Attraction Is The Easy Part | ✓

Chapter 43 : Between Heart and Mind

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Another two days had passed. Anika was surprisingly more angry with him. He was busy with work all the time. Rudra had met with a minor accident on Tuesday. His bike had skidded. Thankfully, there was no worrisome injury as he had his helmet on. He had a fractured left leg and a cracked arm bone. Anika had stayed with him from evening until night with Omkara accompanying her. It was late evening and she and Omkara had gone to have a cup of coffee.

"Anika, Shivaay told me what happened," Omkara started a conversation looking at her.

Anika subtly nodded looking elsewhere.

"Anika, I know we have never really got along well. But trust me when I say I can relate to your hurt. I have been thinking about it for the past two days. I just want to say... please don't make the mistake I made. I know it sucks to see someone you love with someone else in a way like that. It's like someone's brutally tearing apart your heart. Trust me Anika, Shivaay would never look at another woman like that. Never. I know the CCTV cameras have already proved him to be innocent. I just want you to trust him and in your love. I understand how terrible you would have felt, when you saw that at a time when you wanted to make the most beautiful confession of your life."

Anika looked up at him glassy-eyed. His hand reached to hers on the table. He gently placed his hand on hers.

"I don't want you to regret the way I am. This is still worse than what you feel. Don't give up Anika, it sucks to be where I am," his voice cracked and he pressed his lips tightly looking away. "Trust him, if you love him." He said getting up and walking away his hands reaching his eyes. 

Tears rolled down Anika's cheek. She wiped her tears and walked back up. Only one question looming in her head, Did Shivaay know that she was going to confess? 

"Omkara, how did you know about my plan for that evening?" She asked him later, sitting beside him on the waiting chair outside the room Ruxracwas sleeping in. 

"Umm, we had seen it that night, Rudra was worried when Shivaay said you had gone to your mother's place..." Omkara spoke earnestly. Anika nodded. He knew. He knew she loved him and she was going to confess. Yet he had done nothing? If she was in his place she would have reacted. She would have told him she loved him. But he didn't do any of it. Why? The only explanation she could think of was, he didn't feel the same way. She bit her lower lip looking away. 

That night Shivaay opted to sleep with Rudra in his room when they took him back home. They barely spoke. 

It was Wednesday night and Anika was seated on her bed still thinking about it all. She hadn't noticed when he had returned from office, walked inside the room, and gone for a shower. He left early and returned late from offices over the past days. She quickly kept her phone aside and slept. She didn't want to talk to him. She needed to digest facts. It was all very confusing. He was becoming difficult to understand. Did he love her or not? 

Shivaay walked out of the washroom to find her sleeping. The sudden dispute with Manish Kapoor had caused major issues at work. He had fixed meeting with two other business tycoons to seek partnership for the project. Luckily, exiting the deal wasn't a problem because his legal advisors had done a good job with the contract. Shilpa Kapoor had the audacity to visit him again threatening to leak the photos and video over the internet. She no longer seemed to care that her reputation would be at stake too. He was disgusted by her offer to let her be his mistress in secret. 

Ever since college days she had a thing for him. However, Shivaay was always repelled by her personality. He never thought they'd ever meet again. If all of the tension outside home wasn't enough, Rudra had met with an accident. And then, there was his wife. She didn't seem like the Anika he had married. She was like a stranger. She would not talk or interact with him much.