Bewitched

Chapter Three

Hi,

I'm changing the approach a bit in this chapter. Nevertheless, I hope you'll like it. It's a bit short, but I'm starting to like this length. Perhaps we'll have a large number of short chapters instead of a small number of longer chapters. 

Looking forward to hear your thoughts!

CHAPTER THREE

Kingmaker

Most dangerous of all is a queen who carries her own sword...

The silence inside the empty waiting room was so flimsy that Anuradha Raj Maurya, amused herself by imagining those ever-vigilant bodyguards of hers were guarding it from outside those closed doors. She was still dressed in the elegant formals from the press conference, her nuptial chain tucked inside her high neck blouse. The fading youth had not diminished her beauty, instead the little smiling lines etched on her face added to her regal aura.

She was not crying anymore. Nevertheless, the red blotches left in her eyes by the traumatic night remained behind. It had been a while since she sent Myra home with Pritvi and Anuradha used the few moments of isolation to clear her thoughts.

The recent times had not been kind. She had learnt many lessons in the span of a couple of years. Anuradha was good at the game she was playing. She enjoyed being the puppeteer behind the curtains of the great business empire her husband had erected. However, recently there had been too many twists in the story that she found herself always caught in the eye of the storm.

Tonight was supposed to be the climax of a silent war stretching for longer than she could have anticipated. Anuradha let her weary body sink into the comfort of the plush sofa she had been sitting on and closed her eyes, as she wondered if Pritvi knew she was the one who had suggested his name. Even if he did, she was doubtful that Pritvi would ever fully grasp her intention behind doing so.

Sushant was blind in love. Anuradha had no other way of opening his blindfold than stripping him of his dreams with one unexpected strike. If her assumptions about his love was correct, Sushant would be reuniting with his brother very soon.

The sigh that escaped her lips had been unintentional. Anuradha had long back forsaken her juvenile dreams. Had she not, she would not have survived in the world her parents had thrown her into. Still, from a tiny corner of her cold heart she cherished a hope of seeing a peaceful family, where no one was plotting behind the other's back. At least they deserved to let go of their masks at home. She was nothing if not an ambitious woman. Anuradha would do anything under the sun to achieve her peace of mind.

That was how Sanaya found her, when she came to check on her 'Kaki mom'. For a one long minute Sanaya believed she was asleep and sat silent across from her without attempting to wake her up. They were not related and Sanaya liked to call herself, 'the Maurya charity project' but she knew deep down that they never considered her an outsider. She had almost slipped into remembering her days before Anuradha had came to pick her up from that terrible orphanage, when the older lady suddenly opened her eyes.

"Are they gone?" She asked as she straightened up.

"The reporters?" Sanaya clarified, "Still a few are loitering about. If you're asking about Priv, he went to take her home."

Anuradha started at her for a moment, massaging her temples with the tips of her fingers. She had known Sanaya for almost all her life. It didn't need an effort to know she was disturbed about something.

"You can say it you know," she said then, stretching out her hand to take the files Sanaya had brought. "You and Priv, both have this strange look when you have something you want to say and no one is listening."