short tales - Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Aanya sat by the window of her tiny hostel room, the fading evening light tracing golden lines across the pages of her worn-out notebook. Her eyes were fixed on the world outside — students laughing, couples walking hand-in-hand, the kind of life she had always watched from a distance.
An orphan since the age of seven, Aanya had learned to survive without attachments. She believed in books, routines, and dreams. The world had taught her that vulnerability was a luxury she couldn’t afford.
She had never known the warmth of a mother’s lullaby or the strength of a father’s arms — but she knew how to stitch her own wounds, how to build walls no one could climb. And behind those walls, she hid a secret — a marriage so wild, so impossible, even her closest friend wouldn’t believe it.
Across town, in a dimly lit mansion guarded like a fortress, Aarav lit a cigarette, watching the smoke curl toward the ceiling. The air reeked of danger and power.
He wasn’t just a college student.
He was the heir of the most feared mafia family in the city. His father’s enemies called him “The Snake” — silent, deadly, and always one step ahead. He had blood on his hands, secrets buried deep beneath his smirk, and a temper that made men twice his age tremble.
But when he was with her — with Aanya — all of that vanished.
He became a man, not a monster. Her calm silences tamed his chaos. Her nerdy rants made him smile. And even though she hated violence, even though she flinched every time his phone rang late at night — she chose him.
At college, they passed each other like strangers.
Aanya walked through corridors with her head down, books clutched to her chest, drowning in lectures and the weight of expectations. Aarav? He strolled in late, cocky and cold, surrounded by girls who hung on every word, professors who didn’t dare scold him.
No one knew the truth.
No one saw the stolen glances.
No one knew about the vows
whispered in secret, under stars that didn’t judge.
They had married in a hidden temple six months ago — no witnesses, no family, just trembling hands and sacred fire. The world wasn’t ready for their story. Not yet.
As the bell rang, marking the end of another day, Aanya stood near the library, her phone vibrating softly in her bag.
Aarav: “Meet me at the old fountain in ten. I missed your face.”
Her lips curved into the faintest smile. She typed back:
“You saw me three hours ago in the canteen.”
Aarav: “That wasn’t my Aanya. That was the nerdy girl who ignores me in public.”
She rolled her eyes but felt her heart beat a little faster.
She didn’t know that this college trip coming up would change everything.
She didn’t know that the masks they wore would soon slip.
She didn’t know that love, pain, secrets, and heat would come crashing in like a storm.
But for now, she took a breath, fixed her hair, and walked toward the fountain — toward the boy the world feared, and the man her heart had already chosen.