PART 4— THEIR SECRET LIFE IN THE NEW CITY
CHAPTER TEN — RAJ, ANVI AND RAJVI
The move to the new city marked the beginning of a different phase in Rajvir and Anvi's relationship. After graduation, both had received jobs in the same city, and after discussing everything with their families, they decided to live together close to their job location. Their families were aware of their relationship, trusted them, and were already discussing their marriage, so the arrangement gradually became a natural part of everyone's expectations.
What had once been a college friendship had now become something much deeper, and although they were still adjusting to professional life, they already behaved like a young couple who had been together for years.
Their apartment quickly became a mixture of Rajvir's organised habits and Anvi's spontaneous nature. Rajvir liked everything in its proper place, while Anvi could leave something on the dining table and forget about it for two days. They cooked together, travelled to work together whenever possible, argued over what to watch at night, and often ended up laughing over things that would have seemed completely ordinary to anyone else.
The one thing that remained completely private between them was Rajvir's Rajvi side.
After the college cultural festival and farewell night, Rajvir had initially believed that his girly appearances were something he had left behind. But living with Anvi gave him a strange freedom. She now knew everything about his childhood, his mother, his dancing, and the photographs he had once been embarrassed about, and she never treated any of it as something shameful. Gradually, she began encouraging him to experiment again.
One Saturday, while unpacking a suitcase, Anvi discovered several sarees and accessories that had 'mistakenly" been packed into the boxes Rajvir had brought from home.
She lifted one of them and smiled.
"Rajviiii darling!"
He immediately looked suspicious. "No."
"I haven't said anything."
"I know that expression."
She laughed. "Just once."
Rajvir sighed, but eventually agreed.
From then on, Rajvi became a private little adventure between them. Sometimes Anvi selected a traditional saree, sometimes a modern one, and sometimes she deliberately created a completely different look just to see how Rajvir would react.
Anvi enjoyed choosing the jewellery, trying multiple permutations and combinations of clothes & accessories on Rajvi, and suggesting small changes, while Rajvir would complain throughout the process and then secretly admire the result in the mirror.
"You're enjoying this far too much," he told her one evening.
Anvi smiled. "Yes. Because you keep pretending you don't enjoy it."
Rajvir looked at his reflection and laughed.
"Maybe I enjoy your creativity."
"Of course."
That became their understanding. Rajvi was not a public performance anymore; she was a private part of their relationship, something Anvi knew and accepted completely.
Occasionally they even took the adventures outside.
Whenever Anvi and Rajvi went out, Rajvi always covered her face tightly with a stole or a scarf like a typical city girl, leaving only her eyes visible. This was partly because she was nervous about being recognised, and partly because the secrecy made the experience more exciting. Anvi would walk beside her as naturally as possible, behaving as though they were simply two close friends or two young women enjoying an evening together. In those moments, they could laugh, shop, watch movies and explore the city without worrying about anything.
Their favourite adventures were late-night bike rides.
Rajvi would sit behind Anvi, stole tightly covering most of her face, leaving only her eyes visible, while Anvi drove through the city streets. Sometimes, they would stop at quieter tea spots so that “Rajvi” could enjoy a cup of tea and free herself from the tight face covering. At other times, they would park near a viewpoint and have a heart to heart talk, or simply ride through the city with no particular destination in mind.
One night, after stopping for tea, Anvi looked at Rajvi—who was in the middle of covering her face—and laughed.
"My dear Daaku Haseena. You're enjoying this."
Rajvi adjusted the stole around her face and double-knotted it. She gave Anvi an exaggerated, unimpressed look, though the faint crinkle at the corners of her eyes betrayed her smile.
"I am enjoying the ride."
"And not the Rajvi part?"
Now she smiled.
"Maybe both."
Anvi laughed and nudged her lightly.
"That's what I thought."
Their closeness was visible even when Rajvir was dressed normally, but when they went out as Rajvi, the two often looked to strangers like a pair of close girlfriends enjoying an evening together. Anvi found the situation amusing, especially because "Rajvi" used to become extremely cautious whenever someone looked at "her" for too long.
