Chapter 3

After lunch, Nathan sat in the living room. He kept looking every few minutes at the direction of the dining table to see the face that got him amused early in the morning.

Amelia cleaned the table all silently. She caught him staring at her only to complete her work immediately and left from there.

His gaze was strangely doing something to her. Though her heart was saying otherwise, she silenced it giving warnings mentally.

When Amelia and her mother was done with their work, it was almost evening. They were about to forward towards the cottage when Nathan got down.

He was in a three-piece grey suit looking all handsome. Amelia couldn't help staring at him for some moments. Suddenly, she felt an urge to see him in light purple which was her favourite colour.

When Nathan turned to her, she immediately averted her gaze being all nervous and left from there following her mother.

Nathan left for the party venue alone as his parents were already there.

Getting down from his car, he forwarded towards the hall room. It was beautifully decorated.

Entering the hall room, he got welcomed by an applaud as he heard his father Jackson Edward uttering, “Here comes the person for whose success, this party has been thrown, my son my pride, Nathan Edward.”

With a smile on his face, he got near his parents who were at the centre of the hall room.

Everyone started congratulating him by turns. The party went on smoothly. At some point, his father again caught everyone's attention as he uttered again, “Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your ears for an important announcement?"

Everyone got silent and turned to him and he again got uttering all smilingly, “I am very happy to announce the engagement of my precious son, Nathan to Katrina Kaur, the daughter of my friend James Kaur on the 16th of this month.”

The room got filled with the sound of applaud except for one who got utterly shocked.

Nathan...

When he found Katrina walking towards him all smilingly, he got his parents were all serious about it when they discussed it a few years back. But he didn't take it as serious then.

His chain of thought got interrupted when Katrina got near him and entangled her arm with him.

He smiled a little at that. Everyone started uttering, “They look so cute and perfect together."

His mind was on another thought. Whatever got happening afterwards in the part, nothing got in his mind.

For their business, this marriage was supposed to bring good luck.

“It’s enough.”

This was the conclusion, he reached after giving it a good thought.

The Next Morning

When Amelia got to Nathan's room in the morning to set his bed, she didn't get to see him there.

Her eyes searched for him on their own only to get disappointed. Then she understood, he was on the balcony talking to someone on phone.

After setting his bed, she thought of leaving but the thought of the previous day got her stopped. She looked at the balcony to know whether he was going to get in the room soon.

When it didn't look like that, she forwarded towards his closet only to get the dress for him.

To get her smiling, there was a three-piece suit of colour light purple. Though she wasn't sure whether he would wear that, still she took the suit and kept it on the bed.

Glancing at the balcony for the last time, she got out of the room.

Nathan got back to the room after the very next moment Amelia left. The three-piece suit caught his eyes. He kept staring at it as he knew who put that. He got muttering under his breath, “I don't like purple.”

Taking the suit, he got near the closet and looked at the other dresses.

☘☘☘

Amelia was setting the table for breakfast but she was looking on the staircase every two minutes, waiting to have a glance of Nathan in her selected dress.

After some time Nathan got out of his room. Amelia smiled seeing him in her favourite colour. He was looking so dreamy that she couldn't avert her gaze from him for some moments only to get Nathan smiling a little.

This was the reason Nathan decided to wear this suit at last. He wanted to see Amelia smiling. It made his day.

Interrupting their staring track, Mary got uttering quite loudly, “Nathan, looking handsome, baby. But you didn't like purple that much, did you? Anyways come, have breakfast. We need to leave for office."

Amelia got back to her senses and completed setting the table while thinking in mind why Nathan wore that suit when he didn't like purple.

Was it for her?

The thought got her smiling on her own.

But it got faded away when she was going back to the kitchen as Mary's word got into her hearing.

“Take Katrina out and select your engagement rings by yourselves.”

Amelia turned to Nathan for once and when without bothering to look anywhere, Nathan nodded at that, she felt all sad.

Though it wasn't like Nathan promised her something, still she felt betrayed.

Her eyes got all teary flashing the emotions of her heart. She got away immediately not wanting to hear any more discussion on Nathan's engagement.

☘☘

As his mother said, Nathan took Katrina out and passed the day with her selecting rings and some dresses but he wasn't feeling like it.

He was missing something from within. From the very beginning, he didn't like Katrina that much.

Katrina was beautiful and always trying to seem all flawless by any means but he wanted to be someone with all natural like Amelia.

With just remembering the name, he got restless. He was sure she heard his mother saying about his engagement.

Did she feel hurt? He wondered.

Arriving his place, the first thing he did was searching for her mentally. With an excuse of coffee, he entered the kitchen only to get disappointed.

Taking the coffee, he got back to his room. Sitting in the balcony, he started sipping it having thousands of thoughts in mind.

☘☘

Amelia’s POV

I tried to get some sleep but couldn't. It was late at night but sleep was far away from my eyes. Glancing at Mom when I assumed her to be in deep slumber, I got out of the bed all carefully not to disturb her sleep and put the comforter properly on her.

I straightened my pull over, took a orange pink sweater and left my long hair untied. Casting a quick glance at the wall clock which show 1 am, I got out of the room.

Thoughtlessly I kept walking and reached the swimming pool lounge at the backside of the mansion.

I didn't know there was a swimming pool also. The calm and silent environment of that place helped me to calm myself. I could see the clear sky and inhale fresh oxygen.

I rolled up my ankle-length pants up and sank my legs into the cold water. I shivered for few moments, but gradually my body got accustomed to the coldness of the water.

A soft breeze was caressing the exposed areas of my body. This  swimming pool lounge was also very spacious just like every other portion of the mansion. The dim, night bulbs along with the moon light was making my surrounding bright enough for me to see everything clearly.

I kept sitting there gazing at the sky and enjoying the silence of the night forgetting the matter which was the reason of my sleepless condition.

Few minutes later, I got distracted and frowned by the sudden weird sound resembling to bubble popping noise or something. My eyes roamed around and searched the cause of it, but couldn't find anything.

I tried to hear it again. This time I didn't just hear it, but actually saw bubbles were popping in the middle of the swimming pool as if someone was there.

Momentarily, I was scared stiff. My heart missed a beat. Seconds later, a man rose up from there, making a loud cacophony of splashes. I shrieked in fear unknowingly and pulled my legs out of the water, pressing them to my chest.....