Page 16 of Married in Vengeance

He looked down at her, a slow, chilling smile splitting his face. “You want to know why I married you?”

She nodded dumbly, fear snaking through her.

“I married you to ruin you, Aadhya Reddy.”

Nine

RAM

I marriedyou to ruin you.

The words spun in an endless cycle in his brain as he walked into his office the next morning. A young boy sat in the reception area, his knee jittering like a jackhammer as his parents tried to calm him down.

“Is that kid one of your clients?” he asked the man sitting in the conference room.

Karthik Thotta, his classmate from law school and partner in the law firm, looked up and sighed. He shut his laptop and put his hands on the back of his head, stretching as he did so.

“Before we get to that, do you want to tell me what you’re doing here the day after your wedding?”

“Working,” Ram said curtly, turning his head slowly to the side in a bid to get the kinks out of his neck. Sleeping on the recliner in the home theatre room was not as comfortable as you’d expect.

“Dude, I haven’t yet gotten over the hangover from your wedding reception. How are you all jazzed up and ready to go?”

“Left early.” Ram glanced up as their office boy came in and put a mug of steaming black coffee in front of him. “Thank you,Vijay,” he told him. “Now.” He looked back at Karthik. “New client?”

“Yep.” Karthik tapped a pen on the table. “Seventeen-year-old boy. His classmate accused him of raping her.”

“Did he rape her?” Ram didn’t glance up from where he was scrolling his emails on his phone.

“He says he didn’t.”

“But did he?” Ram looked up, his glance skewering his partner.

Karthik didn’t bother with a direct answer. “The evidence is circumstantial. Her word against his. I’ll get him off.”

Ram stared at him.

“That’s what matters right?” Karthik smiled, getting to his feet. “The job. The fee. The money to keep the lights on.”

Ram watched him leave, feeling the stain on his soul spread. Was that all that mattered? Fresh out of law school, he’d been all fired up on ethics and the greater good, the need to be better than his father’s shaky morality, his family legacy. He’d been born into a world of grey and he’d struggled in adulthood to live a life that was sparkling white. He’d wanted to work as a public prosecutor but his father had fought him long and hard on that.

His only son who resisted taking over the family’s media conglomerate and then wanted to go work in the public prosecutor’s office was not an option. At least, a defense attorney made more money. And in Chaitanya Gadde’s world, the least you could be was rich.

Choices. So many choices. And he’d made all the wrong ones.

“Ram Anna?” Vijay was back, an empty tray in his hands.

“Hmm?” Ram tapped out an answer to one of the emails clogging up his inbox.

“Akka is here.”

“Who?” Distracted, Ram looked up. “Veda or Raashi.”

“Me.” Aadhya appeared in the doorway behind Vijay, smiling at the blushing younger man as he moved past her mumbling about bringing her coffee.

The world stilled as he watched her enter his workspace, the first time she’d been there. She wore a simple white chikankari salwar kameez, her face scrubbed clean of all makeup and her glorious curls tumbling in wild abandon down her back. Her cool, reserved gaze took in the sterile, white environment, the cubicles outside the conference room that hummed with activity. He watched her clock the seventeen-year-old crying in Karthik’s cabin, sympathy darkening her eyes.

She turned slowly to look at him. The sympathy died from her face leaving a blank canvas.

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