There are some queries of yours that I'd like to answer in this update. Please skip if you do not have any questions for me.

1. My updating schedule is Friday (night duration). I to update every Friday. Unless there is some emergency at my home or work, I make sure to update as I promised. Also, updating twice per week is very difficult since I get really less time to write, out of the work schedule and then household work. I really hope you'd understand.

2. About shifting my books to other platforms, I'd say, ", I will shift my books to other platforms depending on the situation." I believe if someone is getting paid for their hard work/passion, even if veryyyy little, it is worth it! However, I will make sure to complete my book in Wattpad before I move it so that, those who have taken out time to follow my account/book would get to read it for free. It is something that I feel I should do for my followers. So, I can only ask you guys to make sure to read the updates and my completed books, as soon as you can, since I may move them without notice.

3. The books in 'NovelCat' ('Guns and a Rose' and 'Alpha's soulmate') are on a paid basis there. You may use actual money or to buy the chapters. I can't remove the books from there nor can I put them here on Wattpad...since it would be a breach of the contract.

Do let me know if there are any questions that I have missed answering. I will reply to it in the next update.

Thank you for voting, commenting and following!!! Really :)

-Purnima)

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"What?" Viraj asked while being taken aback by the sudden question.

"Sneha. You like her, right?" Ananya clarified her question.

"What makes you think I like her? She is intolerable and doesn't know how to behave as a woman should!" He answered.

Ananya sighed while hearing his patriarchal self, speaking.

"And this is what surprises me. Even though she goes against what you tell her, which is like always, you still listen to her instead of scolding her as you would have done to me or Tina or any of my friends! Hell, you don't even tolerate Natasha." She explained while referring to Gaurav's girlfriend, Natasha.

"The only reason why I tolerate Sneha is that she helped you once. And, I am indebted to her in a way. That's it." He stated straightforward.

Ananya tried to read his face for any lies but found none.

"Well, that's good. Because father would really kill me if you broke your engagement with Nupur." She sighed.

Viraj tightened his hold on the steering and his jaw clenched. He didn't want this union but Ananya was right. Nupur was the glue that held his house together and prevented his father from hurting Ananya.

His mind got distracted when his phone went off. He looked at the screen of his phone and sighed.

"Yes, papa." He greeted without emotion, as soon as he accepted the call. Ananya's eyes widened when she realized that it was their father's call.

After a minute of talking, he cancelled the call.

"Ananya, father is coming here tomorrow morning. You know what you are supposed to do, right?" Viraj asked and his tone turned gentle by the end.

She looked at her brother in horror.

"Why...why is he coming here?" She asked in a tensed tone.

"He wants to talk to me about business and a proposal for you." He answered.

"Bhai, I don't want to get married now. Please..." She begged.

However, Viraj didn't say anything to console her or make her feel better. He only drove ahead with a straight face.

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"Didi (Means 'elder sister')! Didi!!" Priya entered the kitchen shouting for Sneha's attention.

"Have you gone insane, Priya!" Sneha scolded her younger sister in a sarcastic manner as she made the chappatis.

"You just won't believe what happened!" Priya shouted as she hugged her sister out of blue.

Sneha turned the gas off and tried to turn around to look at Priya.

"What happened?" She asked as a smile crept on her lips as well.

Priya detached from her sister and showed her her phone. Sneha read the text message, not once but thrice.

"Is this for real?" Sneha asked, clearly not believing the message.

"I told you I had high chances of winning this lottery! And, I did! I can go tomorrow and receive the two laptops. And, I searched about this laptop on papa's phone and found that it is the latest model of Apple. Ahhhhhh!!! I am so excited." Priya shouted in happiness again.

Even though she still didn't believe it, for the sake of her sister, she laughed as well to make her happy.

"I still can't believe this! But, congrats chotu (means 'little')!" Sneha shuffled her sister's hair.

"Obviously you won't. You even tore the ticket. Thanks to me that I taped it and saved it." Priya complained.

"I know! I am sorry. You know I don't believe in these things. Plus, at that time, we all had lost our jobs and I was worried about the savings!..."

"I know, didi! But, now we don't have to! We can use our savings on something else. Will you come with me to this place to get the prize?" She asked.

"Of course! Go and tell papa and mummy about this. And, also tell them the supper is almost ready." She asked Priya who went running to their parent's room with the same zeal.

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Gaurav knocked on Viraj's study twice and instantly heard his voice.

"Come in." Viraj said aloud as he made his desk for tomorrow.

Gaurav entered inside and noticed Viraj doing his task with attention.

"What is it?" Viraj asked Gaurav as he looked at the wall clock which read 20:46.

