Chapter 27
CHAPTER 27
DIYA
D heer stalked towards me and I stood my ground, resisting the urge to back away at the look in his face. He grabbed me by the shoulders and glared at me. Hard. But I still met his eyes defiantly.
“Do you know what Ayush’s men called me the day I rescued you in the desert?” he growled.
He waited for me to reply, but when I stayed stubbornly silent, he gave me another little shake.
“They called me the beast of Trikhera. And today you saw why. I was a fool to think I could ever deserve someone like you. Someone so lovely, so kind, so… pure.”
His hand moved up my neck to stroke the side of my face.
“You were right! Nine years ago, I didn’t have the balls to tell you to your face that I didn’t want to marry you. Do you know why?”
I stood absolutely still, feeling the tears running down my face, but unable to move because of the stark desperation on his face. He wiped my tears away gently, but more took their place.
“How could I look you in the eye and tell you that I didn’t love you when I loved you more than life itself? How could I look you in the eye and lie to your face?” he murmured.
I gripped his hand and pulled it away from my face.
“Do you have the balls to tell me the truth now?” I demanded angrily. “I deserve to know why you destroyed my life on a whim.”
He exhaled slowly.
“Rani Sa, I don’t do anything on a whim. You should know that. If I tell you the truth, you will walk out that door and never come back,” he said in a gravelly voice that I didn’t recognise.
“Try it anyway,” I suggested sarcastically.
“Do you know why I became the beast of Trikhera? It was because of my father. My dear father had the blood of a thousand royals, but he had the soul of a baniya. He used to call himself an entrepreneur first, and then a royal. Like our friends, the Goels, my father had his fingers in many pies. He just managed to hide it better from the world. The suave, dignified MP for Trikhera constituency was a gun-runner.”
I stared at him in confusion. I had to clear my throat before I could speak.
“I’m sorry. He was a… what ?”
“Baba was a gun-runner. He was an arms dealer, and the bulk of his massive income came from smuggling illegal arms across the border to Pakistan. He was arming Pakistani mercenaries to fight with the Indian army.”
“Not. A. Fucking. Chance,” I said softly.
He nodded his head in appreciation.
“Oh, yeah. Baba was a piece of work alright.”
“And did you know this? Before, I mean… when we were dating.”
Dheer shook his head.
“He hid it from Isha and me. Ma and Dadi Sa knew about it, of course. He used to abuse Ma to keep her from confiding in us. Another key fact they hid from us,” he said bitterly.
“How did you find out?”
“When he died suddenly, Baba hadn’t chosen a successor for his business, and the mantle fell on my shoulders by default, and by mantle, I mean all the responsibilities and obligations of running a gun-running empire that spanned the whole country.”
I gasped at the enormity of what he’d had to face.
“What happened?”
“Well, the first thing I did was to break up with you because I didn’t want you or your family to be dragged into this muck. And you’re right. I was a fucking coward to have done it the way I did. But tell me something. If I had come to you and told you what was going on, would you have walked away from me?”
“Of course, not! I would have stood by you, no matter what,” I exclaimed, insulted that he even had to ask.
“And that’s exactly why I didn’t tell you,” he pointed out. “I didn’t want you anywhere near the mess that my father left, Diya. It was touch and go for a long time. I negotiated a deal where they left my family out of it, but there are no guarantees when you’re dealing with snakes. I posted armed guards on every member of my family. My father’s partners needed access to our lands for Baba’s cosy little trade route, and I was determined to shut down the whole dirty business.”
“Ohmigod! Did they hurt you?”
He shrugged casually.
“They tried, but I soon learned to fight back, and I learned to fight dirty. For every bullet that they shot, I’d spray them with a whole magazine of bullets. If they killed one of my men, I killed five of theirs. I was brutal. I was cruel to anyone who crossed me. I became the beast of Trikhera.”
“Did no one try to stop you?”
“Many tried, but only one man succeeded. Commissioner Dhaliwal. When he realised that I was actively trying to stop the arms trade in Trikhera, he gave me access to the right channels to do that. And he gave me the full support of the police force to drive away the smugglers who were trying to grab my land.”
“Are you still at war with those people?” I asked, with a hollow, sinking feeling in my stomach. I couldn’t bear the thought of him being hurt or worse. Even if he was a bastard who broke my heart, he was my bastard.
He shook his head.
