Page 68 of The Promise of a Traitor

“Fuck me!” Manish breathed. “It was you?”

Adi turned slowly to meet his friend’s shocked gaze. “What was me?”

“The guy she was with? The one she was in love with? It was you?”

The dull roar in Adi’s ears was turning into a cacophony as he realised what he’d let slip. He might want Manish to stay but his friend might decide to leave anyway after this.

“Was in love with? I doubt it.” Advik laughed harshly. “But I was the sucker she used for a good time in New York.”

Manish’s mouth fell open as he stared at Advik. “No fucking way!”

“That’s how I felt when you dropped your little bombshell last night,” Advik sighed, reaching for another bottle of water and cracking it open. He let the cold water slide down his parched throat. “I’m sorry man. I had no idea she was engaged to someone else.”

Manish stayed silent, his gaze fixed on the paperweight in his hand.

“How long were you guys engaged for?” Advik asked, a masochistic urge to keep digging into his raw wound coming alive.

“About ten years.”

Advik’s hand vised around the disposable bottle of water in his hand, the plastic crunching and water overflowing all over his kurta. “What?” He gaped at Manish.

“Our families fixed us up when we were still kids. We were supposed to get married when Aashika turned eighteen but she begged her father to be allowed to study abroad before we did. She’d applied to NYU without their knowledge, gotten a scholarship…done all the work for it so her father agreed. Her one ask before she came back and married the boy of his choice.” He smiled mirthlessly. “Me.”

“That’s positively medieval,” Advik said, his mind reeling as he picked through this information. Last night, all Manish had told him was that he’d been about to marry Aastha when he found out she’d cheated on him. The wedding was called off and their families had fallen out over it.

This…this new information was disturbing. And a revelation.

Manish shrugged. “Happens a lot in our families. It’s like an informal understanding that cements business relationships. Turns partnerships into something more, friends into family.”

“So you called it off when you found out she’d cheated.”

“No.” Manish shot him a surprised look. “She did.”

The world stopped turning. Advik turned to look at him. “Excuse me?”

Manish frowned. “You didn’t know?”

“How the fuck would I know?” Advik growled. “I didn’t even know you existed.”

“I figured you would have known since her plan was to run right back into your arms.”

It felt like he was hearing the words from a distance, a vacuum seeming to have sucked all the sound out of his universe.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked, his voice deathly quiet. “I didn’t see or hear from Aastha after she left New York. Not until the day our mothers set us up.”

Perplexed, Manish frowned at him. “I don’t know what to tell you man. That makes no sense at all. She called off the wedding, destroyed our fathers’ business partnership, ruined generations of familial friendships, all because she was in love with some guy in New York.”

Chapter Forty-Two

Aastha

She woke the next morning heavy eyed, the tears she’d shed over the night leaving her pillow damp and her heart sore. Beside her, Amyra let out an inelegant snort in her sleep and turned towards Aastha, her hand almost smacking Aastha in the face.

Aastha shuffled out of their small double bed, yanking at her nightgown to release it from under one of Amyra’s knees. She heard the worn fabric rip with the harsh gesture but she couldn’t find it in her to care. One more thing falling apart in her life. What did it matter?

Every bone in her body ached as she made her slow way to the bathroom, doing her best not to wake her sleeping sister up. Her ankle collided with the leg of the bed and she muffled a shriek but it was too late.

“Aastha Di?” Amu sat up in bed, her tangled hair falling in messy waves around her face. “What are you doing?”