Long chapter ahead! Enjoy!!

House...housekeeper?

I stared at him blankly, unable to gauge what was happening. Slowly and in a very serious tone, I asked him, "Have you gone nuts?"

Rehaan smiled at me in amusement, before rolling his eyes at me. The amusement left as soon as it came, as he turned to look at me with sincerity in his eyes.

"I know no matter what I do, I can't bring back the seven years I ruined. Yet, I still want to do as much as I can to make up for it." He clapped his hands once, before announcing, "Boss me around as much as you can and as long as you want."

I raised my eyebrows at his words, "As long as I want? And not until my uncle is dealt with?"

"I would like to stay in your life even after that," he said, looking at me with so much warmth. "Not because we have no choice, but because we want to."

"Wh...What?" My mouth was left hung open as I stared at him with wide eyes.

To say I was dumbfounded was an understatement.

"You can take revenge for what all I did. And I will sincerely repent for every single thing I did to trouble you, for every single lie I told you and for every single thing hidden from you.

"I will become the man you deserve. Only if...only if you would allow me to."

He had a scared yet hopeful smile on his face as he bared his heart for me to see.

This was a confession, right? This means he loves me, right?

He just said wanting to stay in my life. He never said he loves me. It could mean just as friends or as a housekeeper...

There were two conclusions running in my mind. One obviously much more wanted than the other one.

Not wanting to make a fool out of myself, I decided to take the safest route.

Running a hand through my hair, I said, "I wasn't planning to take revenge though. I am not that furious."

Like a switch, his hopeful smile vanished, and annoyance took over. The instant turn of his expressions told me that I was a fool. A fool to turn down what could have been a beautiful romantic moment.

I ruined the moment, but it was Rehaan we were talking about. He wasn't the one to give up so easily.

"If you don't want to take revenge, then don't. You can just annoy me with absurd demands. You love annoying me, don't you? Just do that," he said, with a twinkle in his eyes as he moved his upper body a bit closer to me.

Placing my finger on his chest, I pushed him away until he was back to his original position.

My heart is racing as it is. No need to give me a heart attack with the closeness.

"Let's do that," I said. Before he could jump in joy, I showed him my palm. "But don't you dare to cook again, at least alone," I said, grimacing at the mess he created.

He ran his fingers through the back of head, looking at me sheepishly, and said, "Sorry."

I just shook my head at him, while internally I was dancing in joy.

"Go now, I will prepare something for us."

"Let me help," he said, already on his way to reach the vegetables.

Slapping his wrist away, I said, "Tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"Your job as my housekeeper, start it from tomorrow."

"Why? What's wrong with today?" He looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"Because today is the celebration day."

"Celebration...? For what?"

"In all this mess, we forgot to celebrate the return of your memory," I said, looking at him happily.

This was a major milestone, something that shouldn't have been overlooked.

He shook his head, before saying, "Celebration? When you're still in danger? No way."

Again with his danger nonsense.

"What danger are we exactly talking about?" I huffed. "I was going to wait to ask you everything, but let's just hear it out once and for all.

"What is the thing my uncle is behind? Why has he changed? And why is he after me?"

He shrugged, "I don't know."

"You don't know?" I repeating through gritted teeth, while glaring at him and at last shouted, "Then why the fuck are you yapping about staying away from him since yesterday?"

Clutching my hair, while breathing heavily, I tried to tone down my voice, but anger still seeped through it. "You made it seem like you knew what was happening. Like you knew why he was dangerous to me. And now you are saying, you don't know?"

Rehaan remained calm throughout my outburst. He waited till I shut up, before explaining his point.

"I don't know the exact reason, but I have seen him change before my own eyes. I saw the love and concern he had for you changed to hatred overnight."

"I believe I saw genuine concern in his eyes yesterday," I said hesitantly, not wanting to deny what Rehaan knew outrightly, because I knew he knew about those past years better than me. But I also didn't want to agree with him just like that when I personally saw something else.

Rehaan sighed in distress, but nodded nonetheless.

"I saw it too. It wasn't as much as when he saved us seven years ago but it was still there, something was definitely missing three years ago.

"He looked murderous that day. Like he wanted to make you disappear from the face of the earth. And that guy was very much capable of that.

"He can keep going back and forth with his concern, I don't care. But I can't take the risk. I put my life on line three years ago to save you from him. I am not letting you walk into the lion's den after all those efforts of hiding you from him."

So that was the reason this current house was in his name, unlike all the others we had lived in.

