He laughed. “You certainly don’t need my approval. But you have it. I know you have a large family but please also know that, irrespective of what both of you decide, you have family on this side too. You have me.”
Vedika smiled. “I appreciate that. I’d like it if we could be friends. We made good friends, even if we were shitty romantic partners.”
“Friends,” Ashish agreed. “I promise not to stab you in the back again.”
“Well, if you do,” Vedika murmured, “I’ll just yank the knife out and jam it into your crotch.”
Ashish winced. “I see my brother has been a phenomenal influence on you.”
Vedika laughed, the sound drawing Vikram’s attention and bringing him into the room.
“That he has,” she agreed.
Ashish sobered a little, probably from Vikram’s disapproving presence. “Life hasn’t been easy on him, Vedika. I hope you will be.”
CHAPTER 44
DAKSH
There aretimes in one’s life when it feels like the world simultaneously speeds up and slows down. Daksh stood outside the Thakkar mansion, night blanketing him, watching the lights go on inside the house, bathing the scene in a soft, warm yellow glow.
He should go in, talk to Vedika, say goodbye and leave. But his feet wouldn’t move. He stayed where he was, his haversack by his feet, hands shoved in his pockets, eyes on the window on the second floor, third from the right. The curtains were drawn but light filtered through them. She was home.
She washishome.
Still his feet didn’t move. Just one moment more, he told himself. And then…
Before he could complete that thought, a car rolled up beside him, coming to a stop. Kanak Thakkar got out of the driver’s side and propped her hands on to the top of the car.
Daksh winced a little as he saw her bracelet scrape the top of the Bugatti but Kanak didn’t even seem to notice.
“Surveilling the place?” she asked conversationally, as if it was perfectly normal to run into someone standing on the pavement outside her house, staring at it.
“I need to talk to Vedika,” he said, reaching down to grab his haversack and hoist it up. And still, his feet didn’t move.
Kanak watched him for a second, her perceptive glance taking in the tense lines of his face. Then she shut the car door, tossed her keys to the guard who’d come running and was now hovering behind her and walked over to where he stood.
She stood shoulder to shoulder beside him, watching the house, clearly trying to see what he was seeing.
“Peace,” he told her, when she didn’t say anything. “I look at it and see peace.”
Kanak smiled. “That’s probably because the house is so large, we all can disappear into our own little corners and never have to interact. It’s easy to keep peace when you have ample space.”
Daksh laughed. “It’s not the space. It’s the people.”
“For you,” Kanak said, gently. “It’s her.”
Daksh stilled. “You don’t mind?” he asked, after a moment. “That it’s me?”
“Why would I?” she asked breezily, like she wasn’t turning his world on its head. “I like you, Daksh.”
It felt like she’d wrapped him in a hug, one that, for once in his life, made him feel seen.
“I like anyone who makes the vein in my husband’s forehead throb,” she grinned, seeing the emotion in his eyes and trying tolighten the moment. “And you do such a magnificent job of it. Hainan Gibbon,” she muttered to herself, snickering.
Daksh laughed. “He came to see me today.”
“I know.” Kanak’s smile softened. “He’s trying to make things right in his own arrogant, overbearing way. You’ll get used to him.”
