Page 21 of Married in Vengeance

“Is it over?” he asked her.

She nodded, not bothering with an answer beyond that. He strode out of the crowded living room hall and towards his room. He was halfway to escape when his father called out.

“Ram? My office.” Chaitanya Gadde didn’t wait for a response before walking out of the room. Ram sighed but followed. There went escape.

His father’s office door had barely shut behind him when the older man said, “Anant has lodged a new petition with the court.”

Ram groaned. “What now?”

“He is asking for a mistrial and a new judge to be assigned.”

“On what grounds?”

“He claims we’re bribing the judge.”

Ram exhaled, taking the papers his father held out to him. “He’s filed in High Court?”

“He has,” his father confirmed.

The fatigue he’d been fighting off returned hundredfold. “I’ll take care of it,” he told his father who nodded in response.

He’d take care of it, he promised himself as he strode from the room. He’d take care of all of it.

But for now, he just wanted an hour to himself in the quiet solitude of his room. He opened the door to find Aadhya sitting in the middle of his bed, staring blankly at her hennaed hands.

So much for that hope. There was no quiet or solitude in his future. He supposed that was the price he paid for vengeance.

“Don’t mind me,” he said, his hand still on the doorknob, clutching it like it was a lifeline. “I’ll find somewhere else to be.”

“I never mind you, Gadde,” she drawled, still not looking up from her hands. “I’d need to care about you to mind.”

His heart twisted in his chest, her words lancing through the festering boil of her betrayal and causing it to spill over.

He stepped into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him. He twisted the lock shut with a decisive click.

Aadhya’s head snapped up with the sound, her gaze going to his. He’d seen her look at him with everything from anger to disdain to desire to, in her weakest moments, adoration. Or so he’d thought.

But for the first time today, he saw hate. A long forgotten part of his soul, one he’d thought he’d still managed to retain despite the life he’d lived, splintered.

Had she always hated him? Was that why she’d sent that mail? Had it never been about blackmailing him into marriage? Had it been something else? What had she wanted from him?

A million questions with no answers. If he asked, he’d never be told. So, he’d just have to find out on his own.

But until then…

He yanked his kurta off his head and tossed it on a chair. Aadhya’s eyes went wide, her pupils dilating as she took in his bare chest.

“What are you doing?” Her voice was flat, but he heard the faint quiver she tried to hide.

“Getting comfortable. I need some sleep.”

He shucked his bottoms as well and slid into the bed beside her, in just his boxers.

“Why here?” Her hands clenched in the sheet, crumpling it.

“This is my room, love.” The endearment rolled off his tongue, bittersweet and laden with memories.

“You slept somewhere else last night.” Her hands got impossibly tighter in the sheet.

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