A Tangled Affair: A Passionate Love Story

by P. G. Van

  Mini laughed. “It’s a long story, but when we both ran away from home, we…”

  “Mini… too much information,” Naina interjected, and Samraat realized that his mentor’s daughter had run away with Naina.

  “What? You didn’t tell him all that, but you told him your real name?” Mini retorted.

  “Mini,” Naina warned.

  “Fine, then we will have him tell you how we ran away when you were TheIronMan, and I was the GirlyGal.”

  Naina shook her head. “Not yet, but, oh my God, I am so happy to see you guys. How was Morocco?”

  Mini smiled, running her arm around the young man who accompanied her. “It was wonderful, and oh, where are my manners? Samraat, this is Marc, my boyfriend.”

  “Marc, you survived living with Mini.” Naina smiled, and Samraat saw the sheer joy in her eyes, a look that made something tug in his chest. He longed to see the sparkle in her eyes, but he could not figure out why, especially when she is not the person of interest. Not the person who he was supposed to bring home.

  Mini laughed, planting a kiss on Marc’s cheek. “I am such an easy person to live with, right, baby?”

  “Right,” Naina said, smiling at the woman.

  Samraat had a million questions, the first one being why they both have the same names, but he decided not to probe on what seemed to be a sensitive topic. “How do you both know each other? Friends or relatives since you have the same names?”

  Mini laughed. “Friends and Naina is like my sister from another mother. My God sent sister.”

  “How did you guys really meet? I am not buying the we-ran-away-together story,” Samraat asked, laughing in hopes of getting more information. He knew he could get more out of Mini in a few minutes, the information he could not get from Naina in weeks. He could not help but wonder what really happened with Naina in the past. He had assumed she was upset about Mr. Sharma considering remarriage after his wife passed away, but he knew Naina had her own story, and it killed him that he knew nothing about her.

  “Should I tell him?” Mini laughed, looking at Naina glaring at her.

  “You don’t need to tell me if Naina is not comfortable.” Samraat smiled at Naina.

  “She is always paranoid that way. Naina, if he knows your real name, why the secrecy?” Mini seemed to be more easy-going than Naina, and he could see how guarded she was compared to Mini.

  “Fine, tell him and stop talking for the rest of the night,” Naina teased her friend.

  “We met at science camp in sixth grade and were inseparable from that day. It didn’t matter that we didn’t go to the same school and didn’t meet at all. We chatted on instant messenger on our computers and never on the phone.”

  “Why?” Samraat was curious.

  “Because Naina, TheIronMan, didn’t want anyone in her house to know she and I were friends.”

  “Oh. Why?”

  “Long story. For another day, GirlyGal,” Naina interjected.

  Yes, super long. Anyway, she is my sister and best friend forever with the number two spot going to Marc.” Mini laughed.

  “I’ve made peace with the fact that I am number two.” Marc winked.

  “Wow, sixth grade, huh… nice. I wish I had a friend who knew me for that long,” Samraat said.

  “I got lucky with Naina,” Mini said, blowing a kiss to her friend.

  Naina smiled and added, “How about we talk about your Morocco trip and then dinner?”

  “Yes, I want to hear about your trip. Sounds like fun.” Samraat knew Naina didn’t want to discuss her further. And he knew not to push for more information based on her expression and body language. He could tell she was not comfortable talking about her past.

  Samraat shook his head, reminding himself he should be focusing on getting Mini to go to India, not Naina, but he could not help the questions that kept popping in his head about her.

  Samraat kept his eyes on Naina as he sat on the balcony with Marc while she talked with Mini as they prepped for dinner. From time to time, she would look in his direction, and he noticed the heat that crept up to her cheeks every time their eyes clashed.

  He smiled each time their eyes met, and he knew she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. The new revelation made him feel free to actually express his feelings for her, to want to be with her, and to know more about her—to protect her.