“Five years ago, the four bosses of the arms trade in India sat down with me and the Police Commissioner, and negotiated a truce where they would keep their unlawful activities out of Trikhera, and they would stay away from me and mine. I promised to hunt down every last one of them and cut them to pieces if they ever came after me. And that, Rani Sa, is the dark, shameful history of the Trikhera royals. As a sitting MP, my father made sure that there was no development in his constituency because it is easier to turn backward, underprivileged people into thugs and smugglers with the right inducement than a modern, educated population that is aware of its rights. You once asked me what I do for a living. I try to right my father’s wrongs, and it will take me a lifetime to right them all,” he said bleakly.
I rested my head against his chest, wondering how life had turned to shit so suddenly for a man like Dheer. And I railed silently at the unfairness of it all.
He stroked my back up and down gently for a while, and then he set me away.
“Now that you know everything, I think it’s best you leave as soon as the situation calms down. And I won’t oppose the divorce, Diya. It’s the least I can do for you.”
I knew he was right. There was far too much bitterness between us for this to work out. I knew I should leave, but my feet refused to move.
“I know I should walk out, but I can’t leave you. Not now,” I whispered.
“I don’t want your pity,” he said harshly.
“Were you ever going to tell me all this? Earlier, when you were trying to get me to stay with you forever, did you plan to be completely honest with me?”
“No,” he replied uncompromisingly. “I told you, Diya. I had no intention of dragging you into my murky past.”
“What kind of a relationship would that have been when it was based on a pile of lies? And Isha… she knew all of this but didn’t tell me anything. She told me your family got a kidnapping threat, and that’s why she was given a bodyguard.”
“She was being loyal to me. Don’t blame her, Diya,” he warned.
“I don’t blame her at all because I would have done the same thing.”
I ordered my legs to move and carry me out of the room, but again, they didn’t obey me.
“Dheer, why did you want to stay married to me?” I asked when I ran out of excuses to stay and keep talking to him.
He smiled bleakly as he leaned against the edge of his desk.
“Would you believe me if I said it was because I loved you?”
“I would. But did this love vanish because I now know the truth?”
Dheer shot me a mighty frown.
“Of course, it didn’t,” he snapped.
“Then how are you suddenly okay with me leaving you?” I demanded. “What kind of conditional, bullshit love is that?”
“Did you not hear anything I said?”
“I heard every word you said, and I fail to see your point,” I said haughtily.
He let out a long, weary sigh.
“Diya, let’s not play any games. You deserve way better than a cynical, broken beast of a man. You deserve everything!”
“I do,” I agreed cheerfully. “I deserve a man who is my friend before he is my lover. I deserve a man who will protect me with his life even when I run from him. A man who will feed me pizza every day of my life and find me beautiful, no matter how big I get. I deserve a man who will take my side against the whole world, including my mother. I deserve a man who is proud to see me soar in my career and doesn’t feel the need to clip my wings to feed his ego. I deserve a man who will cook for me but also has the patience to tolerate my culinary disasters. I deserve a man who loves me enough to put my needs first. A man who loves me enough to set me free.”
A few steps brought me close to him and I stood up tall and proud as I looked deep into his beautiful, loving eyes.
“Are you willing to be that man, Dheer? Or are you only interested in rescuing a damsel in distress?”
“Why do you want to waste your life on me, Diya?”
“Because I love you, you big idiot,” I yelled. “I loved you nine years ago when I thought you were perfect, and I love you even more now when I’m aware of all your imperfections. And weirdly, I never stopped loving you in the nine years that passed between then and now. The big question is… what will you do with my love?”
Dheer pulled me into his arms and held me tightly.
“Are you sure, Diya?”
“I am. I did everything I could to hate you for what you did to me, but now that I realise there’s no reason to hate you, I can’t keep up the pretence any longer, Dheer. I love you. Now and forever.”
“I will cherish your love for the rest of my life. And even into eternity,” he promised.
“Okay, that sounds spooky. And cheesy,” I complained.
“Speaking of cheesy, does my Rani Sa want to eat pizza?” he murmured in my ear.
“I thought you’d never ask,” I replied, fluttering my eyelashes at him.
He grabbed me and kissed me deeply until we were both panting for breath. Suddenly, Dheer pulled away from me and set me at arm’s length.
“I need to check on Kirit Singh and find out what’s happening at Goel House, babe. Meet you in our room in an hour?”
I kissed him softly and smiled into his eyes.
“Don’t forget the pizza,” I said, as I walked out of the room.
“Never,” he called out with a happy laugh.