Bound by Law || 18- Momentary Kindness

                                    

                                          
'You're lying, Karishma. It's obvious you're not happy with him.'
                          
Gavin's text caught me by surprise and after reading it, I let out a tiny gasp. Everyone's eyes turned to me. I cleared my throat, embarrassed. Chelsea eyed me with an amused expression. 
                          
"Are you okay?" 
                          
"Yes, I'm good!" I rushed out, sounding even more suspicious. I avoided looking at Gavin, feeling his watchful eyes on me. 
                          
Though I knew it was rude to text whilst out with guests, I couldn't help but try to reason with him or find out how he knew. 
                          
'No of course not! We love each other.' 
                          
Even as I hit send, I knew that it was an obvious lie but I was hoping it wasn't showing on my face. 
                          
I didn't want to let anyone know about the problems that we had as a married couple.
                          
I was always taught and brought up with the idea that other people outside the marriage shouldn't know about the personal things that goes on so that they didn't interfere. 
                          
After glancing at Jai and Chelsea who went back to making small-talk, I peeked up at Gavin through my eyelashes.
                          
He wasn't staring at me anymore but his lips were pinched, as if he knew something. 
                          
And I had a feeling he was strongly going with his gut feeling rather than believing me. 
                          
I didn't blame him. 
                          
My eyes then darted towards Jai and Chelsea once again to make sure they weren't suspicious. I didn't want to have to be bombarded with questions that I didn't have any answer to. 
                          
Plus, lying was exhausting. 
                          
Glancing at Jai, his expression remained blank but he managed to be kind enough to respond to her. 
                          
From the corner of my eye, I saw Gavin glance at me before shaking his head in disbelief. He then looked down at his phone, hidden under the table slightly. 
                          
My phone dinged again at the new text and I clenched my phone tightly. There was no way I could convince him; it was as if he already knew everything. 
                          
'Look, I know I've only known you for a little while but I can tell that you're not happy. You're not a very good liar cos I can practically see the guilt painted on your face. It's none of my business and you don't have to tell me anything about it but please just don't lie to me.' 
                          
My stomach churned at that. Turning my phone off to find some sort of relief, I looked up, accidentally meeting Gavin's eyes. 
                          
He was already watching me with a thoughtful expression, completely different to what I thought he was gonna be like. 
                          
Honestly, I had expected anger for my lying. 
                          
The thoughtful expression then changed to one of concern as he interpreted my silence as a confirmation to what he had said. 
                          
Trying to get away from the awkward silence between both Gavin and I, and to stop myself from screaming due to my unfortunate fate, I turned to Chelsea, ignoring Jai altogether. 
                          
"Are you and Gavin a couple?" 
                          
The confidence with which I asked the question surprised me and caught me off-guard but no one else found it as weird as I did. Chelsea just stared at me with her wide blue eyes.
                          
My question seemed to break Gavin out of his reverie as he blinked at me before he cleared his throat. 
                          
"Wait, what?" he asked in confusion, his voice croaky. He cleared his throat again, cheeks a little flushed.