were!" He responded with a smirk.

"Shut up!" She snapped at him as soon as she realized that sitting in front of her was the only man who, apart from her son, knew her past well, in fact, he had been a part of it.

The past in which she was not Nyonika Malhotra, but someone about whom she never wanted the world to come to know; one of the poor, middle class she now looked down upon...

After taking in her surroundings for a few seconds - as she ignored the company of her silent mate - she again was reminded where she was sitting. A week ago when she had told Madhav, the ever-attentive PA of her husband, to inform 'Malhotra' that she was done with her part of the plan. Adding to that, she had jokingly told him that his sir owed her dinner in the famous hotel in London, Chiltern Firehouse. Nyonika had been sure that she had asked for impossible, but as she looked around, she realized she should have known better. After all, nothing was impossible for the man sitting in front of her.

She smirked, knowing how difficult it must have been for poor Madhav to arrange for a table for two in the expensive hotel which was often visited by celebrities. And she had been impressed by him as soon as he had called her to confirm with her the time and place for the dinner she and his sir were going to have.

"I wasn't sure Madhav will be able to find a table here," she said as the waiter placed the menu in front of her.

"I am not only rich, but I also employ very efficient people, Nyonika. Don't ever underestimate me," he told her, arrogantly.

Rolling her eyes, she suppressed the urge to remind him that it was Madhav who had done the job, why did it have anything to do with underestimating him? But she knew where that arrogance was coming from; after all, she had it herself.