Page 30 of One Hellish Wedlock
P.S. Your pouts don’t melt my heart.”
His eyes flicked back to the screen, though his thoughts remained tangled in her sass. The phone buzzed again.
“Who said I want to melt just your heart? I want to melt ALL OF YOU.”
She added a winking emoji at the end. Reyansh choked on nothing. His throat itched, his self-control wavered. She was toying with him. And damn it, it was working.
The meeting concluded, and the others waited for him to speak. He had nothing. No opinion. No feedback. Just Aanya on his mind.
“Good,” he muttered. “Give me time to think over it. Sunny will follow up with my response.”
He strode out, with Sunny scrambling after him.
As soon as they reached the corridor, Reyansh whipped out his phone and typed:
“Stop hallucinating. That’s never going to happen. I have a metal heart.”
He had no clue why this teasing game continued. They hadn’t exchanged so many words in all their marriage. Now, it felt like they were... friends? Lovers? Whatever!
Her reply came with heat.
“And I’m fire.”
It made him restless, more than it should have. The flirtation, the banter, the rhythm… all of it was dangerous. He needed to cut it off before he lost grip entirely.
“Be at the disco by 10:00 p.m. I have work to do.”
That message stung Aanya a little. Did he meanshedidn’t have work? Probably. And he wasn’t wrong. All she did was party, drink, gamble, and sleep. She had nothing remotely meaningful going on. No ambition, no career, no identity beyond her last name. And that’s exactly why people didn’t take her seriously.
She recalled Kyle’s words about self-respect and hated how right they sounded now. If she didn’t start valuing herself, taking charge of her life, she’d forever be a pendulum—swinging between a father who controlled her finances and a husband who controlled her pride.
Her head throbbed. She needed that money…her rightful share, left behind in her mother’s will. Once she had that, she’d finally break free.
Later That Evening – Singh Residence
Navya watched Aanya apply her lipstick and smirked.
“Nervous?” she asked, leaning against the doorframe.
“I’m fine,” Aanya lied smoothly, adjusting her knee-length dress. It had taken her over an hour to pick something that struck the right balance between ‘respectable’ and ‘irresistible.’
“You took forever to dress. It’s like you’re going on a date,” Navya teased. “Itissort of a date though, right? Just remember your mission. Don’t let him take the upper hand.”
Aanya shook her head with determination.
“He can take the upper hand until he signs the damn joint venture deal with Dad. After that, I’ll show him howInegotiate.”
“And the legal contract he’s going to make you sign? What about that?”
“He can’t trap me on paper.”
She checked herself one last time in the mirror.
“Is this gloss too shiny? I don’t want him to think I’m asking for a kiss.”
Aanya dabbed the tissue over her lips, gently blotting the gloss until it looked just right—neither too glossy nor too bare. When she was satisfied with the effect, she turned to Navya again and offered a small, confident smile.
“I’ll be late,” she said, grabbing her clutch. “You go ahead and sleep.”
