Chapter 95: chapter 95

SRUTHII freeze at the sound of the door slamming open. Freak! I am doomed forever now. Why should Madhav return of all times now? My face is as pale as a ghost as I look at the entrance of the room. A mixture of relief and confusion settles in me as I find a woman standing at the doorway instead of my husband. The woman is dressed in a short skirt, exposing her long, beautiful legs. Her skin is flawless and smooth like silk. Her hair is down in waves, and she looks confident, like she owns this place. She looks familiar and it takes me a moment to place her.Oh God!She is the national beauty ‘Anandhi’. She is a big star in the film industry. She is a true beauty and an amazing actor but something about her irks me.“Who are you to sit at Madhav's chair?” her tone is haughty and I hate the possiveness in it when she utters Madhav's name.I never thought I was the type of woman to stand bold in the face of arguments or confrontation. I always prefer to avoid conflicts and arguments.  But something about the way she is eyeing me makes me want to argue with her. She is a woman to beware of. Most gossip about Madhav was linked to her. I have seen photos of them together in a cafe and at jewel photoshoots together. She was even bold to admit in a few interviews about how Madhav was her crush.Wait a second...what if she is the woman I am searching for? Nope that can't be true.The woman he loves doesn't like him but Anandhi looks obsessed with my husband and I don't like that fact one bit.Time to show her who is the boss here. Madhav and I may not be on good terms now but we are still legally married and I have every right to shoo away any pests that disturb the peace of my husband.I make myself comfortable in Madhav's chair. The woman raises her brow in anger as I fold my arms in front of me and ask in a haughty tone she used on me, “And who may be you to barge into my husband's office like this without even a knocking?”“Husband?” she flinches in disgust. “Oh! Right, I remember you. So, you are that plain-looking Sruthi.”I grind my teeth in anger. Yeah, I agree that the woman standing before is gorgeous, stellar and would have any man wrapped around her finger with one smile but that doesn't give her the right to call me plain-looking. I may not be as beautiful as her but she isn't entitled to judge me for it. “Yep, that is me,” I say with a nonchalant shrug. “Now that, I get a closer look at you, I am still baffled by what Madhav sees in you. You have a pathetic sense of fashion. Even my house servant has a decent fashion sense,” she says pointing a perfectly manicured finger at me.I try not to grin as I realise that she is jealous of me. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that she still has feelings for Madhav and is envious of me for marrying him. I don't take offence to her words because I dress for comfort and not fashion. My comfort dress today  happens to be something out of fashion.“Thanks for being concerned about my fashion sense but you still haven't answered my question. Who gave you the right to barge in here?”“Who are you to ask that?” she barks.“This shop's owner,” I reply boldly. I am being too bold to declare that but she is annoying the hell out of me.She tsks, “Owner? Seriously, do you think I will buy the lie you are selling to the media? Your ex-fiance's girlfriend Pavitra told me everything that happened between you and her boyfriend. Isn't the story that you and Madhav are in love just a cover to stop your reputation from being tarnished?”“You are wrong,” I say but my voice lacks the confidence that I want it to have. I take a deep breath before looking into her eyes and admitting the truth I knew, “Miss. Anandhi, I don't know what kind of rumours are spreading but the truth is, I love Madhav. I don't give a damn about my reputation since I don't have one to uphold but that isn't the case with you. Sorry, but I don't know how to be indirect, so I am warning you to your face that if you spread rumours about my husband or try to barge into his room like this once again, I will do everything in my strength to ruin your reputation. Just because I am not active in politics doesn't mean I don't play dirty. Kindly see yourself out of this room before I can call the security.”She huffs out a frustrated breath and for a moment, I am afraid that she would scratch my face with her pointy claws but she turns around muttering something like, “Like husband, like wife,” and walks out but not before shouting out a threat, “I will make sure the truth about your relationship comes to light in the media.”“Yeah, I am looking forward to it,” I shout back in response and continue my search for the uneven surface as the door slams shut.It takes a couple more seconds to find it. I tap the surface like my brother instructed me to but nothing happens. I tap it again. Nothing. With a frown, I kneel to the level of the table and look at the surface. It is indeed uneven and upon closer inspection, I can see there is a hidden compartment.I tap again and there is a sound of clicking before a drawer shoots open out of nowhere. I could barely contain my excitement as I glance inside the drawer. There is a pistol in it along with some documents. I search through the drawer but I can’t find any photos. But there is an unaddressed envelope. The envelope is red in colour. The reason it piques my interest is because red envelopes in our country are used to confess love to their loved ones. It is common knowledge that a red envelope contains a love confession.My heart thumps wildly as I take the envelope in my hand. There is no doubt, this envelope contains the answer to all my questions. Once, I read this, I would know which woman has the power to capture Madhav's heart.Ignoring my moral ethics, I peel open the envelope. It is not decent to read a personal letter that Madhav wrote to his lover but I am desperate to find answers and decency is not going to help me.I take out the folded letter and unfold it. Madhav’s handwriting is like a middle school student.  