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Chapter 36
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2024-10-29 19:42:56"Why are you up so early? It's the weekend, and the sun isn't even up yet." Ruhi said and held onto Rafael tightly to keep him from getting up.
When Rafael woke up earlier, he found her sleeping on her stomach on top of him. Not wanting to wake her up or lose the feel of her body against his, he worked on his phone for about thirty minutes before she stirred in her sleep.
"I work on Saturdays." He kissed her on the forehead and moved her back to her pillow.
She was too sleepy to respond but showed him a pout in disappointment.
"I'll try to finish soon and come home early." He leaned in to kiss her, but she stopped him.
"Don't kiss me."
"Why?"
"Your kisses do things to me, racing heart and queazy stomach. I want to sleep some more. So, don't."
"Is that so?" He chuckled and pinched her hard on the waist.
"Ow, you meanie! Now I'm wide awake."
"Come to my office. I'll think less about you and work more when
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Walking back into the house, Ruhi took Rafael's office bag lying in the living room and threw it outthe main doorway.With all the maids and cooks gone, sheplopped down on the couch and cried, feeling angry that she wasn't allowed to fight with Alisha. She thought Rafael was probably apologizing to Alisha and making amends by taking her into his arms and kissing her, explaining how this whole thing with her was a mistake.Caught between the urge to see what was going on between the two and the need to disappear from the house as quickly as possible, she went upstairs and started packing her bags."Woah!" Rafael climbed over the mess she created near her bedroom door by throwing random things towards the hallway, blocking him from coming inside."Back so soon, you asshole?!" She threw the little bed lamp at him.Frustrated that he caught it and his head was still intact, she threw more things at him."Headphones? Laptop char
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It was Antonio's sixtieth birthday when he returned from Thailand. And Ruhi took up the ginormous task of hosting a party at the mansion."Are you really sure about this?" Rafael had asked her a few days back when she jumped at the idea of throwing a party at a short notice.The housekeeper was down with flu for almost a week, and Rafael and his dad were about to cancel the party plan."I am. My dad will be visiting me from Virginia too. It's perfect timing to celebrate." She said excitedly, ignoring Rafael's doubts about when she called his dad a cold-blooded murderer the day she found out about her sister's father-in-law's death.She was uncomfortable around his dad, and it didn't go unnoticed by him. He didn't understand why she would want to celebrate his dad's birthday when deep down she had such negative feelings about him."It's his big day, and we are all he's got," she told him nonchalantly when he asked.He had not made peace
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As Rafael and his friends rushed his dad to the hospital, Alisha's tensed up face relaxed visibly, and she let out a sigh of relief. She wiped the sweat off her brow and pushed her hot date's hand fromthesmall of herback. "Matt, something has come up at work. I have to leave right away." She pretended to check her email with an anxious look. "I can drop you at your office," Matt offered. "No, that won't be necessary. My driver is already on his way." "All right," he said and kissed her on the cheek before leaving the room along with the two dozen other guests who were talking chaotically while dispersing. She scrolled through her phone to find Rafael's driver'sphone number in her contacts. "I need to borrow one of Rafael's cars. My ride bailed out on me, and I can't wait for my driver to arrive. I'm in a rush." She told his driver. "But---" "Do it! It's not like I'll be taking his car for the fir
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There was a wonderful smell in the air as thefirst rain of the yearhit the ground. Vapors from a hot cup of ginger tea reachedRuhi's nose, but shewas oblivious to these heavenly smells andthe blissful sounds of the slowly falling raindropssliding down the windowpane, or the gently blowing wind.Perched on a windowsill in her room in India, she looked out at the dark heavy clouds in the sky which were holding up the rain for too long before deciding to let go finally. She reached for her US mobile againto access the voicemail from Rafael she saved as a voice memo.She played it over and over while crying, remembering the warmth in his voice. It was from the day they had plans to go watch a movie on a Saturday and he was running late at work. He called her when she was getting ready and left a simple voice message saying sorry forrunning late. She listenedto thosewords a thousand times overthe past few day
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A few days back in San FranciscoRafael was in one of his worst moods because it was Ruhi's birthday today, and he couldn't stop thinking about her or about the day he promised to take her on a fancy date. He had reserved a table for them in the most expensive and exquisite French restaurant days ago and had placed orders for many presents because he wasn't sure what she would like.When picking presents for Alisha, it was alwaysKhloe who did all the work, while he stayed toobusy to even know what the present was. With Ruhi, he wanted everything else to wait so he could find something to bringthat sparkle in her eyes again;the same way they sparkled in the Indo-Chinese restaurant when he said yes to treating her.Her cute wild mane, eyes wide with excitement, and cream color skirt which got several wrinklesbecause of him. He frowned hard, trying to forget her face from that day, but the adoring gaze she
