42. Kash
Chapter Forty-Two
KASH
“I can’t find Mrs. Sutherland.”
The last words I would ever hear because a heart attack was imminent. My wife was missing. Since brunch. It was now past nine at night and no one knew where she was or when she left the hotel.
“Grayson, you had one fucking job, to keep Naina safe,” I said through gritted teeth. “Where is my wife?”
To say Grayson looked terrified would be an understatement. He should be terrified because if something happened to Naina, the person facing my wrath would be him.
My instructions had been crystal fucking clear. No matter what happened, his first priority was Naina’s safety.
“The last time I saw her, she was going into the ballroom with Ms. Sutherland.”
“That was ten hours ago,” I yelled.
I tried to remain calm, I did, for about two seconds.
My wife was missing, and the last time anyone had seen her was ten hours ago. My mind kept jumping from one bad scenario to another.
She could be at the bottom of the Chicago River for all anyone knew. The last words I ever said to her was that our relationship wasn’t real.
The pain slicing through my heart felt real. It had me gasping for breath because if I never saw her again, I was going to die.
“Find her, find her right now. I don’t know what you have to do, who you have to contact. I need to know where my wife is. Go!”
Grayson left the room, his phone to his ear. I eyed the bottle of scotch on the table. It would come in handy to burn this place to the ground.
Why couldn’t I shake the feeling that something was very wrong with Naina?
She wasn’t safe, and it was all my fault.
I let myself get weak when I promised myself that I would never let that happen again. My father could smell weakness from a mile off and I was his favorite plaything. Everything I loved, he used against me.
My mother, Vera, Aunt Augusta. They were just ploys for him to get me to do exactly what he wanted, and it worked for a long time because I had been young and afraid.
Meeting Naina was the first time I felt safe, grounded. Like there was something that belonged to me, not something that been given to me by my father and it was his to take away.
No one could take away Naina.
I should never have gone to the Windfield. I should never have asked her to marry me. As long as I didn’t have her, she was mine.
“What’s going on?”
A soft touch on my shoulder had me turning around. Vera stood behind her, blue eyes cast in worry.
I swallowed thickly. “Naina’s missing.”
She frowned. “What do you mean, missing? Have you tried calling her?”
“There’s no answer, and no one has seen her since brunch. The last time Grayson saw her, she was coming into the ballroom with you.”
Vera shrugged, her eyes shifting slightly behind me.
“She was upset, I thought the two of you had a fight.” Vera’s eyes shifted back to me, roaming over my face. “You really care about her, don’t you?”
I laughed humorlessly, nodding.
“If this poisonous thing inside me that wants to burn the world down is care, then yes, I really care about her. And I don’t fucking know where she is.”
My phone rang and I lunged for it, picking it up off the coffee table. Samira’s name flashed across my screen, and my stomach dropped. Jesus Christ, I couldn’t talk to her.
I couldn’t tell her that her sister was missing or that I thought she could be dead. That poor girl had already lost her parents, and I took her sister away, too.
The call disconnected because I didn’t answer fast enough. But the phone started ringing again.
Vera stepped up to me, taking the phone from my hand.
“This is Naina’s sister, right?”
I nodded mutely.
Vera answered the call, putting the phone on speaker.
“Where is Naina?” Samira’s frantic voice filled the room. “We’ve been trying to call her, but there’s no answer. I’ve called her, Kat’s called, Nick called, Sonia called, no answer. Where is she?”
Vera met my eyes. We both knew if either one of us was lost, this is how the other would feel. Our traumas might be different, but we were all the other had to get through them.
We were bonded for life, more than the blood and last name we shared.
“Naina is missing,” I said.
Silence filled the line.
“What do you mean she’s missing?” Kat asked. “She’s not a pair of earrings that you can lose. She’s a five foot eleven, tattooed woman, she’s pretty fucking hard to miss in a crowd. I should have never let her go to Chicago with you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’ve heard the fucking stories, Kassius. I know all about the ugliness running in your family, and now my best friend might have fallen victim to it.”
“Okay,” Vera said. “We all just need to take a breath. It’s possible that Naina is just out walking, and her phone died. She could walk in any minute, and she will be perfectly fine. Let’s not think the worst.”
Our silence was all that met Vera’s words because we knew better. Naina would have figured out a way to contact us if her phone died. Naina wouldn’t let her phone die because she carried a fully charged power bank with her. She wasn’t irresponsible.
My phone beeped, indicating another call. Vera’s and my eyes dropped down to it. Reid Ford-Vanderbilt. I hit the button to disconnect the call. I didn’t have time for Reid and his nonsense.
“I’m going to find Naina, I promise,” I said.
“You better get those divorce papers ready because when you find her, you’re not getting her back.”
The call disconnected.
Why the fuck was everyone insisting on making me divorce my wife?
Grayson walked into the room, looking perturbed, his phone to his ear. He held it out to me.
“It’s Mr. Ford-Vanderbilt. He says it’s urgent.”
I looked at Vera outrageously. Had Reid always been this frustrating? I needed to break something and Grayson’s phone with Reid’s name across it was just the thing.
I took the phone, and maybe Vera sensed my intention because she wrangled it out of grasp and put it on speaker.
“What do you want, Reid?”
“Vera.”
The reverence in his tone when he said her name was unmistakable. Vera’s cheeks darkened, even though I was sure she didn’t hear how he sounded.
“We’re in the middle of a crisis here, so if you can make this quick,” she said.
“Right, of course. Is Kash with you?”
“He is.”
I motioned for her to hurry up the call because if she was going to help, she couldn’t do it with him on the phone. Naina was my sole focus right now, I didn’t have time for any questions Reid might have.
