Chapter 27
27
The past
I t had been four days since they’d been married. Four blissful days of laughter, happiness, and lots of lovemaking. After a quick wedding ceremony, Mihir had rented a cozy apartment for them in Kent and driven Anna there straight from the temple. In the end, they hadn’t attended any of Asha’s remaining wedding functions. They’d been too busy celebrating their own very private wedding.
But last night, they had finally returned to his home. It was ten in the morning now, and Anna was curled next to him on the couch in his living room, reading a fashion magazine. His heart was so full seeing her by his side. She made him truly, genuinely, over-the-moon happy. How he wished he could have had her to himself for a few more days.
However, Anna’s sisters were due to arrive by noon, and his brothers were arriving an hour later, hence their honeymoon had ended, for now. Soon, their siblings would be all around them, giving them no privacy at all.
“One day, I’m going to own a fashion magazine,” she announced, her eyes on the magazine in her hand. “It will be bigger and better than this.”
He smiled. Knowing her, he was certain she’d do it. God, he was so lucky to be with such a strong, passionate, and confident woman.
Anna lowered the magazine to look at him. “What?”
“We should have stayed at that cottage in Kent for a few days more,” he said. “Back home, it feels like the world is already intruding upon us.”
“It’s not like we had a choice, Mihir,” she said.
Mihir lifted her wrist to his mouth, scraping his teeth down the soft skin there. Her answering shudder delighted him. “We still have the cottage for a day more. Let’s go back. Right now. My brothers have access to the house. They can manage by themselves for tonight. Besides, they already know I was out of town for a few days.”
She rocked back. “You told them you were with me?”
“I only told them I was going for a short break to Kent. They assumed I was with a woman; I didn’t correct them. They’ll learn tomorrow that the woman was you. So, shall we return?”
She chuckled. “I can’t. My sisters are reaching in a few hours, and I have to pack first.”
Rising, she went to his bedroom. He followed her, watching her hurry about his room, unpacking his gym bag, dumping his clothes from the last few days into the laundry basket, before she started filling the bag with her own things. Over the course of the past few months, she’d left a lot of her personal items at his house — in his bathroom, in his bedroom. Her toothbrush, hairbrush, perfume, some of her makeup, and even some of her clothes. It bothered him that she was clearing his space of her things.
“My brothers won’t care if your things are lying here, Anna,” he said. “Just leave them be.”
She shook her head, continuing to gather her things. “I want to create a good first impression. I don’t want them to see my mess lying everywhere.”
“I like your mess.”
She flicked his nose, continuing to stuff things into his gym bag. “I’ll need my bathrobe, my skincare, my charger, and I need to do laundry. Since our siblings will be in town for the next few days, I won’t be able to stay here with you, anyway.”
He caught her hand. “I’m so excited to tell my brothers about you.”
“Same. My sisters will be delighted. They will want to meet you immediately.”
“Let’s plan a lunch with the siblings tomorrow.”
At her nod, he said, “Anna, I need some time alone with you after our siblings meet. I need to tell you everything about me.”
She grinned. “I’ll send my sisters shopping after lunch tomorrow so we can have some time for ourselves. Works?”
“Yes!” He squeezed her fingers. “My dad has confirmed he will be coming to Dubai in two weeks. He doesn’t know why yet.”
She grinned. “I’m so excited for you to meet my sisters first, and then my parents and Rajiv. They are great. You will like them all. I hope you and Rajiv can become friends. He’s wonderful.”
“I look forward to that.”
Her eyes fell on their joined hands, and she frowned. “Where’s your ring?”
His eyes widened. “Shit, where is my ring?”
“How can you be so careless, Mihir?” She zipped the gym bag. “You should be wearing it all the time.”
“I’m trying, Anna. It’s hard getting used to it on my finger!” He raked a hand through his hair. “Fuck, I don’t remember when or where I removed it.”
She checked the time on her watch. “I have to go home now. I have to get the house ready before I leave to pick up my sisters. Zeeshan is also moving out today. I want to meet him before he leaves.”
“I’m so glad he finally found his own place. He was living for free under your roof for far too long.”
She reached up and kissed his mouth. “See you tomorrow then?”
He made a face. “In case you change your mind and miss me, I’ll be right here.”
