The Arrangement
By: P.G. Van
The Blurb
Niha could not deal with the not-so-glamorous side of the movie industry anymore and decides to run away from it all. Where does she end up? In a small town where she crashes her car, causing a lot of damage to the town.
The accident is a blessing in disguise, allowing her to stay out of the limelight. To avoid the media attention and her past life, she enters into an agreement with a man who looks at her as if he despises the very sight of her.
Mahen wants to build his ancestral town into the next big economic hub and is upset when a driver crashes into a newly constructed building, setting it on fire. He wants to cut his losses and wants her out of his town, but she doesn’t want to leave. He agrees to let her stay for a month, only as a temporary arrangement.
An arrangement that was supposed to last a short time turns into something else when sparks fly between Niha and Mahen. Niha may have run away from her past, but she cannot hide from it. When Mahen finds out who she really is, will the new arrangement last?
Chapter 1
“Look at her nail color, it’s beautiful,” a woman’s voice commented as Niha surfaced from a deep sleep.
“Yes, and the dress she had on when she was brought in matched her nail polish, perfectly,” another female voice said.
“Really?”
“Yes, so fancy. I wondered if she walked out of a fairy tale.” The comment was followed by laughter.
Who is talking about her?
Niha slowly opened her eyes to a blank white wall and cement-colored flooring. The voices of the women continued at a distance, but she ignored them. She could not remember where she was, and as much as she thought about it, she could not recollect.
She slowly turned her head, taking in the sounds of a machine beeping in the background. A feeling of insecurity crept up her back as she looked in the direction of the voices. There were two women, one wearing a white outfit and another wearing a khaki-colored one. The women had stopped talking and were looking at her.
Niha blinked a couple of times and realized that one of the women was a police constable and the other was a nurse and—she was in a hospital.
Panic gripped her, wondering how she ended up here, and memories came crashing back. Her mother’s words, her sadness and anger, and then the car crash. She looked down at her body and noticed she was not wearing the outfit she had worn when she had decided to run away from her life—her pathetic life that was not hers.
The woman in the nurse’s uniform reacted first by approaching her. She pressed the intercom button on the wall and spoke into it. “Dr. Rao, the patient in room seven has regained consciousness.”
The nurse did not say a word to Niha but went about with her tasks of checking her blood pressure and vitals. The woman in the police uniform walked over to the foot of the bed and adjusted something at her ankle. To Niha’s utter shock, she saw the woman place handcuffs around her ankle, keeping her bound to the bed.
But before she could recover and demand an explanation, an older man walked into the room wearing a lab coat.
“Hello, young lady. How are you feeling?” The man sounded cheerful.
Niha nodded. “I’m okay.”
“That was a close call. Luckily, you were taken out of your car before it caught on fire.”
Is that what happened?
She remembered the moment when she lost control of her car and the loud crashing sound before darkness enveloped her.
“You’re one lucky woman to have survived the accident, and look, no broken bones.” The doctor smiled as he continued to look at the monitors.
“Thank you, doctor.” She managed to smile.
“Doctor… I…” Her words trailed off when she saw a tall man wearing a suit step into the small room. The man was immaculately dressed and was looking at her.
Without another word, the man turned to look at the woman in the police uniform. “The lawyer is in the lobby downstairs. You can collect the bail papers from him and submit them to the inspector. I’ll talk to him later. Now, release her.”
Bail? What happened? Did her parents send this man?
“Okay, sir.” The policewoman reached into her pocket and retrieved a key before walking back to the foot of the bed. She watched the woman put away the handcuffs and walk away without another word. She could not believe she was placed under arrest the moment she gained consciousness, and she still had no idea why.