“Is his wife’s name Naina Hollister? Because the woman I’m looking at right now looks remarkably like the photos Augusta sent me, but I don’t know her name.”
My breath whooshed out of me in a rush, leaving me lightheaded. I took the phone from Vera.
“Where is she?” I barked.
“Jesus, Kash, you don’t have to be so loud.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Why was everyone insisting on making this worse for me?
“Where. Is. My. Wife?”
“She’s at the hospital. There was a little accident.”
I rushed into the hospital, Vera and Grayson following behind me.
“Naina Sutherland, she was admitted after an accident,” I told the nurse behind the reception desk. “I’m her husband.”
The nurse looked through her records.
“We don’t have anyone by that name,” she said.
“She could have been admitted under Naina Hollister, it’s her maiden name,” Vera said.
“Hollister, yes. She was brought in a few hours ago. She’s in the ER. Follow the blue line.”
I was turning before she had even finished talking. I heard Vera thank her, and then the sounds of her heels as she ran to catch up to me.
“Kash, seriously. Stop freaking out, we know she’s fine.”
“I won’t know that until I see her myself.”
Reid said Naina was fine. But how could I believe anyone? They didn’t know this thing breaking inside my chest just at the thought of losing her.
I was fine before Naina, existing, but not alive. She had no right to bring me to life, to make me dream of things I had no business dreaming of. The least she could do was deal with the consequences of ruining my life with her existence.
How could I go back to a world in which she didn’t exist? She was all the life and color in my world. I didn’t even know life could be like this until I met her.
Naina was the pattern making up my soul.
“The blue has ended, and there’s no Naina,” I said. I turned in a circle.
“Kash, be quiet or you’re going to get us kicked out of a hospital,” Vera hissed.
A nurse passing by shot us a dirty look.
“Room 232, over there.”
I turned. Reid stood behind me. I stared at my former best friend, wondering if punching him in the face was an appropriate greeting after five years. The fucker hadn’t changed much since the last time I saw him in person. He was dressed all in black, his brown hair swept back and raked through with his fingers.
“What are you even doing here?”
Reid lived in Scotland, far away from all of us.
“I’m a Ford-Vanderbilt, and my presence was requested.”
His green eyes fell on Vera, and softened.
“Vera.”
“We don’t have time for a reunion.”
I led Vera away from him, walking to room 232, and pushing the door open.
Naina lay on the bed in the middle of the room, a monitor beside her reporting her heart rate. There was a bandage covering her right arm but other than that, she didn’t seem to have any injuries. Vera gripped my arm, picking up on my intense relief.
Naina’s eyes opened when I walked in and met mine.
“Naina,” I breathed her name like a prayer.
She frowned. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
The question turned my blood cold. Reid mentioned she suffered a head injury and possibly had a concussion. Did she lose her memory? That was a side effect of a concussion, wasn’t it?
“I’m your husband,” I said softly, walking further into the room.
She appeared confused, and a little freaked out.
“I don’t think so. I’m not married. You must have the wrong room.”
I looked behind me at Vera, and Reid, who was standing at the entrance of the room.
“The doctor didn’t mention anything about memory loss,” he said. “I’ll find them.”
“We got married last month, don’t you remember? Your sister was there. Vera was there. We were married by my aunt. You looked beautiful in your white saree. Like an angel.”
I brushed her hair off her forehead to convince myself she was real. The monitor was reporting her heart rate, and it was steady and solid.
She was alive.
“I don’t want to believe you. People always say one thing, and then turn around and say it was all a lie. Our marriage is not real, is it?”
Her eyes bounced back and forth between mine. It was Naina staring back at me.
Her eyes looking at me.
The eyes that knew me better than anyone else in the world because I trusted her more than anyone else.
“I have a marriage certificate that says you’re my wife, Mrs. Sutherland. No one can say otherwise.”
Naina’s nose wrinkled. “I don’t want it. Return to sender.”
I laughed, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on her forehead.
“You can’t return a marriage certificate, sweetheart. I wouldn’t return it for all the money in the world.”
“Pretty sure you have all the money in the world.”
“For a second I thought you really had forgotten me,” I said.
“How did you know I hadn’t?”
“Your eyes. You always look at me like you know me. You’re the only one who does.”
Naina looked away, resting her head back and closing her eyes.
“I’m not sure that’s true,” she whispered.
She could hate me all she wanted to. Hate could keep a person alive far longer than love.
Vera left the room and came back in with Reid and the doctor, who declared that Naina had suffered a concussion when her head hit the concrete. There were no other injuries other than where something had sliced her arm. They were going to keep her overnight for observation.
I video called Samira so she and Kat could see Naina. Samira’s tear-stained face filled the screen, breaking my heart all over again.
“Naina is fine.”
I told them everything the doctor had told us. Naina wasn’t allowed screen time so I didn’t hand the phone to her, only turned the screen around so Samira and Kat could see her.
“I’m sending the plane to bring you here,” I said, before ending the call.
“You don’t have to stay,” Naina said, as I situated myself on the visitor’s chair.
“Good luck trying to kick me out of here.”
“Sutherlands are fucking stubborn,” Reid said.
“She knows, she’s one of us,” Vera added.
Pink stained Naina’s cheeks at that. Getting Vera’s approval was like winning an Olympic gold medal. Vera didn’t even like people.
“Thank you,” Naina said to Reid. “I would like you a lot more if you weren’t after my husband’s soul.”
That made Reid laugh.
“I like her. She’s perfect for you.”
That made Naina’s smile falter, and I knew she was thinking about this morning. I wished I could take back the words I said to her. Tell her I didn’t mean them.
But I couldn’t do that.
If anything, thinking she died had solidified my decision that I needed to keep my distance from her. It was the only way to keep her safe.
At least until I figured out what to do about my father.