Chapter 6
6
R eina left Vedant’s room in a huff. He was back to being awful again. That day, when they had shared a laugh together, she thought she’d finally managed to change a bit of her ghastly equation with him. But no, she’d been mistaken. Vedant Oshnov had no respect for her and wouldn’t talk politely for even a second. She truly hated men like that. Her biological father had been one such man, and his actions had scarred Navya and her for life. Pocketing her glasses, she untied her hair as she made her way to the kitchen.
She smiled as her thoughts flew to her family. The world had forgotten that Navya and she were the adopted daughters of Sara and Anvay Mehra. Her real parents were Gautam and Latika Singh, both deceased now. Sara Mehra was her paternal aunt, and she’d taken Navya and her in after the death of their mother, Latika Singh. Reina had been a mere eleven years old then, and Navya, twelve. Sara, Anvay, and their two kids, Rajiv and Ananya, had embraced them into their family as one of their own, and had never once made them feel any different. The two of them were truly blessed to be a part of their family. And it was precisely because of the said family that she hated being held prisoner here.
Her family had a bad history with the Oshnovs. First, Mihir Oshnov was the man that her elder sister Ananya shared a not-so-great past with. Mihir refused to talk to Ananya, he refused to see her, and he refused to discuss anything with her. Second, there was the yacht incident four years ago, where Ananya and Navya had gate-crashed the Oshnovs’ party with Sheena.
After that yacht incident, Ananya was wasting away. She’d become a shell of her former self. She’d become a workaholic, she ate far too less, and slept even lesser. She was too thin and pale. She hardly went out or socialised with anyone. Reina and her siblings were too damn worried about her, but she always brushed them off in that typical nonchalant way of hers.
Now, more importantly, there was another problem. A few days ago, during one of her many monitored conversations here, Reina had learned that Navya had been having a secret affair with Armaan Oshnov, and that she was head over heels in love with him. But due to a terrible misunderstanding, he refused to believe her feelings for him. Navya was heartbroken and sad. Reina sighed, hating the fact that two of her sisters were lovesick over two Oshnov brothers. These men were just awful.
And to her luck, she was stuck with the worst one and, unfortunately, the sexiest one of the three. She chewed her lip. She never should have seen that stupid magazine. She never should have gotten carried away by her colleagues and their ridiculous conversation about his hot body.
Because now she knew that he indeed had sharp abs with that sexy Adonis Vee going down… She cut off her wild thoughts and slapped a palm on her head. What was wrong with her? She still didn’t know what had gotten over her to have gawked at his abs like she had. Even now, her cheeks heated at how blatantly she’d behaved. And what was worse was that he had noticed it and had looked amused by it. She’d tried to keep her distance from him post that, ensuring she took the shifts when he was sleeping to control her raging mind and also to ensure that she never repeated such outrageous behaviour again. Thanks to Su Min filling her head with utter nonsense, she now knew what those damn tingly feelings were.
When she’d seen Vedant’s bare chest and abs, she’d felt overwhelmed, like her skin was coming alive and announcing itself. Like even her cells were buzzing. She winced. What was wrong with her? Her thoughts were so damn unethical. But then again, nothing about her current situation was ethical anyway.
Nonetheless, Vedant was her patient, and yet her mind hadn’t been able to stop conjuring images of his hard body again and again. Even now, a few days later, she couldn’t get over how freaking hot Vedant Oshnov was. As each day passed, and the bruises slowly faded from his face, his real features were beginning to show, and she had to admit that his bone structure was striking. She pursed her lips. Well, no matter that, his terrible attitude was definitely a deterrent. Horrible, mean man.
She entered the kitchen and found Su Min sipping her coffee.
“Good morning,” Reina greeted her, checking the time. It was six in the morning. “You’re up early.”
After she’d changed his dressings, Su Min and Laila had kept peppering her with questions about Vedant and his stupidly hot body. But she had ignored them and replied that she hadn’t looked. They’d promptly shut up after that, and thankfully, that topic was long over now.
“Yeah!” Her friend grinned. “I woke up a little while ago to drink some water and noticed some commotion outside my window. I peeked out and realised that the other two Oshnovs were in town. Since Vasily is the head of their security, he will surely be with them. I’m hoping to run into him at some point. I just wanted to be up and about in case he comes this way.”
Reina dropped into the chair next to her. A noise at the entrance made her turn and she locked eyes with Armaan Oshnov. Seeing him, she wore her glasses again. She’d never met him. In fact, she’d never met any of the Oshnovs prior to the day Mihir had brought them here.