"I thought you were forced to take care of me and wanted to take revenge on me. Why did you risk everything to save me then?" I asked cheekily, wanting to change the serious mood.

He rolled his eyes, before muttering something under his breath.

"What? I didn't get my answer," I asked, cupping my right ear.

He grumbled but answered nonetheless, this time a bit loudly, "you grew on me."

"Aww." I went to squeeze his cheeks but he swatted my hands away.

I pouted but let it be as he turned serious again.

"Long story short, I don't trust this uncle of yours one bit."

I hummed, before something crossed my mind. "You said he changed overnight. So you must have met him on the last day he loved me as well?"

I knew I was being pathetic, but I still wanted to grab on to the hope.

"Yeah, that guy was super happy," Rehaan replied, smiling in remembrance as well. "It had been a week since that psycho was dead and all the preparations for bringing you back home were done.

"He came to me last time to practice how we were going to explain everything to you. And to end my contract as well."

Bringing me back home?

"Everyone was supposedly excited for your return. Your aunt, cousins, maternal grandparents; just everyone. He was talking animatedly about everything, even though I wasn't interested at all."

"Right, that's why you remember everything so vividly," I said sarcastically.

"I just got my memories back," he retorted with an eye roll.

"So you will remember every single sentence that has been spoken to you before?" I counter-backed, "people only remember the things that have impacted them somehow."

"Anyways," he clasped his hands, changing the topic right away, probably trying to hide his blush.

Hah! I saw it all.

"The next day your uncle came, he looked like he wanted to rip everyone apart. He told me to not tell you anything and just leave you to the streets. He threatened me that he would kill me the moment you found out that you were an heiress.

"He said that my contract had ended anyway. So to just get out of your life and to never meddle in."

I gulped, finally understanding the reason why Rehaan was adamantly trying to get me away from my uncle.

Three years ago, uncle didn't just want to destroy my identification papers. He wanted to destroy me.

"Something must have happened three years ago that made his anger surge. It looks like that anger calmed down in these three years. But still it's not worth the risk," Rehaan said.

"True," I agreed, before sighing and commenting, "I am sure it will turn out to be a stupid reason as well."

"What the—" he looked at me in bafflement, like I had grown horns on my head.

"I am serious. Just look at how invested we were trying to find out who was the culprit behind your accident. And what did it turn out to be?" I asked rhetorically, before answering myself, "Water. Seriously, how pathetic."

I threw my hands up in the air, before slowly putting them down when I saw Rehaan's death glare.

"It wasn't just water. It happened because I fought with your uncle before, who in turn threw water on my face and then I slipped on 'pathetic' water." Rehaan huffed.

"Why would you fight with someone who has the ability to kill you?" I asked in bewilderment.

"I was obviously trying to protect you."

"You had fired me a day ago," I reminded him in an annoyed tone.

"Because some other people had come looking for you the other day," he informed me in the same tone as mine.

"Other people as in, someone else other than my uncle?" I asked with my eyebrows raised.

Rehaan nodded. "I am not sure what their intentions were, but they definitely arrived because of your documents.

"I couldn't think of a permanent solution so soon. So until I found one, I had to throw them off your trail. They had my address, but nothing of yours. They didn't even know what you looked like."

"So you fired me," I finished.

My absurd assumption of him trying to save me that day was actually true.

Rehaan was truly my saviour.

"Yeah. So we are still in danger. There's your uncle and there's the other strangers too. It's a total mess."

"True, it's a mess. But it is a mess that's not going to get solved anytime soon. We cannot halt our lives because of this."

"But—"

"I want a celebration. That's my order," I said in a stern tone, challenging him to defy me.

He rolled his eyes at me, before his eyes lit up as if a sudden realization hit him.

"My job starts tomorrow. So I am not in a position to take your order," he said tongue in cheek.

I scoffed, before pouting at my loss.

Digging my own grave is my specialty.

"Fine. Don't enjoy it." I stomped my legs. "I will cook delicious food and eat it myself," I said, sticking my tongue out at him, before I moved to take out some utensils.

"Hey!" He shouted, running behind me, "I never said anything about not eating food."

Turning back to face him, I said with a fakest sweet smile I could muster, "I am going to prepare a feast. A feast meant for celebration. So you, my dear, cannot touch that. Or even smell it."

I bit my lips to muffle my laughter as I saw pure agony on his face as I pushed him away from the kitchen.

Food took precedence over everything.

Even if everything else failed, I could always win with my food.