6 #2
“Yup. You’re lucky you’re getting this many as is.” She studied me for a moment, her expression softening just slightly.
“Why aren’t you in your gaming room?” she asked. “I checked there first.”
I shrugged. “Wasn’t in the mood.”
That earned me a small frown.
Usually my gaming room was my bunker. Neon lights, multiple monitors, enough expensive tech to bankrupt a small nation. If I disappeared in there, everyone knew to leave me alone because it meant one of two things:
I was either in a great mood.
Or in a catastrophically terrible one.
Tonight apparently landed somewhere beneath even that scale.
Before she could say anything further, the sharp ring of the front doorbell echoed through the house.
Lilli’s head snapped instantly, and the next second she sprinted down the stairs.
I frowned, my gaze shifting at the alarm clock that sat on my side table.
11:22 PM
“Who’s here this late?”
“No idea.” She replied, already moving as I pushed myself of the bed and followed her down the small hallway to the stairs.
The bell rang again, and both of us watched Oliver cross the landing with Milo hot on his heels.
“Is he expecting Sean?” I whispered to Raina. At that hour, it wouldn’t exactly have been shocking if Sean had decided to appear out of nowhere.
“He is the Devil,” Raina whispered back, still staring through the narrow gap toward the front hall. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his peak business hour.”
“Where’s Rihaan?” My chest tightened instantly as Dev’s voice reached me.
Of course.
“Upstairs.” Oliver replied tersely, still on questionable terms with him. Oliver King may have been a patient man, but when it came to Raina and her own brothers upsetting her, we’d quickly learnt that he wasn’t a forgiving one.
Raina and I stayed frozen when Dev finally stepped into view.
One hand rested in the pocket of his perfectly tailored trousers as he moved toward the living room before pausing.
His head snapped in our direction almost instantly, and the second he spotted us lurking near the staircase, he rolled his eyes like we were two ten-year-olds caught spying on our parents from the staircase.
“Are you two finished acting like children?” he called up. “Get downstairs. Now.”
Without waiting for our reply, he kept walking. A second later, Oliver glanced up toward us too, a grin tugging at his mouth at what he found, clearly enjoying the whole thing.
Raina muttered something under her breath as she moved toward the stairs, and I followed after her more slowly, disinterested in whatever our eldest brother had to say to me.
By the time we reached the kitchen, the atmosphere had already settled into that familiar kind of tension that lingered when it was just Oliver and Dev.
Oliver stood near the island with his arms folded, posture stiff in a way that mirrored Dev standing across from him.
There was never a time when they had been best friends, but I still didn’t know what had actually happened between them that had created this tension.
Not fully. Every time I tried to bring it up, conversations died almost instantly, and neither Oliver nor Raina ever wanted to touch the subject long enough to explain it.
All I knew was that somehow, it circled back to Dev and Raina.
Whatever line had been crossed there, nobody seemed interested in reopening it.
And if I knew my brother, there was no apology coming from him…
which means we’d be at this impasse would be forever.
The second Raina moved toward Oliver, though, some of the tension eased out of him almost immediately. Not fully, but enough that his shoulders loosened slightly when she stopped next to him, hooking an arm around his waist, as he pulled her closer.
I stayed quiet, leaning back against the wall furthest from all of them and focused on absolutely nothing instead. Because I already knew where this conversation was headed, and I had no interest in volunteering myself for it.
Dev looked at me once. Then he sighed through his nose and shook his head, disappointment flashing across his face as he realised exactly what I was doing.
After a few minutes, Raina finally broke the silence. “Sooo, is one of you going to fill us in on what’s happening or what?”
Dev said nothing, instead, he leaned back against the counter like he was getting comfortable, calm as ever in what I already knew was another obscenely expensive suit, and still giving away absolutely nothing about whether he’d come straight from work or not.
Honestly, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him willingly dress casually after Nanu took over his life.
Since then, it didn’t matter if it was a business meeting, a random family dinner, the Formula One paddock, or one of my matches.
He always looked like he’d stepped out of a boardroom and somehow, he never looked remotely uncomfortable doing it.
The fact he was settling in only told me one thing.
He had no intention of bringing the topic up first either.
Whether he wanted to watch me squirm or tempt me into saying just enough so he could control the rest of the conversation after, I wasn’t stupid enough to fall for it.
Dev had perfected the art of giving people just enough truth to keep them quiet while burying the rest somewhere nobody could reach it.
So instead, I turned toward Raina.
“Question. Did you know that Dev hired Ishaan—you know, our Dad’s secret love child—to work at Singhania Diamonds, and has been working with him for almost a year?
” I kept my eyes on her face deliberately.
“You know, after all of us decided we weren’t exactly ready or willing to deal with that yet.
Because, that’s what I found out when I went to see Dad. ”
She frowned. “He told you about Ishaan working there?”
“No, Dad wasn’t there. But you know who was? Ishaan.” I replied tersely, my brain hyper-focusing on the fact that she hadn’t answered my question. “Apparently, Ishaan has regular lunches with our father in the house I’m fairly certain our mother chose. Talk about disrespect.”
Raina pursed her lips at the brittleness of my tone.