𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴

• 12 •

In the loving memory of Anshika di YUDKBHT.
You can never know what life has in store for you. I may not know her personally but she was a part of our Wattpad family and I have always loved her work. She will always be remembered. May her soul rest in peace. Om shanti.

Here's the next chapter and it's a long one.
Hope you like it.
Happy Reading :)

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The dark damp night was coming but this didn't bother Naina. She just wanted to sit there as long as she could without caring about any other thing. The number of people was multiplying, as they say, night time is the best time to spend at Marine Drive. She was observing people, some had come along with families, some were enjoying their me-time, while some couples were spending their romantic time. They all seemed to be pleased in their little bubble. This is what she craved for. It was like someone had opened the chest of her deepest desires today, which she had locked and buried in the deepest corner of her heart. Sitting there and watching people happy in their own world was adding more to her grief. On top of that, the twisted foot had almost become swollen now, increasing the pain but not more than that in her heart.

With great difficulty, she finally reached home through a taxi. Limping towards the main door, she opened it and entered inside. The lull inside the house was giving her weird and a bit creepy sensations. She felt lonelier than ever. She directly went to the kitchen and as usual, found the dinner already being cooked by Ramdhari. All the adverse events of the day were adding up to her mental exhaustion causing her to have a headache and lose her appetite. She served herself with a small amount of the curry and only one chappati which too seemed to be more than enough. She ate her dinner half-heartedly to not waste Ramdhari's hours of hard work.

Keeping the plates in the sink and washing her hands, she hobbled towards the stairs in an attempt to go towards her room, but all in vain since she staggered as soon as she kept her right leg. She immediately caught hold of her leg and a yelp escaped from her mouth. The pain had become exorbitant now and the almost swollen ankle now looked puffed. She was feeling worn out and just wanted to rest. The swollen ankle needed to be treated. Not being familiar with the things, she didn't know where to find the medication box or the bandage.

There, Sameer sat with a disgruntled expression on his face. After spotting the culprit on the CCTV, anger amalgamated with guilt had engulfed him. He couldn't believe what he saw. Shekhar, their most trusted technical head had done it all but the reason was still unknown. The footage had displayed him entering his cabin cautiously and going towards his laptop. He had opened his laptop and after cleverly completing his task, he was gone. But his wicked mind had betrayed him by not heeding the CCTV cameras. Huh, and he calls himself the "technical head".

As he had asked Aarav to send him to his office, he was told that Shekhar had left early in the evening giving an excuse of not feeling well. This added more to his certainty of him being the wrongdoer. And with that, came the remorse for treating Naina so harshly. Her teary eyes had begged him to trust her but what he did? He not only shouted on her for no reason but also misjudged her. He felt ashamed of his actions and he definitely owed her an apology. As far as Shekhar's matter was concerned, he decided to put it aside for tomorrow as he had better things to take care of. Keeping this in mind, he wrapped up his work to leave for home.

Naina struggled to walk around the living room checking the drawers of the showcase with the possibility to find something but couldn't. After a few minutes, she gave up on her efforts and just plopped on the plush sofa. She glanced at the wall-clock, 8:30 pm, she sighed. Waiting for Sameer won't be worthwhile since he would not be returning back anytime soon. Wait, why was she even waiting for his arrival? Was she really expecting him to help or even see her after what had transpired between them in the office? The answer was obviously a no (in her opinion).