56. Naina
Chapter Fifty-Six
NAINA
“I’m not angry, angry,” Kat said, smoothing the back of my hair.
I hadn’t gotten to it when I was cleaning up in the restroom. I looked across the ballroom, my eyes catching Kash’s. He smiled at me, making my belly flutter.
“Ugh, you don’t even care. You’re all goofy with love.”
“No, of course, I care,” I said. “If you want me to tell Nick to go up to his room, I’ll do it. You don’t have to see him.”
Kat breathed deep, her shoulders rising and falling.
“No, I’m a better person than that. It doesn’t matter. Tell me about your husband? Did he apologize?”
I couldn’t stop a goofy grin from spreading across my face. I was still upset he went behind my back and bought my mortgage, even though I kind of understood why he did it.
I realized I needed to pick my battles with Kash and if I explained something to him in the heat of the moment, he was going to use my safety as an excuse.
I couldn’t believe he was the one who leaked that information about the New York property! And he did it for me, to save me from his father.
“He told me that I have ruined him,” I replied.
Kat placed a hand over her heart. “I want to ruin someone.”
I wanted to tell her that she probably already had, not that it would go over well.
“Look! Look!”
Sami stepped up next to us, jerking her head towards the bar. Kat and I both turned towards the bar.
“No, don’t look!” Sami hissed.
“How can we look without looking?” I said.
Sami stood between us, hidden from view of the bar. We were close to it, but there were at least thirty people between us and it.
Sami watched the crowd and nodded.
“Okay, look now.”
Kat and I obediently turned towards the bar. I didn’t find anything that could have gained Sami’s attention. There were a lot of celebrities here, though none that I thought my sister would get excited about.
Then, I saw him. He looked odd in a tuxedo and his hair was smoothed back neatly instead of a finger-combed mess. But it was definitely Remy Stirling-Whittaker.
He confirmed it when he turned around, and looked right at us.
No, not at us. At my sister.
“Oh, Remy,” Kat said. “I know him.”
“How do you know everyone?” Sami asked.
Kat shrugged. “It’s partly because I kind of grew up in this crowd, and partly because I like gossip. I know Remy because we were at the same institute together.”
By institute, Kat meant the clinic her father had sent to her when she was a teenager. I didn’t know the full details about that, but Kat had some mental health struggles.
“What was he there for?” Sami asked.
Kat shrugged. “I never asked, and he never said. We only talked during our mandatory art classes or group therapy, and we mostly complained about our fathers. He’s cute, though.”
“If you like men who think having money puts them above everyone else. What is he doing here?”
I turned, putting myself between him and my sister.
“I don’t know, I didn’t make the guest list.”
I looked up, searching for Kash, and found him in the middle of the room with Vera was on his arm.
Grayson melted through the crowd and whispered something to him, causing the smile on his face to drop and his shoulders to tense.
Kash said something to Vera, and then he was striding across the room to us.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“My father wants to speak with us.”
No wonder Kash was tense. Nothing good came from a conversation with his father.
“I can’t leave Sami. Remy Stirling-Whittaker is here, and I want to keep him far, far away from my sister.”
If possible, Kash grew even more tense.
“I’ll deal with Stirling-Whittaker later. Sami and Kat are going up to their rooms.”
“What, why?” Kat asked.
Kash didn’t look at her, instead meeting my eyes. The blue of his eyes was clouded with shadows and I realized that even though most of the secrets between us had been cleared away, he had plenty of secrets of his own still.
“Do you trust me?”
“I do.”
A woman in a black suit stepped out of the crowd, and next to us. Her hair was cut short into a bob and her face was devoid of all expression, though she did offer me a semblance of a polite smile.
“This is Jenkins, she’s going to take you to your rooms. Don’t leave for any reason,” Kash said.
“I don’t take well to being caged,” Kat said, arching her brow.
Kash wasn’t having any of it.
“My priority is my wife, Kathleen. If something happens to you, it’s going to hurt her. Don’t do it for me, do it for her.”
Kat exhaled, rolling her eyes.
“Fine. These shoes are killing my feet, anyway.”
“Is everything okay?” Sami asked, worry darkening her eyes.
Kash gave her a reassuring smile.
“Everything is fine, kiddo. I just want to keep it that way.”
The four of us plus, Grayson and Jenkins, walked out of the ballroom. Kash and I went left, followed by Grayson, and Kat, Sami, and Jenkins went right.
I gripped Kash’s hand in mine. Something was going on and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to ask him what it was. If I didn’t know, I could pretend that everything was fine.
I had the same intense feeling at the back of my neck I did when I was fifteen and being chased through the woods.
