Page 154 of One Hellish Wedlock
Baby’s Aunt,
Aanya
Day 106
Hello Ruhi’s Aunt,
Ruhi… What a beautiful name. You never run out of bright ideas, do you?
I’m still stuck in Cape Town. Your father and I had a long ‘man-to-man’ talk last night. I’ll tell you more when I get time. Off to meetings now.
Ruhi’s Uncle,
Reyansh
Aanya frowned at his short message. Cape Town was keeping him too busy. For three weeks now, his emails had grown brief. And what had he and her father spoken about? Something serious?
Her phone buzzed again. Hope flickered… only to die when she saw the screen.
It wasn’t from him. It was a photo message from Radhika.
Aanya opened it and smiled. It was Aanya’s first picture holding baby Ruhi. It was beautiful.
She made a mental note to set it as her profile photo tomorrow.
But tonight… she needed sleep. Just a little. Just enough to stop overthinking everything that Reyansh’s silence could mean.
Day 118
Aanya woke up with a jolt in the middle of the night, her breath ragged. The dream had been disturbing.Reyansh was lying in bed with another woman.The image had been so vivid it took her a moment to realize it wasn’t real. Her hand reached instinctively for the glass of water on the nightstand. She sipped slowly, trying to calm the thoughts screaming through her mind.
He wouldn’t do this. He wasn’t that kind of man. It had been a dream. Just a foolish, baseless nightmare.
Maybe it was because his emails had grown infrequent lately. Maybe the physical distance was starting to chip away at her confidence. She clutched the pillow and buried her face into it, attempting to shake off the insecurity gnawing inside her.
Day 119
By the time she returned from work the next day, she remembered she hadn’t changed her profile picture as intended. Determined, she logged in to her social account and updated it with the image of her holding baby Ruhi. Within moments, likes and comments started flooding in.
Even Navya had posted a series of pictures with Rohan from her latest shoot. Something was clearly brewing between the two of them. Aanya made a mental note to ask Navya about it later.
Just as she was about to log off, a sudden urge made her check Reyansh’s company page. She knew he wasn’t on social media, but perhaps she could find a glimpse of him there. Her eyes froze the moment they landed on the image on the homepage.
There he was in Cape Town, standing beside a stunning woman with his hand casually resting on her waist.
The breath left her lungs.
Who was she? Why was he standing so close to her? Was this the reason he had grown so busy and distant?
She saved the photo first and then attached it in the next email.
Subject: Who’s She?
Reyansh,
Who’s the beautiful woman beside you in that Cape Town picture? Looks like you took my ‘enjoy-your-singlehood’ advice quite seriously. Not that I mind, but… I had a strange dream last night. You were cheating on me.
I know you wouldn’t. But... I needed to check.