"Stop worrying," Anvi would whisper.
"Easy for you to say."
"I'm here."
That simple answer always calmed her.
Meanwhile in their hometown, both families were moving forward with the marriage discussions. The two sides had begun discussing possible dates, and Rajvir's mother was especially excited.
"Raj beta, now we even have to decide the wedding date." she told him during one phone call.
Rajvir looked toward Anvi and smiled.
"Yes, Aai, I know."
Anvi heard the conversation and immediately laughed.
"Looks like we're officially running out of time."
Rajvir smiled.
"Or maybe we're finally getting started."
---
CHAPTER ELEVEN — THE DAY SOMEONE RECOGNISED ANVI
One weekend, Anvi decided that Rajvi needed a proper day out. After some persuasion, Rajvir finally agreed. She chose a graceful Punjabi suit for Rajvi and helped her arrange the accessories.
Rajvi then asked Anvi to hand her the stole lying on the bedside table.
“Let me go into my undercover mode.”
“Again?” Anvi exclaimed, asking with mock annoyance.
“You know the reason, na, Anu. So yes, again.”
Anvi handed her a beautiful floral cotton stole.
Rajvi covered her face with the stole and expertly double-knotted it at the back, leaving only her eyes visible.
“I swear, Rajvi, I’ll never understand how you manage both the dupatta and the stole at the same time,” Anvi scolded affectionately. “Honestly, you and your undercover mode!”
She examined Rajvi from head to toe and smiled.
“Perfect. Now you really do look like you’re going undercover.
You're enjoying this too much."
"I've already admitted that."
They rode to a large shopping district, where they spent the afternoon browsing through clothes and accessories before deciding to watch a movie. Rajvi was nervous at first, but as the hours passed she relaxed and began enjoying herself.
Everything was going perfectly until they unexpectedly met someone they knew.
They were standing near a café when a familiar voice called out.
"Anvi?"
Anvi froze.
Rajvi froze beside her.
She slowly turned around and recognized one of their former family acquaintances, someone who had known Anvi well but couldn’t identify Rajvir in his Rajvi appearance, simply because of how brilliantly he was concealed beneath the stole, with only his eyes visible.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" the acquaintance asked happily.
Anvi smiled, but her eyes immediately moved toward Rajvi.
Rajvi had become visibly frightened. Her hand instinctively moved toward one end of the dupatta hanging from her shoulders, nervously fidgeting with it. The panic was evident in her eyes, which darted around anxiously beneath the stole.
The acquaintance looked at "her".
"And who's your friend?"
Anvi reacted immediately.
"Oh, her? She's... a friend from my workplace."
Rajvi looked at her in surprise.
"Seems she doesn't like talking much." Acquaintance queried.
Anvi was trying desperately not to laugh.
"Yes. She's very shy."
The acquaintance looked at Rajvir again, clearly curious, but didn't recognise him in "Rajvi avatar".
Rajvi quietly whispered, “Anvi…” trying her best to make her voice sound feminine.
She turned toward her.
"What?"
"Shall we go back home?"
The acquaintance smiled.
"You two seem very close."
Anvi casually slipped her arm around Rajvi's and replied, "Oh yes, we are incredibly close."
The acquaintance continued talking about family memories, completely unaware that the quiet person standing beside Anvi was actually Rajvir.
Anvi, realising how nervous Rajvi was, decided to have a little fun with the situation.
She looked at Rajvi and said teasingly, "She's always like this. Very shy."
Rajvi gave her a warning look.
Anvi smiled innocently.
"Isn't that right?"
Rajvi nodded reluctantly.
The acquaintance laughed.
"That's cute."
Anvi had to turn away for a moment to hide her laughter.
After several minutes, the acquaintance finally said goodbye and walked away.
The moment they were alone, Rajvi let out a long breath.
"I thought I was finished."
Anvi burst out laughing.
“You should have seen your face!” Anvi laughed. “Oh, sorry—how can you, or anyone else, see your pretty face when it’s covered so tightly behind the layers of your stole?”
