Chapter 246 - I never really learned how to let people close.

Srinivas walked out of the conference room and went straight to his own office. But he did not find Zeenath there. So, he immediately called her bodyguard and found that he had dropped her off at her house.

Srinivas got his keys and was out of the building in a jiffy. But his face was still very calm. His car steadily traveled through the city… even though it did not look like he was being impatient, his legs still kept pressing the accelerators a little harder than normal.

He reached her apartment in no time while his legs kept skipping a step every now and then as he climbed the stairs to her doors.

He did not really bother knocking this time. He could already hear the music jarring through the walls from inside. NO amount of knocking his going to reach her ears over the noise. So, he just went in naturally.

He did not find Zeenath in the living room. SO, his legs stepped into her bedroom involuntarily.

Even when he knew that Shreya did the right thing… he was still slightly scared with the way Zeenath was when he reached her office. He never saw her so lost, panicked and vulnerable before. He knew Shreya at last put a dent into her armors with the way she had dealt with Zeenath… He still did not like seeing her like that.

When he opened her doors to the bedroom, he was met with complete darkness in spite of the sun being right up the head. All the windows were completely shut down and thick curtains were drawn completely blocking any amount of light into the room.

And there was, of course, the speakers on the shelf that was blaring out of control.

Srinivas first went and switched off the music. When he turned around, he found Zeenath sitting in a cramped up corner between her bed and the walls. She was sitting with her legs bunched in front of her hugging her knees with both her arms.

Zeenath looked up as soon as the music stopped. Because Srinivas had opened the bedroom doors, a little light penetrated into the room. Her eyes just stared at him unblinking. Her eyes held no real emotions… but behind all the coldness, her anguish was actually pretty apparent.

Srinivas just stared back at her eyes for a while… he then went and sat beside her leaning on the walls. He did not say a single word from start to end.

They did not know how much time had passed between them with absolute silence.

After what felt like forever, Zeenath's head actually fell, and leaned on his shoulders completely exhausted. She did not even know where this tiredness came… it was just seeing him here in one of the worst days… having him here… she felt like she can let go somehow… with him here, she did not feel the need to put up a strong front somehow.

Normally, she wouldn't have dared to let herself go like this… but then after the day she had had… after hearing what Shreya had said… she did not want to make the same mistake twice and regret it later.

"It is not that I push people away from me consciously, you know? I am just so used to it that it had become a habit by now… And now, I really don't know how to let people in… actually, I never really learned how to let people close…" Zeenath whispered, at last, breaking the silence between them.

Srinivas did not really say anything to that. He just lifted his hands and caressed her head lightly.

"How could I possibly learn something like that when my own mother had abandoned me on the streets… How do you trust in people when you still remember the harsh push of your own mum asking you to not dare follow her if you did not want to get beaten to a pulp?"

These were the questions that had been buried in the depths of her heart from as long as she could remember. Something she never dared to speak out until this moment.

A huge lump formed at the base of her throat making it hard to breathe.

She always thought she had become numb to the world around her… but somehow feeling the warmth beside her and that gentle hands resting over her head… She couldn't really help the surge of emotions that toppled her completely taking her off guard.

"Does Shreya know?" Srinivas asked. Somehow his voice had actually become hoarse. He could only imagine what kind of a scar that should have left on an innocent little girl… and the fact that she still remembers the whole incident made everything so much worse.

Zeenath shook her head.

"Shreya and me… we actually met in school… we were friends before I came to work for her. So, she never really conducted any background check on me. So, she only knows what I have told her which is not much actually. All she ever knows is that I came from an orphanage…" Zeenath explained. She was actually grateful for Shreya for that. She really did not know how she could have faced Shreya if Shreya had dug out all her past and put it into papers.

Shreya was that one sole person in her life who Zee had treated as a friend… someone equal to her. Zee did not know how she would have reacted if she saw pity for herself in Shreya's eyes after knowing how she had been living all her life…

For Zeenath who was all alone and empty, her own pride and ego are the only things she actually owned… and those are things she had earned through hard work. She had put hours and hours of work into it before she could lift her head high and let no one dare to look down on her.

For someone like that, pitiful eyes probably gave a disgusting feeling.