"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

-- Maya Angelou

~~~~

Plopping down on the bed, she undid her bun. She had too much to process in just one night. Bringing her head down between her knees, she ran her finger through the loose tresses of hair. The migraine pain was getting worse.

She had never thought of running into him ever again. She was shocked would be an understatement. The most puzzling part to understand was how Nicholas could be a friend of him. She tried to think of every possibility but no, nothing was clear to her.

She was already shaken up from the chance encounter. Her fear of the inevitable was resurfacing even though she didn't want to think of that possibility. What if Nicholas was with him all along? What if he was equally to blame? What if he was an equal partner in the plan?

No.

Everything started playing out in her head like an old movie reel set on rewind. Her father lying in a pool of blood, her running out of the house, Aarav standing outside the house, him taking her to his house and then the rest was history.

If he had recognized her, he managed not to let it show on his face. He had played the role of a perfect host and the role of the best friend. She was even questioning her own remembrance power. Was it really Aarav or was it just another man who coincidently had the same name and same face?

The sound of a door shutting with a loud bang drew her out of the reverie.

A string of curses fell out of Nicholas's mouth as he walked into her room. His tone and his stance was enough to tell her that he was engaged in a heated conversation.

"What happened?" She questioned him, not sure if her intervention would be welcomed by him.

He stared at her as if he was in a daze.

She could see that while he was physically present in the moment, his thoughts were running wild in another world.

He threw away the phone carelessly on the bed and it bounced two times before acquiring a position.

"It was my mother." He replied while settling down next to her. His thumb and forefinger were busy twirling the band on his ring finger. The action was a definite sign of his contemplating thoughts on whether to share the details with her or not.

"Oh." She could come up with no better reply. Who was she to meddle in his family relationships anyway? She questioned herself. Moreover, she was no expert in relationships.

"You have nothing else to say? Just an 'oh'?"

"Well frankly speaking I don't know what the conversation was all about. So..." she trailed off.

"She wants me to get married."

Her head whipped around. "What?! I mean you should get married if your mother wants to. You wouldn't have a problem finding out a bride." She gave a small nonsensical laugh. Why was this conversation affecting her?

"That's true but the thing is I don't want to get married just yet." A deep sigh rolled out of him.

"Enjoying the bachelorette life, eh?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Her eyes trailed over him as he splayed himself across the bed, all long limbs and arms.

"Are you checking me out? I feel like I'm on a dissection board!"

"What? Of course I'm not!" Clearly caught staring at him, she averted her gaze and stared straight at the wall.

"If you say so." With a wide grin on his face, he stretched out yawning in the process. "I have noticed that you don't really talk about your parents." He adjusted his coal black eyes on her.

"There's nothing much to talk about them." She looked away, squinting at his intense stare. "Why don't you go to sleep? You look tired."

"You're trying to change the subject."

Her try at changing the subject went in vain as she considered the fact that he wouldn't let it rest at that.

"Okay wait, I'll go first." After a brief pause he continued, "We are a big family. I have 2 brothers and 3 sisters and an uncountable number of cousins. When we gather up all together, it's a real chaos but I love all of them. My grandmother and grandfather lives in Greece and my parents, they are in Spain."

He was caught up in his childhood memories. He knew his mother worried a lot about him but he could not really blame her. All parents worried about their children.

She studied him for a moment. In this instance, he looked so happy and carefree. There was no sign of bossy arrogant Nicholas. This moment felt right and she felt like pouring her heart out to him. Will he listen? Will he understand?

"Done with the speculation, Ms. Montgomery?" He gave her a brief smile.

This man made her crazy, made her do crazy things. Sometimes he made her so angry and other times he would behave in such a way that he ended up being charming. She acted like a blushing schoolgirl around him! Duh!

She crossed the tiled floor and settled beside him. After fiddling with her bracelet for a long time, she finally replied, "I see, you've family scattered all over the world. It must be great having such a loving family." She sighed. Only if she had a family.

"Tell me about yours. Well, I totally understand if that topic is off-limits."

"As I've already told you on the first day of our meeting, my parents are dead. More specifically, my father is dead and my mother...she is some corner of this world, I guess."

The last thing she wanted was his sympathy.

"What did really happen?"

She was surprised when he didn't say the all time 'I'm sorry for your loss' statement other people used to.

He didn't need to clear it out that he was probably asking about her father. I killed him. Only if she could voice out those words loud enough for him to hear. "My father died in a car accident." The practiced lie slipped past her lips effortlessly. Aren't you a pretty little liar, Niharika? "And my mother...she abandoned me in a children's park when I was 10 years old. She told me that she would be back within a minute but minutes turned into hours, she never came back."

"How can a mother just leave her own child in the middle of a park? That is a horrible thing to do!" He exclaimed. If her mother would have been before his eyes, he didn't know what he would have done. He thought of a young girl, all alone and lost in the middle of a park.

"She did but why I don't know."

"Did you try to trace her down?" He tucked a loose stray of hair behind her ear while questioning.

She looked at him with her wide dark grey eyes. "I did but it was of no use." She was tired of all of this. Everything. She was tired of hiding. She lay down, exasperated from the interrogation and the bitter memories swirling in her mind.

He was still sitting in the same posture; looking over to the dimming streetlights. "What about siblings?"

"I don't have any," she mumbled, tiredness seeping through the bones making her eyes droopy.

"Why did you sign those papers, Vivienne?" He looked at her, his voice barely above a whisper.

Only if I could tell you. "Can we not talk anymore? I'm feeling tired," she said, clearly avoiding the topic.

"Okay..."

They were consumed by the silence bracketing them. But it was a comfortable one. "You always do this-whenever it starts getting personal, you either try to avoid it or try to change the subject completely." He looked around trying to find his next words. "Sometimes I feel like that you're hiding something from me. Not even something but way too many things. You're one mysterious woman, Ms. Montgomery."

She stiffened but didn't say anything instead pretended to be asleep.

"A mystery that I need to unravel." He kept on talking. "It feels like you try to keep up with this appearance; all strong and independent and-"He swiveled his head to look at her, only to find her eyes closed.

She looked so...beautiful and peaceful lying there. He wished to wipe off that frown off her face. Frowning Ms. Vivienne Montgomery, he smiled at the thought. He wanted her to let him in. Things were changing and feelings were too, atleast for him.

He pulled the duvet up over her. He hesitated for a moment before leaving but then again he couldn't stop himself from leaving a kiss on her forehead.

Unravelling Her Secrets, he thought to himself.

~●~●~●~

Hello everyone! Don't kill me now please! *hides under the desk* (If you do then you won't be getting any update :P) I'm so sorry that I was unable to update. I know it's almost a month but due to some wattpad problems the chapters were not getting published. But seems like it got fixed since I was able to update today, yippee!

Surprises are in store my friends! *wink*

Keep reading and don't forget to vote and do leave away your comments. I would like to hear your thoughts.

With lots of love,
Loversgonewild.