She laughed, and with a last flying kiss, she left his house.
His phone beeped a few minutes later.
Find the ring, Mihir. Look for it.
He smiled, reading her message. God, she made him so happy.
Little had he known that it would be the last time he’d be happy in a long time.
The present
The ping of his cell phone jolted him out of the painful memories of his past. His brothers were video calling him. He joined the call from his phone and then pressed a button on the TV remote.
His brothers’ faces appeared on the TV screen. They were seated together in the study at their home in Dubai.
“Hello, brother,” Armaan said. “You’ve had quite an eventful time in Moscow, we hear.”
Mihir’s mind immediately leapt to Anna and to all the times he’d been moving inside her. Fuck. He’d never get over how he felt when he was with her—when it was just him and her, with no talk of the past between them. Those times felt perfect, peaceful, precious, and so damn special.
“Why are you smiling?” Vedant asked. “Did we get Ivan? He was there at the party last night, right?”
Mihir shook his head, focusing on his siblings. He’d texted them some time ago telling them that Ivan had been there at the party. That was the reason they’d video called him.
“I was at the UK embassy, Vedant,” Mihir said. “I couldn’t get him just like that. You do know that bodyguards are not allowed inside. Everyone had to wait outside.”
“The fucker knew that,” Armaan said. “That’s why he was bold enough to show up.”
“Do we know who invited him?” Vedant asked.
Mihir nodded. “Chekov found out that he was the UK ambassador’s daughter’s friend’s date.”
He updated his brothers on all that had happened last night, leaving out the part about Anna hitting Ivan. He still couldn’t believe she’d done that. He’d been absolutely conflicted ever since he’d heard her threat to Ivan.
Touch Mihir or anyone else I love, and see how I destroy you.
What was he to make of those words? Despite warning himself several times not to pay heed to them, they’d continued to haunt him. He checked the time. It had been an hour since he had left Anna in her room. He’d left instructions for his staff to tell her to meet him here in his study once she’d finished breakfast. He’d needed some time away from her to think and to sort through the various questions swirling in his head.
“Mihir?” Armaan’s voice shook him out of his thoughts. “What are you thinking about?”
“Ivan will show up and create trouble again if he can. One thing I realized last night was that he definitely doesn’t have enough resources at his disposal. Ever since we cut off his funding, he’s desperate. I also got the impression that he doesn’t know where Karina is.”
“I hope that’s true,” Vedant said.
“Thankfully, there’s not much he can do about it,” Armaan commented.
“We cannot rule out anything. We need to get to him,” Mihir said. “And soon. I’ll ask Chekov to start looking for him around Russia again. He ought to search through all of Ivan’s old hangouts and residences. He needs to investigate all the people who were his friends and acquaintances, especially this new woman he’s seeing now. I’ll get on this right away.”
“Knowing him, he just used her to get inside the UK embassy,” Armaan scoffed. “Fucking asshole.”
“How’s your interview with Ananya going?” Vedant asked carefully.
“It’s fine,” Mihir said. “We’re nearly done.”
Armaan exchanged a glance with Vedant before a naughty glint entered his eye. “Who was the masked woman with you last night at the party?”
“What?” He definitely hadn’t told them about taking Anna with him.
“Who was she?” Vedant asked. “Were you smiling earlier because of her?”
“Is she someone we know?” Armaan asked pointedly.
“She must have been someone special for you to be dancing with her,” Vedant added. “You never dance with anyone at such events.”
Mihir glared at them. “First, tell me, how do you know this?”
Armaan laughed. “It’s on Noir’s socials. Check.”
Mihir tapped on his open iPad. Sure enough, there was a new post on Noir’s page.
This Russian Billionaire was seen dancing with a masked woman at a very private event in Moscow. Who was she? Hush now, Miss Butterfly knows it all. The curtain drops on this mystery soon, in Noir’s sixth anniversary edition. Stay tuned!
Mihir looked heavenward. She was too much. His lips curved into a smile, thinking of how he’d been dancing with her last night. Having her in his arms like that, her body moving against his, it had been so familiar. His heart had eased…
It was still at ease knowing she was near, that she was around him, and that he could keep her safe. That no harm could come to her while she was with him.
His stomach clenched, his heart along with it. He truly was deeply and madly in love with her. God. He’d never stopped loving her.
