Promise

Nikita Singh

Description

Two people, two lives, one unfulfilled promise . . . She, smiles wide, and her happiness brightens up the world around her. Elusive, charismatic and incredibly rich, He runs away from his past and the grief it brings with it. She is capable of breaking down all his barriers, imploring his heart to give love a second chance. He wants to trust her . . . They step into a relationship with a vow to stay together all their lives. But when disaster strikes, does their love prove strong enough to withstand the brutal force of reality? Or does the promise lie forgotten, even as they struggle to regain the balance of their lives? Only time will tell . . .

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351186038
• Langue: English

Extrait

Nikita Singh

THE PROMISE
Contents
About the Author
By the Same Author
Dedication
PART ONE: SHE
1. Fire and Ice
2. Tears of Joy
3. The Dark and the Mysterious
4. It Came Along
5. The First Sparks
PART TWO: HE
6. The Reluctant Stranger
7. From Then to Now
8. All about Business
9. A Leap of Faith
10. Behind the Mask
PART THREE: SHE
11. All Too Soon
12. Paris or Not
13. Unfinished Business
14. Her Struggle
15. The Bright Future
PART FOUR: HE
16. He Wished
17. Every Stone Turned
18. In the Aftermath
19. The Living Dead
20. Hope and Hopelessness
PART FIVE: THEY
21. Open Eyes, Open Soul
22. A Promise to Keep
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Follow Penguin
Copyright Page
PENGUIN METRO READS
THE PROMISE
Nikita Singh is the bestselling author of six novels, including Love @ Facebook , Accidentally in Love and The Promise . She has co-authored two books with Durjoy Datta, titled If It s Not Forever and Someone Like You . She has also contributed to the books in the Backbenchers series. She was born in Patna and grew up in Indore, from where she graduated in pharmacy. She is currently based in New Delhi, where she works as an editor at a leading publishing house.
Nikita received a Live India Young Achievers Award in 2013. With a library stocked with over 12,000 books, she is a voracious reader and adores her collection of fantasy novels. She is a cricket enthusiast and enjoys a good cardio workout.
ALSO BY NIKITA SINGH
Accidentally in Love
Someone Like You
The Unreasonable Fellows
To everyone who has gone through something they never thought they would survive but emerged out of it stronger .

