House of Advani officially signed the deal with the Mahalas two days ago. All the details were coming together seamlessly. We’d been treating them to all the finer things Mumbai had to offer. They seemed to be loving it. And Jai was over the moon.
I’d worked hard on it, too; I should have been ecstatic as well.
But ever since I realised I needed to talk to Rekha, the thought had consumed my mind every waking moment. Hell, I had nightmares about it.What should I say? How should I say it? What do I do if— no, when she blackmails me again?
The door swung open.Am I hallucinating?I had to be. There was no other reason I was seeing Rekhawalk into the executive kitchen at eight twenty-five on a Wednesday morning.
‘I pride myself on judging people accurately,’ she said conversationally. ‘I pegged you as naïve. Watching your stupidity has been … a revelation.’
I froze. The chai hissed softly on the stove, bubbling over. I turned it off.
She stood on the other side of the kitchen island, her posture regal and eyes glittering with dark amusement.
It really was her.
Horror crawled up my neck, cold and sharp. I’m not ready. I hadn’t come up with a strategy. I had no idea what to say to her.
‘I see that you have lost the ability to talk, along with the skill to answer your phone,’ she said. ‘Jai—’
‘Keep his nameoutof your mouth.’ The words tore through me before I could stop them.
Rekha looked taken aback. But in a fraction of a second, she was back to her usual unruffled self.
‘You have lied and taken advantage of me from the moment we met. I’m done. I want nothing to do with you anymore.’ I gripped the counter, my voice steadier and words sharper than I felt.
She arched her brow. ‘I’d be more careful if I were you. You’ve got a lot more to lose now.’
My pulse stuttered.
Her smile dripped venom. ‘Assistants can’t afford Elie Saab dresses. They don’t walk out of fashion events hand in hand with the COO either. It doesn’t take much to connect the dots.’
My throat grew parched.
‘Did you really believe you could keep it from me?’ she went on, her voice soft and cutting. ‘That I wouldn’t notice my son has been … distracted?’
Fury slashed through the panic. ‘Yourson? You’ve never treated him like one. If you had, you’d see that he is everything you should be proud of. But because he isn’t your own, you refuse to see it?’ My blood simmered in my veins. ‘Why did you have me spy on him? Why—’
Her eyes sharpened. ‘You love him.’
Dread snaked down my spine.
‘And when he finds out what you’ve been hiding, what you’ve done …’ She trailed off, her words laced with mock sympathy. ‘Do you think he’ll forgive you? With that temper? With that moral compass that he waves like a flag?’ She let out a soft, cruel laugh. ‘Perhaps you don’t know him very well.’
Her words landed like claws around my throat. ‘If you tell him, he’ll know it came from you,’ I forced out. ‘He’ll know you set this up.’
‘Of course he will.’ She seemed unbothered. ‘But I don’t care what he thinks of me. I can’t say the same for you. And when the dust settles, you’ll be finished. No love. No career. Nothing.’
‘You’re pathetic,’ I spat, my heart hammering. ‘A bitter woman with nothing better to do than to poison other people’s lives.’
‘Wrong. I’m a mother,’ she said, her voice sharpening with warning. ‘And if you want to keep your pretty little life intact, you’ll deliver every detail on Rivaayat in three days. Otherwise …’
My fingers dug into the marble counter.
She never finished her sentence. Instead, Rekha smoothed her sari and glided out. Silence sharperthan a blade filled the kitchen. The second the door clicked shut, my façade crumbled.
My breath faltered as everything in me tightened. The edges of my vision blurred. The kitchen spun.
Air. I needed air. Every breath was a jagged gasp. My pulse beat too loudly, frantic and off-kilter. Rekha’s words pressed into my head, sharp and unrelenting.Finished. No love. No career. Nothing.
