Volume 4 Chapter 1: When Whispers Get Louder
Volume 4, Chapter 1
“When Whispers Get Louder”
They don’t say her name out loud in the office…
But they talk.
The office smelled different.
Not like fresh paint or floor cleaner, no.
It smelled like suspicion.
And something else—unspoken, untraceable… like the fading scent of a woman who no longer needed to announce her presence.
Kamini hadn’t spoken to Ruhaan in three days.
Three whole days without her voice curling into his ears like silk.
No messages. No glances.
Just the sharp click of her heels down the marble hallway… each step a question mark.
In the pantry, the whispers had started brewing stronger than the coffee.
“He’s not the first.”
“She did the same thing with Ayaan… remember him?”
“Ruhaan’s just a bookmark—until she turns the page.”
Ruhaan heard them all.
He didn’t flinch.
But inside… a fire he didn’t start was burning uncontrollably.
Back in his cabin, he pulled up the CCTV feed.
The office had cameras for security.
Tonight, he used them for clarity.
Kamini was on the 9th floor.
The Executive Lounge.
Restricted. Private. Velvet silence with golden lighting.
A space meant for board members, stakeholders… or those who didn’t need permission anymore.
She wasn’t alone.
Viraj Kapoor was with her.
New. Dangerous. Smooth as whiskey.
No tie. Just a tailored jacket, a steel watch, and eyes that saw before they blinked.
Kamini laughed at something he said.
That laugh. That softness.
The same laugh she once reserved for Ruhaan—during those late hours when only the moon knew how far their files had gone.
Flashback, two months ago.
Ruhaan and Kamini.
Inside the printing room.
Hands grazing over reports.
Lips brushing with accidental intention.
Kamini’s whisper against his jawline: “Work hours are for amateurs.”
He remembered the way she used to look at him like he was her next art project—something unfinished, something waiting to be carved into a masterpiece.
Now, she walked past his cabin like he was furniture.
No eye contact.
No lipstick prints on his coffee mug.
Just… absence.
And that screamed louder than her moans ever did.
Present moment.
Ruhaan leaned forward, eyes locked on the monitor.
Kamini adjusted her blazer.
Viraj handed her a file.
Their fingers touched—briefly.
But in that touch, Ruhaan felt something crack inside his chest.
Was it betrayal?
Jealousy?
Or worse—irrelevance?
Elsewhere in the building...
Three interns giggled near the restroom.
One whispered, “She used to touch Ruhaan’s shoulder when she talked.”
Another added, “Now she doesn’t even mention him.
That’s scarier than being hated.”
Kamini had become a myth.
The kind people don’t believe until she walks past them in stilettos and sets fire to their logic.
Night fell heavier than usual.
Ruhaan sat alone in the boardroom.
A file open in front of him.
Blank.
He wasn’t reading. He was remembering.
Kamini’s hand tracing his collarbone.
Kamini’s voice—firm and breathless—“Don’t fall in love with me.”
Kamini, after a meeting, holding his tie and pulling him into the copy room with nothing but tension and toner between them.
But now… nothing.
Just CCTV feeds and cold air conditioning.
Suddenly, a knock.
At his soul.
Kamini.
Standing at the glass door.
Holding a folder.
She didn’t speak.
She slid the file across the table.
Inside: numbers, projections, growth charts.
And a Post-it.
“Let’s be professional now.”
No lipstick. No perfume.
But the note smelled of boundaries—and they burned.
Meanwhile, whispers grew bolder.
“Maybe she’s using Viraj.”
“Maybe she’s being used.”
“Maybe she’s finally aiming for the chair.”
Kamini didn’t correct them.
She didn’t owe anyone a narrative.
She was the plot twist they couldn’t predict.
In his cabin, Ruhaan looked up.
The Post-it remained.
He turned it over.
There was something scribbled on the back.
“Just because I don’t touch you, doesn’t mean I don’t feel you.”
His heart skipped.
A war had begun.
Not of bodies, but of silences.
Not of touches, but of glances withheld.
And somewhere between her absence and his obsession,
Kamini had become a storm again.
End of Chapter.
“She didn’t leave.
She just rewrote the rules.
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