Page 150 of Since You Stole My Heart

Kashvi gasped, her eyes widening in shock.

‘Are you wondering how I know?’ he asked, his voice rough with restrained fury.

She nodded, speechless.

‘Before I answer that, why don’t you tell me what happened here? He did all this, didn’t he?’ he asked, pointing to the room where everything still lay in ruins.

She nodded. ‘He’d already done that before I came over.’

He frowned. ‘I don’t understand. How did he even get in here?’

Kashvi hesitated before saying, ‘He made a copy of the key when he stayed over last time. Viraj was already waiting for me here. He was pissed because things didn’t go according to his plan, so he took out his anger on me.’

Molten rage blazed in his dark eyes, and she tried to distract him. ‘Now you tell me how you know,’ she urged softly.

Swayam sank to his knees and wrapped his arms around her waist. ‘Because for two days, Kashvi, all I’ve done is think. I hoped maybe you felt something more for me, but I believed you when you said you only saw me as a friend.’

‘Swayam, I…’

‘Just listen, please,’ he said softly. ‘That night, after the engagement party, I thought I’d messed up because until then everything had been great between us. It didn’t make sense, though, so I started thinking maybe something happened at the party. But it couldn’t be my maasi because you barely even spoke to her.’

Kashvi stiffened in his hold because he was getting dangerously close to figuring it out.

‘Then I remembered. The only person you’d spent time alone with was Viraj. So I called him.’

She held her breath, scared of the lies he must have fed Swayam. Her hand trembled in his grasp, and he reached over to pick up the ointment Maithili had left behind.

He uncapped it and applied a thin layer of antiseptic over the tiny cuts on her fingers. It stung, and Kashvi bit her lip to hold back the whimper. She didn’t want to give him one more reason to worry.

‘Hey, don’t do that,’ Swayam urged softly as he eased her lower lip free from her teeth. ‘I’m asking you... no, I’m begging you, Kash. Stop hiding your pain, your problems, everything from me. Just don’t shut me out like I’m not a part of you.’

‘Okay,’ she whispered. There were a hundred things she wanted to ask him, but she settled on one. ‘What... what did he say?’

As he applied more ointment up her arm, he said, ‘He didn’t answer any of my calls, so I called Maasi. She told me Viraj and Lavi had a fight and called off the engagement. Then he left for some business trip right away. And after that, Lavi lied to mewith a completely different excuse for what happened. That’s when I knew something was off.’

‘Does she know anything? Did it seem like she suspects Viraj?’

Swayam thought for a moment. ‘She sounded nervous, but I think she’s clueless about all this.’

‘Yeah. She seems to love him a lot, and he’s made her believe all his lies.’

His throat bobbed hard. ‘Then today, you called me. For one second, I thought maybe you’d finally changed your mind about us. But all I heard was you scream as Viraj attacked you before the line went dead.’

The last words cracked apart helplessly. He laughed once under his breath, but it sounded wrecked. ‘I have never felt fear like that in my life. I drove like a fucking madman because all I could think was that something terrible was happening to you. Just thinking that if I didn’t get here fast enough...’

His eyes squeezed shut for a brief second, anguish flashing across his face.

‘Don’t do that to yourself, Swayam,’ she insisted, brushing her thumb tenderly over his cheekbone. ‘You came. That’s what matters.’

A tear slipped free from the corner of his eye, cutting through his fraying composure. ‘How could I not? I wasn’t here to protect my wife, to keep her safe when it was my own cousin hurting her. How am I supposed to live with that?’

Her tears spilled over before she could stop them when Swayam added, ‘I’m sorry, Kash. I’m so, so sorry, baby.’

His shoulders shook beneath her hand, and her guilt rose to meet his. ‘No. None of this is on you. I should have told you everything before things got so bad. I’m sorry.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ he demanded, the question tearing out of him. ‘Did you really think I wouldn’t stand by you through this? Didn’t I earn your trust enough for you to tell me everything?’

The pain in his voice tore straight through her.