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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
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2024-10-29 19:42:56The lift stopped on the third floor. Arnav gestured with his hand as he whispered, “After you!”
He dug for the keys from his pocket as we moved into a quiet area dragging our trolleys. He opened the door and I was the one to step in first. As soon as the hall was brightly lit, I was awe-struck with the beauty of the place. The color of the walls was sea green. The lush, royal blue carpet perfectly complimented the giant black leather sofas which surrounded a small glass coffee table. A small wooden dining table with four chairs was kept in one corner. Although, it needed cleaning. Arnav’s bachelor life signs were clearly visible by the amount of dirt that was there on that furniture. We fell into the comfortable sofa, completely exhausted by our long journey, and my eyes stuck on the TV hung on the wall in front of us. “Arnav, is this all Arunima Bhabhi’s idea?”
He closed his eyes absorbing that comfort as he said lethargically, &ldq
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Arranged Love: An Arranged Marriage Billionaire Romance CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
A week passed by, and we kind of fell into a routine. We started going for walks together in the mornings and I found a maid for us. We were happy to connect with people in our building and we were lucky that we had good neighbors. My clothes had changed from those heavy, traditional sarees and suits to mostly lightly flared dresses, shorts and T-shirts. However, I did face challenges there. I got bored spending the whole day in that lonely house, and I was already running out of novels. I remembered our conversation from that night so many weeks ago, and, after years, I decided something for myself. I had always been a creative person. I loved art of any kind, from dancing to makingrangoli, I had loved everything. But, as the years passed by, all of that kind of slipped away. Maybe that’s why I opted for literature for my degree program. Because writing, in my opinion, was a form of art. And a true artist doesn’t only create masterpieces but also takes ti
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While Arnav was at work, I spent my days cutting and folding colorful papers into different kind of flowers and birds, using my glue gun and pearls and stones to decorate everything I made, from photo frames to pen stands and some cute little vases. I fell in love with the things I made. It made me feel pleased with myself. I had started decorating each corner of the house with something or the other. The appearance of my living room had changed, each thing felt like it was shouting at me, “go Kriti! Go!”My eyes were in awe of the wind chime I’d just made. I didn’t notice when Arnav came back from work, as he spoke, “Kriti! You left the gate unlocked again.”I turned around to find my husband raising his eyebrows at me. But he looked different that day. He looked way more tired than any of the usual days, and his eyes looked gloomy, “Arnav! See this. It’s finished.”He approached me, his eyes fixed on the be
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I wiped my hands on the kitchen towel and called out to him, ‘yeah, coming!” I grabbed a tray from the counter, put a big smile on my face, and went out to greet the boys. But my smile faded as soon as I saw who stood in my foyer. I blinked twice.“Sameer—”Sameer said, “Kriti.”Our eyes met and the world around me just stopped. What the hell was happening? Arnav went to pick up his cousin, Golu, and Sameer Omar was in my house. I was confused. I wanted this to be a nightmare. A nightmare that I could wake up from with a jerk and all this would just vanish. Arnav looked from Sameer to me, confusion on his face. Sameer was giving that same idiotic smile he always had, and I was cringing on the inside.“You people know each other?” Arnav asked.Sameer and I both answered him, “yes.” I was trying to keep my internal cringe from becoming an external shudder of disgust.Arnav
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I didn’t realize that it was possible that the mere existence of man in the same city as I, could cause such grief. Sameer was like a rash that just would not go away. The next morning I slept late, and didn’t see Arnav before he went to work. When I did wake up, however, I found a text from Sameer on my phone—a good morning message. My mind was clouded with that look on Sameer’s face when he said he’d missed me. Did he really miss me? Did I really care?My doorbell rang before I was even fully out of bed. I jumped out of the bed, threw on my robe over my nightie and raced to the door, expecting maybe Arnav was back. Sameer was the last person I was expecting to see that morning, and yet, there he was, standing on my doorstep.“Arnav’s not home,” I stated in blatant defiance. “Why are you here?”“I just wanted to visit myBhabhi.”I wanted to slam the doo
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