Novel & Cerita Things I Never Said Book

The spicy braised meat was well cooked in broth tasted so good that made me forget everything. "Are you free this Saturday?", he asked while dipping his shrimp warp in chilli sauce. I swallowed my delicious meat, "yeah" and continued with my meat. "I have something to say." Don't he know talking is prohibited during eating? "What?", I asked. He looked nervous. I gotta talk before whatever he's gonna say next. "Uhm...Before that... Don't get mad at me. But don't you miss Blair? She said not to talk about this to you but I couldn't hold it. Don't you miss her?"

“I want to tell you what kind of book it is. Not what the back cover says you’ve read that. What I think it actually is.” I looked at the room. “It’s a book about a man,” I said. “Specifically, a particular man his hands, his voice, the strong black tea he drank every morning for thirty years, the way he cried at my school graduation and didn’t pretend he hadn’t. The way he cooked on Saturday afternoons and believed, without sentimentality, that paying full attention to the small things was the substance of a life.” I paused. “It’s also a book about what happened to him. What was constructed and deployed against him by people who found him threatening and found it convenient to remove him. W

“After that I decided nobody would ever get close enough to do that to me again. Not my father. Not friends. Definitely not women. Then you show up in a wedding dress that wasn’t yours and blow that plan to hell.” I reached across the table without thinking and touched his hand. “I didn’t plan any of this. I just didn’t want my family to drown.” He looked at our hands. “I know that now. Doesn’t make it easier.” We ate slowly. The food was amazing but I barely tasted it. Every time our eyes met the air felt heavier. Halfway through the main course he spoke again. “You fixed that boardroom problem like it was nothing. Most people would’ve stayed quiet and let me handle it. You didn’t.”

Belle, on the other hand, was enjoying her happy life. That completely rebutted what Belle claimed on the live broadcast, that I was vicious and my mother favored me over her. Sarah even released a surveillance video of Belle eating the pet chicken, as well as the story of using a disgusting man to plot against me. My misfortune was visible to everyone. I then posted, [What I hate most is that blue notebook for expenses… but I never thought I didn't even deserve to have that. It never even existed. That notebook was only for making up false expenses, to prepare for Belle's wedding.]

He appeared in the study doorway and saw me in his chair and stopped. He didn’t say anything. I looked up from the book. “Good day?” “Better now,” he said. It was a simple thing to say. A small thing. The kind of thing people said to each other in kitchens and doorways all over the world without thinking about it. But we had never been those people. And maybe that was the thing about almost losing something. Sometimes it took the near miss to teach you how to say the ordinary things. The small true things that didn’t need to be grand to matter.

she said slowly, “was your father.” The words hit me like a thunderclap, reverberating through my chest and leaving me breathless. My father. The man whose name had always been a blank space in my life, a question mark I had long since stopped asking about. “My father?” I repeated, my voice trembling. “You’ve never even mentioned him. Not once.” She looked away, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “It wasn’t something I wanted to talk about,” she said, her tone defensive. “It’s… complicated.”

Then he said it. "You looked beautiful on my birthday night." Her heart slammed against her ribs hard. She blinked, stunned for a second, before quickly regaining her composure. "Don’t you-." Revansh tilted his head. "Don’t what?" "Don’t say things like that." "Why not?" His voice was lower now, almost as if he was testing her. "Does it bother you?" Yes. It did bother her. Because when Revansh Malhotra said things like that, he never meant them. It was always a game, always a move in whatever twisted plan he was playing.

Or maybe I had grown. "I don't think you saved it all," I replied, running my fingers across the spines of my books as Evie fell dramatically onto my bed. "No one was allowed to touch it. She said you'd be back." Evie said propped herself up on her elbows, smiling. "She was right. She's always right. It's annoying." I laughed, opening my suitcase and starting to unpack. "Some things never change."

Even while my mind whispered I should never say never. ***

“The first time I realized you weren’t what I thought was that day when we skipped school. We talked about things we’d done—and hadn’t done. So… I just want to tell you a few more.” I was starkly aware of three pairs of eyes on me, all a little uncertain, but curious—and Rig’s brows high with surprise. This was going to sound weird, but I didn’t care. Because it meant something. “Never have I ever loved anyone except you, Rig. Never have I ever wanted to surrender to another person—any person. Never have I ever said, “I love you,” to a man and meant it—before you. With you it’s true. It’s always true.”