For years, he’d stayed away from her. He’d convinced himself that he didn’t love her, that he hated her from the bottom of his heart. But it had all been a waste. All it had taken was for her to force herself back into his life and for him to spend some time alone with her, to make love to her, and his heart had protested against his every resolve, reminding him how much he loved her. Only her.
And when she had gotten hurt… Fuck, even thinking of her in that ICU room made his stomach turn. In that moment, he’d realized how vital she was to his existence.
But then, this morning, she’d reminded him that they needed to talk about the past. And nothing good ever came from even thinking about the past. Pain caused knots in his chest. He couldn’t be with her knowing what she’d done to him, but staying away from her was impossible too. In a nutshell, he was royally doomed.
Mihir looked at his brothers’ faces on the TV screen mounted on the wall.
“Hey, Mihir,” Armaan said. “Is everything alright?”
All their phones beeped at the same time. Mihir lifted his phone and read through the message from Chekov. It took a few minutes for him to get his bearings. Mrs. Braganza… NO. Oh God.
Mihir looked at his brothers’ faces. They looked as grieved as he felt.
“I can’t believe this…” Mihir said, his voice thick with emotion. “Mrs. Braganza… She’s dead… I spoke to her a few days back. She wanted to meet all of us. I’d promised her that we’d come to meet her soon. I’d even insisted she come to Dubai, that I’d send her the tickets and she could stay with us. She just laughed and brushed me off.”
“She was such an amazing woman…” Vedant said. “So selfless. So kind. And now, she’s gone. I wish we’d taken the time to go meet her.”
“She was shot inside her daughter’s home,” Armaan said, dabbing his eyes. “She was so happy when she could finally move in with her daughter in Mumbai….”
Memories of their old matron flooded Mihir’s mind. His eyes burned from the unshed tears. “Chekov texted that he is investigating her death to get more details,” he finally said. “We need to talk to her daughter. We also need to know what the police are concluding about this. But I’m sure this was Ivan.”
“Why are you so sure?” Armaan asked. “Why Ivan and not that JD guy?”
“Our spies have confirmed that, so far, JD isn’t searching for Karina. But Ivan taunted me last night. He asked me: ‘Are you really able to protect all the women in your life? What about the women who are far away?’ I assumed he meant Karina. But he specifically said women —so maybe he was also referring to Mrs. Braganza.”
His fists curled from the force of his unsaid speculations. He turned them around in his head, wondering if he’d misjudged her again. One thing was certain: he’d lost focus with Anna. Again. Fuck. He was such a fool.
“Ivan was talking to Anna last night at the party,” Mihir said aloud.
Shock swept over his brothers’ faces.
“She was with you?” Vedant asked.
“Of course,” Mihir replied. “How else would she know what I was doing at the party so as to write about it?”
“Was Ananya the woman you were dancing with?” Armaan asked.
“Irrelevant question,” Mihir barked.
“Alright. Why was Ivan talking to her?” Vedant asked instead.
“Initially, I thought he was doing that just to irritate me,” Mihir said. “Because he knows… what she meant to me once.”
“But?” Armaan queried.
“Then I also remembered what Paul said about Anna’s involvement in Ivan’s attack on me.”
Armaan looked shocked. “The way you’re saying it sounds like…”
“…sounds like he’s accusing her,” Vedant clucked his tongue. “Have you not clarified things with her?”
“Not yet.”
“Mihir…” Armaan began, but Mihir raised a hand to stop him.
“Right now, let’s focus on the fact that Ivan deliberately sought Anna out at the party last night and that Mrs. Braganza was killed a day after I told Anna about her.”
Vedant shook his head. “No, Mihir. I know what you’re thinking, and that’s not it.”
“Think about it…” His tone was hard, cold, as his speculations gained the strength of his words. “The only people who know of Mrs. Braganza apart from us are Navya, Reina, Chekov, and a few of our other trusted men, and…”
“No,” Armaan raised a hand to stop him. “It’s not Ananya.”
“Why not? Until now, Mrs. Braganza was safe. But the day I told Anna about her, the very next night, I saw her talking to Ivan, and then Mrs. Braganza ends up dead. What if Anna has been plotting with Ivan all along to hurt me? We all know he used her to hurt me in the past. What if he’s using her to get to me again?”