Rajvi tried to show her fake anger, but with only her eyes visible, even her feigned irritation looked adorable. Seeing this, Anvi laughed even harder.
"You were enjoying it!"
"Completely."
Rajvi shook her head.
"You lied so confidently."
"What else could I do?"
"You called me your shy workplace friend."
"Technically, you are my workplace friend."
"Anvi!"
She laughed and held her girlfriend's arm.
"Come on, Rajvi. The movie is waiting."
Rajvi couldn't help laughing too.
"You're impossible."
"I know."
They continued walking.
For Rajvi, the encounter had been frightening, but there was something reassuring about the way Anvi had handled it. She had never made him feel embarrassed or ashamed. She had simply protected the secret because she understood how important it was to him.
Later that night, they returned home after another long bike ride through the city.
Rajvi removed the stole and looked at her.
"Today was dangerous."
Anvi smiled.
"Today was fun."
"You have a strange definition of fun."
She laughed.
"You survived, didn't you?"
Rajvi smiled.
"Because you were there."
For a moment, the teasing stopped.
Anvi looked at her warmly.
"Always."
Their relationship had become like that—lighthearted most of the time, but with a deep trust underneath everything they did.
They were building a life together.
They believed they knew what their future looked like.
But someone else had already returned to the same city, looking for them—with pain in their heart and intentions they themselves were not entirely sure of.
---
CHAPTER TWELVE — SIA COMES HOME
Sia returned quietly.
Abroad, Sia had spent years carrying a deep, unspoken pain in her heart. The hurt had never truly left her. There were countless nights when she would lie awake, replaying the past in her mind, the best days of her life with Anvi and Rajvir, wondering how the people who had once meant the world to her could have hurt her so deeply.
Over time, countless plans would cross her mind—ways she could make them pay for the pain they had caused her. She imagined confronting them, making them regret losing her, and finally making them understand what she had gone through. But in reality , Rajvir and Anvi, both had never been aware of what she had felt, nor of how deeply their actions had affected her.
And now, after all those years abroad, Sia had returned to the same city where Rajvir and Anvi were planning to begin their new life, carrying all that old hurt in heart and a cruel revenge in her mind.
Before returning, Sia had quietly gathered bits and pieces of information about them through social media and her trusted resources.
Her first days back were spent observing rather than acting.
She wanted to know where they lived, where they worked, what their life had become, and most importantly, whether the two people who had once been her entire world were still together.
She eventually saw them.
One evening, from a distance, Sia watched Rajvir and Anvi leave their apartment on the bike. Rajvir was dressed as Rajvi, face covered by the stole, while Anvi laughed beside him.
“Rajjo…” Sia whispered to herself.
Even from a distance, she recognized him immediately—not by his clothes or his face, but simply by his eyes.
Sia remained inside her car.
For several seconds, she simply watched.
The sight brought back memories she had spent years trying to control.
College.
The cultural festival.
The farewell.
Rajvir accepting Anvi's love.
Her own forced smile.
Her disappearance.
But there was something else that caught her attention now.
Both of them looked genuinely happy.
They had built exactly the kind of life Sia had once secretly imagined for herself.
She took an old photograph from her bag.
The three of them stood together in it, much younger and completely unaware of how complicated their future would become.
Sia stared at the photograph.
"So many years have passed..."
Her expression slowly hardened.
The girl who had left India years ago had been heartbroken and vulnerable.
The woman who had returned was far more confident and far less willing to accept what had happened.
She had a plan now. A cruel and devilish plan.
But she did not want to confront them immediately. She wanted to watch, understand and choose the right moment.
Meanwhile, Rajvir and Anvi continued enjoying their new life. Their families were discussing the wedding date, their careers were progressing, and their private Rajvi adventures continued to give them another reason to laugh together.
They had no idea that Sia was already there.
They had no idea that she had seen them together.
And they certainly had no idea that the woman who had once silently loved Rajvir had returned carrying years of memories, unanswered questions and a hidden plan to punish them.
For Rajvir and Anvi, the new city represented a fresh beginning.
For Sia, it represented the place where an old story was about to begin again.
And this time, she had no intention of remaining silent.
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