Nearing them, he addressed Su Min, “I need to have a word with the doctor.”
Su Min left them immediately, and Reina was finally alone with the man her sister Navya had fallen for.
“Hello, Dr. Singh,” he said, reading her name tag. “Or should I say, Dr. Reina Mehra?”
Her whole body froze in shock. How had he guessed?
“You look like her,” he said, more to himself. Of course, she looked like Navya. They were sisters. And this man had been obsessed with Navya for far too long. But now? Now, she didn’t know what he felt for Navya or why he was here talking to her.
“I suppose you know who I am,” Armaan stated.
Reina pocketed her glasses. “Of course, I know you.”
“Why the name Dr. Singh?”
“You asking me that means Navya hasn’t told you about our past.”
He frowned in confusion. His reaction confirmed that he still hadn’t cleared things with Navya.
“Does she know that you’re treating my brother?” Armaan asked.
Reina put her hands in her coat’s pockets. “What do you think?”
He looked sad as he answered, “Shit. She will be mad when she finds out.”
“They all will be,” Reina replied stiffly. “You see, I was the emergency doctor on call the night Vedant was brought in. His pulse was low, and he was losing a lot of blood. We didn’t even have time to wait for a senior surgeon. I took a call to operate on him, and I suppose it was the right call.”
“You saved his life.”
“Yes, which Mihir understood the second he reached the hospital. He brought me and a few others from my team here and has held us hostage since then. We aren’t allowed to step outside the grounds. We are given our phones only twice a day, and we can only make calls to our immediate family to assure them we are alright, that too only in the presence of your guards.” Seeing him ready to argue, she held a hand out, stopping him. “Yes, you can argue that we can roam the grounds freely and make use of your numerous in-house facilities, but it still doesn’t compare to being free. I’ve been forced to lie to my family. They continue to believe that I’m staying at my apartment and that I have a tough few work weeks ahead.”
“I’m so sorry,” Armaan said.
Her gaze jumped to his. Honesty and remorse shone in his eyes. For a long time, she had thought that the Oshnovs were all bad men. All their interactions with her family proved it.
As for Armaan, until recently, she’d thought of him as the man Navya was trying hard not to be attracted to. But then she’d heard how her sister had fallen for him. Armaan’s refusal to communicate with Navya was hurting her sister, which made her annoyed with him as well. But now, talking to him one-on-one, she felt she had perhaps judged him harshly.
At her silence, he repeated, “I truly am sorry, Reina, that you got stuck in this.”
“You are apologising? To me? Why?”
“Because you’re her sister,” he said, sounding tired. “And because Mihir only had Vedant’s best interests at heart when he brought you here and gave you all these instructions. Trust me, it is safer for you too. Do my brothers know who you are?”
“No.”
Armaan squinted, thinking. His face was clear when he spoke next. “Mihir knows.”
“What?”
“My brother wouldn’t have allowed any of you to set foot inside this house and entrusted Vedant’s care to you all without doing a thorough background check on everyone. He knows. I’m certain. What he doesn’t know is that I also know who you are.”
“As long as Vedant doesn’t know, it’s fine,” she muttered.
“Why?”
“As you’ve witnessed, he already behaves difficult with me. I’d rather not have him know that I’m related to the women who share a not-so-great history with his brothers. He’d probably make my life tougher.”
“He won’t, and Vedant’s really not that bad,” Armaan explained.
“Thus far, he’s not done a single thing that makes me believe otherwise.” She clucked her tongue. “He’s rude, annoying, and thinks he can get everything with the click of a finger.”
Armaan chuckled. “He’s acting up because he hates being ill.”
“Sure, let’s go with that excuse.”
“I’m being honest, Reina,” Armaan said. “He’s a good guy.”
She shrugged. This wasn’t an argument she was ever winning with him, so she refused to say anything more on it.
Armaan studied her. “I won’t talk to Vedant regarding who you are. Now, tell me about how you plan to make him better.”
This early in the morning, the kitchen was devoid of any staff. They usually came in by seven. Reina fixed herself a cup of coffee and watched as Armaan did the same. Once done, they settled around the kitchen table again. Reina explained Vedant’s recovery plan to him in detail. She estimated that it would be at least a week more before she could start on the physio. She also warned him that Vedant’s recovery ahead would be long and hard. But she promised him that he would be fine.
“I’m going to stay here for a few days,” Armaan told her. “Is there anything you need? Anything I can do for you?”
“Yes, I’d like my phone back, and I want to be able to leave the grounds when I want to.”
