Akash began to speak. He told them everything. About the board’s ultimatum. About the pressure. About Shauna. About the contract marriage.
What he didn’t tell them was about the kiss and how he’d decided he wanted to make the marriage more than it was supposed to be.
When he was done, three sets of eyes stared at him in stunned silence.
“I can’t believe our grandfather instigated this,” Amara said angrily. “He’s really crossed a line this time. Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
“And what could any of you have done?” Akash asked. “It’s not like he listens to you all.”
“Unfortunately, you’re right,” Dheer said. “Grandfather will never listen when he has his mind set on something. But we could have tried to talk to him.”
“The damage is already done. He’s already convinced the board that Janak putting me in charge was too premature and that I don’t have the experience to back up the position I’m in.”
“Have you told Nirvaan, Rohan, and Armaan?” Dheer asked.
“Not yet, but I will. Nirvaan and Rohan will find out soon enough anyway. You know how close their women are to Shauna. I’ll call Armaan on the way back home and tell him.”
Vir leaned forward slightly, his brows drawn together. “So you’ve decided to marry Shauna?”
“Yes.”
“I thought she hated you,” Amara said.
“I thoughtyoudidn’t like her,” Dheer added.
“Oh, please,” Vir said, grinning. “He’s always liked her.”
Akash shot him a look. “That’s not?—”
“—yes, it is,” Vir cut in, putting his forearms on the table. His grin was gone now, replaced by something knowing. “You have just never gotten over her. All that rivalry at work, all the verbal bickering… it was all to hide the underlying attraction, wasn’t it? And then there was?—”
Akash kicked him under the table, which made Vir shut up instantly. Vir was the only person Akash had confided in about that night in Singapore, and now he was regretting it.
“Wait. Never gotten over her?” Dheer queried. “Why do I not know about this?”
Akash threw Vir a glare before addressing Dheer. “He’s talking nonsense. Don’t listen to him.”
Amara’s lips curved. “Is he? If remember correctly, you and I never could get serious because your heart was never really in it.”
“If I remember correctly, neither was yours,” Akash chuckled.
“Well, I’m not the one getting married, so we’re not talking about me.”
“And I always told you that dating him was a bad idea,” Vir told his sister. “You never listened.”
“Worst thing you both ever did,” Dheer agreed.
Amara glared at her brothers. “I did not bring up the past to listen to you both patronize us over something we realized was a mistake a long time ago.”
She turned to face Akash. “Even then, I felt there was someone else you wanted more. Over the years, I’ve heard you complain often enough about how Shauna gets under your skin. And now you’re telling us you’re agreeing to a contract marriage with her. That makes me believe she may have been the woman who held your heart all those years ago.”
Amara had never even met Shauna. She hadn’t even been able to make it to Keya’s wedding. Hence, she knew Shauna only through his words, through years of irritation and contempt. And yet, somehow, she’d seen through it all.
Once, he had felt something more for Shauna. And then he’d realized that he could never have her. Dating Amara had been his way of keeping his distance from Shauna, of putting a buffer between them. That was all it had ever been. His heart had never truly been involved with Shauna, back then. Of course not.
However, now, in some strange twist of fate, he was being forced to marry her. Suddenly, all those feelings he’d suppressed over the years were rushing back to the surface. And perhaps that was why the idea of marrying her for real, of making it more than a contract, felt like something he needed to do. Yet he couldn’t admit it out loud.
“It’s nothing like that,” Akash said. “Marrying her makes the most sense.”