A loud gasp from behind him made him turn. He hadn’t realized he’d been speaking in English. Anna stood at the door, her face white. She marched toward him.
“Guys, I’ll talk to you later,” he told his brothers, switching to Russian. He tapped on his phone, and the screen went dark.
“You think I’m working with Ivan?” Anna said, her hurt apparent.
“Yes, it’s a possibility that I am definitely exploring.”
“And you didn’t think of exploring this possibility before you were buried inside me this morning?” She slammed a hand on her hip. “Or now that fucking me is out of your system, you’re back to being nasty and blaming me for every bad thing that has happened in your life.”
He crossed his arms on his chest. “Mrs. Braganza was killed today. She was shot in her daughter’s house.”
“I’m sorry to hear that; I really am. But what does that have to do with me?”
“Yesterday, during the interview, you specifically asked me for her name. A day after that, I saw you engaged in a conversation with my enemy. Fast forward a few more hours, and Mrs. Braganza is dead. You tell me what I ought to think.”
“That it has nothing to do with me.” She shook her head slowly. “I’d never even met Ivan until last night.”
“That could be a lie for all I know,” Mihir replied icily.
She clucked her tongue. “You saw me attack him last night. Why would I do that if I was working with him? And what would be the end game for me? Not money, for sure. Then what?”
Of course, money would never have enticed her. Then what?
“I don’t know,” Mihir replied. “That’s why I am asking you to tell me the truth.”
“About what, Mihir?” Her confusion made him wonder if it was all an act or if she really was innocent. He tossed that thought away. She wasn’t entirely innocent. He had a scar on his face that proved otherwise.
“We learned through the men who stabbed you that Ivan had used you in the past to hurt me.”
“What are you talking about, Mihir? Why would I ever want to hurt you? In case you’ve forgotten, you’re my husband .”
Anger stormed him. “You look so innocent standing there pretending all is okay. That you haven’t done a thing wrong. That you didn’t choose your sisters over your husband that day.”
“Mihir, again, what are you talking about?”
He walked up to her. “That last day we were together, you left my house insisting that you had to go home and prepare for your sisters’ arrival.”
She squinted. “Yes. So?”
“I got a message later from you asking me to meet you at the house in Kent. That you were going there to look for my ring and that you wanted…” He shut his eyes and tapped on his phone, passing it to her. He showed her a snapshot of her messages.
Hello, husband. I’m missing you
I miss you too, Anna
Did you find your ring?
No, I’ve looked for it everywhere
Could you have left it at the house in Kent?
Oh shit. I have to go check there ASAP
Okay, I’ll meet you there at 2
I’ll pick you up. We can go together
I have some work and might get late. You go ahead. I’ll meet you directly at the house. Make love to me there, again?
Of course, yes, Anna. But what about your sisters?
I’ll make an excuse and dip to come to you
Works for me
Ananya looked visibly horrified. “Mihir, I…”
He shook his head, halting her. “Do you know what happened when I reached there?”
Ananya only stared at him.
Mihir let out a mirthless chuckle, unable to believe her gall and the expression on her face. “Allow me, my dear wife , to tell you how your deception hurt me,” he said. “I was near the house when I saw you driving by. Imagine my surprise when I saw you zip past me in your car.”
She gasped. “You saw me?”
“Yes, I saw you. I called you immediately but you never answered. So, I sent you a text.”
He swiped his phone and held it out for her to see another screenshot.
Anna, I’m trying to reach you. I’m reaching the house. I just crossed your car
Super hungry! Picking up something to eat. You go ahead. I’ll join you ASAP
“I entered the house, and my phone beeped with another message from you.”
He swiped his phone to the next screenshot and held it up for her again.
I’m sorry, Mihir. I had to do this. They have my sisters. I cannot let anything happen to them. I had to do this so I could save them
All the color drained from her face. But Mihir couldn’t believe her over the hurt and horror the memories of that day brought him.
“There were five men, waiting inside the house…” he said. “They surrounded me all at once. Can you, even for a minute, imagine what went through me when one of them said it was easy for them to get to me because someone closest to me had betrayed me? Want to take a guess, who this closest-to-me person could be?”
She stayed frozen in place.
