“I’ve been paying my aunt to stay silent and to keep out of our lives.” The words were ripped from him before she could finish her threat. He kept his face buried in his palms as he said, “Please don’t fight because of me. Please?”
For the longest moment, one of the hardest of his life, there was silence, and then Aayushi said, “Since when?” Her voice was deathly, lethally quiet, the voice of the leading criminal defense attorney in the country.
“Since my first album went platinum,” Kabir muttered, not raising his head to meet either of their eyes.
“So for fourteen years now,” Ved said.
Kabir nodded. “About that,” he admitted.
Aayushi stepped forward, her fingers grasping his chin and tilting his face up so he had no option but to meet her gaze. “How much?”
“You’re going to kill me,” he said, weakly.
“I’m going to do that anyway,” she replied calmly. “How much, Kabir?”
“Around three crores, give or take. It wasn’t much initially, and then it kept going up, and now it’s,” he swallowed, “a lot.”
Aayushi’s fingers tightened on his chin before she let go of him, her hand dropping away.
“And what does she want from you now?” Ved asked, his incisive gaze slicing through the heavy atmosphere to the brass tacks of the conversation.
“She wants back into my life,” Kabir said hoarsely.
Aayushi who had moved to stand by the window, staring out into the darkness enveloping the lawns, broken only by party lights and chatter from the last of the straggling guests.
“What does that mean?” Aayushi asked, not looking back, her voice icily cold.
“She’s dying.”
“Forgive me for not breaking down in tears,” Aayushi replied.
“Aayu-“ Ved said gently.
“No.” She turned from the window, her furious gaze skewering him. “I don’t have your overblown moral compass, Ved. So don’t expect me to have any compassion for that woman! She tried to kill my son. Kill! She should have rotted in jail for what she did but we allowed her to get away with a minor sentence for his sake, because we didn’t want him to testify in court when he was already traumatized. So, if she’s dying, I’m saying good fucking riddance to bad rubbish. I’ll be damned if I’ll let that bitch take one more second of my child’s life.”
“I agree,” Ved replied calmly, the calm to her storm. “Not one second more.” He met Kabir’s gaze and repeated, “Not one second or one rupee more. What is she holding over you?”
“Initially it was vague threats to go to the press about my background, where I came from, the…” He swallowed hard before continuing, “The stuff she made me do, the drugs I ran for her, the filth she made me-“ His voice failed him. “And then she told me about my parents. That my mom was some kind of mafia don. The blood that runs through my veins is, apparently, laced with cocaine.”
“I’m going to bury that bitch,” Aayushi said calmly. “Before she dies.”
“So she held your life,the life she gave you, over your head?” Ved asked, shooting Aayushi a ‘shut up’ look.
“And you paid her like a brainless idiot?” Aayushi walked over and smacked him on the back of his head. His mother was clearly not interested in listening to the looks his father was giving her.
“She threatened to smear all of you too,” Kabir yelped, rubbing his head. His mother was bloody strong. “I couldn’t let that happen,” he said helplessly. “I couldn’t let the dirt of my existence bleed over into yours. Not when all you’ve ever done is be good and kind and…”
“And?” Ved asked, his tone flinty. “Please finish that.”
“I owe you everything,” Kabir said through a throat choked with emotion. “Both of you. And I couldn’t repay you with this.”
“What do you think Kimaya owes us?” Ved asked, his tone ripe with fury. “You seem pretty good with accounts for a guy who’s pissed away three crores.”
“Dad, it’s not the same.”
“I kind of understand now,” Ved snapped, “why she came after you with her knife. You’re very annoying.”
That startled a laugh out of Kabir which died a quick death when he recognised the anger in Ved’s eyes.
