MaNan FF: The Forbidden Fruit (Chapter 26 on Page 82) (25/05/16) - Page 4

wooww.. this sounds differnt n intersting..
aawwe manik.. feel bad for him..
n nandiniz life took a u turn.. lets see wher it leads them.. excited to read futher.. update soon..

I know I said I'd update in the evening but I was done with the chapter so here it is. It's a little fast-paced so I hope you all enjoy. The next chapter will probably be next week as I'm getting too busy.

"So, how is it?" Navya Naveli asked her friend as they sat together in the canteen of their college, she munching on her cookies while Nandini took a long sip of her apple juice.

"The house is very nice," Nandini answered honestly, then scoffed. "Actually, it's more like a mansion. It's so huge, and so pretty. I'm sure that even if I worked all my life, I would never be able to get a house like that. It's just... really amazing, and it scares me because I'm not used to all that stuff."

"You'll get used to it," Navya said, giving her a warm smile. "It's where you'll have to live now. How are the people? Nice, I hope?"

"My parents are really nice," Nandini told her honestly, recalling last night when they all had dinner together. Her father wouldn't stop chatting with her and her mother kept on gushing about her. After Cabir's supposed warning, this was not what she expected at all. Instead of being cold and indifferent, her parents were warm and welcoming. It somewhat reminded her of her own parents who died just months ago, and she tried to stop the tears. "It's my brother, Cabir, who's the real problem. I don't know what's wrong with him but I think he's trying to boss me around. Yesterday morning, when I first arrived, he tried to scare me by telling me lies about our parents."

"Well... is he hot?" Navya asked excitedly, completely ignoring the rest of the things Nandini had told her about Cabir.

"Urgh, Navya, please," Nandini cringed. "He's my brother, I can't think of him in that way."

"Oh come on, I'm sure you noticed," Navya argued. "Or maybe he has some hot friends. Did you meet any of them?"

Nandini thought back to the time when she met Manik. Well, if you could call it a meeting. They only exchanged a few words and he was rude, she didn't like him one bit. She prayed to God that they would never have to converse again. She didn't think she would be able to bear that.

"Well, there was this one guy who dropped by..." Nandini said, unsure. "At first sight, he's quite attractive, but when we talked he turned out to be really mean. Not friendly at all."

"Ahh, attitude? I like it," Navya winked while Nandini just rolled her eyes. Her friend seemed to like the whole bad boy persona, but she found it quite an unappealing trait. "What's his name, Nandu?"

"Manik," she answered almost immediately.

"I want to meet this Manik," Navya sighed dreamily.

Cabir Dhawan paced around his room nervously. Damn this Rose, he thought to himself, why doesn't she just leave already?

Cabir had a date planned in about thirty minutes with his secret lover, and also the love of his life, Raghav. His girlfriend Rose, who he only dated to make an impression and show people that he's straight, thought to surprise Cabir at this exact moment. She had arrived an hour ago in order to spend some quality time with her boyfriend and now, as she was getting him late, Cabir grew annoyed.

Rose was, to be honest, air-headed in his opinion. She said anything to anyone and never realized how wrong it sounded or whether or not it was insensitive. Cabir had maintained a high level of patience to be able to deal with her. Most people just told him to break it off with her, but Cabir needed her. He knew that Rose was so dense that she wouldn't ever understand that Cabir was gay and cheating on her unless someone told her that right to her face. She was exactly the kind of person he needed to flaunt to people and hide his sexuality.

"Oh, baby," Rose said in her usual high-pitched voice as she entered his room, "I'm so sorry that phone call took so long."

It should've taken longer, he thought to himself. "It was Angie," Rose explained further. "I'm really sorry but she needs me to meet her ASAP. Apparently, something big has happened."

Cabir wanted to hug her friend Anjali, who she referred to as Angie, right now. The timing was perfect. If Rose left now, he could still get ready to meet Raghav and possibly not be too late.

"It's alright," Cabir said, faking a sad smile while Rose just sighed.

"Sorry, babe. I'll be back soon, okay?" She said as she leaned in, placing a quick but sloppy kiss on his lips. Cabir shuddered. It was really hard for him to keep up this act of pretending to like girls when in reality, he felt very uncomfortable with all of this.

Once she was out of sight, Cabir immediately rushed to his wardrobe, quickly grabbing something to get ready. He was going to go meet Raghav, and the thought itself made him feel giddy inside.