He continued, “They came at me with knives and with chains. Initially, I was so shocked that I didn’t know what was happening. By the time my fight instincts kicked in, they’d already managed to wound me. I had to fight five of them at once. I killed three of them with my bare hands, but the other two managed to strike me on my head. I fell unconscious. When I came to, the whole house was up in flames. I was wounded, dizzy, disoriented, and the right side of my face was burning. There was so much smoke everywhere. The house was a fucking furnace. Till date, I cannot take a hot shower, no matter how cold it is outside. It’s taken me years to be able to look at a fire even in a fucking fireplace. Thanks to that incident, I loathe fires. They are the one thing, the only thing, that scare the living daylights out of me”
Her throat worked, but still she didn’t say anything.
“There was no way out of that goddamned house. “But I knew I had to survive. I had to get out of there. I broke through a window and escaped through the backyard into an empty field beyond. I wasn’t sure if those two remaining men were outside, so I hid in the shrubs. But I was so exhausted. Plus, I had inhaled so much smoke. I don’t even remember when I fainted. I would have died… Had it not been for my brothers, I would have died that night.”
“Your brothers?”
“I was driving to Kent when my brothers called to say that they’d landed. Armaan badgered me to tell him where I was going. He just wouldn’t accept that I wasn’t going to be home when they arrived. It was most unlike me. An hour later, they reached home and started to worry because they couldn’t get across to me. When they heard in the news that there was a fire in Kent, they drove like crazy to get there on a whim, because that’s where I’d told them I’d gone. They found my car at the site of the fire, and they knew I was around somewhere. The house was completely charred, but they refused to stop searching. They looked for hours, until they found me in that field—bruised, battered, and almost dead.”
He rubbed his scar angrily. “This scar is a result and a reminder of that day. Those men sliced my face with a knife. I didn’t feel the pain then, but I’ve felt it every single moment since. It makes me look like a monster and reminds me that I was stupid enough to fall in love with one.”
Ananya had gone still as a statue.
He studied her. “You could have spoken to me. You could have told me that your sisters were in danger. Instead, you sent me to die in that house.”
She finally shook her head, breathing hard. A tear fell down her cheek. “I never sent you those texts, Mihir.”
“I saw you there, Anna.”
“I had gone to the house to search for your ring, yes. But it was empty when I reached. I searched for a short while and left because my sisters were arriving soon.”
“Forgive me if that sounds too convenient to me.”
“Mihir, please…”
“You were there in that house, negotiating with those men to save your sisters, giving in to their demands. I have your confession in a text message.”
“Mihir, I didn’t send you those texts…” she said.
“They came from your phone, Anna. What else can be the truth? Thank God for technology. I was able download those messages from the cloud once I could finally think and get myself a new phone. I tortured myself for years, rereading them. They were a fucking reminder to never trust another woman ever.”
Her tears came unabashed now, but he refused to be affected. She wiped at them angrily. “My sisters were never kidnapped or hurt, until, of course, they fell in love with the Oshnovs. That day in London, they were late in reaching me because Reina was stuck with some last-minute med school work. Since I had some time, I decided to go to the house in Kent. I thought I could find your ring and surprise you. But I couldn’t find it. I gave up and left because I had to return home on time for my sisters’ arrival. They came home to me safe and sound. I never sent you those messages.”
“I don’t believe you, Anna.”
She continued, “I heard that you died through some friends. Take a guess what hearing of my husband’s death must’ve done to me.” Anna took a step near him. “The day my sisters arrived, I tried calling you and texting you several times, but nothing went across. I even went to your house, but it was empty. The next day, my sisters and I even waited for you at the restaurant, but you never showed up. I was going to return to your house when Asha and Zeeshan told me that your brothers had called the dean and informed him that you’d died in a fire in Kent. I checked the news and realized that you had returned to that house, most probably to look for your ring, just like I had. The police found a body there, but they refused to let out the name. Everyone in college assumed it was you, because that’s the story your brothers had spread.”
"My brothers spread that story because our father told them to,” Mihir said. “At the time, I was still in the hospital—barely holding on—and Alexander couldn’t immediately move me to Moscow. So, to keep me safe from the men who had attacked me, he did the only thing he could think of: he told my brothers to tell the world I had died. I only found out much later, after the danger had passed.”