  The last thought sent a shudder through him. He took a deep breath looking away from her to find Marc looking at him. “You better not hurt her.”

  “Excuse me?” Samraat said.

  “What’s going on between you two?” Marc questioned.

  Samraat shrugged, taking a sip of his beer. “Nothing.”

  “Why are you here, then?” Marc sounded like a protective older brother.

  “I am here for my sessions at the wellness center.”

  Marc shook his head slowly. “Here. In this apartment?”

  Samraat knew what Marc was getting at and decided to come clean. “I came here for a different purpose, but now my purpose is her. Is that a bad thing?”

  Marc looked at him for a long moment before smiling at him. “She needs to trust you.”

  “I have been trying for weeks to understand her pain but to no avail.” Samraat sounded frustrated.

  “She will tell you, give her time to trust you.”

  Samraat nodded, looking at the two women who looked so similar, he would have thought they were sisters if he didn’t know better. “Are you sure they are not related? They look so similar.”

  “I thought they were sisters, too, when I met Naina for the first time.” Marc smiled, taking a sip of his beer.

  “How did you and Mini meet?”

  Marc smiled. “We met at work. I teach at the same school.”

  Samraat had a detail flash in front of him. Marcus was the name listed as the emergency contact on the file he had for Kiara #1 a.k.a Mini. He realized that the details that he thought the investigation team missed were, in fact, not gaps. The detail about the phone number, the car, and a few others were all Naina’s details, Kiara #2.

  “How long have you known each other?”

  “Two years now, but it took me a while to get her to trust me,” Marc confessed.

  Samraat nodded, debating if he should probe further about Mini, but something told him Marc wasn’t going to give him any more information than he already had. “Why do they have the same legal names but don’t use their legal names?”

  “Oh, yes, they do. I met Mini as Kiara, and then she told me her real name. Looks like Naina gave you her real name in a really short time.”

  Samraat didn’t know what to say as he turned to look at Naina standing by the counter lost in a conversation with Mini. “I can’t get her to tell me anything else. I know she is hurting.”

  “Yes, and Mini will never tell me. I know that, and I will never ask.”

  “The only reason for someone to use a fake legal name is if they are hiding from someone, running away from something.”

  Marc nodded. “Mini is hiding, for sure.”

  Samraat knew she was hiding from her father, but why? “What about Mini’s family?”

  “The girls have no families. They had each other when they left home.” Marc took another sip of his drink.

  “My parents left me when I was eleven leaving me homeless. I will never know why anyone would leave their home.” Samraat found an opportune moment to get more information on Mini, if not Naina.

  “I’m sorry, Samraat.”

  “They left me to fend for myself and committed suicide.” Samraat knew the only way for him to gain the trust is to share his real story, just like he had with Naina.

  “That’s brutal. I’m sorry, man. I am sure it wasn’t easy. Mini lost her mother when she was in the fourth grade. She still feels the void and tells me it could have been completely avoidable.”

  “What about her father?” Samraat asked hesitantly and added, “Did she lose him, too?”

&nb
sp; Marc nodded. “Something like that. She never wants to see him. I didn’t know who to ask for permission before I proposed to her last year.”

  Samraat smiled. “You should have asked Naina.”

  “This is true.” Marc laughed and leaned forward to clink his drink with Samraat’s.

  “Are you going back to Morocco?” Samraat asked.

  “No. Mini wants to be here, closer to Naina, especially since Naina has decided to be here and not move around the country.”

  “Oh, she has this super cool apartment and doesn’t live here.”

  “This used to be Mini’s apartment. Naina moved in after we went on our teaching project to Morocco, just a couple of months back.”

  Samraat nodded realizing how everything had lined up for him to mistake Naina to be Mini, a mistake he was not sorry about. He raised his eyes from his drink looking in her direction to find her eyeing him as Mini spoke on the phone in the living room.

  He held her gaze through the closed glass patio door remembering the moments they shared just before Mini and Marc arrived. The voice that warned him of her identity as his mentor’s daughter was now silent. She was the woman he wanted to spend time with and know everything about.