As Nandini came in through the gates of her new house, walking along the stone paths outside which ended at the building and its doors, she found an unfamiliar face in the garden, kicking a few stones. He definitely looked older than her, but quite younger than their parents. After staring at him for some time, she decided to go talk to him and walked over.

"Hello," she greeted once she was close enough to him, causing him to look up at her, a little surprised.

"Hi," he said after a while with a smile on his face and putting his hand out, "You must be Nandini."

"Yes, I am," Nandini smiled, shaking his hand. He seemed... nice.

"I am Raghav," he introduced himself. "I work for your parents."

"Oh, that's nice," Nandini said. "But... they're not here at the moment."

"I know that. Actually, I'm here to meet your brother."

"Cabir? Why?"

"Oh, um, well..." he trailed off nervously, obviously not knowing how to explain. The act itself made Nandini grow all the more suspicious.

"Raghav!" A voice from behind caused both of them to turn and find Cabir near the door, his eyes wide and mouth agape, clearly extremely shocked. It took him some time to regain himself and he came over coolly, saying, "So you're here? Let's go then." Cabir then turned to Nandini to explain, "Mom and dad called me over to the office, apparently, and Raghav is just here to drive me there. Bye."

With that, Cabir grabbed Raghav's arm and got away from there in a hurry. Nandini watched as the car sped away. Cabir had his own car, then why did he need Raghav to drive him to the office? Strange, she thought to herself, but then decided she'd be better off not worrying about it too much.

Once they were at a safe distance from the house, Cabir let out a breath. "What the hell were you doing there?" he asked Raghav with gritted teeth. "How many times must I tell you? Don't come over!"

"I'm sorry," Raghav said sadly. "I didn't mean to..."

"She was clearly suspicious," Cabir noted. "We could've gotten caught, R!"

"It won't happen again," he promised.

"It better not," Cabir warned. "You know what would happen if people found out the truth."

Nandini Murthy simply knew that something was up with Cabir and Raghav. Raghav seemed so nervous, and Cabir looked so scared to see him there. There was definitely more to this story than they let on, and she wanted to find out.

Nandini stopped and took in a breath. Why did she care so much? It was probably because now that her parents were gone, her life pretty much seemed aimless. Her new parents were nice but she missed her mama and papa so very badly. She guessed she needed something to keep her occupied in order to ignore the pain. She just hoped that she wasn't making a wrong decision.

"Well, hello again," a familiar voice spoke from behind her, one she'd heard before. She quickly turned around to see Manik leaning against the open door of her room. He had a slight smirk on his face and it surprised her. He was so rude to her before, why is he smiling now?

"Nandini, right?" he asked, stepping forward. "I guess Cabir is out now, but that's good. I wanted to talk to you anyway. I believe we got off on the wrong start so why don't we start afresh?" he proposed and held out his hand, "I'm Manik Malhotra."

"Nandini Murthy," she said, lightly shaking his hand, quite unsure.

"You mean Nandini Dhawan," he corrected.

"I'm not changing my name," Nandini said firmly. She was glad she regained some more courage in front of him now. "I know who I am, and I am Nandini Murthy."

"Well, well, well," he said with an amused expression on his face, "I wasn't expecting that. When we met yesterday, you pretty much came off as a lost little lamb; stammering all the time with that terrified expression on your face. Now, however, I see you do have a spine."

Nandini didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted. As she started registering his words properly, the anger arose on the surface. How dare he insult her?

"Sorry," he said before she could speak and from his voice and expression, it seemed pretty genuine. "I didn't mean to- that just came out. You see, I'm not that good at making friends. God only knows how I have Cabir but he's really the only one. So what I'm trying to say is this; I like you, Nandini. You've impressed me and I'd like to be friends with you. So, what say?"

Nandini was a bit taken aback by his bluntness. It seemed to her that he was probably up to something as well. However, as she realized he was still waiting for an answer, she only gave him a slight nod, and his face immediately broke out into a huge grin.

"That's great," he said cheerfully and started to leave, "I'll see you around then, Nandini."

He was certainly... peculiar, she thought to herself, but I have no interests of being friends with him. Right now, I just need to find out what's up between Cabir and that guy as soon as possible.

Following the next couple of days, that was exactly what Nandini did. She would talk to Cabir from time to time, prying him in order to get answers out of him. She even asked their parents a lot about Raghav and also Cabir about his girlfriend. Her brother, however, noticed exactly what she was trying to do.

