Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
VIREN
S unaina went pale at my words.
“You don’t need me for this visit,” she protested. “Aisha’s grandmother doesn’t even know me.”
Was she so eager to leave us, I wondered angrily.
“Well, I don’t trust her or her family. We need all hands on deck as long as she’s in our house.”
“I am not a hand ,” she snapped. “I am your wife!”
“Then act like it,” I hissed. “Stop making a scene and come home with me. Aisha needs you right now.”
Aisha’s mother’s family was the root of all our troubles. They were the reason I was forced to marry Sunaina in the first place.
When Aisha was eight, her uncle and his family started showing up every time she visited her grandparents. Disha’s brother, Ajit, was a ne’er-do-well who had run his father’s business to the ground and was in need of fresh capital for his next venture. Aisha had inherited Deven and Disha’s wealth, but unfortunately, they hadn’t left any will naming someone as trustee to oversee her inheritance, which meant that whoever had custody of the child had access to her wealth.
Ajit had filed for her custody on the grounds that, as a bachelor, I wasn’t equipped to deal with her needs. He claimed she’d be happier in his house with his two daughters for company. I knew he was only after her money. If Aisha went to live with him, he and his wife would neglect her or worse. Hence, my hasty marriage to Sunaina which helped me retain Aisha’s custody and swung the adoption process in my favour.
After they played such a dirty trick on us, I refused to allow Aisha to return to her grandmother’s house because Ajit was capable of kidnapping the child to get his way. Disha’s parents got supervised visits with their granddaughter under my roof, and I put a stop to that after the last one two months ago, when her grandmother wept and begged her to refuse the adoption. She made such a bad scene that I banned her from ever approaching Aisha.
I was furious at her for turning up at the airport without my permission. But she played the dead daughter card and promised to be on her best behaviour.
“I haven’t seen my Disha’s baby in months, beta. I know you’re upset with me, but I was only doing what I thought was best for Aisha. If she’s happy with your family, I’m willing to accept that. But please don’t cut me out of her life,” Laxmi Aunty begged.
I was willing to give them an hour in the airport’s coffee shop, but before I could tell her that, my Chachi walked up to us and ruined everything. She hugged Laxmi Aunty as if she hadn’t met her in ages.
“Viren, you’ve punished her enough. You must allow her to visit Aisha again,” she said kindly.
“Bua’s right, Viren,” said Tahira, who had followed her aunt. “I have an idea! Laxmi Aunty can come to stay with us for a while to reconnect with Aisha. What do you think, Bua?”
I stared at her furiously, but she was oblivious to my anger. Who the fuck did she think she was inviting people to stay in my house?
“I didn’t know you were extending your visit with Chachi, Tahira,” I said pointedly, and she gave an awkward braying laugh.
“She insisted I stay with her for a while,” she stammered.
Chachi chimed in, adding her two cents of approval, and there was really no way I could get out of inviting Laxmi Aunty to stay. Of course, there was a silver lining to this mess. If Laxmi Aunty and Tahira were staying with us, I could force Sunaina to stay on the pretext of putting on a united front. It wouldn’t do for the Chaudhry bahu to go gallivanting with another man while her husband hosted guests in their home.
I didn’t look too closely at why I wanted my wife to return home when we were about to end our fake marriage. All I knew was that I wanted her by my side.
“Fine!” she spat. “I’ll stay. Only for the duration of her stay.”
She stomped away to speak to the boy toy, and my lip curled in disgust when she gave him an extra-long hug. Ten Mississippis this time, I counted. What kind of man waited so patiently for another man’s wife?
“Is that Dhruv?” asked Daima, coming up to me.
She stared at him curiously and then smiled slowly.
“He’s cute,” she said, and I let out a snort of disgust.
“He’s a loser,” I snapped.
“And you’re jealous,” she murmured.
“Rubbish! I’m just a good judge of people, and that man is trouble, Daima. You need to make sure Sunaina stays away from him.”
“Sure! I’ll tell her to stay away from a handsome, successful doctor who also happens to be very sweet just because her soon-to-be ex-husband doesn’t like him,” she said with an eye roll.
“Boss, there’s something very shady about this whole thing,” said Sufi worriedly.
He had been talking to Aisha while her Daadi and Naani chatted away like old besties.
“Like what?”
“We were supposed to return at the end of the week. Aisha didn’t even know we were coming home today until she woke up this morning. So when did she have the time to text her grandmother and tell her what time our flight was to land?”
I stared across the terminal at the one person who looked the most pleased to see Laxmi Aunty - Tahira .
“If Aisha didn’t tell her, someone else must have done so. Someone who has been causing trouble since she gatecrashed our holiday,” Sufi added meaningfully.
“Find out what Laxmi Aunty is after, Sufi,” I said slowly. “She’s forced herself on us for a long stay. Why would she do that when she lives in the same city? I have a feeling Tahira is behind all this, but I can’t see what she stands to gain by inflicting another guest on us.”
“Is she coming home with us too?” asked Daima with a groan.
“Yes. And she’s the one who invited Laxmi Aunty to stay with us.”
“Some cheek that girl has,” said Daima indignantly. “Inviting someone to your house when she’s a guest herself!”
Sunaina walked up to us, still looking grumpy. I took one look at her face and asked Sufi to get going and call for the cars because the sooner I got her back under my roof, the easier I could be.
Tahira and her aunt drove off in Chachi’s car. I sent Daima, Aisha and Laxmi Aunty home in another car, while Suif, Sunaina and I took mine.
“I’ve just found something very worrying,” said Sufi, pulling up a picture on his phone once we were on our way home. “I asked your legal team to look into Tahira’s activities to see if there was any way we could tie her to the leak about your marriage. They sent me this pic a few minutes ago, which was grabbed from a CCTV camera at her club.”
My blood ran cold at the sight of Tahira and Ajit clinking their glasses together in a toast. This had to be the most unholy alliance I had ever seen.
“When was this?” I barked.
“The day before she joined us in London.”
“So that’s her game,” I murmured.
Ever since she crashed our holiday, I had been wondering why Tahira was still hanging around even though I had made my disinterest in her crystal clear. But now I knew what she was up to. She had teamed up with Ajit.
This was payback. For rejecting her. For marrying Sunaina instead. And she had no qualms about messing with Aisha’s life just to get back at me.
“What do you think they are trying to prove?” asked Sunaina.
“They want to prove our marriage is fake. The adoption rules say we need to prove we’ve been in a stable marriage for over two years. If they find any evidence to support that conjecture, Ajit will fight the adoption.”
“Then we need to make sure they don’t find any evidence,” said Sunaina firmly.
Sufi let out a bitter laugh.
“Those two snakes are going to be slithering around the house for a while, Sue. They will find all the evidence they need to prove your marriage is in name only within the first three days. Unless…”
I didn’t trust the crafty look that came over his face, and his next words proved my fears were well-founded.
“Mr C, what are the chances of anyone prying the details of your marriage contract from your legal team?”
“Less than zero,” I replied promptly.
My lawyer, Ranvijay Rathore, also happened to be a good friend, and I knew there was no possibility of a leak from his office. He knew what was at stake here and had promised to do everything he could to help keep Aisha safe.
“So with that out of the picture, there’s really just one thing they can exploit - the fact that the two of you don’t share a bedroom. And that can be easily rectified,” he said with a wink.
Sunaina and I turned to each other instinctively, and I knew that the horror I saw in her eyes was reflected in mine.
How the hell was I going to keep my hands off her if we shared a bedroom?