SAGARIKA

The moment I shut the door behind me, I dropped my bag on the chair, walked straight to the bed, and threw myself face-first into it, pressing my face into the pillow as a very controlled, very muffled scream escaped me.

This was not happening.

This absolutely could not be happening.

“You are impossible.”

His voice replayed in my head so clearly that I almost sat up just to glare at the empty room.

Oh, I know, Sir.

I am fully aware.

In fact, I take a certain amount of pride in that, especially when it comes from someone who clearly believed he had everything under control not even half an hour ago and is now stuck in a situation entirely of his own making.

I turned my head, staring at the ceiling now, irritation settling back in with full force as the sequence replayed itself.

What exactly had possessed him to call my parents?

More importantly, what exactly had he expected would happen after that?

Did he genuinely think I would quietly agree, pack my bags, and follow instructions like an obedient child just because Dr. Siddh Jindal had decided that it was “not safe” for me to stay back alone?

The audacity of that man was one thing, the confidence was something else entirely.

I sat up abruptly, narrowing my eyes as the memory surfaced with painful clarity.

And my father_ he asked him to babysit me??

Stay with her, beta. She is having trouble walking on two legs.

Excuse me?

How could Dad do this to me?? He assigned me a full-time supervisor?

Like really? Was it not enough that I had been tolerating him in the hospital?

I now had to deal with him here too, in what was supposed to be my break from structure, schedules, and that very particular brand of disciplined control he carried like a personality trait.

I let out a sharp breath, running a hand through my hair as the frustration circled back, stronger this time.

This could not be happening to me.

Not here.

Not now. Not when I had finally managed to escape all of that.

And yet— here he was.

Of all the people in the world, it had to be him.

If Tami had been here, we would have turned this place into chaos within the first hour and called it exploration, and if Sri were around, she would have supported every bad decision I made with dangerous enthusiasm.

And Gauravi bhabhi…

I let out a quiet laugh despite myself, because she would not have been allowed anywhere near this place in her condition, not while carrying twins and an entire family’s collective anxiety, and if she had somehow managed to come anyway, Shlok bhaiya would have followed within minutes, ready to supervise both of us like we were incapable of basic survival.

Which would have made it even more ridiculous.

But somehow, despite all logic and effort, I had still ended up under surveillance—

By her overprotective brother.

I leaned back again, staring at the ceiling, and this time the irritation shifted into something far more interesting.

Because the more I thought about it, the clearer it became that his perfectly planned solution had failed in the most spectacular way possible.

Instead of sending me back, he had managed to trap himself here.

With me.

For days.

I almost felt bad for him.

Almost.

Because if I looked at this objectively, this could not have worked out better even if I had designed it myself. Out of all possible outcomes, this was the one where Dr. Siddh Jindal ended up exactly where he least wanted to be, in the middle of nowhere, with no structure, no control, and no exit that did not involve me.

And the best part?

He had chosen this.

He could have been back by now, comfortably heading toward a very proper, very planned meeting with my sister, moving forward with a decision that both families had already approved, and instead, he was here.

Babysitting me. Because he decided to interfere.

That thought alone was satisfying enough to settle most of my irritation. He deserved this completely for spoiling my stay here.

And for the record, I was not one of his sisters, and I was definitely not someone who needed a self-appointed guardian evaluating every decision I made like it was a risk assessment report.

The seminar was over. He was not even my boss anymore whose instructions I am required to follow.

The work was done. Whatever authority he believed he had ended the moment we stepped out of that hall.

Right now, he was just a family friend who had made a very unfortunate decision and was about to experience the consequences of it in ways he had not even begun to anticipate.

And if he thought he was here to “keep me safe,” then I was going to make sure he spent the next few days wondering what exactly he needed to be saved from.

Me. Or... his own decision to stay.

The best part was that I did not even need to try very hard.

All I had to do was be myself, with just a little more intention. A little more timing.

A little more precision. A comment at the right moment.

A refusal where he expected agreement.

A decision that did not fit into his perfectly structured understanding of how things should be.

And slowly, very slowly, that calm, controlled patience he was so proud of would begin to strain and finally crack.

I wanted to see how far that would go.

Very much.

Which, quite honestly, brought me back to my favourite moment so far_

The room suggestion.

I smiled to myself, turning slightly on the bed, because that had gone exactly the way I had expected.

I knew what I was doing the second I said it.

That pause.

That look on his face.

That brief, stunned silence, that look of absolute disbelief, as I had just shattered ten different rules he lives by without even trying, was worth more than anything else that has happened today.

For a second, just one second, that perfect composure cracked, and it was so worth it that I almost laughed out loud right there at the reception.

Of course, he was going to refuse.

That had never been the point.

The point was to remind him that if he was going to stay here and take responsibility for me, then he did not get to do it comfortably.

And, if I was being completely honest, I also wanted to see how far I could push before he actually reacted.

Because someone like him does not lose control easily. Which made the entire exercise far more interesting.

If I did this right, he would either leave on his own, completely exhausted by me, or he would reach a point where that calm, controlled exterior finally gave way.

Either way, I win.

Because I had not come all the way here to be managed.

I had come here to enjoy myself.

And if that enjoyment now included slowly, deliberately, and very creatively testing the limits of Dr. Siddh Jindal’s patience—

Then this trip might turn out to be far more entertaining than I originally planned.

*********