He winced. “Look, I can speak to Mihir about returning your phone to you. Once he learns that I recognised you and that I want you to have your phone, he may agree to that, but he will not, under any circumstance, allow that freedom to the rest of your team. Nor can I agree to it. I know you are trustworthy. But I do not trust any of the others, nor can I allow them to compromise Vedant’s safety in any way.”
“I get what that means, but it also means lying to my team,” Reina shook her head. “However, if the choice is between them and my family, then I will choose my family first. I have to keep in touch with them to prevent Rajiv or Ananya from taking a flight to come check on me. And that is bound to happen if I don’t answer their calls or texts regularly. We can’t have Rajiv finding out I’m here. He’d never accept it. He’d go into an all-out war with you guys to get me out of here. Hence, I accept this. Now, about my other request to step out of the grounds.”
Armaan shook his head. “I’m sorry, Reina. Unfortunately, Vedant’s safety comes first. He was attacked, and hence, he is unsafe and incapable of looking out for himself. Therefore, until he’s fully recovered, none of you can go out. We have enemies, as you must have already guessed. Our lives are in danger, and we cannot allow them to use anyone working for us in order to get to us.”
She looked out of the kitchen window. There were more than the usual security guards patrolling the perimeter. She took in the armed guards. The house was really locked down like a fortress. She had nothing to fear, as long as she remained within the boundary of this house while she worked for them. But the question that prodded her mind was that if they did have so much security then how the hell did Vedant get attacked.
Armaan continued, “I can’t risk Vedant’s safety or yours, especially now that I know you’re the one treating him. But anything else you need, just say the word, and I will organise it for you.”
His concern warmed her heart. She was right. She had judged Armaan unfairly. He wasn’t bad at all. Now she got why Navya had fallen so hard for him. She studied the wounds marring his face. Because of Navya, she also knew that Armaan, too, had been attacked on the same day as Vedant. So, she understood where he was coming from. But she needed one more thing from him.
“Alright, and Armaan,” she said in all seriousness, “Vedant is my patient, which means he is my responsibility for now. That was the only reason I agreed to succumb to Mihir’s demands that day, despite them being immoral and wrong on so many accounts. But?—”
“—I believe my brother agreed to pay you all a fuckton of money for this inconvenience.”
“He did.”
“Sorry, but I don’t get why you’re complaining now.”
She lifted her jaw. “In which world do you think I need the fucking money? You do know who my brother is, right?”
A smile etched on his face.
“Point accepted,” he said. “What exactly are you trying to tell me here?”
“I will stay here and care for Vedant. However, the day I feel he has fully recovered, I need you to promise me that, on that day, my team and I will be free to go home.”
“I can promise you that,” Armaan said. He pressed a hand to the back of his head and winced. Taking out a few pills from his pocket, he swallowed them.
She watched him carefully. “How are you?”
He shrugged. “Better than Vedant, for sure.”
“Navya’s worried about you,” Reina said. “Why won’t you speak to her? Or was your love for her all a lie?”
“I suppose you know… everything.”
“Of course I do. She’s my sister, and your silence and rejection are hurting her.”
He sighed. “I could say that she hurt me as well, but you won’t believe me.”
“Actually, I do believe you.” She stared into her cup. That night at the nightclub before Armaan was attacked, Navya had told her how she had spoken some hasty and rash words about him to Ananya. Unfortunately, he’d overheard them, and now he refused to give Navya a chance to explain herself to him.
“Navya and my lives were very different at one time,” Reina explained. “Because of that, she doesn’t trust men. Both of us don’t. We promised each other a long time ago that we wouldn’t fall in love, because it only brings pain. Her behaviour with you is a result of our past.”
He looked at her, clearly waiting for more. She wished she could tell him more. But this wasn’t only her story to share. It was Navya’s too, and if he truly wanted to hear it, then he’d have to make up with her sister to do so.
She stood up. “Talk to her. She’s sad and miserable without you. If you feel the same way for her, then you need to fix it. Only you can.”
With those parting words, she left the kitchen. She had to check in on Vedant again in a few hours. She had just about enough time to finish her swim, eat breakfast, and return to the devil’s lair.
She rolled her eyes. She’d heard the devil came in all shapes, sizes and types. Well, this one came covered in bandages and wounds, with an attitude even bigger than Mt Everest.
But he also had abs that could cut through… She stopped that stupid thought from completing. She was not thinking of Vedant Oshnov and his stupid abs, his stupid attitude, and the stupid tingles she felt whenever she was in his presence. She lifted her jaw. No, she didn’t feel anything. It was all in her mind. He didn’t affect her in the least.
Not at all.