Merry Christmas, guys.

I hope you all are doing well.

Give a look to my new book "Billionaire's Amour" and share your opinion.

Goodnovel - theshimmery_star

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👇🏻

"Why're you doing this, Nandini?" Manik sounded helpless. "What've you started and why?" He took a pause and started again. "See if I've hurt you in any way, then please tell me about that directly. Nandini, you know very well how bad I'm about these things. I don't understand my own feelings. Then how can I know what I did to you? If I hurt you in any way, I apologize. You know I can never hurt you intentionally. Don't avoid me like this. Please. I can't take it."

Nandini turned her face to other side to hide the tears in her eyes. She realized that she was getting weak over him once again.

"Nandini, see don't turn your face like this. Please. Just answer me. Today I want an answer. I need to know why you have been treating me this strangely from last whole month. This sadness in your face does not suit you at all. You look perfect with the smile on your face and I'm really missing that old you. The one who used to bloom always with a smile, the one who used to understand me without saying a word. I really miss you, Nandini. Just tell me what's wrong." Manik almost pleaded.

"Because I can't pretend anymore." Nandini almost yelled. "I just can't do it. That old Nandini of yours is tired of laughing and keeping everyone happy. I'm tired of faking that I'm happy, nothing is wrong. Give me some peace, Manik. I am also a human and I also have a limit of waiting and having patience, don't I? That limit has been crossed a long back. I can no longer. I am tired." She closed her eyes and inhaled a long breath. 

All the while, Manik eyes never left her sight. He knew she had a lot inside her and she has just started to open up. So, he waited for her to take out everything. He was ready bear all her anger, wrath and everything still he wanted to know what's there in her heart.

"It's not your fault, Manik. You were nowhere at fault. You're not at fault now as well. Actually, you can never be wrong. It's all my fault. It's my problem that I can't handle it all when I always knew it's gonna end up like this. I'm not in a position to answer any of your question now. Let me go please." 

Nandini somehow tried to escape controlling the tears in her eyes but failed. Manik had held her hand tightly. She couldn't even move from there.

"Manik, leave my hand." She was struggling to free herself from Manik's grip.

"No."

"Let me go."

"No."

"Please." Nandini pleaded. Her voice trembled badly. 

Ignoring all her pleadings, Manik pulled Nandini towards him with a jerk and now she was standing facing him but her face was hung low. They were only a few inches away from each other. The smell of Manik's ever so familiar cologne hit Nandini's nostril. Manik raised her face holding her chin. Now a pair of eyes appeared in front of her eyes which don't let him be in peace. 

"You can't just go like this, Nandini. You have to answer all my questions before leaving. You can't leave me in a dilemma this way. What kind of patience you were talking about? And what were you waiting for? You need to tell me everything."

"Manik, please leave me. It won't look good, if someone sees us like this. They will imagine things." Nandini whispered. 

"Let them imagine whatever they want to. I don't care." Manik yelled.

"But I do."

Manik realized he had gone a little overboard in anger. That's why he controlled his anger somehow and decided to use his triumph move.

"Nandini, try to understand my side, my psyche too. You know me. You know me better than anyone else. You know how bad I'm in realizing others feelings and all. So I'm asking you again and again, if you have any grievances, any complaint against me, then please tell me directly. Don't keep me in darkness anymore. You know I won't blame you ever for anything. Because for me you're more than right for anything."

"Darkness!"

Nandini couldn't endure anymore. All the amour-propre, anger, sadness and love that have been stored in her heart for so long were trying to come out and she couldn't handle herself anymore.

"I didn't leave you in darkness but you did. Do you really not understand anything or you pretend that you don't understand? Why do you hurt me so much, Manik? Didn't you understand anything in these years or you never want to understand those things which I couldn't say ever? I am lost somewhere in the midst of your psychology and friendship in your life. I don't know where to go."

Till now Nandini was sobbing. 

