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Her eyes flew to her son, who was beaming in delight. He gave a happy wave to his dad and disappeared out of the door.
She spun to face Dev. “He is Neil Rajpoot and not Luthra.”
Dev finally looked at her. “For the moment, yes. Not for ever, and not for long, though.”
Her brows shot up. “Excuse me! I’ve been his only parent for years, which means you need to discuss these things with me and not just announce something like this in front of Neil.”
“Sure, you can think about it, Avantika. It will happen, nevertheless.”
He focused back on the screen in front of him as if the conversation was over. It made her blood boil.
“It will happen only if I agree to it,” she snapped.
Dev lifted a shoulder and dropped it. His complete lack of concern for her feelings on the matter maddened her even more. He was going to get a mouthful from her. She was done with this sullen behavior.
Her phone beeped. She frowned on reading the text. It was from Sanjana.
“Pls, can you bring Dev for the twins’ birthday party tonight?”
Avantika texted her back.“Looks difficult. He’s behaving like a thorough jerk right now.”
“I miss him, Avi. He’s hurting, and that’s why he’s behaving difficult. Please understand…”
She sneaked a glance at Dev. He was working on his laptop, his shoulders stiff as if the weight of the world rested on them. Fine lines surrounded his mouth, and his eyes were shadowed. Haunted. Her anger evaporated. She and he had a lot of things to work out, and they would. She’d ensure it, so she stalled the discussion of Neil’s name change for now. She typed a message back to Sanjana.
“Send him a text inviting him, and I’ll see what I can do. But Aaryan?”
“Leave him to me,” Sanjana replied.
She wondered how Sanjana would get Aaryan, or for that matter, even Vihaan, to come around to Dev’s presence for their birthday.
But she put that thought aside for later. As of now, she had enough issues of her own to worry about when it came to her siblings. She and her brothers had had minor altercations throughout their lives, but they had never gone on for so many days without talking to one another. Aaryan and Vihaan were her lifelines and she missed them immensely.
Ever since Dev moved in with her and Neil, apart from Shaurya and Tiya, no one had come to her home. Myra, she knew, was taking it easy and resting a lot, and Sanjana was in a dilemma. As Dev’s sister, she suffered the worst of his ire, and Dev refused to talk to her. Sanjana had anticipated that Dev would react this way toward her if and when he learned about Neil, yet she’d promised them to keep him a secret from her brother. And now, she was facing the consequences of that.
All in all, her family was clearly at war, their normally buzzing group chat…silent. However, none of them showed their discord in front of Neil. Her son walked in and out of all the siblings’ houses as was normal to him, only that none of them had realized he was too smart and understood even what wasn’t being said. She was quite proud of the human he was evolving to be.
Dev’s phone beeped in front of her. He frowned on reading the text message. His lips twisted in distaste, and he dropped the phone to his side.
“It’s Sanjana, isn’t it?” Avantika asked.
Dev didn’t reply, nor did he look her away.
“You cannot ignore me forever,” she grumbled.
“I could try,” he muttered under his breath.
“What did you say?”
He shrugged, still not looking at her.
She threw him an icy glare, which he didn’t even see. He was fully focused on his work, deliberately ignoring her. She hated it.
“Great. First, you never stop talking, and now you don’t talk at all,” she complained.
He still didn’t reply.
She slammed her hand against the table top. “Look at me when I talk to you, damn it.”