"Just some news which I thought to tell you personally. Why are you rearranging your desk?" He asked as he approached him and saw the photo frame of Viraj and Nupur on his desk placed at the left-most corner of the desk. Despite the two feet distance between them in which Viraj looked as bored as ever, it was the only photo of them together. Gaurav knew it very well.

"Is your father coming here?" Gaurav asked since that frame finds its place on Viraj's desk only for his father's view.

"Hmm. Tomorrow morning." He answered, finally relaxing in his chair.

"Does Ananya know about it?" He asked.

"Yes. What is the news?" Viraj asked finally.

Gaurav took his seat before replying.

"The deals that you signed yesterday are all cleared. We did a background check on the ones that are due tomorrow. They all seem fine, so, you can proceed with them. I have mailed you the details. And, the most important one...Sneha's sister, Priya got the confirmation text on her phone regarding the winning of the lottery." Gaurav completed with amusement clear on his face.

"Why is it the most important one? I believe the success of the deals is more important than those girls winning the laptops." Viraj said, clearly annoyed by the smirk on Gaurav's face.

"If it wasn't important, you wouldn't have taken the pain to personally visit that lottery business' office and ask the manager to announce Priya as the winner on the maturity of the game." Gaurav retorted.

"It is only because Sneha helped Ananya. This is the least I could do for her. What's wrong with both you and Ananya trying to derive an illogical conclusion about my intentions for Sneha!" Viraj complained with a sigh.

Gaurav's smile only widened.

"Whatever you say, Viraj! Anyway, I am going. Have fun with your dad tomorrow." He said and stood up to leave.

Viraj chuckled at his friend's comment again when unintentionally, his eyes fell on the photo frame of him and Nupur, and his smile faded.

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"Oh, thank god, Gaurav, you are here." Ananya asked as she came out of her room.

"You mean, I am alive?" He tried to be sarcastic since he knew she would be facing hell tomorrow.

She only laughed at his comment as she came downstairs.

"I wanted Sneha's contact number. I need to inform her to not come tomorrow to my house and also about my absence from college tomorrow." She said while forwarding her phone in his direction.

"And what makes you think I'd have her number?" He asked with raised brows.

"Uhh...you don't?"

"Obviously, no!"

"Well, bhai texted Sneha yesterday so I thought you must have given him her number." She explained.

"Viraj texted Sneha?" Gaurav asked.

"I know! Even I was surprised. Bhai wouldn't take the effort to contact anyone other than family." She chuckled.

"I knew something strange is going on in his mind. Anyway, go and ask Viraj for her number." He mumbled.

"Yupp. Bye." She said and ran upstairs again towards her brother's room.

"Come in." Viraj called as he heard another knock on his door.

"Bhai!" Ananya called for his attention when she entered his room.

"Yes, Ananya?" He asked as he stood to leave for his bedroom.

"I want Sneha's number." She stated.

"What number?" He asked getting a little confused.

"Mobile number, bhai! What other number would I want?" She chuckled.

"Why do you want it?" He asked while ignoring her comment.

"I need to inform her that I wouldn't be attending college tomorrow and also for her to not come to our house." She explained.

Viraj nodded and took out his phone from his track's pocket.

"Here. Go with 'Sneha'." He said after scrolling to her name.

"Why are there two numbers of hers? 'Sneha' and 'Sneha (2)'? She uses only one phone, right?" Ananya asked curiously.

"She has discarded the other number. The one saved as 'Sneha' is her present contact number." He explained despite not liking to explain himself.

"Oh. Okay." She nodded and copied the number to her phone as well.

"Thanks, bhai." She said and ran back to her room.

"Ananya." He called for her after she reached the staircase.

"Yes, bhai?"

"Behave tomorrow, okay." He asked gently.

Her smile fell as she understood him. Nodding at him, she walked back to her room with a frown.

I just want to be happy now, since I know I won't be tomorrow. She thought.

Looking at his phone's screen, Viraj deleted the contact number saved as 'Sneha (2)'. It was the number of the SIM card that he had installed on her new phone. Since she gave it back to him, it was useless now.

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Sneha took out a red top and blue jeans from her closet for tomorrow's day. Her phone went off and she wondered who'd be calling her this time. Unplugging the charger, she stared at the unknown number.

Is it Viraj? But how did he get my number? She wondered.

Fearing another interrogation later where he'd probably go insane on her, she decided to answer it.

"Hello?" She asked politely.

"Hi, Sneha! Ananya this side." Ananya said enthusiastically.

"Oh! Hi... Ananya!" Sneha greeted back while getting confused on how she got her number out of all people.

"I wanted to tell you that I won't be able to attend college tomorrow. So, please do not come to my house for the project also." Ananya said.

"Oh, okay. So, when should we resume the project? Since everything is at your house, I won't be able to make it as well."