  He made a promise to himself not to leave until he had won her trust, won her heart.

  “You guys ready to eat?” Naina asked, opening the patio door slightly.

  “As always,” Marc said, grunting as he stood up looking at Naina, and added, “I am so sore from the plane ride. Mini would not let me rest until she got to see her beloved friend.”

  Later that night, Samraat called Mr. Sharma from the gym in the apartment building. He had left the apartment to give Mini and Naina space to catch up as he felt like there were a lot of questions Mini wanted to ask but could not because of his presence.

  “Samraat?” Mr. Sharma sounded eager.

  “Sir, Minerva… she goes by Mini, and she still holds you responsible for her mother’s death.”

  He let out a sigh. “I know.”

  “I finally have a picture of Minerva.” He had managed to click Marc and Mini’s picture at dinner.

  Mr. Sharma went silent for a few moments. “My Mini, she looks the same… my sweetheart.”

  The older man started to weep, and Samraat could feel his pain. “I am sorry it took me this long to get you a picture, sir.”

  “Thank you, Samraat. Bring her home.”

  “Sir, the man in the picture is Marc. He loves your daughter, and she loves him, too.”

  “Samraat, thank you. Bring my daughter home so I can get her married.”

  “Working on it, sir.”

  He didn’t know what to do as he could not tell Mr. Sharma about how he had the wrong woman all along as his daughter. He thought for a moment and decided to let things play out and realized now he was free to want her, Naina.

  Chapter 16

  The next morning was nothing less than torturous, especially when Samraat had not slept all night. He knew Naina didn’t get much sleep from the number of times he heard her toss in her bed and walk to the restroom, even take a shower in the middle of the night. He had considered taking a cold one himself but refrained only because he either had to walk into her bedroom to use the bathroom or go out of the apartment to use the shower in the gym downstairs.

  He rolled off the sofa bed groaning. He felt the stiffness in his muscles and knew he needed something stronger than the friggin honey water he had been drinking the past few days. He looked through the cabinets in the kitchen and let out a victorious laugh when he found a small, almost empty container of coffee. He kissed the container before opening it to enjoy the refreshing smell of coffee.

  “Really? Coffee?” He heard her and smiled before turning to look at her.

  “Would you like some?” he asked, smiling at her as his eyes locked with her tired ones.

  “If you insist.” She laughed.

  “I insist. I missed my coffee.”

  “You know where to find me.” She winked playfully sending a zap of energy through him as she opened the French doors leading to the balcony.

  “I sure do,” he managed to say even as blood coursed through him as his heart thumped with a new kind of excitement.

  A few minutes later, he stepped into the cool, summer morning air to find her looking out into the greenery, enjoying the view of the park. It was a novel sight not to find someone staring at their phone when they had a few idle moments. Naina was very different in many ways.

  “Here you go,” he said, handing her the mug of hot coffee.

  “I badly need caffeine to get anything done this morning.”

  He sat down as he watched her take a small sip of the hot liquid, and her eyes rolled back letting out a moan and adding more internal chaos. Everything she did made him respond that much stronger. He knew she was feeling something as well but didn’t know what it was or what it meant.

  “I don’t want to do anything this morning.” His words made her look at him quizzically as she took another sip of her coffee.

  “What?”

  “I don’t need these sessions anymore. I am done. I want to enjoy the rest of my time off with you before…” A sudden realization hit him that his newfound feelings for Naina would be short-lived, especially when he has to go back to India.

  He took a deep breath, thinking about how he could be with her, enjoy coffee with her the way they were every morning. The thought of waking up with her, seeing her beautiful face every morning sent shudders through him. He wanted her for reasons he could not explain.

  “Before you go to India?” she prompted.

  “Yes. I don’t want you as my coach. I want to spend time with you.”

  She lowered her eyes to look at her coffee before asking, “Why?”