There is no receiver address in the letter or on the envelope. The contents of it are as follows,Hey, Hope you are doing well. You looked stunning in that yellow gown today. I wish we were close enough for me to tell you how beautiful you looked today. I am slowly going crazy for you. Seeing you is making me feel things I have never felt before. You are making me want things that I never wanted before.I was living life without hope. Everything I did seemed dull and dark. Nothing interested me. I felt no regret or remorse when I took a life. The world seemed bleak. Birthdays meant nothing to me and no parties existed for me. I was breathing like everyone but not living. My body functioned but I didn't have a soul.But, meeting you took my breath away. This is going to sound cliche but the first time we met and you smiled at me shyly, I felt the world become brighter. I suddenly found a reason to look forward to life. I didn't know what this emotion was at that time. My eyes always followed you whenever you were near me. I found myself wanting to get to know more about you. I wanted to be the closest person to you. I wish I could tell you how much you mean to me, and how much I long to be with you. But I’m afraid...afraid of what you’ll say, afraid of losing you. So, for now, I’ll keep my feelings hidden, locked away in this drawer, just like this note.Yours crazily in love with you,MadhavThe letter is signed with Madhav's signature. It was dated six years ago. Tears blur my vision as I read his words again. My heart aches, both for Madhav and for myself. He loves this woman deeply, passionately, in a way I’ve want him to love me. But it’s not me. I’m not the one he’s written this note for. I take a steady breath to steady myself and put the letter back in the envelope but I find something else inside it. I open the envelope wide and find a passport-size photo sticking to the envelope. My heart races and my fingers shake as I pull out the photo from the envelope.My heart skips a beat and I grip the edge of the table to stop myself from fainting in shock as I stare at the passport-size photo. I would recognise the girl in the photo anywhere because it is me. Suddenly everything seems as clear as a day to me. “I want to keep you safe because you are too important to me.”“.....I would do anything in my power to take out the threats that pester me and my loved ones. You are safe. Nothing will happen to you.”“ ‘Why are you doing this? Why do you want to keep me safe? Why would risk your life for me? What do I mean to you?’‘……..I would answer that question easily but are you ready for the answer?’ ”“Honestly, I was afraid of her rejection. But, another reason why I never told her was that she would be terrified if she knew I loved her. I don’t want her to feel disgusted by my love.”“....I wanted you to feel at home at this place. I don’t know how to be warm or gentle. Heck! I have no idea how to make you feel at home at this place. That is why I tried to recreate your room in hopes of giving you a homely feeling. Tell me do you like it?”“I want to tell you every freaking thing that is on my mind, Sruthi. But you are not yet ready for it.”Something tells me that all the dreams I had of Madhav confessing his undying love for me were true. His words and the emotion in his voice felt too real to be my imagination. If I am the woman he is in love with then, I can imagine how devasted he must have felt when I was in the hospital.“Sruthi, I beg you.”“Please, come back to me. I am sorry for how I behaved. I am sorry for not promising you to not kill anyone.”“I promise not to kill anyone hereafter. Please, just don’t leave me. My life won’t be the same with you in it.”“Do you remember the first time we met? That day is etched in my memory. It was on your brother’s twentieth birthday. I have heard a lot about you from Vikram. He always referred to you as his little sister. So, I imagined meeting a cute kid with chubby cheeks but you were none of that. You took my breath away at the first sight Sruthi. I couldn’t believe that you were a school student when I first laid my eyes on you at the party. You were wearing a navy blue cocktail dress that hit your calves. You looked like the greatest sin in that dress.”“I wasn’t expecting you to be charming and chatty. Your words to me when Vikram introduced us was, ‘So, you are that mysterious Madhav.’ I never believed in having your heart race faster for someone at first sight. But, that day, I did believe it because my heart kept racing for you. My eyes unconsciously sought you and tracked every one of your moments. Our short conversation was fun and I knew you were going to be someone special in my life.”