"It won't take long. Actually, my father is coming home. And he usually doesn't stay for long. At max, 2 days. So, I'll probably attend college on Thursday and then we can resume working on it?"

"Yeah, sure. Have fun!" She said with a smile.

"Y.yeah. Thanks. Bye." Ananya said.

"Uhh...Ananya, wait."

"Yes?"

"May I ask where did you get my number from?" Sneha asked curiously.

"Bhai gave it to me. He had two numbers of yours. He said you discontinued one. So, I am calling on the number he said you were using currently." She explained.

"How did he get my number?" She couldn't help but ask with narrowed brows.

"Uhh...Bhai has his...sources. I mean, he makes sure to have the details of everyone I meet or get acquainted with. So, that's why he has your number too." Ananya answered hesitantly.

Sneha wanted to retort to that but found it meaningless. She had no idea that his reach was so vast to get someone's number out of nowhere! She didn't even have any social media account that might reveal her personal details!

"Oh, okay! Bye, then." Sneha mumbled and cancelled the call when Ananya replied as well.

I really hope he won't misuse my number. She thought unrealistically, as she recalled stories of young girls' mobile numbers being exchanged for cheap desperate calls. And, then she laughed at her own illogical thinking.

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NEXT DAY:

"Notification released!!!" Jyoti squealed in joy as Sneha and Jyoti walked in the direction of the next lecture hall.

"Really!" Sneha exclaimed excitedly.

Taking their usual seat, Jyoti opened the downloaded file and kept it in front of both of them to read. After reading the notification completely, Sneha frowned.

"I don't understand this." Sneha mumbled.

"It's easy. We need to take part in an auction and try to sell anything related to 'Earth and Nature'. So, I guess they are going with the theme of geography itself, in a nutshell." Jyoti explained with a shrug.

"And, do you really think these businessmen and educational institutions that the department are inviting will buy our things? And how are we going to make anything attractive and worth buying in less than a week? The auction is on coming Sunday!" Sneha asked with a frown.

"They have also invited family members of our college students. So, maybe they will also buy something." Jyoti added.

"I don't know! I don't think the department is going to collect much using this method. No one, no matter how rich, would buy our insignificant items. We are not like the Fine Arts students! They would have rather asked us to go to every house and collect for charity. At least we could have collected 1000 rupees. Here, I don't think we are going to manage even 100 rupees." Sneha sighed while Jyoti shook her head.

"You never know the weird interests of rich people! They anyhow have to give some money to charity. So, organizing this charity thing will give them a competitive streak! Thinking this way, the department is going to earn a lot by this instead of simply asking the businessmen to spend on charity." Jyoti contradicted.

"I hope that's the case." Sneha mumbled.

"By the way, what are you gonna make?" Jyoti asked.

Sneha chuckled before responding.

"You know I am bad at the craft! I'll probably ask Priya to make something for me." She answered.

"Lucky you! I'll have to make one myself. My brother is good for nothing." Jyoti said with a sigh to which Sneha only laughed.

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"Thank you, Jyoti." Tina and Shruti said in unison when Jyoti gave each of them a slice of sandwich. The four of them were sitting in the canteen to have lunch as was their routine now.

"So, Sneha. How is the project going on with Ananya?" Tina asked to initiate the conversation.

"It's good. We bought the things and are ready with the idea. I hope it works since its working is the most important aspect." She replied with a chuckle.

"How is your project going, Jyoti?" Shruti asked.

"Oh, God! Don't even ask." Jyoti sighed dramatically and Sneha laughed at her behaviour.

"Her partner is very choosy. They both have still not agreed on the idea! So, she is kind of in a world war mode with her!" Sneha explained on Jyoti's behalf making everyone laugh at the table.

"By the way, I tried contacting Ananya. She only dropped a message in our group chat today that she would be absent." Tina stated.

"Why is she on leave, anyway?" Jyoti asked without any interest in knowing the answer.

"We don't know. I asked her in the group chat about why she was on leave and when she'd be coming back, but turned out that she had turned her phone off." Shruti replied in concern.

"Oh, don't worry about her. Her father is coming to her home, so probably they have gone for some outing or something." Sneha replied to kill their curiosity.

Tina and Shruti immediately stopped eating and looked at each other in concern.

"What happened?" Sneha asked while looking at their tensed faces.

"Who...told you this?" Tina asked.

"Ananya called me last night. She told me that her father is coming this morning." Sneha answered.

"Oh, damn!" Shruti sighed.

"What's the matter? Isn't it a good thing that her father is coming home?" Sneha asked and Jyoti nodded, suddenly getting interested in the conversation.

"You don't know? Ananya is not her father's real daughter!" Tina blurted out.

"What?" Sneha and Jyoti asked in complete shock.

"Yes! Viraj and Ananya have different fathers." Shruti explained.