“You don’t have to pay off my debts,” Ashish rasped. “I’ll get myself out of the hole.”
“I want to,” Daksh admitted. “Let me do something for my conscience. I’m sorry if I hurt you…But Vedika…I’m not sorry for loving her. I never will be.”
Ashish stared at him for a long moment and then he nodded. It wasn’t absolution but it was something.
“Stay away from her,” Daksh told Prasun, enunciating each word carefully, “or I’ll plaster every last sordid word of your family story in the media and the society circles you love so much. You try anything with Vedika, anything, and I swear to you, I’ll repay every moment of hell you put me through for all these years with interest.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Prasun snarled.
“Watch me,” Daksh said simply.
CHAPTER 41
VEDIKA
Vedika had stormedthrough her house, her suitcase trailing behind her. Anger and grief roiled inside her making it hard to hold on to her composure. She’d made it to her bedroom without encountering any member of the family and threw herself on the bed, the first tears starting to trickle down her cheeks.
She muffled her cries with her pillow and finally allowed the dam to break. She sobbed for her heartbreak, she cried for the loss of her illusions, but mostly she mourned the loss of the beautiful boy who’d made her feel like the luckiest girl in the world for one unimaginably special night.
A knock sounded on her door but she ignored it. She was in full swamp demon mode and had no intention of allowing anyone in to bear witness to it. But whoever was at the door, was persistent.
Must be her mother, she groused. Kanak Thakkar had no boundaries and definitely couldn’t take a hint.
“Who is it?” she called out, a trifle aggressively.
“It’s me, Advik.”
The surprise of that deep, unexpected voice had her sitting up in bed. “Come in,” she said, her voice small. This, her sweetest, gentlest of cousins, hadn’t quite been himself since his return from America and even in her grief, Vedika couldn’t turn away from him. Not when he so obviously needed her, needed family.
Advik entered the room and looked around, his gaze finally coming to land on where she huddled under the covers.
“Wow,” he murmured. “You look worse than I feel.”
“Shut up,” she said half-heartedly, making space for him on the bed. Advik kicked off his crocs and settled on to the bed beside her, his legs stretched out in front of him.
“It sucks huh?” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and drawing her in. “Having your heart broken?”
“Ashish didn’t break my heart,” she said automatically.
“I know.”
“I don’t know him well enough for him to break my heart,” she said now, not bothering to mention which him she was talking about. Advik stayed in the background of their boisterous group but no one noticed more than he did.
“I know,” he said again.
Tears sprang to her eyes as she snuggled in closer to Advik, his arms automatically tightening around her. “It hurts,” she said in a small voice.
“I know.” He exhaled hard. “It hurts like a bitch.”
“Is she the reason for this?” Vedika asked, patting the thick, bushy beard obscuring Advik’s handsome face.
He batted her hand away. “You don’t like my new look?”
“I can’t see your new look,” she retorted. “It’s blocked by the jungle you’re growing on your face. Apparently, because of –“ she paused hopefully, waiting for Advik to fill in the name of the mystery girl.
But he didn’t. He just sat there, staring bleakly at the wall in front of them.
“If you came here to cheer me up, you’re doing a terrible job,” she told him.