Part One


SHE
In the blink of an eye, everything changes. You meet a person and do not know whether they are going to be your one true love or if you are going to look at them bitterly, ten years later, regretting ever getting involved with them.
Life is a lot like a movie whose characters we keep meeting on the way. Their roles as well as the whole plot are unknown, waiting to be discovered as we live, as life unfolds, as surprises unravel.
1
Fire and Ice
True friendship needs conversation-through words, eyes, smiles-to make everything fine between friends. The word sorry holds no significance.
Come on, you re already ten minutes late, her friend Mili shouted at her over the phone.
You guys go in. I ll be there in a jiffy! she breathed out loudly. She had been half running, half falling all over the place for the last ten minutes and her legs were just about to give up. She knew it would take her at least twenty more minutes to get to PVR, which meant she d miss the first half-hour of the movie but she really didn t want to miss the show. In fact, getting there in twenty minutes depended hugely on whether or not she could finally get an auto; she felt like she d been looking for one since forever. But she still wasn t willing to give up.
How much is a jiffy? Mili asked.
About twenty she began to say just as she saw someone else get into the auto she had managed to summon. She ran after it. Hey! Hey, mister-that was my auto. I called it first .
No one paid her any heed. The man got into the passenger seat and the auto driver sped away. As Shambhavi began cursing under her breath about the manner-less idiots roaming around in the world nowadays, Mili s patience broke. How long? she asked again.
What? Oh, the movie. Twenty minutes. Wait, make that thirty. My car s battery is down again. And I just can t seem to find a ride. Where did all the autos go? Shambhavi started muttering.
You ll miss forty minutes of the movie. That s half.
That s not half. The movie is ninety minutes long. So forty minutes-
Stop it. You know what? Forget it. Just don t come, Mili said.
Whoa! It s not like I m not trying.
If only you d tried hard enough. Mili s tone was sad. It was evident that she was disappointed.
Arey , I swear I ll be there by- Shambhavi paused. Hello? You there? Mili?
Darn. It was not the first time that was happening. Recently, all she heard from her friends were long lectures about her carelessness. Less friendly friends never let pass opportunities of sliding snide remarks about how self-absorbed she was. She had learned that it was a way of life, and she should not pay any heed to such comments; people just needed someone to bash.
But Mili wasn t just anyone. She was her best friend, and had been so since the last six years. And Shambhavi was really sad about disappointing her once again. In her defence, she had not realized how much time had passed as she hopped from shop to shop, searching for the exact shade of blue her client had requested.
Not only had she failed to find the shade, she also ended up getting really late for her best friend s boyfriend s farewell celebration. She understood that Mili did have a reason to be furious. Even though technically it was a celebration, for Mili it was anything but that.
It was Shambhavi who had introduced Vikaas to Mili. He had hired Shambhavi to work on the interiors of his new home when he shifted to her city-Indore. Right out of college, Shambhavi tried her hand at interior designing and he was one of her first clients. They had got to know each other a little and that was how he had bumped into Mili one fine day. Shambhavi had made the introductions and left to complete her work.
Little did she know that the two would decide to fall in love at their first hello and become annoyingly inseparable in a few weeks time. But that s how love happens-at unexpected places, between unexpected people, during unexpected times. For Mili and Vikaas, when it happened, it happened for real. They remained inseparable for two smooth years, until Vikaas got an opportunity he could not refuse-his company was sending him off to the US for a year, to get an accelerated MBA.
And hence the farewell party. Even though Mili put on a fake smile and pretended to be a supportive girlfriend, Shambhavi knew that she needed her to be there and keep her sane. She was freaking out about Vikaas s trip. One year is a long time.
Shambhavi cursed herself again, when she spotted yet another cab only to find that it was occupied. She finally gave up on getting to the movie. She had another plan.
When Mili and the gang got to their reserved table at Sayaji, Shambhavi was already there. She looked up at Mili and smiled a sweet smile. If Mili was surprised, she hid it well. She tried to act nonchalant, but Shambhavi knew it was only a matter of time till she melted. That is how it always happened.
And sure enough, halfway through the first course of dinner, they were whispering into each other s ears about who wore what and how ridiculous the girl with green hair at the table to their right looked. There were six other people at their table-Vikaas, two of his friends and three of Mili s friends. While the guys were busy talking about intelligent stuff like the stock market, the girls nodded in deep understanding at every word they uttered, even though they clearly did not get any of it.
Shambhavi and Mili, on the other hand, did not even try to listen to the conversation at the table, let alone understand or participate in it. They were busy exchanging glances and each was trying to understand what the other was feeling without the use of words. They had always been like that.
Although theirs was not a lifelong friendship-they had met at their initiation session in college and gelled with each other within seconds-they had been inseparable since, even though they had nothing in common. Shambhavi was the carefree, sprightly, artistic one, with big almond eyes a deep shade of coffee, a cute heart-shaped face, with a nose that crinkled when she smiled and a spring in her step. She had no care in the world, was always optimistic-sometimes overly so-and lived in the today . She was an artist-someone who painted, wrote poetry and danced, sometimes getting so immersed in her art that she forgot about the rest of the world
While Mili was the perfect example of the girl next door. Her deep-set eyes, the colour of charcoal, were almost always wide with worry: she worried too much, about too many things. With her slender figure, midnight-black hair, long eyelashes and dimpled cheeks, no one could guess that she was a journalist. And not just a desk hand, but the type who needed to go out in the field and interview people. She worked for a magazine s Indore segment, the city where she had grown up and lived since childhood.
They were the exact opposite of each other. Fire and ice.
What s the plan for the night? I mean-the rest of it, Shambhavi asked Mili and winked. The silent eye-to-eye conversation was getting a bit too much for her to take.
We re going back together. We have a room, Mili replied quietly.
Wow! Nice.
Shh . No one knows. And if anyone asks-I slept over at your place. Got it?
Got it, Shambhavi nodded and continued teasing her red-in-the-face friend. So, you re going to-
No! Can t you speak a little softly? There are other people here.
Oh, yes, Shambhavi whispered, speaking at a volume about ten notches lower. I was asking-are you guys going to you know get some ?
No, we aren t. You know that. Mili blushed redder than ever.
No? Then what exactly are you planning on doing all night?
Talking. I don t know when I ll get to talk to him face-to-face after this
Don t be such a drama queen- Shambhavi started to say but stopped on noticing the tears in her best friend s eyes. Panicking about everything was Mili s forte, but she had never been so sensitive before. Tears had been very occasional guests. She was taking the Vikaas-being-away-for-a-year thing too hard. Nowadays she was always on the brink of tears.
Shambhavi squeezed her arm and Mili cleared her throat and smiled a fake smile. Enough about me. Tell me-what s with you? I can t believe I m seeing you after a whole week. Where have