He’d trusted me with this. With the pain he carried, with the parts of himself he kept hidden.
And here I was lying to him. Working for the woman who’d made him feel unwanted his entire life.
Another wave of guilt crashed over me.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked. ‘I didn’t mean to dump all of this on you—’
‘No.’ I forced myself to look at him. ‘I’m glad you told me. I just ... I hate that you went through that.’
He brushed his thumb along my cheek, and something unspoken passed between us. ‘Don’t feel sorry for me. I was a fortunate child, Ananya. I had everything I wanted. Dadaji gave me all the love I could’ve needed.’
‘That’s why Rivaayat means so much to you,’ I murmured.
‘It means everything to me.’
My heart cracked.
This wasn’t reckless expansion. This wasn’t inexperience or poor judgement.
This was love. Legacy. Everything that mattered to him.
And Rekha wanted to ... what? Control him? Stop him? Undermine him?
What have I done?
Jai smiled. ‘I think that’s enough seriousness for one day. Let’s get back to our dinner. You didn’t have much for lunch; you must be starving.’
‘Yeah.’
But only one thought spun in my mind as I ate.I need to end this thing with Rekha.
Halfway through dinner, I dropped a bit of hummus on my white dress.
I scooped it up immediately. ‘This is my favourite dress.’ I dropped the pita bread back on my plate. ‘I’m going to try and get this out.’
I stood up and rushed into his private bathroom. I rinsed my hands, then applied soap and water to the red stain and scrubbed it. The stain bled brighter.Damn it.
I heard Jai’s office door open, and I froze.
It was late in the evening, and most people had gone home. Our food was for two people. My heels were still outside. My stomach flipped.
‘Dad!’ Jai’s voice was loud enough for me to hear. I immediately turned off the tap. ‘What are you doing here?’
A pit split open in my belly. What if his father found out I was in here? What if he found out we were dating? What if he told Rekha? If she found out that we were in a relationship … terror paralysed me.
Their words became indistinct, eclipsed by my pounding pulse. My skin grew cold.
I leaned against the wall, trying to calm my racing thoughts.
It’s okay. Rekha isn’t here; she won’t know.
I could hear voices, but unfortunately, I couldn’t make out the exact words.
Then, a woman spoke.
Rekha.
Nausea churned within me. After my conversation with Rhea, I had completely stopped sending her updates. I was supposed to confront her and put astop to things, but just the thought filled me with so much dread that I couldn’t eat for days.
