Prologue

The night was slowly drifting away but the buzz of Mumbai had already started—mumbai never sleeps—. Skyfall estate was standing tall with it's 24 floors, two penthouse at the top. The Malhotras' door was slightly ajar. Living room was a mess, a tornado miss Malhotra had created before leaving the house.

Hallway had her Valentino heels thrown mercilessly on the floor, one standing on it's glory while the other one was passed out, sleeping, just like it's owner.

Buzz

The alarm tried to wake up the sleeping beauty for the fifth time only get snoozed by her again. The duvet which was thrown across the bed was being slowly, lazily pulled up, getting wrapped around her body for blocking the chills AC was giving to her skin.

Yet the sleep which she cherished so much was also drifting away, Risha woke up slowly, yawning. Her eyes squinted, even in dark. She sat up, stretching, blanket slipped down to her lap crumbling.

Her head was throbbing.

Remind her to never drink again, ever.

Her hand flew up to her temple, fingers pressing into her skin while she sat groaning. "Never again.", she whispered to herself while hand was reaching out to her side table to take her phone.

7% charging.

"Of course.", she chuckled with no humour in it.

The phone took it's sweet time to wake up, as if it was also stretching and yawning. The screen went dark fully before getting opened, and she found it blazing up, notifications, missed calls. Her eyes flew up.

What did I ended up doing now?!

She quickly scrolled down the WhatsApp, stumbling over kriti's sarcastic, "yo alive ma'am? Yaa fir nikal diye sarpanch jii?" And shika's concerned, "are you okay?" "Are you awake?" She was about to reply her when one contact caught corner of her eyes.

Scary dadu.

Dadu texted me? Why?

She quickly opened the chat, there were few short texts filled with some venue, date and time. What the......

"We have finalized the date for Pooja."

'24th oct."

"But you would have to come here earlier than that."'

"And bring that boyfriend of yours, whom you were rambling about yesterday."

"And if there's no one Risha. You have to pay for that."

"Keep this in your mind."

Oh Pooja, okay I'll ask my pa to reschedule things on 24— wait!

Did he just say a boyfriend!

When did I have a boyfriend?

What the actual hell?!

She dropped her phone in horror, putting her head in her hands, closing her eyes trying to remember what mess she created last night.

Slowly the snippets started to come in front of her eyes.

"......yes baba I do have someone."

"Yes I love him. Yes of course.. I would love to bring him to the family Pooja."

"Text me it, when it's everything's decided."

She put her hand on her mouth to stifle the gasp came from hee mouth. Shit shit shit.

She's such an idiot, how could she do such things? How can she be this recklessly stupid?!

There's no boyfriend.

Her gaze went down to phone again, on the text again.

"...and if there's no one Risha, you have to pay for it."

"Keep this in your mind."

Her hand fell back in her hands again, groaning. She digs her own grave, every fucking time. Dadu was already skeptical about her company. And if this goes in south, he'll take her company away from his big conglomerate, which means everything gone. God!

I need a boyfriend.