"You never tried to understand me for my sake. Never! Manik, there's something which can't be explained to anyone. Because if you say it orally, then the depth and value of those words are ruined. That's why I never told you anything but I was hoping that you'll understand. I had faith that you know me this much to understand my feelings. But you didn't understand anything because you never tried to."

The simple confession of Nandini shocked Manik. Unknowingly he left Nandini's hand. As soon as he left her hand, she ran away from there wiping her tears leaving a baffled Manik behind. As Nandini left, Manik felt he had no strength left in him. He fell on the couch placed there. 

'That means Sid was right. He was right all the while. Nandini really loves..... But when did all this happen and why did I never realize what was going on in her heart?' 

Manik closed his eyes as these thoughts crossed his mind. As he closed his eyes, some memories flashed in front of his closed eyes. Some memories where Nandini was with him. He opened his eyes with a jerk. He felt his heart was beating faster than usual. 

"What's happening to me? Why am I feeling so good after hearing this? Does this mean I too..."

He got up from his place. His mind was not working properly. He couldn't think anything more.

Rest of the day passed in a jiffy. Manik and Nandini came face to face a few times but none of them spoke anything to one another. 

It was 12 at night and the whole Kapoor Mansion was drowned in darkness after the excitement, joy and fun of whole day. All of them were really tired. Avneet slept as soon as Manik and Sid left. But Nandini couldn't sleep. She was sitting alone on the bed. There was no sleep in her eyes tonight.

All the gifts were unwrapped and they were scattered around the bed except Manik's one. She didn't open his gift. She didn't feel like unwrapping it. She let that be the way it was. Whenever her gazes were falling on the wrapped packet, she could only think of the event in the evening.

After her not so eventful encounter with Manik, when she came back to hall only she knew how she controlled herself and pretended that she was okay. It was as if the rest of the time passed in a daze. It seemed that Manik had been in the terrace for a long time. It was Sid who went to call him when they didn't see him for a long time. 

When Manik came back, Nandini couldn't even look at him. She tried to avoid him as much as she could. To her luck, Manik too didn't try to have any conversation with her. Nandini couldn't remember exactly what she had spoken to Manik in the terrace at the hit of the moment. However, she knew that it is not impossible for an intelligent person like Manik to understand what's there in her heart after whatever she had told him. 

'What will happen now?'

This one line was roaming in her mind since that moment. Nandini didn't know but after pouring her heart out today in front of Manik, she was feeling lighter. Her heart seemed to be calmer than usual.

Feeling exhausted, Nandini reached for the packet of Manik's gift. She caressed the cover of the pocket with a lot of affection, then she carefully unwrapped it. She found the book Forever by Judy Blume.

Nandini's hand trembled a little as she held the book. She already had the book, then why did he gift the book again to her? Is it some hint to her? 

She immediately wiped those thoughts from her mind. "I shouldn't think like this already. Maybe he didn't know that I already have this book that's why he gifted it again."

Thinking this, Nandini turned the first page of the book because Manik always wrote something in his gifts. So, she was eager to see what he had written for her.

"I have seen your dark nights and your brightest days and I will be here with you forever waiting in your dusk."

Nandini was stunned reading the line written there and kept staring at the book for so long that she forgot the count of time. She tried to realize the meaning of his words but nothing came in her mind. She went blank.

"What did he try to mean? Is it a mere line or there's some hidden meaning behind it?"

Nandini could not sit still there anymore, she almost ran out and stood in the terrace clutching the railing tightly in her grip. There were some deadly agitation going on in her mind. She tried desperately to find the answers of thousands questions  in front of her but failed miserably. She almost lost her consciousness and sat down on the ground with a thud. Tears started coming out of her eyes silently. All the emotions that had been frozen for so long inside her, came out one by one today. 

~~•~~

That's all for the day. I hope you liked the book. So, Nandini made her feelings evident to Manik. But what about him? Will he accept it? What do you think?

Don't forget to vote and comment.

Thank you.

27.12.2022