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His eyes burned, and his heart swirled, but he swallowed down all the emotions churning inside him. Avantika whispered to the boy. The boy’s eyes never left Dev’s. However, he backed a step and then disappeared inside the room behind him. Dev wanted to scream, but he held himself at bay. He watched Avantika push past her brothers to stand in front of him.
“He’s mine,” Dev proclaimed. It wasn’t a question. It was a declaration.
A tear fell down her cheek. She nodded.
“I need to hear the words, Avantika,” he said through clenched teeth.
“He’s yours,” she accepted.
“What’s his name?”
“Neil.”
“Neil,” Dev repeated. The name settled deep inside his soul. “He’s eleven?”
“Yes.”
He mentally did the math, and it made sense. It was December when everything had gone wrong between them. And Neil must have been born nine months later.
“I want to meet him,” Dev said. “Call him out.”
“Absolutely not,” Vihaan rejected.
“I’m his father, and Iwillmeet him,” he told him.
“You are not his father,” Vihaan spat out. “Neil thinks his father is dead, and that’s the way it will remain.”
Dev felt like he was being stabbed. His son thought that he was…dead.
He faced Avantika. “While you may have thought the worst of me because of what you all conceived I have done, I will not be a stranger to my own son anymore. Bring him out to meet me, now.”
Avantika shook her head. “No. We need to talk first.”
“There is nothing I want to say to you,” he said. “All I asked from you was honesty during our time together. You had ample time to tell me the truth, but you didn’t. You keep thinking I’m the monster in your life, and now I’m certain that will never change. I’m done trying to prove myself to you. Iwillbattle with all of you to get to Neil if I have to. None of you can keep me from him. He ismyson. Mine. And I will know him.”
“We’ve hidden him from you for years,” Vihaan continued. “I daresay we can and will be able to do that again. He will never learn about you.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Dev said, his tone icy. “You’ve lied to him about me. You’ve kept him from me for twelve years, but now no more.”
“And what should we have told him?” Aaryan said, his voice as quiet as Dev’s. “That his father was a murderer? That his family was destroyed because of his father? No child deserves to live with that kind of knowledge, and hence we protected him from it in the best way we could.”
Dev stared at the two men—his one-time closest friends. “That night, you all saw what I chose to show you. What none of you ever believed or even considered was that maybe I was forced to do things that night. ThatIdidn’t have achoice.”
Aaryan’s jaw tightened while Vihaan gaped at him.
“But now, I’m done trying to prove myself to any of you. What matters now is my son, and while, so far, I have done nothing to hurt any of you, try and separate me from my son, and you will see what happens.”
He took a step forward, but Avantika stepped in his way.
“Not tonight,” she said. “I need to figure out how and what to tell him when he meets you for the first time. Please, Dev.”
“I don’t trust you,” Dev shot back.
“I promise to bring him to you after we talk.”
“No, Avi,” Vihaan interrupted.
Avi seared him with a glance. “This is between him and me.”
