Secretly Mended: The Tale Of Arranged Love

Priya:

"I yearn to be someone's top choice, not just a backup plan. I don't need to be perfect; I just want to be myself. I dream of a love like the ones in stories and movies, enduring through thick and thin. I want someone who loves all of me - the sad, the happy, the messy, and the unpredictable. I want to be the main character in my own story, but it feels like everyone else is holding the pen."

Arnav:

"In this brutal world, you either wield cruelty or become its prey.
Her entrance cracked open the ice around my heart, revealing the decay within.
I was a hollow shell, untouched by emotion.
But deep within me, a savage entity lies in wait.
I didn't know I needed to be healed until I met her. It hungers for vengeance against any who dare to harm her."

Blurb :-

Priya recoiled as if struck, her eyes wide with shock and hurt. "Arnav, I-I'm just trying to help," she stammered, her voice trembling with suppressed emotion.

I scoffed, the bitterness rising within me like bile in my throat. "Help?" I spat, the word dripping with scorn. "You think you can help me? You're nothing but a burden, Priya-a reminder of everything I've sacrificed for the sake of our companies."

Tears spilled from her eyes, tracing a shimmering path down her cheeks as she stared at me with wounded disbelief. "I thought maybe, just maybe, there could be more between us," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the roar of my own self-loathing.

I laughed bitterly, the sound echoing off the walls of our empty apartment like a cruel mockery. "There is no 'us,' Priya," I spat, the words tearing at my throat like razors. "We're nothing but strangers bound by a contract-a marriage of convenience, nothing more."