The Temple Between Them

This is the first chapter of "Married to the Monster"

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🕉️ Chapter One — The Temple Between Them

> “Sometimes the first meeting isn’t an introduction.

It’s a recognition your soul wasn’t prepared for.”

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The temple was quiet that morning.

Not empty — but hushed, sacred, alive only with murmurs of prayer and the soft rustle of wind brushing through the peepal trees above.

It was a Tuesday. The air held the mild scent of ghee, marigolds, and incense. Inside the old stone mandir, the Shivling sat bathed in cool milk, ringed by fresh bilva leaves, its base still wet with the morning’s abhishekam.

The world outside raged with noise and politics.

But here, inside these walls, time slowed.

And she was already there.

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🕊️ Enaya Malhotra

She sat alone in the corner courtyard, just a few feet from the inner sanctum. Her back was straight. Eyes closed. A soft white dupatta covered her head like a veil of stillness.

Her lips moved silently.

No dramatic chanting.

Just a gentle rhythm of surrender only Mahadeva could hear.

The priest’s wife often said she was the kind of girl gods protected, even when men didn’t.

But Enaya didn’t believe that.

She came here not for blessings…

but for peace.

For silence that didn’t hurt.

For freedom that lasted at least until the next hour of duty returned.

Her palms folded. Her forehead touched the stone.

And for one second, she disappeared from the world completely.

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🖤 Rahul Desai

He arrived just minutes later.

His car stopped at the edge of the temple hill road. His security men stepped out first, looking around, but he waved them back.

No one followed him.

He removed his shoes quietly. Rolled up his sleeves. Took the long stone steps two at a time.

To anyone else, Rahul Desai was a ghost in the empire of money.

Untouched by scandal. Unseen in gossip.

The kind of man people feared because they knew nothing about him except what he allowed them to know.

But here—before Mahadeva—he was stripped of all that.

This was his ritual.

His vow.

Before every war, every dangerous deal, every new corridor of power…

He came here.

To bow.

To not ask.

To surrender control, so he could reclaim it stronger.

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🔥 The First Glimpse

He had just lit his diya, copper flame flickering softly, when something made him look left.

He didn’t know why.

There was no sound. No whisper.

Just… a shift in the wind.

And he saw her.

At first, just a figure.

All white. Still. Framed in the golden glow of morning sunlight filtering through temple bars.

Then her head lifted.

And her eyes opened.

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Their gazes collided.

Not dramatically.

Not like fire meeting storm.

It was… quiet.

But in that quiet was a storm neither of them had the words for.

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Rahul didn’t blink.

He had seen beautiful women. Fierce ones. Fragile ones. The ones who wanted him for money. Or ran from him because of it.

But this… was different.

Her face was soft but unreadable, as if she had learned to feel things alone. Her eyes held no flirtation. Only a depth he wasn’t used to looking into — like they had spent years trying not to cry.

She didn’t lower her gaze.

She didn’t offer a smile.

But she didn’t look away either.

And that shook him.

Because most people couldn’t hold his stare for longer than two seconds. They either wanted something — or feared something.

She did neither.

She just saw him.

And in that moment… he hated it.

He hated how unguarded he felt.

How seen.

How disturbed.

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She turned away first.

Not hurriedly.

Just slowly — like a wave withdrawing after touching something it shouldn’t.

Rahul stood frozen for a second longer, then exhaled—harshly, like he’d been holding his breath without knowing it.

He should’ve left.

But he sat down on the cold temple stone.

And stared at the Shivling for much longer than usual.

He didn’t speak.

Didn’t pray.

Just thought.

About eyes he couldn’t name.

And a face that had already burned itself somewhere in the corner of his mind.

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🌒 Across the Courtyard

Enaya finished her prayer quietly.

And walked out of the temple the way she always did—careful, invisible, unimportant.

Except today, she felt seen.

As if someone had peeled open the quiet little world she kept hidden inside her chest and stared right into it.

She didn’t know why it bothered her.

Or why it stayed.

But it did.

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END OF CHAPTER ONE

> No words.

No names.

Just two souls crossing in a place neither of them had come to meet someone.

She returned to her cage.

He returned to his empire.

But both carried something they couldn’t name yet… and wouldn’t forget.

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( please give likes and comments.. I have been saying it a lot, but no one comment 😭

Please don't do it to me... I am trying. At least tell me my mistake or if you have any suggestions.... Love you 💓 )

I Want you to stay

'Til I'm in the grave

'Til I rot away, dead and buried

'Til I'm in the casket you carry

If you go, I'm going too, uh

'Cause it was always you, alright

And if I'm turnin' blue, please don't save me

Nothing left to lose without my baby

Birds of a feather, we should stick together, I know

I said I'd never think I wasn't better alone

Can't change the weather, might not be forever

But if it's forever, it's even better

And I don't know what I'm cryin' for

I don't think I could love you more

It might not be long, but baby, I

I'll love you 'til the day that I die

'Til the day that I die

'Til the light leaves my eyes

'Til the day that I die

I want you to see, hm

How you look to me, hm

You wouldn't believe if I told ya

You would keep the compliments I throw ya

But you're so full of shit, uh

Tell me it's a bit, no

Say you don't see it, your mind's polluted

Say you wanna quit, don't be stupid

And I don't know what I'm cryin' for

I don't think I could love you more

Might not be long, but baby, I

Don't wanna say goodbye

Birds of a feather, we should stick together, I know ('til the day that I die)

I said I'd never think I wasn't better alone ('til the light leaves my eyes)

Can't change the weather, might not be forever ('til the day I die)

But if it's forever, it's even better

I knew you in another life

You had that same look in your eyes

I love you, don't act so surprised

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