Something was behind me, and I couldn’t stop and look over my shoulder. If I did, I would find that I hadn’t run far at all.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” Kash said. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“What about you? Are you going to be fine?”
His mouth lifted into an almost smile. “As long as you’re okay, I’m okay.”
Kash squeezed my hand as we came to a stop in front of conference room B. It was one of the smaller conference rooms, and Vera had often used it as her temporary office.
“Whatever happens, don’t say anything,” Kash said.
“I hate your father,” I said, tone dripping venom. “If he says something to you, I won’t be able to stop.”
Kash looked almost startled to hear me say that, and I knew it was because he wasn’t used to people defending him.
He brought me around to face him, cupping my cheeks and kissing me softly.
“Yes, you will. Because I can’t talk to my father if I’m worrying about you.”
I didn’t want him to be distracted when walking into the lions den.
“If I tell you to leave, you’ll leave.”
“Kash—”
“Promise me, Naina.”
I inhaled deeply, and nodded. He didn’t need me to argue with him right now.
“I promise.”
He looked behind me at Grayson.
“You know what to do,” he said.
I couldn’t see him, but I sensed Grayson’s nod of confirmation.
Kash twisted the handle, letting us into the room. His father stood with his back to the door, arms crossed behind his back as he looked out the window.
A man I’d never seen before stood in the corner of the room. He was huge, bigger than Grayson, and had a jagged scar running down his face.
I gripped Kash’s hand tightly.
“You now, I found it odd when you showed up with this woman, Kassius,” Edward said. He turned to face us.
It was jarring how much he looked like an older version of Kash, but his eyes held none of the warmth. They were icicles.
“I thought I pushed you too far, and this was a form of rebellion.”
He waved a hand over me in disgust. “Why else would my son disgrace the family by marrying some waitress .”
I didn’t bother to correct him.
“Is there a point to this?” Kash asked.
Edward continued as if Kash had never spoken. “At least your mother had something of a decent career when I met her. Naturally, I had Samson look into her background.”
I assumed Samson was the man with the jagged scar.
“You know what he found?”
The question was clearly rhetorical. The sinking feeling in my stomach already told me what they found.
If they didn’t have the proof, then their suspicions were enough.
My own suspicion was confirmed when the other door opened and Victor Blake entered the room, his mouth lifting into a smirk when he saw me.
Kash thought of everything because he wanted to protect me. I was the one who had failed us because I let this secret fester. Now it was too late to tell him what he really needed to know.
“Your little whore of a wife worked for Biederman, Ross, & Biel. The same law firm that lost our lawsuit because someone sold our financial information to Kingston’s lawyers. Isn’t that interesting? Victor here says that the last person to review those financial statements was you, right before you quit.”
Cold panic was crawling up my spine.
“What are you talking about?” Kash asked.
His father braced his hands on the table, leaning forward. His face was lined with anger that no one outside this room would ever see because that’s not how Edward worked.
“Pay attention, boy! She sold us out and when that didn’t get her enough money, she came after you. Manipulated you into marrying her, letting you fuck her so you wouldn’t ask too many questions.”
I inhaled sharply at the accusations. That was too much.
“Naina wouldn’t do that,” Kash defended.
No, don’t defend me, that makes it worse.
His father laughed, his malicious eyes meeting mine.
“You really did a number on him, didn’t you? Go ahead, tell him the truth.”
“Naina?”
Taking a deep breath, I looked up at my husband. The confusion and betrayal I saw in his eyes made my chest ache.
The truth must have been written on my face because his face shuttered, all emotions neatly tucked away.
“I did it,” I whispered. “I’m the one who gave away those financial statements, but it wasn’t like what they are saying.”
Kash’s eyes grew cold, and I searched for the warmth I saw in them just hours before.
“I think you need to leave.”
He dropped my hand, turning away from me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Edward grin maliciously. He was enjoying his son’s pain, the sadistic bastard.
“Kash, please, just listen to me.”
“Naina, leave .”
If I tell you to leave, you’ll leave.
But how could I, when I felt there was a chasm opening between us, one that I felt like we would never cross?
How did we keep finding ourselves here? Were we shaped by our mistakes and our pasts or were we just doomed?
Maybe the universe was trying to tell us we didn’t belong together.
Pain spread through my chest, making my body numb.
I stared at Kash’s back, silently willing him to turn around. He remained rigid.
“I love you. It’s not a lie or a manipulation. Please remember that.”
I turned towards the door, my steps wobbly as I exited it. Grayson was standing outside, and he followed me through the lobby and up the elevator.
Back in the room, I sat down on the ouch heavily, my body giving out. A sob wrenched its way through my soul.
One stupid mistake was going to cost me everything.
Again.