Chapter 22: chapter 22

SRUTHI“You made all this?” I ask looking at the variety of dishes in front of me. It looks delicious and savouring. I have showered and am ready for the day. The gossip channel anchor and cameraman would arrive in an hour. They are delayed by traffic. In the meantime, I am on the task of stuffing my mouth with the delicious food. I am still nervous about the interview with the news channel. But, I am determined to pull it off. “No,” he answers shooting me a funny look. “The housekeeper made it.”“Housekeeper? You have a housekeeper?” I ask in surprise. I imagined Madhav to live in a dingy apartment with junk food. Isn’t that how assassins usually live in the movies? I sure as hell didn’t expect him to have a huge house and definitely not the housekeeper.“Yes, I do and she was here today morning, all curious about you. I had to practically push her out of the house when she was done working,” he answers with a gentle smile on his face. I am taken aback a moment as I see how that one smile can transfer his whole face. “You seem fond of her,” I comment.He shrugs, “Maybe, she worked for my father and now for me. She is an excellent cook and a woman who isn’t noisy.”“Does she know about the side gig you do for my brother?”“No, she doesn’t and neither should she know about the truth of our marriage,” he warns.I nod my head and tear a small piece from the crispy and dosa and dip in the Sambar. I put the piece in my mouth thinking about asking Madhav regarding the interview but when the food hits my tongue, I forget everything else and a satisfied sigh escapes me at the amazing taste of food. “Dang it! This is tasty,” I say taking another piece.“Told you she was the best cook,” Madhav says with a smile.“Not going to argue with that,” I answer as I eat another piece. I savour all the Dosas in record time. I look up from my plate to find Madhav watching me with a hungry look on his face. His eyes are fixated on my mouth.I gulp down and ask, “Is there something on my mouth?”“No,” he answers looking away. I notice his shoulders are tensed and his hands are fisted. A silence falls between us and I find it awkward and uncomfortable. I don’t know how to fill it. Things are new and weird between us. I can’t still accept the fact that Madhav is my husband let alone the fact that he is a murderer. I have no idea how much blood he has in his hands. I shudder at that thought. “Why don’t we spend the time we have till the reporters arrive productively?” Madhav asks as I get up from the dining table to wash my hands.“What do you suggest we do?” I ask more curious than scared. I want to know what is his idea of productivity.“There is a hell lot of gifts to be opened,” Madhav says with a glee slipping into his voice. I don’t control the wide grin that breaks out on my face.❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥Gifts! I love opening them. I am a grown-up adult but the excitement of opening a gift would never fade away. To know what it contains under the shiny wrapper is something I would keep doing forever. I am not sure how Madhav knew about my strange fetish for opening gifts but he let me open all of them without interfering. The gifts were sent here from the wedding. We are in the store room of the house. Yes, store room. Madhav has a freaking store room in his house to store who knows what. For now, he has kept the gifts from the wedding in here. I don’t know why he would need this room. “It is a wall clock,” Madhav says with a bored expression.“I don’t think so,” I say shaking the blue glittery wrapped box. “I guess it is another photo frame.”He watches me unwrap the gift slowly. I groan as a wall clock tumbles out of it. He laughs, “That is one point to me. I am already eight points leading. Agree that you suck at this game.”I shake my head at him, “No, you are good at this game. Vikram would have never guessed these many items correctly.”We are playing a guessing game. Before I opened the gift, we both would guess the item in it. Whoever guessed correctly gets a point. I was the one who suggested playing it. I used to play this with my brother and it was a fun game. I didn’t expect Madhav to agree to play it with me. When I started opening the gifts, he just sat in a chair and watched me. We had a weird silence between us that I was uncomfortable with. I suggested the game out of the blue to break the ice between us. “What do I get if I win?” Madhav asks.“Whoa!  There, there. We still have a dozen of gifts left to be opened and you are already confident about winning,” I say.“That is because I am going to win,” he answers with a confident smile. He looks handsome and I can suddenly see why he is known as the playboy. This smile of his is enough to get him any woman he wants. It is beautiful and he looks affectionate when he smiles at me like that. If only he wasn’t the ruthless killer I would have fell for his charms.Wait! What the hell?Sruthi, get a grip on yourself! You must never fall for his charms. Isn’t it enough that you got your heart broken one time? With a shake of my head, I look at the remaining gifts to be opened. A sparkly yellow gift wrapper catches my attention and I grab it. It looks different from other gifts. Unlike other gifts, it doesn’t have a definite shape. It is small in size and it would fit inside my handbag. That is why I missed it the other time. It was hidden behind the gift I opened previously. Curious, I feel the contents of the gift by poking and prodding it in various places. “I guess that contains a lot of newspaper wrapped around something. I can’t guess what that ‘something’ is,” Madhav says.“My guess is the same,” I answer looking at the gift wrapper more closely for the cello tape.“Who sent it?” Madhav asks leaning forward in his chair. “There is no label on it,” I say peeling the cello tape quickly. I pull the glittery wrapper away to find—very unsurprising—newspaper wrapped in a ball. I hurriedly unwrap the newspaper to find —WHAT THE HELL??“There is nothing inside,” I say with a frown. “Someone should have pull—” I start to say but my words stop as I look at the newspaper. Only it is not a regular newspaper. There are words scrawled on it in red ink. Just like your parents, you will pay for the sins your family is committing.I frown and straighten the paper to find a picture printed on it. My heart skips a beat in fear as I take in the picture in it. I suddenly find it difficult to breathe. A feeling of being trapped in a small place settles in my body. Memories buried deep in my mind resurface as I keep looking at the picture in the newspaper. A picture that stirs a memory that still haunts me. I feel suffocating as I look at it. Stark fear and hopelessness settle in my body. I should look away from the photo but I can’t. The photo relives the memory of that day in my mind. I see black spots but before I could pass out, someone grips my shoulders and forces me to look away from the photo.❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