Page 66 of The Promise of a Traitor

“Like hell it is.” The fierce look he shot her stole the air from her lungs. “I told you I wouldn’t let you walk away from me again.”

“Why do you want to be stuck with the lying, conniving bitch who used you?” Exhaustion dragged at her as she thought of the tangled web of lies they were stuck in.

“You’re my lying, conniving fiancée,” he replied, holding his hand out for hers. In his other hand, he held the engagement ring she’d worn for an hour before removing. “You’re not leaving me.”

She didn’t give him her hand. “I’m not doing this with you anymore. I’m done.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Adi.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “You can’t force me to do this.”

“You’re not leaving me, Aastha.”

“Stop fucking saying that!” She screamed, surprising even herself with her sudden loss of control. “Just…” her chest heaved with emotion, “stop.”

She stared at him wild eyed. “Stop,” she whispered, her voice broken. “I lied to you. I cheated on my fiancé with you. I ruined everything. I ruined us. This ends now.”

“No.”

With another scream of frustration, she hit her clenched fists against his chest, shoving him a step back.

“You’re not leaving me.” He caught her fists in his hands and lowered them slowly. “As of this morning, my uncle, Aakash Thakkar bought all of your father’s debt. He is now your family’s sole creditor.”

“Why,” her voice failed her. She swallowed hard and tried again. “Why would he do that?”

“Because I asked him to,” Advik smiled bitterly. “He did it for me. He did it for family. I wanted the financial pressure to be lifted off your shoulders. I knew you wouldn’t allow me to pay it off so I figured a benevolent creditor who would allow you as many years as you needed to clear it would be a better way to approach the problem.”

Aastha’s knees buckled. Advik caught her before she fell, supporting her till she collapsed on the bed, her head in her hands.

“This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.”

“Pretty much how I feel,” Advik said, roughly. “But it is. And I realise you don’t care much about other people but I won’t let my uncle down like that. You’re not leaving me because that would mean leaving my uncle saddled with debt he never asked for.”

Aastha looked up at him, her face ravaged. “There has to be some way out of this.”

“I don’t know. I don’t have it all figured out. For now, I just know that we can’t call the engagement off. Not right now.”

“I can’t get that much money together soon, Adi. It will take years.”

“I know. That’s why you needed the rich husband, right?”

It was a cheap shot but God, how it landed. She struggled to breathe against the burn of it.

“Why aren’t you married to Manish?” he asked, his hand casually playing with the ring, the diamonds winking in and out in the light.

“You know Manish?” she asked. “Of course you do. This city is such a small damn world.”

“Manish is my CTO and my friend.”

“Then I’m sure your friend told you why we’re not married too.” She blinked back sudden tears as that day, that horrible day, swam through her mind.

“He told me that you dumped him at the mandap. Left him sitting there by the havan, waiting for you.”

“Yes,” she nodded, staring at the carpeted floor of the hotel room. “That’s what happened.” A tear escaped her and plopped down between her feet, a growing damp stain on the cream carpet. “I guess you should be happy that we didn’t get that far.”

“Fucking ecstatic,” he replied.

They sat in silence for a long moment, the weight of everything between them pressing down on them.