MaNan FF: The Forbidden Fruit (Chapter 26 on Page 82) (25/05/16) - Page 24

Originally posted by: bans8597

Awesome concept! Awesome story line! Its really heartwrenching to see nandini going through such phase of life but still having a smile on her face.
Pls update today if possible.

Originally posted by: anya21

awesome update!!!

loved it 2 d core...

cabir's guilt-u expressed really well...

nandini going movie with dhruv...

what if manick comes to know abt dat...

really excited...

cont soon...

Originally posted by: sunset17

Loved it...

Continue soon

Originally posted by: piyu008

That's beautiful dear..

Looking forward for a more n more of MaNan. .

Update soon. .n pm me😃

c h a p t e r f o u r t e e n

Nandini would be lying if she said she wasn't expecting him. When her college let out and she stepped out of the gates, she saw Manik leaning against his car in the parking spot and nostalgia quickly rushed over her. She remembered seeing him just like that a few days ago and that had been the worst day of her life. He had kidnapped her and forced her to marry him. A surge of anger suddenly passed over and Nandini clenched her fists, glaring at the boy who was completely unaware and simply browsing through his phone.

As she stomped over him and finally reached him, she almost shouted, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Manik finally noticed her and looked at her with a confused expression. Why was she so mad all of a sudden? "I just came to pick you up," he innocently answered and her anger rose. She just wished he would stop pretending for once. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" she mocked him bitterly and Manik sensed that he shouldn't have asked that. "I'll tell you what's wrong! You just screwed up my whole life; that's what's wrong!"

"I-"

"No, you don't get to speak!" she cut him off. He thought that they had started to make improvements with the anger and hatred but clearly, he was wrong. "You don't get to speak or explain yourself after ruining my entire life! I hate you, Manik Malhotra, I hate you so much! I don't want to see your face or stand close to you. You disgust me; everything about you disgusts me. I wish I had never even met you because you are vile and disgusting and sick and repulsive and just the worst! You're a monster, Manik; that's what you are!"

Once she had finished her rant, Nandini paused to catch her breath. Throughout the whole time, Manik just calmly stood there and she hated that. She wanted her words to affect him. She wanted to make him feel sick and ashamed of himself. She just wanted him to die of guilt and leave her alone.

"Done?" he silently asked and unintentionally caused her anger to rise. This time, however, she was too drained out to speak and thus started glaring at him. He took that as his cue to speak, "Can we please go home now?"

"I don't want to go anywhere with you," she said but ignoring her, he simply got inside the car and unlocked the door. She stood there for a while, seething in anger but eventually, she got inside as well and slammed the door real hard.

"We're going to go to a different house today where we'll stay for some time," he informed as he put the car into ignition. "You just have to trust me."

Nandini's eyes went wide and ears perked up at the word trust. She remembered Navya's words and how she denied trusting him. She didn't trust him; she didn't want to trust him. She hated his entire being and she hated herself even more for giving him a chance.

You can't trust him.

Navya's words played in her head and she closed her eyes, wishing it would go away. Why did she trust him after all that he had done to her? She had made up her mind that he didn't deserve a single bit of it and that she didn't- she couldn't trust him. She hated herself for being so kind.

"I don't trust you and I will never trust you," she told him, her tone laced with pure hatred.

"That's good," he said while driving the car, not paying much heed to her words. This annoyed Nandini even more.

"I'm not going anywhere with you, you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Manik! I'm not-"

"Look," he roughly cut her off, finally losing the last bit of his patience, "if you don't stop talking right now, I'll lose my concentration and we'll get into an accident and probably die. If you don't want that, then please save the complaining till we reach."

Nandini told him with utter disgust, "I'd rather die than live the rest of my life with you."

After saying that, the rest of the car ride filled with silence. Nandini found the silence soothing and surprisingly, it helped her to calm down. At the end of it, she already felt much more lighter and she could feel the anger slowly fading.

"We're going on a date today," Dhruv said, a cheerful smile on his face. It was incredibly obvious that he was happy, and why wouldn't he be? He was going on a date with the girl of his dreams which meant that he finally had a chance with her.

"Dhruv," Navya carefully started, not wanting to make him upset, "did you ask her out? Or did she..."

"She felt bad because we couldn't go that other day," Dhruv explained, "so she suggested we go out for a movie tonight. I can't wait, Navya."

