6 #3
“I knew he worked there, yes.” I felt myself stiffen at her words. “But not because someone told me,” She added quickly. “And I definitely did not know about the lunches.”
Raina sighed at my narrowed expression, before continuing. “Look, I respected the fact that you didn’t want to meet him or know anything about him. I just…the world is really fucking small, and sometimes information just lands your way.”
“Explain,” Dev spoke for the first time. The single word came out dangerously calm, but his entire body had gone rigid, like she’d thrown him for a curve he hadn’t expected. I let myself relish in the fact for the single second she spared him.
“Kiara Chakraborty.” She spoke the name like it carried more weight than I realised. When he didn’t respond, she turned to me instead, clearly deciding she wasn’t about to let me stay in the dark any longer.
At least one of them trusted me with the information.
“You know the friend I sometimes leave Lilli and Milo with?” She asked.
When I nodded after a beat, the faint shift of memory finally clicking into place, she continued.
“Well, I’d already figured out they were mutual friends when I’d looked him up the first time, but some point last year, I guess Dad must’ve told Ishaan that we knew about him.
So he told her, and she ended up mentioning it to me…
and only because she thought I already knew.
She made me promise not to tell anyone else. ”
“For good reason.” Dev added curtly, without giving me a second to process her words. “He wasn’t comfortable with it. Especially when you’ve made it abundantly clear, repeatedly, that you want nothing to do with him, and prefer that neither of us did too.”
My gaze snapped toward him. “And how exactly would he know that?” I shot back. “Unless you told him.”
Dev didn’t flinch. “Well what was I supposed to say when he asked to meet you?”
A sharp heat twisted in my chest so fast it almost made me laugh.
“You could’ve started with telling me,” I said. “Instead of deciding everything for everybody like you always do.”
The kitchen fell in a suffocating silence at that. Dev’s expression barely shifted, but I caught the subtle clench in his jaw. Raina looked between us carefully, while Oliver stayed silent near her, watching the entire thing unfold like he already knew stepping in would only make it worse.
“Why did you even hire him in the first place?” I asked. “Out of all the goddamn companies in this city, and he had to work directly under you for his placement?”
For the first time since the conversation started, something unreadable flickered across Dev’s face. It went away almost as instantly.
“He asked for my help.” He replied simply. “I gave him a chance, and he’s good at what he does.”
I let out a short laugh under my breath. “That’s it?”
“What answer are you looking for, Rihaan?”
I opened my mouth, then shut it again because I didn’t even know anymore. Maybe that was the problem.
Because maybe it shouldn’t have bothered me this much. Maybe I should’ve been over it by now.
But the truth was, I’d spent most of my life feeling like the odd one out in our house whenever it came to my siblings.
They moved around each other differently.
Shared secrets with each other easier than they ever could with me.
Had more memories to count without me—than with me.
Half the time, it felt like the three of them existed inside some silent little club that I never got invited into.
And apparently now Ishaan had slipped into it too.
That was the part nobody seemed to understand.
When I’d originally asked them not to meet him…it wasn’t because I’d been bothered by the cheating, or even the existence of a secret half brother.
It was because I was afraid.
Raina had just come back into our lives…in my life. I knew she had slowly started to mend her relationship with Vedant and Dev, but now with someone else in the mix, I’d finally thought that maybe this time, it’d be different.
Only, standing here now I realised at how easy they’d made room for him.
How naturally everybody else had adjusted around the fact that this whole other person existed, even when his existence was tangled up with the exact thing that had driven our mother away in the first place, they still wanted to build something with him.
Meanwhile, I still felt like I was standing outside the conversation trying to catch up to something everybody else had already accepted without me.
Maybe it was easier to be around someone who wasn’t me. Someone who didn’t hold grudges when they weren’t at fault. Someone who didn’t blame them for how they felt.
The voice came in sharper, cutting into my gut like I’d been struck with a serum of truth, and instead of speaking them out loud, hoping that they’d somehow help me vanquish these thoughts.
I’d decided to not burden them with the inner workings of my mind.
Because, there wasn’t any point to it. They’d already made up their minds, so I may as well prove them true.