Page 62 of Married in Vengeance

How had it come to this? Her entire life was falling apart. Her work, her family, her marriage, everything.

But Ram had her. She held on to that thought, using it to anchor herself in the middle of the chaos in her mind and heart.

“What happens now?”

“Why don’t we get out of the bathroom before we decide to figure out our battle strategy?” he suggested, leading her out of the pretty but cramped powder room.

She balked a little when he turned towards the study but Ram propelled her forward.

“Don’t do that,” he ordered. “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

His words struck a chord in her heart.

“Neither do you,” she told him, pausing at the door to the study.

Ram hesitated, his hand on the doorknob, a pained expression crossing his face. “I wish that were true, Aadhya. But it isn’t.”

She didn’t have time to puzzle that out before he pushed the door open and ushered her into the room.

“We need to get an injunction,” his father said as soon as they entered the room. “We can’t let this air.”

“No.”

Aadhya was mid nod when Ram’s abrupt denial stopped her like a jerky marionette who’d had its strings cut.

“No?” She gawped at him.

“No,” he repeated. “We don’t know how many copies of this video are out there and we didn’t know who all have access to it. We can’t spend our lives serving injunctions. This news house did us the courtesy of an advance warning. We don’t even know how many others got the clip and said nothing.”

“We didn’t get it,” his father muttered, sounding disgruntled at missing out on the scoop.

“Try to control your disappointment,” Ram said drily.

“So, what are we going to do then?” Aadhya asked. “Wait for them to destroy our world? Allow whoever is trying to ruin us to win?”

“We’ve been reactive until now. This person has been spinning chaos and mayhem in our lives and we’ve been scrambling around doing damage control.” He smiled; a feral baring of his teeth that made Aadhya supremely glad that he was on her side. “Now? Now we play this on the front foot. We take the fight to them.”

“Is this speech ever going to end?” Chaitanya Gadde asked irritably. “Get to the point.”

Ram tossed his father’s phone to him. “Call your friend who tipped you off. Ask him if he’d like an exclusive interview with Aadhya and I.”

Aadhya froze, the world tilting on its axis. “What?” Shock had her swallowing the rest of her words.

“We’re married, Aadhya. We aren’t going to be shamed for loving each other. We’re going to take control of the narrative. This is not a dirty, little secret.”

They loved each other? Was he saying he loved her? Was that what he’d meant by choosing her? Her thoughts scrambled around like a hamster on a wheel as she tried to focus.

“Why do we need to give an interview about our sex life?” she asked finally.

Her father-in-law flinched at her words.

“We’re not. We’re going to talk about the person who leaked this to the press intending to shame and embarrass a newly married couple for doing what every married couple is expected to do.”

“We weren’t married when we did that.” Aadhya pointed to the phone her Mamagaru had clenched in his fist. The older man groaned and muttered under his breath.

“You are not a shameful secret. You are my wife, and I am proud to be your husband. And I will be damned if I will let anyone sully that.”

“You can do the interview on our channel,” his father interrupted the rather romantic declaration her husband was making. “We’ll have more control that way.”

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