Circle of Trust

Chapter 25

The last time Naina had been this restless was on her first night of marriage to the millionaire playboy, Varun Rathod. Her marriage was a big colorful blur of lavish dinners, designer dresses, and spectacular fireworks, never ending guests, a steady stream of the rich and the famous and all that glitter.

She remembered only the beat of her racing heart, her signature on the marriage contract, her disgruntled but handsome bridegroom and the stern look on her father-in-law.

She didn’t remember Varun tying the nuptial knot around her neck, neither was she aware of how she had ended up sitting on the marital bed decked in obscene amount of gold and diamonds, the weight of her red bridal attire tying her down to the bed.

He had been late, awfully late coming to bed that night. She didn’t know him from Adam, hadn’t exchanged a word with him despite spending the entire marriage ritual seated next to him.   

For three nights in a row she had fallen asleep staring at the grand clock on the mantle. Three mornings in a row she had woken up to find Varun sitting opposite her in a chair and staring at her. The third day when he had come out of shower, she had opened her mouth for the first time and told her that he creeped her out. He had glared at her and walked away.

His eyes were the first thing she had noticed about him – they held a storm in their brown depths. On the fifth night, she had stayed awake waiting for his arrival. He had stumbled in that night and collapsed on the bed. He wasn’t drunk, later she had come to know he had boxed the entire evening till he fell to the floor exhausted.

She had meticulously, blushing profusely, stripped him of his clothes except for  his boxers,  and pulled him up to lay his head on the pillows before falling asleep exhausted next to him.

She still couldn’t figure out who had reached for the other first but before they could realize what they were doing, she had found herself lying naked with him hovering above her, her legs wrapped around his waist, his intense gaze pinning her down. He had entered her then, and with a groan their lips had met and set a stage for their nightly passion.

He had possessed her then, and he possessed her now every single time he made love to her. She shivered with the memories that still had the power to ignite a fire inside her.

Their marriage by no means was a conventional one. So, when they had begun to fall in love, they had chucked all the conventional dictates of matrimony and found their own rhythm.

And that rhythm was being threatened by an unknown force making her restless. She could fight the known but it was the hidden that scared her.

Her thoughts once again swirled around her conversation with Shiv. Singhania. Amar Veer Singhania was a well known industrialist, a name google would instantly spew up information on.

One part excited and three parts nervous, she fired up her computer and waited. The cuckoo stuck its head out and sung a dozen times.

She typed the name Amar Veer Singhania into google search. Clicking on the Wikipedia link, she started reading up on the man who was notorious in the business circles as Basalt. There was nothing about his family in that article.

Sighing she clicked on two more links and by the third link she felt dejected. She could have asked Shiv for the girl’s name but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to ask him or Varun.

On the third page of the google search, she found a mention of his family and she eagerly clicked on the link.

The shrill ring of her phone alerted her to an incoming call and she groaned. Reluctantly, her eyes glued to the loading link, she answered the call.