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Ruhi curled her fists on her sides and stood still. Her heart was a thundering mess as her eyes met Rafael's warm, hazel brown eyes. Looking at his pictures had got too painful, and she had stopped it many days ago. But seeing his gorgeous face and worshipping gaze threw her off control. She snapped out of the trance andlooked at him with eyes clouded with anger.It appeared to her that he was in a heated conversation with her dad earlier, hostility coming off in waves from her parents.Unlike theirhardened faces and furious glances, Rafael seemed to be calm and apologetic.He was elated to look up across the room and see Ruhistanding there. All the feelings that ran bone-deep within him surfaced, and he went speechless as butterflies flooded his stomach.Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her hard and deep, as if his very life depended on it. Before letting his wild kisses take over her senses, Ruhitried to push him away wit
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Alisha pulled over in Rafael's Maybach at his mansion on the evening when he had already left for India. She tried to reach him multiple times over the past few days, but he ignored her calls andsnapped at her when she showed up at his home or the hospital.She took a different approach and made it sound like she wanted to meet him for work reasons. She insisted on coming over to his home in the evening after she was done with a meeting with her investors. Rafael did not bothercanceling the meeting, even when his tickets to India were booked.He treated all his dozen cars as his babies and wanted his Maybachback. He allowed her to drive his cars in the past but always asked her to return them the very next day, unlike this time when it slipped out of his mind until she wanted to schedule a meeting at his home with him.He asked his driver to take the car when she showed up and check it thoroughly for any bugs. He looked for bugs even in the pas
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Dhruv gawked at Ruhi, as he always did when he saw her in traditional outfits."Yes?" Rafael wrapped his arm around Ruhi and raised a brow at Dhruv, resisting the urge to punch him in the face for showing up at her house and staring at her right in front of him.Ruhi pushed Rafael's hand away and walked toward Dhruv.She wanted to make him feel welcome."Dhruv, hi!" Keeping her voice steady, she turned around to her mom. "Mamma, this is Dhruv whowe talked about.""Oh..." Her mom wasn't sure what to say."Oh? Mom?" Rafael asked her, feeling betrayed."We weren't sure if you would ever come, Rafael. Even you weren't sure about your visit." Ruhi's mom explained."So?" He flashed an angry glare at Ruhi for not caring to even explain herself. He grabbed her by the arm when she acted unbothered by his anger."Are you ever going to explain anything to me?""She's not eighteen... and it's not easy to find someon
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SEVEN YEARS LATER It was a quiet Sunday afternoon with some cooling summer showers pouringdown outside the window whileRafael spent a good amount of time in his study. He was lagging behind quite a bit because he spent all day at the water park yesterday and left work early even on Friday afternoon to attend his daughter's ballet performance. He got up from his seat and stretched before stepping out to see what Ruhi and his little Snookums were up to. Even though he wanted to finish all the piled up stuff, he had gone two hours without seeing them and it felt like too much on a Sunday. He walked down to the kitchen to see what all the excitement was about. Ruhi was watching something very seriously on her daughter'spink laptop while the little girl was busy whisking butter and molten chocolate. She got chocolate mousse on both her chubby cheeks while Ruhi got a good amount on her nose. "Papa! You were not supposed to come out until w
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Rafael had always imagined death to start with some blinding light where all the best moments of his life wouldflash by him and then follow with an abyss of darkness. At least that's what he heard people say it would be like.The gunshots were still ringing in his ears long after the darkness, but the blinding light never came. The pain and the hopelessness sure felt like death.Among the many regrets he had, he regretted not being able to say a proper goodbye. Ruhi had never believed how unconditionally he loved her. He knew he did a poor job showing his feelings toher, except that he could prove that he would die for her, willing to do so over and over.He wanted to hear Ruhi's voice one last time before falling unconscious. His body was going numb, but a shooting painunfurled in the deepest pit of his stomach when he thought about the image of Ruhi lying on the floor.Was she conscious? He couldn't remember. Everything happened too quic
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"Oh, I seriously loved what you fed me. I don't know what this is.""Well, let me fix something light so that you don't go hungry. The doctor will be on his way if you throw up again." His voice trailed off as he walked back into the kitchen.Pushing the stray locks of her hair out of her sweaty forehead, she looked at the time on her phone and groaned, her head still slightly spinning. She slept for almost ten hours last night after getting rid of her dinner and felt exhausted at barely ninein the morning.Rafael stepped into the bedroom with a bowl full of chicken soup forty minutes later, and she was in for another surprise. She wished she knew how to cook a soup withthat perfect consistency and flavor he achieved seemingly effortlessly. Watching the heavy raindrops hit the window panes persistently, she stared out at the dark sky while sipping on the warm liquid."Huh, so no sightseeing today?" She asked Rafael, who was looking at her with
