She nearly whimpered at her mom’s words. She could do this. She didn’t have to tell them the truth right now, and she wouldn’t have to do it when they came here. She couldmaybe even keep this charade going for a while, until she figured out a way to make them so proud of her in other ways that they didn’t care that she wasn’t marrying a Bollywood legend’s grandson.
“You are finally getting your life together, MashAllah,” Noor remarked.
She’dhadher life together. Kind of.
“Keep this up, and we’ll all worry about you less,” Zara said cheerfully. She was holding her phone and moving through her house. Her daughter, Amal, was screaming something in the background. “I’m off. Noor, we’ll be over in ten minutes.”
“I don’t need—” Noor began, but Zara winked out. That was the way in their family; state the intention and then disappear.
Noor sighed. “I have to tidy up. See you later.” She hung up.
Her mom gave Jia a bright smile. “Wait until I tell your father. He’ll be so happy.”
Jia almost whimpered again. She was lying to her dad too? About this fake man they’d never meet? Oh God. Was she catfishing her parents? “Dev’s very busy and...”
“I’m sure he’ll make time for your family,” Farzana said firmly. “He knows what’s expected. I’m very excited. You don’t know how much we’d all worry less about you if we knew you were settled with a good boy.”
Jia licked her lips. “Cool.”
Farzana glanced over her shoulder. “I have to go, love.”
“Okay. Love you.” Best to be superagreeable. She hung upwith her mom and stared at her wall. Then she sent a message to her twin.IF YOU GET THIS CALL ME ASAP PLS 911.
Slowly, she collapsed back onto her couch. Had she truly invented a fake boyfriend to impress her family? One who was an international star she’d had no intention of seeing again, let alone producing to her family in a few weeks’ time?
Welp. Someday she’d learn not to dig herself into a deeper hole while getting out of one.
Wasn’t she still furious with Dev? Or had her anger at his offer of money and his family been drowned out by needing him now? Or by the faux nuzzle?
Even if she could control her negative emotions, how was she going to get Dev on board?
I wish there was something I could do to make this all up to you.
Jia raised an eyebrow. Maybe that part wouldn’t be an insurmountable challenge, actually.
Chapter Nine
DEV RECLINEDon the sofa in his trailer. His script was in his hands, but his brain was a million miles away. Across the ocean, even.
Legend’s Grandson.His inner ambitiousness was annoyed by that. He’d worked hard to make a name for himself. It was the main reason he’d chosen a completely different medium.
“It’s actually excellent press,” John had explained to him earnestly over the phone earlier. “Chandu was concerned it might be scandalous, given the obvious differences between you and the girl, but people are really loving it.”
Dev didn’t bother to explain that the differences weren’t as large as they appeared. As much as his grandfather had wanted to erase their background when he’d taken Rohan, at least, under his mentorship, their mother had been Muslim and quite middle-class.
Dev wasn’t surprised Chandu was happy. If they were talking about Dev’s love life, they were talking about him. For the most part, Dev had never given people a reason to gossip, unlike the rest of his family. His father had run offwith a woman, his uncle had died young, his grandfather had been a playboy. Arjun and Rohan had never met a drug, drink, or model they didn’t want to try.
Meanwhile, Dev kept a low profile in his personal life. Wrongly, according to his team.It softens you, John had told him.Makes you more human. Plus, they miss talking about your family. It’s nice to get over the grief of your brother and grandfather’s deaths.
People were quite human with or without relationships, in his opinion, but Dev couldn’t deny the public did feel an odd sort of possessiveness with his family. He remembered being bewildered when he’d come to live with his grandparents. Every morning, his grandfather and Arjun would go to the balcony and wave at the fans screaming outside. Rohan had joined them, a cute cherub-faced thirteen-year-old. Dev had been lanky and awkward and had never asked or been asked to engage in the morning greeting. As far as he could tell, the crowds had dispersed after his grandfather died.
All the public had needed was a tiny crumb to get similarly excited over Dev, it seemed. And Jia had been that crumb.
John had asked if he could leak the name of the girl in the photo, and Dev had heartily declined. If he didn’t want to drag some woman into the spotlight to inherit millions and millions of rupees, he definitely wasn’t going to do it to get some extra space in a newspaper.
Dev stared blindly at his script. He wanted to call Jia, to see if she’d seen the photo, but she’d been pretty final about saying goodbye to him last night.
Jesus, had he only known her for a matter of days? Perhaps it was all the videos he’d watched of her that made him feel like he’d known her longer. His gaze strayed to his phone. He wasn’t watching them any longer, though. Not since... well, since a few hours ago.