Anna shook her head. “I blamed myself for years, thinking if only I’d told you that I was going to Kent to search for the ring, then perhaps you’d have been safe and alive.”
Mihir clenched his jaw, so angry that she still refused to accept the truth.
“The ring was conveniently with you all along,” he said. “You used it only to lure me to return to the house.”
“I found the ring in your gym bag, Mihir,” she said quietly. “Remember I’d taken your gym bag with me?” She shook her head. “Your death destroyed me. One minute, I was so happy to be married to the man I loved, and in the next, my world had crashed. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I wouldn’t even talk to anyone—I was shattered. My sisters whisked me to Dubai immediately. I didn’t even realize that they had packed some of my things in that very same gym bag. My family rallied around me when I got home. Rajiv saw how distraught I was and forced me into therapy to heal from your loss. It was months later, when I was a little better, that I was going through my cupboard and found your gym bag. I opened it and found your ring in a side zip.” She looked at him. “You may not believe me, but that is the truth. I loved you. I have always loved only you. But you… you were alive, and you didn’t bother to let me know. I found out through a fucking newspaper article, three years later, after Alexander Oshnov passed away, that you were alive and his heir. Can you imagine how I felt then? I wondered if you were someone else. I wondered if you’d lost your memory and forgotten me. I simply couldn’t come to terms with the fact that you were alive, and you deliberately didn’t contact me.”
“Why should I have told the woman who sent me to die that I was alive?” he lashed out. “You didn’t deserve to know. You didn’t deserve to find me or speak to me again.”
“Do you know why I named my magazine Noir?”
He kept silent.
“ Noir comme la nuit —as black as the night,” she said. After losing you, my days had gone dark. Noir represented a precious moment in time shared with you—one that had brought us together. It also represented the darkness in my life because you had taken all the light with you.”
She continued, “The easiest thing you could have done was to have confronted me all those years ago. Perhaps at that time, I could have even proved my innocence to you. Now, seven years later, I can’t even remember the time before and after losing you clearly. My grief during that time has blurred my memories.”
“Confronted you?” His throat was tight as he spoke. “I was barely conscious for days after my attack. My brothers flew me to Moscow as soon as I was stable. Even when I was back on my feet, I couldn’t function normally. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. I couldn’t sleep for nights, and when I did fall asleep, I was haunted by nightmares. I woke up anxious and panicking. That morning in the gym, I could understand your symptoms clearly, because I had gone through that phase. It took months of therapy to cure me. Even after that, I stayed out of social circles. I hated any attention on me. Apart from my brothers and father, I had trouble maintaining relationships with anyone, all because the woman I loved had betrayed me; she’d sent me to die.”
“If you hate me so much, then why did you sleep with me again?” she asked. “You should have stayed the fuck away from me.”
“Unfortunately, when it comes to you, I keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. I never learn, it seems.”
She lifted her jaw. “I swear on the lives of every single person I have ever loved that I’d never met your cousin before last night.”
Mihir shook his head. “My father tried hunting for the men who had attacked me. He looked everywhere, used all his contacts, but he couldn’t find them. He begged me to think about the attack, to try and remember a clue that could lead him to those men. Imagine how much it must’ve broken my father to ask me to remember something he knew triggered me as hell. But there was no way he was going to let those men go scot-free, because that’s what you do when someone you love has been so brutally attacked. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell him about your involvement in the whole thing. If I had, then even I wouldn’t have been able to stop him from destroying you.”
“Why didn’t you then? You were so mad at me; you should have let him come after me. Why did you protect me from his wrath?”
“Because I loved you, Anna,” he yelled. “I loved you despite everything. I couldn’t let him hurt you. I couldn’t bear to live in a world where you didn’t exist. It was only post our encounter on the yacht that I finally told Armaan and Vedant that you were the reason I was hurt that night.”
A tense silence filled the air after his outburst.
“I see that you’re not going to believe anything I say,” she said, her expression sad and defeated. “In your head, you have painted me to be this big villainess in your life. A witch who trapped you and destroyed you. But guess what? I’m setting you free now. Thank you for telling me your side of that time. After the yacht incident, I racked my brain trying to understand what I had done wrong for you to be so cold with me, with your wife . At least now, I can live the rest of my life knowing that I didn’t hurt you.”
