Page 5 of Obsession

She couldn’t tell Sheena her deepest, darkest secret. She couldn’t tell her that Mihir and she were still bound together by one tiny thread.

And yet Mihir deliberately chose to distance himself from her. A crushing pain gripped her chest. She ignored it and studied the faces of her sisters. She had to do something...anything to wipe their sadness away once and for all.

But what? And how?

Since Mihir refused to be in the same room as her, how could she ever have a decent conversation with him? How could she ever make him understand?

She looked at her sisters again. Navya was younger than Ananya by a year and Reina by two years. She was so proud of everything they had achieved. Navya was a successful fashion stylist and image consultant, while Reina was a brilliant surgeon.

“What are you both doing here in the corner?” a soft feminine voice said from their side.

Ananya looked up into the beautiful face of Avantika Rajpoot Luthra—Avi, as she was fondly called. Avi handed out two champagne glasses, one each to Sheena and to Ananya.

“Thanks, Avi!” Sheena smiled. “Come join us.”

Six months ago, Rajiv and Sheena had introduced all of them to the Rajpoot family and to Avantika’s husband Dev Luthra and their son Neil. It had been a shock for all of them to discover that Rajiv had been friends with the Rajpoots for years and that he’d been protecting them and keeping them safe and hidden in Dubai from their enemies who’d wanted them dead. But now that the threat to their lives was over, the Rajpoots had finally stepped out of hiding. During the last six months, Avantika and her family had become constants in their lives and Ananya was happy to have Avantika as a close friend. Avi was a brilliant photographer and she freelanced for Noir as and when they needed her.

Ananya studied Avi over the rim of her glass. The white strapless dress highlighted Avi’s tattoos beautifully. The swirls of ink extended from her right hand, all the way up her shoulder to the base of her throat. It looked stunning against her pale complexion. Only those closest to Avi knew that the tattoos covered a multitude of scars from a long time ago.

“What’s happening?” Avi wiped the frown from Ananya’s brow with a finger. “You look sad.”

“Mihir’s not come, as usual,” Sheena explained, “and she’s blaming herself for it.”

Avi turned her dark eyes on her. “Him behaving like an idiot is not on you, you know that, right?”

Ananya tipped her champagne glass in the direction of Navya, Armaan, Vedant, and Reina. “Tell the four of them that. They keep hoping he will set his feud with me aside for their sakes, but he simply won’t. My sisters are forced to continue living-in with their fiancés because of that. They all want to get married, but they can’t because of Mihir and me.”

During one girls’ night out with Sheena and Avantika, she’d been a little high and emotional and had revealed a bit of her history with Mihir to Avantika. Now, Avantika knew as much as the rest of her family about her history with Mihir. Nobody, however, knew the entire truth of their relationship.

“Navya and Reina are happy living with their men. Not one of them has said any different.” Sheena looked at where Ananya was pointing. “Mihir is important to them, yes, but don’t forget, so areyou.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw Rajiv signal Sheena.

Sheena faced Avi and her. “I have to get the cake out for Reina. Join us soon.”

“So, Mihir and you…” Avi said when they were alone.

“God, even hearing our names together in the same sentence hurts so much.”

Avi faced her. “Why do you allow him to get away with this behavior? He’s punishing you for something you don’t even know. The least he can do is talk to you about it.”

“How, Avi? You know I’ve tried.”

“Not hard enough.” Avi stared at her. “I think somewhere deep down, you feel guilty. You blame yourself for not believing that he lived. For going on for years, thinking that he had died. And now that he’s alive, you’re allowing him to walk all over you. You’re allowing him to run roughshod over your feelings. You’re this bold and brave woman, ready to go head-to-head with anyone, except him. Where’s your spine? Why does it never show up when it concerns him? Just writing about him in your magazine is not the way, Ananya. It’s definitely not working.”

Ananya’s jaw dropped. “Whoa, Avi. That was… harsh.”

“It’s the truth, and someone had to say it. Your entire family walks on eggshells around Mihir and you. I believe they all feel that anything they say will be misconstrued as taking sides and will be held against them by either him or you. No one wants additional conflict. So, they’re allowing the situation to be as is, namely, with him refusing to be in the same room as you, and you printing gossip about him that he doesn’t seem to care about in the least. However, I have no such qualms. I’m telling you the truth, even though it may be hard to hear. Stop feeling guilty, Ananya, and take charge here.”

Her friend was right. Of course, she had blamed herself for believing Mihir had died that night, of never even imagining otherwise. But those years, those miserable days and nights when she’d thought him dead… they’d been the worst time of her life.

She had mourned him for years, only to wake up one day to the harsh and cold reality that he had lived and that he hadn’t even bothered to get in touch with her. He had left her to her misery, allowing her to believe the worst, while he had gone on with his life, uncaring about her.

It was only after their encounter on his yacht that she’d learned that he believed something awful about her but had not been bothered enough to confront her about it. While he may not be actively seeking revenge from her, thanks to their families now being related, he vehemently believed she had betrayed him, and no amount of pleading from her side had helped the situation.

After the yacht incident, she had cried herself to sleep for nights on end. She had become a shell of her former self, hardly eating, barely living. She had gone on like that until he had told her to her face that he wouldn’t attend their siblings’ weddings as long as she was present. That one cruel decision of his had come as a wake-up call to her. It had broken something inside her. She’d realized then that he and she had no future whatsoever. She and he were done, and she’d finally accepted it.

Mihir didn’t want her, and so she didn’t want him either. She was going to live her life in the best way possible. She’d started eating again, sleeping well, and exercising daily.

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