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She sighed. “Then I have no choice but to stay with you too.”
He’d known she’d never leave Neil, and that’s why he’d given her that ultimatum. When he’d first made the twelve days bargain with her, he’d thought he would let her go once those days were up. He would never have forced her to be with him once their time was up if she, too, didn’t want it. He’d have fulfilled his end of the bargain and disappeared from her life.
But then, he’d gotten to know her again and realized how much she meant to him still. That what he’d felt for her hadn’t waned in the years that had passed. After that, he’d realized that letting her go would indeed destroy him. But he would have done it for her sake.
Nothing had prepared him, however, for her complete surrender. The way she’d given herself over to him that morning in London had allowed him to hope that perhaps, once she heard him out and hopefully believed him, they’d probably get another chance to begin their lives again, together.
But her keeping silent on Neil had proved that would never happen. She’d never believe him, and she’d never give him another chance. God! He was so mad at her…at their situation…at the past.
Hence, he was sealing her fate and his. He had been forced to let go of her in the past, but now, he had his son to think of. A son who definitely needed his mother and, hopefully, one day would need him—his father—too. And hence, Dev was never letting them go, ever. He wanted to watch his son grow into an adult. He wanted to be there for every new achievement and milestone of Neil’s hereon.
The elevator opened, and instead of pressing the button to the basement car park, she pressed the number thirty-three. Fuck! She lived here in this building?! Her brothers would never allow her to live far away from them, which meant they also lived somewhere in this building.
Dev couldn’t believe what a fool he’d been. For months, he’d been searching for her. He knew the Rajpoots ownedLa Soiree. He’d just never expected them to be so clever to live in the same building as their restaurant.No wonder his spies had never been able to track their comings and goings.
The lift stopped, and he followed Avantika out. She turned right and stopped in front of a door. She paused and gave him a sideways glance before keying in a code. His heart began to hammer as the door swung open, and he finally set foot inside her home.
He walked past the lavish foyer and entered the living room. The sound of loud thumping music filtered out from somewhere in the house.
“Where’s Neil?” Dev asked.
She tipped her head to the right, pointing to the room from where the music blared. “He’s in his room, playing FIFA, I’m certain.”
“FIFA?”
“Uh…It’s a football game. Aaryan gifted him a PlayStation a few months ago, and now he’s hooked on to it. He plays FIFA every opportunity he gets.” She rubbed her palms on her denims, looking nervous. “Actually, he’s on his summer break right now. He’s off school till the middle of next month. And now I have to tell him about you, and I don’t know how he’s going to take it. I’m so—”
“—Avantika, breathe,” he said. “Don’t children understand the emotions of their parents and react accordingly to situations?”
“H...How do you know that?”
“I’ve read up a lot on parenting in the last two days. I don’t want to go wrong with Neil.”
Her eyes warmed. His own hardened. He was still quite mad at her. Seeing his cold expression, she stiffened.
“I’ll bring Neil in a moment,” she breathed out. “But first, you and I need to talk.”
He lowered his chin for her to continue.
“You need to let me handle how I break it to him that you’re his father,” Avantika said.
“Sure. I’ll follow your lead.”
“Also, if you want to raise Neil, you will do it here or from one of my other homes.”
“Homes?”
“I own a villa in Arabian Greens,” she told him. “It’s right next to my brothers’.”
“Brothers?” He squinted. “I thought only Shaurya owned a villa there.”
“Shaurya owns the first villa in that cluster of four; the rest of us own the other three.”
His brows shot up. “You all have managed to outsmart me at every turn; I’ll give you that. You hid in plain sight, and I didn’t even figure it out.”
There was a time when he’d put surveillance on Shaurya to find Aaryan and Vihaan and, through them, Avantika. He’d stopped the surveillance after he’d won his bet with Vihaan, and Vihaan had actually fallen for Tiya. Vihaan had come to him as per their agreed terms and told him that Avantika was alive and well. Dev had promised him that no matter which way the bet went, he’d stop all surveillance on Vihaan, Tiya, Shaurya, and Myra. Before he could actually find Aaryan and get someone to follow him, by a strange stroke of luck, Aaryan had fallen for Sanjana. That turn of events had led to Avantika coming to bargain with him. And now, here they were.
“Anyway, back to my point,” Avantika began. “You can come to live here with us, or we can all move into my villa inArabian Greens, but I will not allow my son to be forced to live in a place unknown to him. He’s very attached to my brothers. They have parented him, and I don’t want him to live far from them.”
