Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
AMAY
He watched her leave the room. She gathered her long, glorious hair into a bun and tied it back at the nape of her neck. It was the last thing he saw before she disappeared from sight around the turn of the corridor that led to her room.
“They’ve started the search at Varun’s office.”
Virat’s voice dragged his gaze back to his friends. He ignored Ishaan’s smirk and focused on their more mature friend. “Let’s see what they find.”
Virat frowned. “I don’t see them turning much up at the office. If there is anything to be found, it’s going to be at one of their residential properties.”
“Dhrithi seems pretty confident that there isn’t anything at their residence in Mumbai. Maybe the farm at Karjat?”
“Or the flat in Andheri.”
“What flat in Andheri?” Amay stared at them.
“There’s also a two bedroom shithole in Borivali,” Ishaan contributed. “Both bought through a shell company.”
“You went digging,” he said to Ishaan. “Of course you did.”
“I was bored last night,” Ishaan shrugged, making light of his legendary tech skills. If there was information out in the ethers of the digital world, Ishaan Adajania was the one to find it. “There are places in Delhi, Gurgaon, and Chennai too.”
“So, he had a real estate fetish? That’s not exactly surprising.”
Most of the rich believed in investing in properties around the country, if not the globe. And sure enough, Ishaan added, “He’s got a place in London too. Sadly, he only rents in New York. I’m disappointed in him. Dick should have bought it no?”
“All through a shell company?”
“Not all,” Virat corrected. “The ones in Delhi and abroad are bought in his name.”
Amay’s brow furrowed as he thought it through. “What do you think he was up to besides the obvious?”
“It’s not drugs. He’s a user, not a dealer.” Virat leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms behind his head.
“How do you know that?” Ishaan asked.
“I know his dealer.”
“What do you suspect?” Amay knew Virat had something in his mind, something he wasn’t voicing. There was never a moment when Virat didn’t know…something. There were just moments when he wasn’t ready to reveal it.
Virat looked at him, his eyes troubled, a glimpse of old pain and ruinous memories floating in them. “He’s still in touch with them, all of them. Every single one.”
No. No fucking way.
“You think it has something to do with…” He couldn’t bring himself to say the words. He felt Ishaan still beside him, a dangerous stillness, the calm before a catastrophic storm.
“What’s the predominant theme you see in Dhrithi’s stories about her marriage?”
“Abuse.”
“Think with your brain, Amay. The very large brain God gave you. Not with your heart.”
“He beat her, he cheated on her, he –“
“Sex. Control. Power.” Ishaan’s answer cut through his monologue. “You think it has something to do with that night. At Crestwood.”
Amay stopped talking, his mind immediately dragging him back to a rainswept night, old screams echoing in his head.
“Amay no! Don’t do it.” Ishaan’s scream was cut off by the sickening crunch of a fist in his face.
Amay glanced up at the sneering face looming over him. His hand clenched, his heart thundering in his ears, drowning out the soft moans from the girl. He couldn’t look at her. He couldn’t look at her and not see his friend, wrapped around her, his body a dead weight that wouldn’t stop sheltering her, shielding her naked body from view. He saw Varun raise a leg and kick Virat in his ribs, the impact making his body rise and fall but no sound came from him.
Amay swung his arm, fist ready, a primal roar tearing from his throat, fear and anguish pouring from him. Only for his hand to be caught in mid-air by HIM.
“Would you look at that?” HE purred. “The little baby wants to fight.”
“What night at Crestwood?” Dhrithi’s voice sliced through his nightmare, bringing him back to his present.
Where had she come from? Wasn’t she supposed to be in her room?
“Nothing. It’s nothing,” Amay said sharply. “Go to your room.”
Her eyebrows winged up, anger and humiliation bringing colour to her ashen cheeks. “I am not a child to be ordered to my room.”
“This doesn’t concern you.” Amay’s hands still shook from the force of the memory that had rattled through him.
“It sounds like it does,” she snapped. “What did Varun do back at Crestwood and what does it have to do with what’s happening now?”
Amay could feel a thin film of sweat break out on his forehead. “Dhrithi-“
“This has something to do with the way you guys left school.” She frowned, her school topper brain picking its way through old memories. “You weren’t expelled, I remember that much. At least not formally. But you did leave overnight and we weren’t allowed to talk about or to you guys or ask any questions. It was like overnight you stopped existing.”
His heart thudded to an abrupt stop before picking up again.
“What did Varun have to do with it? What happened?”
“It’s none of your business,” Amay snarled, his control breaking. His voice lashed her with the force of a whip making her take a startled step back.
“You made it my business when you brought me home, when you offered to help me. You can’t offer support and then snarl at me when I take you up on it. Make your choice, Amay Aatre, and then stick with it.”
“Like you did, when you chose him over me?” he asked, his voice icy with disdain.
Dhrithi went white, colour leaching out of her face. But she held her ground, meeting his gaze. “At least I stuck with it.”
The truth of her words hung in the air between them. She looked at them, all three of them. “You can tell me or I can go digging for information another way. But either way I’ll find out.”
She turned away from them and was about to leave when Ishaan sighed. “Sit down, Goody.”
Amay glared at him. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Did you honestly not think it would come to this? Where did you see this going when you brought her home from the hospital?”
Amay had no answer to that. He should have known that this was where they would end up but he hadn’t been thinking. He hadn’t been thinking at all. He’d only wanted to keep her safe, keep her healthy…keep her close.
And now, the lid on Pandora’s box had come loose.