CHAPTER TWENTY ONE BRIBING THE IN-LAWS (ROCKY'S STYLE)
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Aadhya hurried down the stone walkway thats' stretched to the entrance of the large manor house and pushed the heavy doors open. The action startles the maids dusting the lobby when they notice the unexpected presence of the young girl and several guards dressed in red and carrying weapons in their hands behind her.
"Young miss," One of the staff who recognised her first voiced wide-eyed and in disbelief. But there's no escaping the unexpected relief that trickled through them. They looked at her as though she was their saviour.
"Where is she?" Aadhya inquires, coming straight to the point, tone impatient even as her eyes searched across the foyer for a familiar black-haired girl.
Aadhya saw the slight movement of her throat as the maid swallowed. And the younger girl found this glimpse of his nervousness oddly unsettling. "Madam hasn't been out of her room ever since the day of Sir's funeral," the maid answers with her head down, her fingers kneading together in worry. "We have been sending the meals every three times, but we don't know if she is really eating any."
Aadhya swallows around the unexpected emotion her words cause. With the thought of a grieving Reena came a flash of guilt and despair. It unfurled like a leaf in her chest, clawing at her. The fact that Aadhya hadn't been there for her when she needed her the most crushed her. The weight was heavy on her chest as an iron bar, and all the words of comfort unsaid choking her throat.
Nodding heavily at them, Aadhya turns to the guards Rocky sent with her just before he said he had a small task to complete on the way before he could join her. "You guys wait here," She orders. When they opened their mouth to probably tell how it wasn't against the rules Rocky assigned to them, Aadhya was already shaking her head. "I know. But Reena would probably kill you all if she saw you with me. So — just — wait here."
She didn't give them a chance to negotiate.
Aadhya numbly lopped up the grand staircase and crossed the hall to Reena's bedroom. She paused outside the door, albeit hesitantly. Taking a deep breath and drawing herself out from self-recriminations, the raven-haired girl reached up to knock on the door once lightly and then again with more force.
"I said don't disturb me!" A sharp voice came through the door, muffled. And Aadhya could imagine the pinched expression and the stiffness in her neck even though she couldn't see her. It served as a painful reminder of how close they grew in the past three months she stayed in the world and around the older girl.
