Page 17 of Entangled Vows

Vikram looked at her, his brow arching in mild amusement. “Are we negotiating terms now, or are these royal decrees I’m meant to obey?”

“I’m not sleeping in your bed.”

A low chuckle rumbled from his chest. It was dark and dangerous. “We’re supposed to look like a real couple, Momo.”

“In public,” she snapped. “We’ll play our parts. But once the doors close, stay the hell away from me, Grizzly.”

His gaze dipped to her mouth, just for a second, before snapping back to her eyes, unreadable as ever. “We’ll see.”

She didn’t flinch. “No. We won’t.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw, but he leaned in anyway, slow and unhurried, brushing a loose strand of hair from her cheek. She inhaled sharply, but didn’t move. Not an inch.

Their eyes locked, and it was like fire meeting frost, a spark threatening to ignite everything around them. And they both knew it was just the beginning.

7

Three Weeks Later

Happiness and freedom were the rarest luxuries in the world, and Mahika knew that better than most. Although she had money, privilege, and a supposedly perfect life, freedom eluded her. It had disappeared three weeks earlier, the moment she signed the wedding agreement with Vikram, and it was enough to make her lose it.

She needed someone to talk to, but no one was around. She’d messaged Suraj more times than she cared to admit, every text still sitting there with a single tick, unread and unanswered. Her other bestie, Ishika, always knew how to calm her, but she’d been away for almost a month, touring with a musician as part of a work assignment. She had no idea Mahika was about to marry Grizzly Khurana. And when she found out, she was totally going to kill her.

Mahika could’ve called or texted, but this wasn’t the kind of news you gave over a message. It needed two pints of ice cream, the spiciest momos in town, and a long night of venting.

On top of that, things at the office had been tense. A considerable amount of money had gone missing from the company’s finances. Vikram’s irritation grew by the day, and he took it out on anyone and everyone, while Mohit only made things worse by being just as bad-tempered. Mahika had seenVikram lose it in a meeting and then watched two employees walk out of the conference room, visibly upset.

Ever since Mohit had punched Vikram, things were never quite right between them. They seemed civil now, or at least, they pretended to be.

She carefully avoided Vikram, preferring silence to his unpredictable temper.

Amidst the chaos of the past few weeks, one thing had finally gone right. The business had stabilised. Vikram hadn’t contacted her, except for one terse message a last night:The wedding is in two days at the registrar’s.

After that, there was complete silence. And honestly, she didn’t mind it.

She had spoken to her mother once. The conversation was cool, polite, bordering on robotic. Her mother had told her that this was Mahika’s opportunity to take charge of her life and carve out her own happiness. So typical. Mahika had nearly rolled her eyes. Whatever this was, it certainly wasn’t happiness.

Still, the disappointment stung. She felt so let down. Not that she had expected more. Maybe it was because her heart was just foolish. It kept hoping, and it kept breaking, especially when it came to her parents.

She pushed the thoughts aside as the elevator doors slid open. The day was finally over, and she was bone-tired. With her bag slung over one shoulder, Mahika stepped into the dimly lit corridor and headed towards the parking lot. It was so quiet in the lot at this hour that her footsteps echoed loudly in the space.

The phone in her hand buzzed. It was an unknown number. Again.

She froze, her stomach tightening with dread.

This had been going on for a year now. She received a barrage of calls from private numbers. Not just one or two, but an endless stream. At first, she dismissed it as spam or a glitch in the system. But they kept coming, more frequently now. Truecaller, usually reliable, couldn’t identify any of those calls. The spam filter was useless.

She tried ignoring them. However, if she didn’t answer, the phone would ring again. And again. And again. And when she finally answered, she was met with a heavy silence. No crackle, no static. Just an eerie silence, as if someone was listening on the other end and doing it deliberately.

She gulped, her thumb hovering over the screen when her phone buzzed again. It was that mystery number again.

This time, she answered, sounding super annoyed. “Hello?”

Again, she was met with dead silence, a really weird kind that felt cold and almost intentional. Her breath caught in her throat. She tried to listen harder, straining for any sound of breathing or background noise, anything to give her a clue about the caller. But she couldn’t hear a thing. It was almost like the person knew how to mute everything but his presence. Her skin prickled, and she instinctively turned to look around, a chill crawling down her spine as if someone was watching her. With trembling fingers, she ended the call and shoved the phone into her bag.

That was it. If this happened again, she was going to the police.

She took a step and froze when a voice cut through the corridor behind her.