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No matter how much Rafael hated to move to a different room, Ruhi was super adamant, and hehad no other option but to leave the room. He hoped the next morning to be better and planned a day full of fun things to do. He missed the good old times where all she wanted was to eat a good meal with him at a restaurant and make him watch some kids' movies.She answered his call after deliberately missing it the first two times. He assumed she was sleeping. Sleep was the last thing on her mind. Without him by her side, she tossed and turned until the stormy predawn sky gave way to some daylight outside the huge glass windows."Wake up, sleepyhead. We have reservations for breakfast at a lakeside cafe here.""What makes you think I'm still in my bed. I ate breakfast already."Rafael's face fell when he heard that. It was barely 9 AM and Ruhi was still in bed on weekends, so he didn't expect her to be out already when on vacation."Where are you
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"Do I really want to talk to her? I don't think so." Ruhi crumpled the paper with Adira's number on it."Well, we can't trust anything she says, but I think we should hear her out. Also, I need to track her location. So just talk to her for a few minutes and---""I don't want to help you kill her, Rafael."Rafael entered the number into Ruhi's phone and made the call before turning the speaker on."Ruhi... I-I'm sorry. Please, please, help me. There are some half a dozen men with guns chasing me. I feel scared. Ruhi? Are you there?""How could you lie to Gus about something like that? Don't you know he still hasn't moved on?" Ruhi asked reluctantly,confused about how she felt when talking to her sister. She never wanted to talk to her again after finding outshe wanted Gus to kill her."It was... Um, it was Alisha's idea. I just told her Raina had a sister. She came up with this idea to make a deal with him
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It took a lot of courage for Ruhi to utter those four words, knowing full well Rafael wasn't going to let her go that easily. If he was a person to reason with and walk away with mutual understanding, she would have never tried so hard to run away from him. As she expected, his eyes flared, smoldering with what seemed to be fury, and his body grew rigidabove her, taut with tension."What?"He rolled onto his side and forced her to meet his gaze."You heardme. I can't live like this anymore. I want out, and I mean it."He flinched slightly at the steely resolution in her eyes. His gaze was feverishly raking her up and down, with disbelief clearly written all over his face. She was equally baffled that he hadn't seen this coming. She wondered if he was being deliberately dense."Ruhi, I know you didn't deserve the treatment you got from me." He stroked her cheek back and forth with hislong thumb. "It's not fair that I make a mistake
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"A honeymoon..."Ruhi quietly pushed Rafael's hand away and put her seatbelt on. He expected her to put up a fight orrun out of the car and was shocked to see her stare out of the window in resignation.Zack approached the car but was blocked by Harry. He handed Ruhi's cellphone, laptop, and money back to Harry. Rafael told him to hold on to them as he believed Ruhi wouldn't run without those things. He also wanted to make sure she didn't call her sister and ask her to run instead."Drive!" She told him in an impatient voice when he stalled inside the car, checking his work emails quickly."Ruhi, I don't mean to force you into---""What part of my intentions isnot clear to you? Doyou really think I'd run away from you to show you I want to go on a honeymoon? What kind of logic is that?"Rafael opened his mouth to defend himself but closed it when he saw the look on her face. She was royally pissed, unlike all those ot
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"Are you serious?" Ruhi couldn't believe her ears.He ignored her and focused on his phone when Zack texted and then called him."No, no weapons and none of his men. He can go back if he doesn't agree."She waited for him to finish talking on the phone while peeking into the coffee mug he left on the table."Was that dark rum or black coffee? Didyou really mean it when you said I can go?""Pack your stuff before I change my mind."She darted upthe stairs but stopped when she heard Zack enter the house with a pissed off face and announce something to Gus. When did he ever look happy? She wondered and turned back to the room but stopped dead in her tracks when she thought she heard Rafael's name.Climbing back down the spiral staircase, she walked towards the door to listen to their conversation."Just one then. Check thoroughly.""Check who?" She asked Gus, who ignored her again and went to grab some stu
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"Gus, she's gone." Ruhi held her breath when she heard Zack's infuriated voice. She was surprised to hear him address his boss by his name.Gus closed the bathroom door and walked over to the bed. Unlike Zack who wanted to kill Ruhi if he saw her again, Gus was relatively calm as he picked his cellphone up from the bed. Checking his messages on the locked screen and dismissing them, he opened the 'Tracker'."I'll get Nash to check the surveillance camera. She may still be on the premises if---""She's right here." Gus cut him off whileRuhi's heartbeat skyrocketed. "You can get back to work. I'll take care of this."Leaning down a bit, he grabbed Ruhi's wrist firmly and pulled her out from under the bed. She didn't dare to meet hiseyesand stared at the door Zack exited from.Gus moved a strand of her hair from her cheek while she froze.'Crap, crap, crap! He's probably twenty years older than me and wants to either kill me k
