Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
SHIVINA
H is Highness turned around slowly and stared at me with disbelief.
“Explain,” he barked.
I wiped my tears and took a few deep breaths to calm down before I spoke. I wouldn’t be of any help to Zarna if I was hysterical. And much as I wanted to keep fighting with the man who was the reason we were in this mess, I was forced to admit that I needed him right now. He was my only hope for getting to my sister.
“You carried me away so quickly that I couldn’t even tell my sister where I was going. She’s only fourteen, Hukum. And Rani Sa has locked her in our room to punish her for what she considers my sins. I need to return to Sajjangarh immediately.”
Just then, Sannata Mausi poked her head around the door.
“Hukum, I’m very sorry to interrupt, but there’s an important call for Rani Sa. It’s from Sajjangarh,” she said hesitantly.
I grabbed the phone out of her hand before His Highness could reply.
“Zarna? Are you all right?” I asked worriedly.
“Shivina, this is Diggi. You need to get here soon, beta. Rani Sa is absolutely furious with how things turned out, and she’s called the police saying there’s been a robbery at the palace.”
The blood turned to ice in my veins at her words.
“Why didn’t you stop her, Diggi Mausi?” I cried. “She’s trying to frame Zarna for a robbery she didn’t commit.”
“I know, beta. And I did try to reason with her, as did Raja Sa, but she just wouldn’t listen to anyone. The mother and daughter are convinced you outed them on purpose, and they want to hurt you where it hurts the most. Get here as soon as you can, Shivina, before the police cart the child off to the station.”
“I’ll get there soon, Mausi. You keep the cops away from Zarna. Hide her away until I get there,” I said.
She ended the call hurriedly because she heard someone coming, and I turned to His Highness in desperation.
“I’m really sorry for the part I played in the deception, Your Highness. But please let me go now. Nothing you do to me can be worse than what Rani Sa and Kavya Baisa are doing. I have to rescue my sister before she lands up in the juvenile detention system. Rani Sa is about to have her arrested for a trumped-up charge, but my sister hasn’t stolen anything. She’s innocent in all this and doesn’t deserve to have her life ruined.”
“Tell me what Kavya was doing when she was supposed to be marrying me,” countered His Highness fiercely, and it was as if the last ray of hope died inside me.
I had thrown myself at his mercy because I knew he wasn’t as cruel as the Dodiyas. I thought he had a kind heart under that grumpy exterior. But the man who had saved me from Sangram Singh’s advances seemed to have disappeared, and I was left with this monster who didn’t care about anything but his own revenge.
“I don’t know, okay?” I yelled. “I know she went into the desert last night for her bachelorette party, but I know nothing more than that! You can torture me for days, and I still won’t be able to tell you anything more than that. Meanwhile, my sister’s future hangs in the balance. Are you so heartless that you’re willing to let an innocent fourteen-year-old girl suffer because you were duped of your rightful bride?”
His jaw tightened ominously, but he didn’t respond to me. Instead, he pulled out his phone and made a call.
“Raksha, she went out into the desert last night for her bachelorette party. Find out what you can, and get back to me with receipts. Photographs, witnesses, even DNA evidence… bring me whatever you find, and do it now! You have twenty minutes. Yes, I know it’s difficult to find anything so quickly, but I’m not paying you a fortune for nothing,” he snapped. “If anyone can find out what Kavya was up to last night, it is you.”
I shook my head in disgust and made for the door. His Highness was so wound up in his revenge that nothing else mattered to him right now. And he didn’t look like he was disposed to help me. It looked like I’d have to rescue my sister on my own.
My knees almost buckled at the realisation that I had no resources. And no plan. Even if I got to Sajjangarh in time, how was I going to stop the police from arresting Zarna? What did Rani Sa even want from me? Short of kidnapping His Highness and delivering him to the mandap again, there was nothing I could do to fix this mess, which was of their making in the first place.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, sounding surprised.
Was he for real?
“I’m going for a stroll in your rose garden,” I said sarcastically, without turning back.
“I thought you were in a hurry to rescue your sister.”
I clenched my fists and turned around angrily.