“You know what happened at the end of the party? A fight broke out between me and some rich jerk who had come there. I was a hot-headed man then and I had no idea how to control my temper. But, when I looked at you after that fight and found you staring at me with clear hatred and disgust in your eyes, for the first time, I was repulsed at myself. After that no matter how hard I tried, you never changed your perspective of me. You only grew more scared of me…”“There were a lot of times in the past, I tried to tell myself that the feelings I had for you were a small crush and it would fade away. I tried to forget you by going on a series of dates. That is when the rumour of me being a playboy started. But no woman in this world could erase you from my mind. Every time, I went out with a girl, I kept thinking how the date would have turned out if it was you sitting across from me in the restaurant. You were always on my mind. I knew the hate you had for me but I can never stop loving you despite your harsh words. I wished to God that as the years passed, you would turn ugly and that I would despise you but time was kind to you and as the years passed, you only grew more beautiful.”“It was pure torture for me to see you together with Praveen. I was envious of him and wanted to wish him all the bad in the world but I couldn’t because you were so in love with him. I saw the way your eyes would light up when he called your name or how you would grin like a fool when you received a text message from him. I hate him yet I also admired him for making you happy. I was ready to move on from you and wish you all the happiness on your wedding day but you know what happened. Your dumbass fiancée left you and I was made the groom. Honestly, I was the most ecstatic man that day. I thought that this was the final chance that God was giving me to show you how much you mean the world to me. I wanted to take things slow. I wanted you to recover from the heartbreak. I didn’t want to force you into a relationship with me. That was why, I never told you that you were the woman with whom I was in love all these years even when you asked me outright.”God! How dumb of me to not recognize the signs? Was I that oblivious to Madhav’s actions? Now, that I think about it, he did flirt with me a lot of times but it was me who couldn’t understand it.“It is a sad thing that you are not a crawler.”“Somedays, I hardly feel human with no emotions. Every time I return after a mission, I would feel empty with no regrets or pride for what I have done.  But, you make me feel things.”“It is okay, Sruthi. I liked arguing with you.”“But I am trying to win you over.”And he was always there for me cheering me at the sidelines and stepping up for me when I found it too tough to handle.“Do what you can do. But, I assure you that the moment you ruin my wife’s name, I will do everything in my efforts to ruin both you and your boyfriend. I agree, Praveen is a more popular figure than me in our country and people would sympathize with you for whatever stunt you pull to ruin my wife’s name but don’t forget who you are dealing with…….I may not be popular but I have many connections in the dark world and politics. In case you forgot, I would like to remind you that I am the best friend of the ruthless politician in this country and I have learned a couple of tricks from him. I can make things harder for you in the media. Just imagine how would people react if they knew that you cheated with Praveen when he was engaged to Sruthi.”“I am still angry at that bastard for what he did to you.”“He ran away and we got married but my sources were still investigating him. A couple of days later, I found out he was seeing Pavitra when enaged to you. I wanted to find him and give him a beating when I learned about that. But, he was good at hiding himself and I had other things to focus on, so, I let him go.” “You were already wallowing in sadness. I didn’t want to add more to your wounds by telling you that he cheated on you. I didn’t want you to suffer so, I thought it was best unknown to you.“Do you want me to break that bastard's bones?”“I am sorry if what I said now felt overbearing to you. I can't handle seeing you all injured in the hospital again.”“Forget about rules and everything for one night. Do you want to be reckless and see the beach with me tonight?”There were many times, Madhav indirectly tried to know my feelings but being the thick head I was, I gave him all mixed signals.“Are you still scared of me?”“Then, what do you feel for me?”“What makes you think that I did for money?”“Yes, at the cost of my own life.”“Because you are an important person to me......”I friend zoned and kept him at a arm's distance when in reality I want no distance between us.How did he keep his feelings under his control all this time?If some other man had been in Madhav's place, then he would have forced me to have sex with him but Madhav never lay a finger on me against my wish. I smile as tears roll down my face. I feel bitterswet knowing about Madhav's unseen embers of love. He tried to show his love to me in the best way he knew. I am not sure what made him think that I hate him but I understand why he is pushing me away. He is trying his best to not become a man like his father. He is afraid of hurting me and thus wants to maintain a distance.I take a deep breath and wipe away my tears. I am not going wait around for him to confess to me. I love him and I am going to confess it to him. He loves me too but there is some sort of hesitation and confusion on his side about my feelings. I am going to make my feelings crystal clear tonight. Because, unlike him, I don't have a iron will and self control. ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