This was my chance to remove him from all the shadowy corners of my heart where the memories of our time together were still hiding.Be warned,I told my heart silently.I am in full pest control mode, and Samrat is the vermin I’m going to decimate from my memories.
I was not scared of the past anymore. I was going to face it down and secure my future.
I held out my hand in challenge.
“Bring it on, army boy,” I snarled. “I dare you.”
But when Samrat gripped my hand hard, a tremor went down my arm, and I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew.
CHAPTER 11
SAMRAT
“Excellent,” said Shivina briskly. “Now here’s what we’re going to do. Samrat, you’re going to drop Meher and her mother home tonight, and tomorrow, we’re going to watch the RPC Cup finals at the polo club in Jaipur. That’s a good place to soft-launch your relationship, no?”
“Ooh, yes. Practically everyone we know will be there,” said Isha.
I could hear Shivina making plans for our fake relationship, but I wasn’t registering anything she said because I couldn’t take my eyes off Meher. And she stared right back at me.
All I could think of was what she’d said earlier about how she had no respect for me and had the utmost contempt for me. I wondered what I had done to deserve such contempt, when it was she who had destroyed our relationship. It was typical of a woman, I thought bitterly, to do something wrong and then gaslight you about it.
Dating her, even for show, was going to be a bitter pill to swallow, but I had to do it for Mani. I had to take Qureshi down; otherwise, Mani’s sacrifice would have been for nothing.
I stayed on the edges of the group when we went down to the ballroom for dinner, at a safe distance from Meher. But the very fact that I was in the same room as her caused a lot of talk and speculative glances. To her credit, the Rani Ma of Mirpur did not add fuel to the fire and left her daughter-in-law to deal with the situation.
After dinner, I was browsing the dessert counter disinterestedly when I saw something that reminded me of Meher. The gulab jamun cheesecake in individual shot glasses combined two of her favourite desserts - gulab jamun and cheesecake. But to my surprise, she seemed to have skipped dessert completely. She was standing on a small balcony, looking pensive as she stared at the elaborate gardens behind the palace.
On an impulse, I grabbed two of the shot glasses and two small silver spoons and made my way over to her. She looked up in surprise when I joined her, and shot a quick look around to see if anyone was watching us. Before she could say anything, I held out a shot glass.
“What’s this?” she asked warily.
“Two of your favourite desserts in one glass. If that’s not a win-win situation, I don’t know what is,” I replied.
The Meher I knew was a monster for sweets, and I knew she’d often skip the main meal to save all her calorie allowance for the dessert course. But this Meher stared at the glass I offered with an expression I couldn’t read.
“What’s wrong? Do I need to do a taste test to prove it’s safe?” I quipped.
“No! It’s just that…I don’t eat sweets anymore,” she said softly.
“Since when?”
She raised her eyes to meet mine and then looked away.
“For a long time now,” she said evasively. “I just don’t like sweets anymore.”
“I can’t believe it! I mean, I know people change, but surely not that much?” I exclaimed.
Meher gave me a bleak smile.
“You know that’s exactly what I believed once upon a time, and then I learned the hard way that people can change overnight. When love can turn to hate overnight, why can’t I change my taste in food?”
Anger roiled in my gut, mixed with all the pain I’d suppressed for years. I didn’t know why she was trying to make me feel guilty for what happened eight years ago, when it was all her fault.
“Love doesn’t turn to hate overnight, Meher. They both keep warring for supremacy for years until one day, they both turn into indifference,” I replied.
“Good for you, Maj. Deora,” she said in a biting tone. “You have the luxury of being indifferent to the situation because you never had much at stake in the first place. Your life went on smoothly even after you walked away from me. But I’ve never had that luxury. It wasn’t just you who turned your back on me. Thanks to your family, I turned into a social pariah almost overnight. And I will never forget that. Or forgive you. My hate for you is a living, breathing thing that I nurture like a beloved pet. So don’t try to pacify me with these sweet gestures. They mean nothing.”
“I’m not trying to pacify you,” I growled softly. “I was just being nice.”