"Err, Dhruv... I don't think Nandini is in a good place to... well, go out tonight."

"She would've told me if that was the case."

"No, she wouldn't," Navya argued, slightly annoyed at the clueless boy now. "She wouldn't want to break your heart."

"Why are you so against us and our relationship?" Dhruv shot up, his eyebrows cringed with annoyance.

What relationship? Navya thought to herself. He was really getting on her nerves now. She only talks to him out of pity and he thinks they're in some kind of a relationship. What a guy! I guess I was wrong when I used to tell Nandu to go out with him. He is an idiot.

"Look, Dhruv," Navya slowly said, trying to be patient with him, "I'm telling you; Nandini is in a bad place right now."

"And I'm telling you that she asked me out so we're going!" Dhruv told her and finally losing every single bit of her patience, Navya stormed off. She had had enough of him, and she knew she had to leave before she mistakenly spilled the beans about just what was going on in Nandini's life.

The Malhotras' beach house was a two-storey building with a lavish front porch. However, it had been abandoned for too long and that was clearly understood with the dust everywhere. The furniture was old and rusty, and after arriving, all Manik did was try to clean up the place while Nandini unpacked her clothes in one of the three rooms upstairs. When she was done, she came outside only to find the house even more messed up than it was before. It was then that she realized that Manik Malhotra didn't know how to clean.

For the first time ever, she let out a small chuckle because of him.

As Manik was trying to clean the floor with a dustpan, he heard her voice, "That's not how you do it." He turned around to see her a few steps behind him with a slight smile on her face. "Use a broom to collect the dust in the dustpan, and then you mop the floor."

He made a confused expression which proved to her that he really didn't understand a word she had said. To make things easier, she looked around for a broom and once she found out, she grabbed it and brought it to him.

"I'll show you how," she said as she took the dustpan from his hands and started sweeping the floor carefully with her broom.

"I used to live in a colony with my parents," she said in the middle of her work, catching him by surprise, "and they used to work all the time. Their jobs were pretty small but they did what they had to do to earn our bread. There were times when both of them were working and I was alone in the house. I got bored so I started to learn how to clean. It just helps me to kill my boredom, along with reading."

Manik thought it to be strange that she was talking with him so casually. Almost an hour ago, she was cursing him and now, she seemed completely normal. "What happened to that house?"

"Well, we used to live there because of my dad's job so after my parents died, naturally, it went away. That's why I came to live with the Dhawans; I had nowhere to turn to."

Manik felt a pang of guilt in his chest yet again. He knew what he did to her was wrong but the guilt seemed to be growing day by day. He hated it so much. He had no idea how he would get rid of it.

"You said you like reading?" he asked in order to change the subject. Hearing about her sad life just increased that guilt for some reason. "What kind of books do you like?"

He wasn't expecting her to answer that question but surprisingly, she did. She answered ten more questions and asked him quite a few as well. To say that Manik Malhotra was shocked was an understatement. He was completely and utterly bewildered.

For two hours, that was all that Nandini did. She talked and talked and talked; to him. She wasn't angry or upset, just... normal. It shocked him to see such a change in her behavior. He had gotten used to her hatred and to now see her in a completely relaxed state just took him by surprise. What worried him even more was that it seemed completely genuine.

After those two hours, she announced that she was going outside with a friend and went upstairs to get ready, but he wished she wouldn't leave. He wished she'd stay for ten more hours and ten more after that. He wanted to hear her talk and know even more about her.

She talked about her favorite books, her favorite author, her life with her parents and so much. She talked about how she met her friend Navya and how as her first day as a freshman, she had saved a boy named Shahid from committing suicide. She talked about what classes she liked most and that she'd inherited her father's love for music.

But Manik wanted more. He wanted to know more about her dreams and aspirations. He wanted to know more about her life and what she wanted from it. He didn't have the exact questions but he just knew he wanted to know more about her. He wanted to hear her talk for hours and never, ever leave.

He didn't like the feeling of loneliness that came once she went upstairs. He didn't like how his heart and mind just screamed to be with her more. He didn't want to feel that but he did. He knew she wouldn't come back, however. No one ever came back. Except for Cabir, everyone else in his life had always left him and he thought that's why he learned the lesson of never getting too close to anyone.

That didn't make a difference this time; his heart, for some odd reason, wanted more of Nandini.