Epilogue
ISHAAN
Ishaan leaned against the bar counter as he took a small sip of his whiskey, his gaze roving the glittery, chattering crowd that comprised of the who’s who of Mumbai. Bollywood, politics, and big business swarmed the room, air kissing each other’s cheeks but making sure they applied their lips to skin when they kissed ass.
Ishaan smirked as his date came up to him, her magnificent cleavage on display in a gorgeous Roberto Cavalli dress.
“Hello darling,” he murmured, allowing her to bestow the customary air kiss. He’d allow her to kiss his ass in private later.
“I’m bored.” Vibha Agarwal didn’t even bother hiding her disdain for the evening as she signalled the bartender for a glass of wine. “When can we leave?”
“In a bit.” He had important work to complete at this party and he needed the cover of his date to do it. Which meant he thought with a heavy sigh, he had to keep her happy. At least for now. Ishaan wrapped an arm around her, bringing her closer and lowering his head to kiss her red, pouting mouth.
“You miserable son of a bitch!”
The abuse spat at him didn’t surprise him but the person doing the abusing did. She stood a few feet away, encapsulated in a rage filled bubble. In a shimmering bronze sheath that clung to her lithe, toned body, her wavy hair brushing her shoulders and cascading down her back, nude lips and dramatic smoky eyes, she was a vision.
And yet, it wasn’t her looks that caught his attention. It was the fire in her eyes as she stared right at him, those beautiful, perfectly done up eyes lasering into him. He could be wrong, which he never truly was, but that looked an awful lot like a woman who hated him. Which was odd since Ishaan didn’t know her. Most people waited to get to know him before they hated him.
Ishaan raised an eyebrow quizzically at her as he straightened, the pouting, buxom beauty in his arms forgotten. He set Vibha aside and squared off with the new entrant.
“Do I know you?”
“I know you, Ishaan Adajania,” the bronze goddess growled. “And that’s all that matters.”
“Well,” he considered that point. “That’s true. You’re clearly not important enough for me to know who you are.”
“I am your worst nightmare,” she hissed, rather melodramatically he thought.
Ishaan looked at her, impressed by the drama. “You are? So, you’re a seven headed kraken risen from the deep?”
She made a strange, very kraken like sound. He could almost believe it was a declaration of war.
“Oh wait!” he exclaimed. “You’re a teenage mutant ninja turtle?”
She stared at him, startled out of her little ‘I hate you’ skit.
“You’re scared of the teenage mutant ninja turtles?” she asked, looking positively flummoxed.
“You’re not?” he demanded. “They’re turtles who know martial arts and can talk. How is that not terrifying?”
For a long moment, she just stared at him, clearly trying to figure out if he was joking or insane. Ishaan wanted to tell her the right choice was always ‘insane’.
“Mayukhi!” The call from somewhere to their right had them both looking at the older man bearing down on them.
Shantanu Chatterjee strode towards them, his fragile combover doing nothing for his oily, bald head. Ishaan’s mouth twisted in distaste as he watched the other man.
“Baba,” the kraken said as Chatterjee approached.
The word sank into Ishaan’s consciousness like a pebble thrown into the ocean. Baba? That made her Mayukhi Chatterjee? His gaze swung back to her, clocking the elegant profile presented to him. Fucking hell! Mayukhi Chatterjee?? How had he not instantly recognized her.
“Crestwood Heights,” he growled. “You’re that Mayukhi Chatterjee.”
“Of course, I am.” She glanced at him dismissively before turning back to face her father.
“Why are you talking to him?” Chatterjee huffed the minute he reached them. “You know by now our family doesn’t associate with lowlifes like him.”
It took less than a second for the words to erase the decades between this moment and the ten year old boy who’d arrived at Crestwood in ill-fitting clothes and shoes with their soles rubbed through. The scholarship student with a gambling addict for a father, he’d been a prime pick for the bullies of Crestwood.
Ishaan smiled at Chatterjee, his blindingly white teeth bared in a feral grin. Chatterjee should know that he, Ishaan, was the biggest bully on this playground now. He took a step forward, crowding the other man so he fell back a step, falteringly.
“Lowlifes like me?” Ishaan hummed a delighted note under his breath. “But you’re currently far lower than I am on the totem pole, Chatterjee. Didn’t your company’s stock just crash on the stock market? Shouldn’t you be firefighting that crisis? Why are you here drinking champagne that you can no longer afford?”
One slim hand slapped his chest and shoved him back from her father. He didn’t move an inch. Ishaan raised a supercilious eyebrow and looked down his nose at her.
“Yes, my love?” he asked, a mocking glint to the last two words.
“Talk to me, not to my father,” she told him, stepping closer, her hand still on his chest. A bloody, fat diamond glinted off her ring finger. Some poor sucker had asked this woman to marry him. If she wasn’t careful, she’d take his eye out with that rock. Witch was probably aiming for just that outcome.
“I don’t want to talk to you or your father,” he told her, meeting her step for step, until there wasn’t space for a feather to pass between them. “I have a long memory, Mayukhi Chatterjee. I haven’t forgotten the shit you pulled at school and I’m an epic grudge holder.”
“Is that why you did what you did? Because of a silly childhood grudge?”
This was finally getting interesting. “And what exactly is it that you think I did, Kraken?”
“You stole my father’s IP and tweaked it to launch on your own. You’re the reason our stock crashed!”
Ishaan stared at her in shock before amusement got the better of him. He threw his head back and laughed, tears of mirth streaming down his face.
“Are you fucking insane?” he asked.
“No.” Mayukhi got right in his face. “But by the time I’m done with you, Ishaan Adajania, you’re going to wish you were.”
That wiped the smile off his face. “Careful Kraken. You don’t know whom you’re declaring war with.”
“Oh, I do! I left you in the dirt once before. I’ll do it again.”
Fury ignited in his veins at the memory her words brought back. “I’ll meet you in the dirt, Kraken. It will be an absolute fucking pleasure to do so.” His voice dropped an octave as he brought his lips close to her ear. “And when I’m done with you, forget what you remember, your brain will be looking for a complete factory reset.”
“Watch yourself, Adajania.” She tossed her hair and met his glare with one of her own.
Ishaan raised his champagne glass to her in a mocking toast. “I can’t Kraken. I’m too busy watching you.”