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“Don’t lie to me, Vihaan. I see the way you look at her.” She touched his hair. “The things you’ve done just to see her smile... Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t love her.”
He let out a heavy exhale. “Bringing her into our lives is not fair to her. She deserves better than me. She’s so pure. So perfect and wonderful. She ought to be with someone not tarnished by his past. Someone who can give her the future she’s meant to live. Not one meant to live in hiding and seclusion.”
“You are the best of us, Vihaan. All those years ago, you tried to save us. You lifted a gun and tried to shoot our enemy when most people would have shuddered to do so. You were so brave. We’ve survived thereafter because of you and Aaryan. If she loves you then she will understand.”
“She doesn’t know anything yet.”
“I suppose you’ll have to tell her now, isn’t it?”
“Her dad refused to even hear our proposal to buy his company. He’s hellbent on giving it to Luthra. What if her dad was involved with our history? How can I be with her knowing he may have had a hand in our destruction?”
“Her father’s sins are not her cross to bear. For her sake, face her dad and ask him directly whether he played a part in our past. See what he says. Hear him out.”
Vihaan heard what his sister was saying. But Avi didn’t know all that was at stake here. She didn’t know how he could change all their lives if only he kept his distance from this one woman who had the power of changing everything for him.
23
Tiya woke up to a pair of deep brown eyes watching her.
“Good morning,” Vihaan said with a soft smile.
She blinked sleepily before shifting on her back. “Where am I?”
“In my house…on my bed.”
She jolted upright. “Your house? Do Avi and Neil live with you?”
“Avi’s house is right below mine. I simply carried you up. You were so exhausted that you didn’t even realize I’d brought you here.”
Her eyes rounded. “Holy guacamole! You live in the same building asLa Soiree?”
He chuckled. “Yes.”
“Myra and Shaurya too?”
“Yes, although they have another house as well.”
God! No wonder Myra was always meeting herLa Soiree. So many things began to make sense now.
She drew her knees to her chest and rested her head atop them as she studied him. “I figured out several things last night, you know?”
He slid up, leaning against the headboard. “I’m curious now, hellcat.”
“I think you’re trying to remain hidden from Dev Luthra. That’s why you do all that you do to move around undetected.”
“Yes,” he breathed out.
“Neil is his son, right?”
His brows shot up. “How did… Who told…”
“I’m very good at listening to even what isn’t being said.” She caught his hand in hers. “That first night, when you showed up at my parents’ party, it was clear that there was some bad history between Dev and you. It was obvious to me from that moment on that whatever you were trying to hide concerned him. And then you never spoke of your sister to me. In fact, you deliberately led me to believe she’d died in that fire. Myra’s never mentioned her even once to me. Yesterday, when I finally met Avi and her son, it all began to make sense.”
At his silence, Tiya linked their fingers together. “Thank you for trusting me last night with your greatest secret. I have so many questions but I won’t ask them. I finally understand that you’ve been trying to protect your sister and your nephew, and that everything you do is to keep them safe and away from that man. You deserve your privacy especially since you and I were never real.”
He opened his mouth to say something and then shut it close, refraining from a response. What had she expected him to say anyway? Her words were nothing but the truth. She was only glad that she understood him a bit better now.
She rose from the bed. “Now, show me to another bathroom in this house, so I can freshen up some place while you can freshen up in yours, and then you better get me some coffee. I’m always in a bad mood until I’ve had my coffee.”
