The look in his eyes nearly brought her to her knees. In his dark gaze she saw rage, fear, regret, and something else…something raw and aching and impossibly familiar. She saw love.
Her heart stuttered.
“Please,” she said again, reaching one trembling hand to him.
Only then did Kabir release Jay’s collar. His fist hovered in the air for a long, suspended second before he let it fall to his side, knuckles split and bleeding.
But the damage was done. The truth, their truth, was out. She wasn’t sure what scared her the most…Jay’s words, Kabir’s reaction to them or her own trembling realization that she had never felt safer than she did in the moment Kabir lost control for her.
The door slammed open for a second time, in minutes and her father stood there.
“What the fuck is going on here?” he demanded, his dark gaze skimming the damage to the room before landing on Jay’s prone form, Kabir standing over him.
“Dad,” Tani rasped, her voice hoarse with emotion. “The wedding’s off.”
Karam’s gaze flicked to where Jay was struggling into a sitting position, to Kabir and then back to Tani who met his gaze unflinchingly. “Kind of figured that bit out,” he murmured.
“I’m going to have this bastard arrested,” Jay seethed, getting to his feet, one hand clutching his aching jaw.
“Do it,” Tani said quietly, her words laced with venomous rage. “And I’ll counter file.”
“For what?”
If Tani’s voice was deathly quiet, if Kabir’s rage was a silent scream in the room, Karam’s question was an unsheathed blade.
“For drugging me,” Tani replied, keeping her gaze on Jay and watching him pale, a tremor of fear working its way through his body. “He slipped something in my drink the night he proposed to me, apparently to make me more amenable to the question. He just admitted to it. Kabir heard him and –“
Karam took a step forward and Jay scrambled back. “It was nothing,” he sputtered, “Nothing dangerous. It’s done her no harm. Look at her. She’s fine!”
“The vines at Il Cuore always need more fertiliser,” Aakash said from the doorway where no one had seen him appear. “If we bury his body there, it’s a win-win.”
“Dad.” Tani’s voice halted Karam’s steady walk towards Jay. “I want him gone from here. But not,” she added hastily, “buried in the vineyards.”
“Yeah,” Yash murmured, as Ved and he stepped up beside Aakash. “I kind of like the grapes here. Let’s not poison it.”
“Get out.” Karam told Jay, his ice cold eyes on the younger man.
Jay shuffled to one side, sidestepping Karam and a still silent Kabir, before walking to the doorway where the others still stood.
“One word about Kabir,” Aakash warned, “And I’ll bury you alive myself.”
Jay nodded, looking shaken. He was almost to the door when Tani said, “Oh and Jay?”
He paused, turning to look at her.
She let her rage fill her words, liquid ice in her veins. “I wasn’t waiting for marriage. I was waiting for Kabir.”
She saw Kabir still, his entire body seeming to turn to stone, but other than there was no reaction from him or anyone else in the family.
Jay, on the other hand, turned an alarming shade of red. He took a step towards her but Karam turned slightly to block him and he stopped.
“You fucking deserve each other,” he spat before leaving the room, almost tripping over his own feet in haste.
“Kabs,” Tani said, “Are you okay?”
“Am I-“ Kabir laughed, a broken sound. “Am I okay?”
“Show me your hands-“
