Sweet child, Chitra thought fondly as she closed Aditi’s door for her. Many years ago, she had chosen to look after Kaya when the troubled girl was attempting to figure out her path in life. She had not expected to play guardian to yet another young lady after Kaya had reconciled with Arjun.
A serendipitous encounter in Velas many months ago had reunited Chitra with her childhood friend, Gomati, leading to an introduction to Aditi. Time spent with them revealed that Aditi was trying to convince her parents to let her live in Mumbai for anextended work rotation. Too fearful of letting their daughter stay alone in an unknown city, they had refused.
Until Chitra had offered them a solution.
She had not thought much more beyond helping a young girl whom she’d taken a liking to, which is why it surprised her to see her normally polite grandson react this way to someone he insisted he did not know.
Chitra settled into her pillow, recalling how Rian had immediately put his walls up, almost wary of Adi. She smirked in the dark, the memory of her grandson’s gobsmacked face causing her to let out an involuntary snort. Attraction often began with fear and refusals.
Rian deserved someone good and kind, more so because her sweet grandson seemed to believe the opposite. Even today, when she showed him care, it took him a minute to accept it.
Perhaps Aditi, with her cheerful and open personality, would finally win Rian over.
Perhaps.
3
The Truce
Rian
Rian’s eyes shot open,his forehead dotted with sweat and his chest tight. The cotton sheets he’d thrown on himself had bunched and twisted about his legs, constricting them. His hand hit his bedside table and he blindly tapped along the surface until he came upon a familiar switch. Dull light washed his room in a soft yellow glow, and he threw a glance about.
His bedroom. He was in his bedroom. He was okay. He wasn’t eight anymore, lying on the cold and wet grounds of his childhood home, waiting in the dark.
He scanned the space around him, seeing nothing, the fear still fresh. His breathing was heavy and felt loud, even to his own ears. He hunched over and forced himself to close his eyes, focusing on counting his breaths. He willed his heart to slow down from hammering so painfully within his chest.
Slapping a hand over his forehead, he hissed in surprise when the sweat burned him. A peek at his palms revealed angry crescent marksin a series of perfect indents left behind by his nails, a reminder of having clenched his fists too tight while asleep.
Once again, without being physically present, Leela Shetty had managed to wound him.
Ever since he’d returned, his nightmares had gotten worse, and it likely had to do with the fact that he had been dealing with his mother more than he had wanted to. Vindictive as always, Leela had followed through on her threat to seek retribution and had lodged a complaint against Ankit. The poor man had been harassed while at the police station until Rian had managed to convince Leela to retract her grievance.
Rian recognized that it was a power play on his mother’s part. Since he had not been responding to her calls or giving her the attention she liked to command from those around her, she had begun to resort to underhanded techniques like this to bring him to heel.
He was convinced that the closer he was to someone, the more sadistic pleasure she derived out of hurting them in order to hurt him too.
Rian gritted his teeth.
He had never been able to fully cut his toxic mother out of his life. She had an unexplainable influence over him. He didn’t know why that was because he was as sure of it as his own name that he despised her and wanted nothing more than to end all relations with her.
Perhaps he would finally succeed once he had his school up and running.
Yes, that would shut her up. It would put these nightmares to rest, and then he could finally move on.
Rian lay back in his bed, counting minutes and wishing for sleep to return. Frustrated by the voices that tormented him, he shucked the covers off and swung his long legs over the side, striding out to get something to drink.
As he came to the end of the hallway, his gait slowed, eyes drawn to the figure on the couch.
Aditi.
He almost groaned. He didn’t want to deal with her. Thankfully, her focus seemed to be on the show that was playing on TV.
He glanced at the flat screen, unable to hold back a disgusted frown before he turned away. DC? Ugh. Further proof that his decision not to befriend her was correct. Anyone with taste knew that Marvel was superior.
Shaking his head, he beelined for his kitchen, yanking open the refrigerator to pull out a bottle of milk. His gaze swung around, searching through the cabinets for the spices he kept handy.
She coughed, and for some reason, he stilled. It took effort for him to continue ignoring her presence. Rian had not thought it would be this hard. He had firmly believed that he could go days without seeing or talking to her. The duration of her program at the hospital would come to an end eventually, and life would go back to normal. His apartment would be his again, and he wouldn’t feel so on edge in his own home.