She paused to exhale a heavy breath. “For years, I hardly went out with other men because of you. I never gave anyone else a chance. But now, I’m done. I’m done pretending that I stopped loving you when I have always loved you. Even when you hurt me, ignored me, and were nasty to me, I told myself that I hated you, but I never did. Like a fool, I kept loving you, never moving on. That’s why I let you in again. But now, I will move on. You don’t deserve me or my love. I absolve you of your deal with me. I’m going to sign the divorce papers, so you no longer need to be in the same room as me. But for the sake of our siblings, and until they do marry, if you choose to be in the same place as I am, then I will be civil to you. But I swear that once they are married, I will never see you again.”
She turned to leave, and then spun around to face him again. “One last thing. I’ll send you a copy of the interview we’ve done for Noir. I assume you still want me to publish it for Karina’s sake. If that still holds true, then I will send you the final version for your go-ahead soon.”
He lowered his chin a fraction. She stared at him for a long moment. Finally, she shook her head and left his study. He stared after her, his heart heavy and aching. Fuck. He couldn’t believe that despite finally putting everything out in the open and seeing the proof, she continued to deny her role in what had happened to him.
He switched on his laptop, but he couldn’t concentrate on his work. An hour passed, but his mind was still all over the place. No, it was firmly on her . Anna. All the happy moments he’d spent with her in the past and now, rushed to him, reminding him how happy he’d been with her once, and how happy she’d made him again.
No matter how much he told himself that her leaving was for the best, that ending everything with her was for the best, his heart wouldn’t listen. It objected fiercely to that voice in his head and wanted him to go to her. To stop her from leaving. But he stayed in his study.
Even after Dmitri informed him that Anna was leaving, he remained in his study, trying to work.
Hours later, there was a knock on his door, and Chekov entered.
“Sir, I have an update on Ivan’s whereabouts,” Chekov said.
Mihir frowned. “You were looking into him?”
“Last night, Miss Ananya texted Anton, telling him that Ivan was at the party and to keep a watch on him, to ensure someone followed him when he left, just in case that information came in handy. I assumed you knew.”
Why would Ananya ask one of his men to keep a watch on Ivan if she was working with him? It didn’t make sense. Fuck.
“What have you found?” Mihir asked.
“Ivan left the embassy with his date an hour after your exit,” Chekov began. “She dropped him at the Ritz. But as soon as she left, he exited the hotel and took a cab to the train station. He boarded a train to Zvenigorod. Our guy kept following him, and Ivan used only public transport everywhere.”
“He probably knows he’s safer if he’s in public. Fucking asshole.”
“Our guy followed him to the airport in Zvenigorod, where he took a private jet. We don’t know where to yet.”
“We need to find out. Bribe whoever you can, but we need that information.”
Chekov nodded. “I’m on it, but it’s going to take some time, sir.”
After Chekov left, Mihir went upstairs, his thoughts still on her . He opened the door of her now-empty bedroom, and her strong, sexy scent washed over him. His heart thumped, reminding him of how empty he felt now that she was gone.
He’d known that his fling with her had been just that—a fling. Yet, it had taken over his heart and mind. She had taken over his heart and mind. And now, learning that she had tried to help him with Ivan was confusing him all the more.
What if she really didn’t know Ivan? What is she was speaking the truth? He reined in his flying thoughts. Even if she had never met Ivan, the truth was that she had given Mihir up to save her sisters, and she still wouldn’t accept it.
By choosing them, she had destroyed him, and that was another truth that couldn’t be denied. Her sad, confused face flashed in his mind. What if… No. He believed in proof, always, and he had the proof of her deception. He’d kept it for seven years.
His eyes fell on the manila envelope on the coffee table in her room. His heart spasmed. He knew what that envelope contained. He pulled the divorce documents out. There was a note pinned on top: I’ve deleted the video, as promised.
He sighed. She’d signed everywhere she needed to on the papers. The only thing left to end their marriage was his sign next to hers.
Feeling something in the envelope, he turned it over. His ring fell into his hand. He stared at it for a long moment. His fingers closed over it, and he dropped it in his pocket. Sadness drenched him. Picking up his pen from the table, he held it over the divorce document. The tip formed the first letter of his name… signaling the end.