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“I’m tired…”
“Go to sleep, then. I’ll be right here.”
He turned to his side to face her. “Will you hold my hand? I’m worried about my mom.”
Tiya pulled the chair beside the bed closer and dropped into it. She held his hand in hers and the boy soon drifted off to sleep. She texted Vihaan telling him Neil was okay, and stared at the sleeping boy.
The last few hours had given her a shocking insight into the things Vihaan had been keeping from her. All his privacy and secrecy began to make sense. She went through their past interactions and the conversations she’d had, not only with him, but with others with regards to his family and him. Her mind was spinning with everything she was beginning to understand. She gently stroked Neil’s head.
She understood that Vihaan and his family were trying to protect Avi and her son, and she knew beyond a doubt from whom as well.
One look at Neil and everything had become clear as day to her.
Now, she’d just have to wait for Vihaan to return so she could have this conversation with him.
22
Vihaan paced in the hospital OPD, while Avi was getting treated inside. She needed five stitches on the back of her hand and was with the doctors right now.
He made a call to Tiya, but it went unanswered. She hadn’t replied to his last couple of texts either. He checked the time on his watch. It was about two hours since he’d left her alone with Neil and more than an hour since she’d responded to his attempts to reach her. He was worried now.
Half an hour later, Avi came outside, her hand wrapped in a bandage.
"Are you okay?” he asked her, leading her outside to the car.
“I’m fine. What about Neil? How is he?” she checked.
Vihaan started the car. “Tiya’s last message mentioned that his fever had come down.”
“Thank God.”
Their drive back was filled with a terse silence with both of them lost in their own thoughts.
By the time he entered Avi’s home, he was mentally and physically drained. Tiya still hadn’t answered his calls and texts. Concern for her had filled his being throughout the drive back from the hospital.
“I’m sorry, Vihaan,” Avi murmured. “I’ve just been so stressed and tense lately and Neil running that high a fever just made me all the more anxious. I should’ve been more careful.”
“It’s okay, Avi.” Vihaan said. “You’re going to be fine and so is Neil. I have to check on Tiya; she’s not answering her phone.”
He rushed to Neil’s bedroom and halted at the threshold.
Tiya was sitting on the chair, her head on Neil’s bed, their hands linked together, both of them fast asleep.
Something inside his chest cracked. It was the sound of the chains around his heart breaking. How was he ever going to let this girl go when she made him feel things he never ought to feel for her?
Avi’s sharp exhale pulled him back to reality. She entered the room softly and touched her son’s head. Satisfied he was fine, she tugged Vihaan out of the bedroom and into the hall.
“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?” she asked him.
Vihaan raked his hands through his hair. He opened his mouth and closed it, refusing to acknowledge what he felt for Tiya aloud. Once he said the words, then he could never take them back, ever. They’d haunt him forever.
“I can’t have her, Avi,” he said instead.
“Why?” Avi looked at her bandaged hand. “Shaurya’s been screaming from the rooftops for days that you’ve fallen for your fake girlfriend and now I finally believe him.”
Shaurya was an idiot.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking of.”