"I don't like this, Manik," he told his friend one evening. He was sitting on his bed in deep thought and sharing his problems with the only other person except for Raghav who he had confided in about his secret. "She's asking too many questions."

"Cabir..."

"I don't like her, Manik," he finally decided. "Guess what? My parents love her. The two people who've never been there for me, the ones who, despite being my parents, don't care much about me now suddenly care about her! They love her, they love everything about her. She's got them wrapped around her finger and I hate it. Yes, I feel jealous because they never felt this way about me!"

"Look, Cabir, think this through. I've met her and she's not that bad," Manik tried to explain.

"I hate her, Manik," he seethed. "I hate her and I want her out of my life. She's ruining everything. If she finds out about Raghav, I'll lose him and everyone will find out the truth. Get her out of my life, Manik."

"Think about what you're saying, bro."

"I know what I'm saying and I'm sure," he decided. "Get her out of my life."

"What exactly are you asking me to do?" Manik fumed. "Kidnap her? Kill her? You know I wouldn't."

"No," Cabir disagreed, "then they'd find out I was behind it."

"Listen to yourself!" Manik exclaimed. "This is what you worry about? Not about the fact that those are heinous crimes?"

"Manik, you said you owe your life to me, remember? That you can do anything for me?" Cabir asked him, knowing very well that he had his friend now.

Manik paused, his eyes wide. He slowly spoke, "But not..."

"I won't ask you to do anything of that sort, Manik," Cabir assured him. "But I do need her out of my life at any cost."

"Cabir, look," Manik said, trying to stop his friend.

"Marry her," he finally spoke and Manik felt his breath get stuck in his throat. "That way, she'll be out of my life forever."

"Shut up."

"It's sure to get you your parents' attention." And with that, Manik didn't say no more. Cabir knew that he just hit him at his weak point, and although he might hesitate, Manik would now agree to his ridiculous plan.

"Cabir Dhawan," he slowly said, "are you honestly asking me to-"

"You know you want to," Cabir stated. "You just said she's not that bad."

"But that doesn't mean I want to marry her!"

"You're not in love with anyone or in a relationship, and you certainly don't give a damn about marriage. What you do care about is your parents and if you do this, they will have to pay attention to you."

After some time, he slowly spoke, "She won't agree."

"Who says she has to?" Cabir smirked.

"Are you asking me to force her into marriage?" Manik asked in disbelief, raising his voice.

Cabir knew he was angry and as he cooled down after a few seconds, he slowly said with an evil grin, "That, my friend, is exactly what I'm asking you to do."

Originally posted by: lakshita03

Hey !
Amazing storyline and you r doing a great job!
Keep it up and all the best :)
Eagerly waiting for the next chapter !
Do update soon!

Please PM me for furthure updates if possible. :)

Thank you very much, that means a lot. I have just updated and for PMs, please like the last post on page 3 so that I don't forget.

Originally posted by: anushi3012

Loved it- both chapter were awesome.

You penned it so right- we could really feel the miserable life of Manik 😭

Cabir and Nandini as bro and sis!! Wow, looking forward to read Cabini relationship 😆

Of course, Manik and Nandini, how will it be?

And knowing that they will be married is really exciting.

Kind request: Please pm for update.

Keep it up

xoxo

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it! Yes, they'll be married soon as the precap suggests. Please like the last post on page 3 for PMs as I may forget.

Originally posted by: amrutha.shetty

Wow now this seems to b something diff...I hope cabir doesn't behave rudely with her...acc to the prologue its like they get married ...eagerly waiting to see what's coming next nd how ur going to shape up chps ...keep writing ...do comtinue ...it was good chps ...

Lots of love❤️

Thanks, that means a lot! Well, I guess you'll get more hints about Cabir's behavior in this chapter. And yes, they will get married. Thank you for appreciating.

Originally posted by: aliyaangel

wooww.. this sounds differnt n intersting..
aawwe manik.. feel bad for him..
n nandiniz life took a u turn.. lets see wher it leads them.. excited to read futher.. update soon..

Thank you so much, glad you feel that way. I just updated, hope you enjoy.

Amazing! I love it! Please update very soon! The prologue had left me curious and the chapters are getting more and more interesting! I'm loving this thoroughly!😃