Chapter 43
VEDIKA
Pa, are you back?
Vedika gnawed on her lower lip as she stared at the message she’d sent her father.
A message he hadn’t even seen as yet. She’d tried calling him and the call had gone to voicemail.
She’d called her mother but she’d been in a meeting which left Vedika restlessly pacing her room as her cousins debated world affairs like seasoned politicians while casting, concerned, sideways glances at her.
Her heart started an anxious thrumming echoed by a familiar twisting in her stomach. Combined with her sleepless night, she was starting to feel lightheaded. Another knock sounded on her bedroom door and one of their helpers came in to say someone was waiting to meet her.
“Me?” she asked, thoroughly confused. She’d called in sick from work today and none of her friends had mentioned coming over.
“I’ll come with you,” Vikram said, getting up from where he was sitting on the beanbag in the corner.
“Who could it be?” she asked.
He shrugged. “We won’t know until we go and see.”
Was it Daksh? A different thrumming took up residence in the pit of her stomach as she walked down the two flights of stairs with her brother. Vikram didn’t say anything but she could sense his tension ratcheting up in response to her own.
But when they finally entered the formal living room, it wasn’t Daksh waiting for them. It was Ashish. Disappointment had Vedika’s stomach plummeting even as her brother muttered a curse.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Vikram asked.
“I’d just like a few moments with Vedika,” Ashish said quietly. He looked at her, met her gaze and added, “Please?”
He looked like shit, she thought dispassionately.
His hair looked greasy and unwashed, his clothes rumpled and grimy.
In all the time they’d been together, Ashish had never turned up looking anything short of immaculate.
For some reason, knowing he suffered did nothing for her.
All she felt in this moment, buried under the acute disappointment of knowing Daksh hadn’t come was exhaustion.
She felt Vikram shift beside her and caught his sleeve with her hand. “I’ll talk to him,” she said. “Give us a moment.”
Vikram searched her face and seemingly happy with whatever he saw, he nodded. “I’ll wait outside,” he said, giving Ashish one last glare before walking out.
Vedika took her seat opposite Ashish and waited for him to take his. He did, perching uncomfortably on the edge of the chair.
“What is it?” she asked, when he didn’t immediately speak. “What did you want to say?”
Ashish swallowed, glancing down. “I fucked up,” he said finally. “I have no excuse for what I did, no justification. I don’t think even an apology would be worth anything but I am going to offer one anyway. I’m here to try, just try, to make amends.”
Vedika waited, not saying anything.
“I hurt you. I’m sorry. I thought I could get away with it and that you’d never find out. I just…I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes filling with echoes of shame and regret. “I’m so damn sorry. I fucked everything up.”
The exhaustion seemed to be swallowing her whole as she watched this man she’d been willing to promise her whole life to just a short month ago.
What had she been thinking? She hadn’t even felt a fraction of what she felt for Daksh for him and she’d agreed to marry him.
His betrayal had left her disappointed. Daksh’s betrayal had left her murderous.
She honestly didn’t know what that said about her.
“I know about Daksh and you,” Ashish said now, his voice dropping an octave.
She glanced up at him. “Nothing happened while we were together.”
“I know,” he said simply. “The two of you aren’t capable of that.”
That surprised her. Both the Mathur brothers had been capable of betraying her in other ways, so what would infidelity be to them?
“And yet, he did the same thing you did,” she said quietly, her hurt slicing through the fog of fatigue.
Ashish raised startled eyes to her. “Daksh? What did he do?”
“It appears your father was determined to have a Thakkar bahu. It didn’t matter to him which son brought her in. He asked your brother to get me to fall for him and your brother delivered in spades,” she said, her bitterness leaking through.
“My father asked,” Ashish replied. “My brother told him to go fuck himself.”
Startled, Vedika looked up at him.
“Vedika,” Ashish said gently, “Daksh would rather slit his own throat than do anything my father asked him to. Even if it fit his moral code, which this definitely didn’t. Why do you think he moved into a hotel?”
A small sprig of hope unfurled inside her. Her eyes narrowed as she watched him. “Your father mentioned debts your brother settled by being with me.”
Ashish’s eyes shadowed with emotion. “My father is a toxic, patriarchal, abusive asshole who has made my brother’s life hell for the entirety of his lifetime.
The debt he’s talking about has nothing to do with money, Vedika.
I promise you that. Daksh isn’t me. In fact,” Ashish swallowed hard, “Daksh paid off all my loans to help me out.”
“But he didn’t deny it!”
“He wouldn’t,” Ashish allowed. “Daksh…he has demons of his own. But that’s his story to tell. And your choice to accept or not.”
Vedika fell silent, trying to process everything that Ashish had told her.
“Just for the record, I didn’t ask you to marry me because of my father either.” Ashish grinned.
“Why did you ask me to marry you?” she asked, smiling back. “We certainly didn’t feel strongly enough for it.”
“We were good together,” Ashish shrugged, shamefaced. “It was pleasant and you were…”
“The Thakkar Heir?” she supplied.
“It didn’t hurt,” he said, his gaze dropping from hers. “Like I said, Daksh isn’t me. He couldn’t care less about who you are, Vedika. The man lives most off his life off grid, in a tent. He couldn’t give two hoots who you were.”
“Unless I was the Hainan Gibbon,” she murmured.
“The what?” Ashish asked startled.
“Inside joke,” Vedika said, smiling slightly, her fatigue starting to lift.
“I can’t say I see it,” he said with a smile, “but if you guys are happy together, I’m happy for the two of you.”
“Big of you,” she murmured, her words tinged with acid.
He laughed. “You certainly don’t need my approval. But you have it. I know you have a large family but please also know that, irrespective of what both of you decide, you have family on this side too. You have me.”
Vedika smiled. “I appreciate that. I’d like it if we could be friends. We made good friends, even if we were shitty romantic partners.”
“Friends,” Ashish agreed. “I promise not to stab you in the back again.”
“Well, if you do,” Vedika murmured, “I’ll just yank the knife out and jam it into your crotch.”
Ashish winced. “I see my brother has been a phenomenal influence on you.”
Vedika laughed, the sound drawing Vikram’s attention and bringing him into the room.
“That he has,” she agreed.
Ashish sobered a little, probably from Vikram’s disapproving presence. “Life hasn’t been easy on him, Vedika. I hope you will be.”