Page 143 of Since You Stole My Heart

Viraj laughed. ‘The poor man just loves me so much, it’s pathetic. Once I told him I’d been feeling depressed and lonely, he invited me to stay over. It was easy to make a copy of the key.’

The memory surfaced instantly. When she’d come home to Swayam, he’d mentioned offhandedly that his cousin had stayed over while she’d been away. The pieces slid into place with horrifying clarity.

‘If you expose me, I’ll say Swayam was the mastermind behind all this. He saw an opportunity when you needed to get married for your inheritance. Then he gave me access to your life, your pictures, and your home to do his dirty work.’

Oh God, why had I not connected the dots sooner?

Her stomach churned violently, and Kashvi felt like she was going to be sick.

‘So if my name slips out of your mouth to anyone, even by accident, your boo-boo will take the fall for something he never did,’ Viraj said with a proud smile. ‘All because you’re too much of a greedy, selfish bitch to give up your money.’

She knew Swayam would never do this to her. She knew it with a certainty that lived in her bones.

But the world didn’t.

If Viraj acted on his threats, his web of lies would unravel everything they had built.

They were cornered.

Her gaze flicked to the phone in his hand, and fear choked her because he could destroy their lives with one click. She had to get that phone.

A sharp blade of rage pierced her heart because he had threatened her man. ‘I think your mother might disagree, Viraj. From what I saw, she trusts Swayam a lot more than she trusts you.’

‘Shut up!’ he shouted, his voice stripped of its earlier confidence.

His composure was cracking apart, and Kashvi hit him where it hurt most. ‘Why? Because it’s true? Honestly, I think she even loves him more than you.’

‘Don’t you dare say that!’ Viraj warned, leaning closer.

The phone was within reach, but she needed him completely distracted. The sight of that crack in his armour and the faint sheen of tears in his eyes only fuelled her need to hurt him back.

‘If your own mother would choose him over you, what chance do you think you have of the real world believing you?’ she asked, her words sharpened by the hurt and rage twisting inside her.

‘My mother loves me more!’ Viraj screamed, shoving his face close to hers, and Kashvi seized the opening.

Ignoring the glass buried deep in her palm, she slapped him with her injured hand using every ounce of strength she had. Pain jolted up her arm as the glass dug deeper into her flesh, but it also sliced across his cheek.

Viraj howled in pain.

Her vision blurred for a second from the agony, yet the sight of blood spilling down his jaw filled her with savage satisfaction. Before he could recover, Kashvi lunged for his phone.

Viraj grabbed a fistful of her hair blindly and yanked it hard enough to bring tears to her eyes, but she tore the phone from his grasp and hurled it against the wall.

It shattered into pieces with a sharp crack.

Relief hit briefly. The slap came a second later.

His rough palm crashed against her cheek with brutal force, snapping her head sideways as burning pain exploded across her face. For one disorienting second, everything went white.

She fell back onto the floor, and the impact jarred through her spine. A deep, throbbing ache bloomed at the back of her head, pulsing in time with her heartbeat. Her breath came in shallow, uneven bursts as she fought to stay conscious.

Viraj was screaming something about his mother, but the high-pitched ringing in her ears drowned out everything. ‘You really think you can hurt me, just like your brothers, huh?’

Then he kicked Kashvi in the abdomen. The breath inside her lungs punched out in a strangled, broken cry. The pain was so violent and all-consuming that drawing air felt like inhaling fire.

‘Let me show you what that feels like,’ he said, driving his foot into her stomach again.

She went numb beneath the scalding torment. Only a dry, choking rasp scraped out of her mouth.