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“And neither will I,” Avi said. “Look me in the eye and tell me you’ll be able to survive without her.”
“I never imagined it would be so bloody hard.” Vihaan thumped his fist on his chest. “That it would physically hurt to stay away from her. But it does. I love her. She’s…everything.”
“Then go get her,” Aaryan said. “Your happiness is what matters the most.”
“For the longest, I stopped myself from falling for her, for loving her.” Vihaan let out a heavy exhale. “You all know how we live. Doesn’t she deserve more than this half-life I can give her? She will have to live in fear and hiding like the rest of us. How can I put her through that?”
“Then that is something you need to ask her, brother,” Shaurya said. “It needs to be her choice.”
“What are we going to do about our cement supplies?” Vihaan asked. “We can’t go to Luthra for it. We know what he will bargain for.”
“I have it in hand,” Aaryan replied. “Leave that to me. You need to go make up with Tiya first.”
Vihaan looked at each of their faces. “If I do this then I will have to answer Dev’s questions and we all know what he will ask for.”
Avi put an arm around Vihaan’s waist. She leaned into his chest, hugging him. “I want you to be happy at all costs. Hold on, though. Why couldn’t you just trick him into believing you were ending it with Tiya?” Avi asked. “Why put yourself and her through so much misery? He could have gone away and you wouldn’t have created this mess.”
Vihaan put his arm around his sister. “I could have lied, yes. But then what does that make me? I’m not like him, Avi. I promised myself that day when Dev deceived us that I won’t be like him ever. That if I ever gave my word, I’d keep it.”
“You are a better man thanhim, Vihaan.” Shifting away from him, she said, “You know, ever since my close encounter withhim, I’ve been thinking a lot. We don’t know what he wants with me. I don’t know what he will do when he finds me. And he is determined to find me. Honestly, I’m tired of hiding. I refuse to run and leave this city. I refuse to live somewhere without you all. Neil needs you in his life, all of you. I need you too and so I think that I ought to face him head on and see what he wants. Maybe you ought to answer his questions about me and find out where it leads us.”
“No!” Aaryan rejected the idea.
“No,” Vihaan repeated. “No way in hell.”
“That battle isn’t for today,” Avi dismissed. “Today, you have to figure out how to get the woman you love to forgive you. You made a terrible mistake. Tiya is shattered. Myra’s been with her since the last two days.”
Fuck! He’d been such an idiot.
“I broke her heart, Avi…” Vihaan lamented. “She never ought to forgive me.”
“If she loves you, as much as I think she does…” Shaurya said, “…then she will. But I suppose you’ll have to grovel first.”
Hope flickered in his chest.
Shaurya’s phone rang and he excused himself to answer it. When he returned, his expression was stoic.
“Jatin Sood is waiting in my office below,” he said, looking at Vihaan. “And he wants to talk to you.”
“Let’s go meet him,” he told his brothers. “We need to get to the bottom of everything once and for all.”
Leaving Avi behind, Vihaan took the elevator down with his brothers to Shaurya’s office. He had no doubt in his mind that this was about Tiya. But he needed to address the past as well, once and for all. No matter what he learned from her dad, he promised himself that come what may, he would sort everything out with Tiya.
29
Jatin Sood stood when he saw all three of them walk inside. Vihaan studied him. His expression was pinched and a wrinkle was glued between his brows.
He gave a quick nod to Shaurya before his gaze flickered from Vihaan to Aaryan and back at Vihaan.
“You both do look alike,” he commented, before his eyes turned fierce. “I’ll come to the point, Vihaan. How dare you punish my daughter for the wrongs I committed against your family? I thought you were a better man than that. She loves you and she’s hurting. She’s told me everything about how you both started with that fake relationship drama that eventually became real for her. What she hasn’t told me is how and why it ended. But I can guess. None of this is her fault. You can blame me all you like, but I will not tolerate you upsetting her.”
Vihaan took a step forward. “What wrongs? What blame? I don’t understand.”
“Didn’t Tiya tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
Jatin Sood dropped into a chair. “God! I should’ve never kept silent on this for so long. I ought to have told you the minute I learned who you were.”
