Broken Without You

4. The Painting

Chapter 4
The Painting

When I reached home, I was greeted by an annoyed Ishika. She silently strolled towards the bar counter and I thought she would sit on the stool and ask me to make a drink for her but instead I saw her contradicting my thoughts and going towards the swimming pool area.

What is she upto?

"Where are you going?" I called but she ignored me completely and kept on walking.

I ran behind her to match her pace. She was going towards one of my personal rooms which very few people have an access to and that excludes my step mother and sister. That room has many paintings. For me, that room is kind of very important and close to my heart.

She really was heading towards that room and I didn't know what set her off like this.

"Ishi...what's wrong?" I called again but just like before she dodged me and punched the password into it.

Yeah it's password protected for personal reasons.

And yes, she knows the password of this room because I told her and she is one of the most important person to me in this world so why not? I told you right that I don't hide anything from her.

She marched inside the room mechanically and kept on going deeper into the room.

"Ishi-"

She suddenly turned around and with a straight face asked, "What have you been hiding from me and for how long?"

I was confused.

Hiding from her?

"No, I haven't been keeping anything from you Ishi-"

"Don't lie," she said in a monotonous voice.

"You know I'm kinda getting nervous right now. There's nothing I'm hiding from you and I don't know if you are playing a prank on me or anything," I don't know why my hands started sweating and my heartbeat increased.

She bent down and picked up a huge canvas. My eyes widened in shock.

How did she discover this?

No no, don't take me wrong.
I wasn't hiding anything.

I was just...just trying to keep this away from anyone. Even Ishika.

For a second I saw a bright shine in her eyes, as if she was going to cry tears of joy but I think I was just hallucinating because then she put up a stern face and questioned, "What's this?"

"Just another painting..." I casually replied trying to make it sound as normal as possible.

She was quiet for some time and examined the painting for about a minute.

"I'm really upset that you didn't show this piece to me before," she pouted.

"I'm so sorry Ishika. I was- you know...you were going through this break up phase and I didn't want to bother you," I tried justifying.