No. I cannot do this.
She might be unhappy seeing him. But he had to try harder to make her listen. He cannot put them both through misery because of one mistake he made.
He decided to stay and fight, to win back Ava’s trust and along with it her heart.
He looked up and caught the steward’s attention. “Tell the captain I need to go back.”
“Sure, Mr. Simha.”
*****
Thirty minutes later, Abhi walked down the small flight of stairs of the private jet. He knew Ava blocked his phone number, so he called Ved. “Locate Ava on the campus. I need to see her.”
“What?” Ved was taken aback. “Where are you?”
“I came back.”
He heard his cousin chuckle. “You and Harvard are shameless, bro. She just called Rana begging to talk to you and now you turned a flight back?”
Abhi was shocked to hear Ava called for him. Hoping she decided to forgive him, he hurried toward his bike to get to her. He called her phone, but it was unanswered.
Thirty minutes later, when he parked the bike near the point closest to her housing unit, he called Ved again.
“What happened? Where is she?”
There was silence. “I’m not able to locate her.”
“What the fuck do you mean not able to locate?”
“Her phone is turned off.” Ved replied.
Something felt off. It had been ringing a while ago but now, it got switched off.
“Where was the last location?”
It took a few more moments until Ved replied. “It was at the gate outside her housing unit.”
The place where he dropped her after their dates. What was Ava doing there?
“I’m coming to you. Call Rana too.”
Ten more minutes later, he saw his cousins waiting for him at the computer administration center.
“Pull up the security camera feed near the last location.” He knew it would require hacking into the central security system. At that point, he cared more about locating Ava than breaking a law.
It took Ved ten more minutes. Abhi’s heart jerked when he saw the grainy form of Ava waiting by the stop. He saw her wiping her tears and calling someone on the phone frantically.
And a few minutes later, a vehicle approached her. He expected it to be university transportation. But when he saw the vehicle number, he let out a curse.
“Fuck!” A strange mix of fear and anger started to grip him. “Locate Neeraj.”
Why would she leave with Neeraj?
CHAPTER 41
“You’re making a big mistake,” Ava warned from the back seat of the vehicle as she sat next to Neeraj’s friends. “You will get kicked out of Simha and will be prosecuted because this is kidnapping.” She tried desperately to weaken Neeraj’s friend’s resolve as they drove to an unidentified location.
“Don’t worry, boys,” Neeraj drawled. “We will have fun. And you guys know she won’t remember anything with the magic potion.”