  “When I came here, I was living in denial, ignoring my past, wanting to believe it never happened, so I didn’t despise myself for the criminal I was, but now, I know I am who I am. I will not lie to myself that I felt guilty about avenging my parents’ death. I feel justified for what I did. My conscience is clear, and thank you for helping me get there.” He meant every word of it, and he saw her reaction to the emotion in his voice.

  Her eyes sparkled and widened when she looked at him, something similar to what he had seen earlier. “I am happy to hear that. I…”

  “I feel free, Naina, free to do anything my heart wishes to do.”

  “Lucky you.” She smiled.

  “What does your heart wish for?”

  “Many things.”

  “Like what?”

  She looked at him for a long second. “I want that feeling, the state that you are in, guilt-free after avenging my loved ones’ death.”

  “Your parents?” he asked, not wanting to beat around the bush anymore because he could not wait to know more about her. What he had assumed about her was wrong, and he wanted to hear the truth from her.

  She looked at him for a long moment drawing a sip of her coffee and said, “Yes.”

  “When you have gotten me to be guilt-free about what I have done, why can’t you do that yourself?”

  “You have avenged your parents’ death, I have not, and I will have no guilt when I do. Zero. But I don’t want to do that. How much ever it would satisfy me, I won’t pursue my revenge.” Her voice trailed off as her eyes closed shut like he had seen before, taking in slow, deep breaths like she was letting her anger subside.

  “Keep the anger alive.”

  Her eyes flew open, and she looked at him, surprised. “What?”

  “You need the anger to be able to avenge, the strength to keep you going until you achieve what you want.”

  “No.” Her voice was feeble. “I don’t want to.” Her chest started to heave.

  “Naina, what can I do?”

  “What?”

  Samraat leaned forward to place his coffee mug on the patio table and stood up to walk to her. He kneeled next to her chair, his eyes level with hers. “I don’t know w
hat is causing the pain in you, but I know you are hurting on the inside, and I can’t handle it. I want to be the one to take that pain away, do whatever it takes to make you feel free.”

  He paused, taking his hand to her cheek, and she closed her eyes like she didn’t want him to see what she felt. “What can I do to avenge your loss?”

  She opened her eyes and placed her hand over his. “I… I don’t know if…”

  “You cannot be this way for the rest of your life. You are way too precious to have to lead a life in pain, you deserve the freedom.”

  “Samraat…” Her voice was shaky as she placed her hand on his cheek.

  “Naina, I will protect you, whatever it is that you are scared of or worried about. They will need to get past me. I promise to…”

  She swallowed his words when she crashed her lips to his, pulling him close to her as her arms wound around him. She kissed him, taking in the intensity of the moment, unable to keep her actions under control. Her heart ruled her actions when she had only let her mind be the one under control. She let her body slip off the chair and onto him as he kissed her back.

  “I still remember the first time you kissed me. At the strip club. I knew it was you.” His words were minced as he kissed her eagerly, sending shudders through her.

  The very fact he knew she had kissed him that night, and that he had not made any advances or done anything to make her feel uncomfortable, made her heart flip in her chest. She let out a moan when he let go of her lips to let his trail along the side of her neck.

  He nipped on her skin and added, his breath hot on her skin, “I would be lying if told you I didn’t think about kissing you like that again… so many times.”

  His words added fuel to the fire, and she knew there was no fighting it anymore. She hugged his head pushing his lips deeper into her skin. “I want you.”

  Samraat heard her words and knew that was his command. His need to fulfill her every wish, keep her in his arms while he savored on her, was undying. He pulled her off the chair and onto him as he got off the floor, pulling her body up with him.

  Their lips locked again, and their tongues tangled as he swept her feet off the ground to carry her indoors. He kissed her, unable to keep himself from tasting her, feeling her trembling lips against his. The way her nails dug into his skin, he knew she was as eager and impatient as he was to be together, wrapped in each other’s embrace.