Circle of Trust

Chapter 26

The red file sat burning a hole into his desk. He didn’t touch it. He couldn’t. He hated that file more than he hated his father. The more he came to know Naina, the less he believed its contents.

He still remembered being called to his father’s obnoxiously opulent office one fateful night. Bar hopping with Shiv had been his favorite pastime after dragging his feet the whole day in his father’s many businesses.

After his best friend and girlfriend of six years had jilted him and disappeared, he had drowned his sorrows in liquid. It was the only quick fix solutions that worked…at least temporarily till he woke up the next day and felt the same ache squeeze his chest mercilessly.

Obviously papa dearest wasn’t too overjoyed with his son’s destructive pursuits, so he found the most unworthy bride for his errant son.

Dropping the red file onto his lap, he had bragged about how hard he had to work to find him a fitting wife. When Varun had refused to look at it, the distinct sound of his infamous whip cracking against the floor had been enough motivation for him to not only read the damn file but also agree to marry the skinny and gaunt looking girl called Naina.

Naina.

The first thing he had noticed about her were her eyes – huge and sunken but it was the spark he had glimpsed in their depths that compelled him to seek her eyes. He had been disgusted by the things he had read about her in the file but he couldn’t deny the innocence that peeked at him everytime she looked at him.

From the first night he found her curled up on the king sized bed, her parted lips blowing light bubbles as she breathed in her sleep, he couldn’t turn his eyes away from her. Despite the incriminating words of the file etched in his mind, he found himself thoroughly fascinated by his petite wife, Naina. Even the name intrigued him so much so that he had tried saying it aloud several times after the first night they made love. Sex. It had been sex. There wasn’t love involved.

He had wanted her. It had been as simple as that. And that need translated into action when he found himself in bed with her the night he had boxed himself into exhaustion. Her scent had invaded his nostril and spread through his veins – she had smelt of earth and spices. Unable to resist the lure, he had buried his head into her dark tresses and then her neck.

She had moaned, the sensuous sound stirring a desperate craving inside him. With his eyes closed, he had let his fingers glide over her form, and finally when he had looked into her eyes and entered her, he couldn’t resist dipping his head and taking her soft lips in a earth-shattering kiss.

And he had submitted to her since then, first his body, then his heart and finally his soul. He was nothing without his Naina.

So, the thought of even touching that vile red thing distressed him a great deal. He long suspected what was in the file was pure fabrication to get him to screw up his marriage as he had his relationship with his mother and his girlfriend. For some reason, his father had hated his guts…hated him.

He needed Naina to confide in him about her past; he needed to see for himself how different the reality was from the fabricated lies lining the sheets of the file.

The only other person to have read the file was his estranged friend Shiv.

His intercom buzzed, and he snapped it up, relieved to shift his eyes away from the file.

“Clara…”

“Sir, there’s a friend here to meet you. Shiven,” she said.

Varun clenched and unclenched his fists a couple of time before responding. “Send him in. And hold all the calls for the next hour.”