“My sister is in this mess because of you, Hukum. If you hadn’t tried to play detective, you would have been celebrating your suhaag raat with Kavya Baisa, and my sister and I would have been free to start a new life. And instead of showing even the smallest grain of compassion and helping me protect Zarna, you stand there plotting your revenge against the Dodiyas,” I seethed.
He cocked his head to the side and studied me impassively.
“Can’t I do both?”
“Huh?” I was taken aback.
“Can’t I enjoy my revenge and rescue your sister at the same time?”
“You… you mean…”
“We’re going to need evidence of whatever Kavya was up to if we want to take down the Dodiyas, Shivina. What was your grand plan when you decided to march down there on your own?”
He had me there, and he knew it.
“Well, I’m prepared to break Zarna out of the palace if I have to,” I said stubbornly.
“Thereby cementing her culpability in whatever the Dodiyas have accused her of doing,” he said.
“Your lawyerspeak is very confusing. Can you please talk to me like a normal person?” I asked tearfully.
“If you both go on the run, the police will be convinced that Zarna did do whatever it is that she’s supposed to have done. And they won’t stop looking for you guys until they catch you. But if we do it my way, we can get the Dodiyas off our backs for good.”
“And what’s your way?” I asked sceptically.
“We face them with the evidence of whatever Kavya was doing last night and threaten them with a breach of promise lawsuit and negative publicity in the media if they don’t leave you and Zarna alone.”
“Finding such evidence will take time, and the police might be arresting my sister even as we speak,” I argued.
He pulled out his phone again.
“Rajiv, do me a favour. Find out who is in charge of the Sajjangarh police station, and beg, bully or bribe them to not act on any complaint made by the royal family for at least an hour. Do whatever it takes to make sure they don’t go up to the palace until we get there.”
He raised an eyebrow at me as he ended the call.
“Happy? Your sister is safe for at least an hour even if my team has to bribe and bully every man on the Sajjangarh police force.”
“Seriously? Is it so easy for you people to bend the law?” I asked in disbelief.
One phone call was all it took! Although I only had his word that his team could hold the police off.
“Hi, Pot! Meet Kettle,” he shot back. “At least I didn’t fool an unsuspecting man into marriage.”
“Enough with the victim narrative, Hukum,” I bit out. “It’s not fooling anyone. You lost your moral high ground when you kidnapped me.”
“Again with the sass?” he demanded angrily.
“If you have such a problem with women talking back to you, I’m surprised you agreed to marry Kavya Baisa,” I said dryly.
“Don’t remind me,” he replied with a shudder. “And how many times have I told you not to call me Hukum? I have a name, you know.”
I had made the biggest mistake of my life by agreeing to stand in for Baisa. And I had no intention of compounding it by getting any more familiar with my temporary husband than I had to.
“Thank you for your help, Your Highness ,” I said pointedly. “I don’t know how to repay your kindness.”
I had wronged this man terribly. So it was a relief to know he hadn’t lost that core of compassion he’d shown me the last time we’d met. He had every right to be angry with me, which was why I didn’t hold his actions of this afternoon against him. For some reason, it made me very happy to know that my first impression of him was still correct. Under all that bluster and growl, His Highness Ranvijay Singh Rathore was a good man.
“I know exactly how you’re going to do it,” he drawled, and I went still at the coldness in his voice.
“I beg your pardon?” I asked warily.
“That’s not enough.”
“Hain?”
“I said, merely begging my pardon isn’t enough. I was promised a wife today and a wife I mean to have,” he declared, crossing his arms over that broad chest.
“Fine! If you don’t mind marrying a woman who’s lied to you, go ahead and marry Baisa after this,” I replied, a little annoyed that he was willing to give that horrid witch another chance. Didn’t the man have any sense of self-preservation?
“Umm, I’m already married to a woman who lied to me,” he said mildly.
“This again? I’ve already said sorry, Hukum. There’s nothing more I can do about it.”
“Oh, there’s plenty more you can do, Rani Sa. For starters, you can give me an heir,” he said with a nasty smile, and I realised I was wrong again.
He wasn’t a good man at all. He was a rotten swine.