Page 90 of Addiction

Mihir went to Vedant. “That woman saved your life, you know. It won’t hurt to be nice to her.”

“Yeah, whatever…” Vedant grumbled. “She just rubs me the wrong way. There’s something about her that I can’t put a finger on…”

Sudden realization dawned on Armaan.

“I’ll be back,” he said.

He left the room and went in search of the doctor. He found her in the kitchen, chatting happily with the nurse. She’d removed her glasses and released her hair from its tight knot. Seeing him, she wore her glasses again.

He looked at the nurse. “I need to have a word with the doctor.”

The nurse left immediately. Armaan studied the woman in front of him.

“Hello, Dr. Singh,” he said, reading the tag on her jacket pocket. “Or should I say, Dr. Reina Mehra?”

Her eyes widened.

“I suppose you know who I am,” Armaan said.

“Of course, I know you,” Reina said, pocketing her glasses. With her hair loose and those monstrous glasses no longer on her face, she looked young and pretty. A lot like Navya. His heart twisted. Navya. How he missed her...

Seeing Navya’s youngest sister assessing him, he asked, “Why the name Dr. Singh?”

“You asking me that means Navya hasn’t told you about our history.”

He jolted back. What history had Navya not shared with him? Was this further proof that she could never trust him? That her words to her elder sister had been true?

“I won’t love him. I am not in love with him.”

The memory of her words haunted him, making his chest hurt each time he thought of them, or her.

“Does she know that you’re treating my brother?” Armaan asked.

Reina put her hands in her coat’s pockets. “What do you think?”

“Shit. She will be mad when she finds out.”

“They all will be,” Reina replied. “Mihir gave me no choice when it came to treating Vedant. You see, I was the emergency doctor on call the night Vedant was brought in. His pulse was low, and he was losing a lot of blood. We didn’t even have time to wait for a senior surgeon. I took a call to operate on him, and I suppose it was the right call.”

“You saved his life.”

“Yes, which Mihir understood the second he reached the hospital. He brought me and a few others from the hospital here and has held us captive since then. We aren’t allowed to step outside the grounds. We are given our phones only twice a day, and we can only make calls to our immediate family to assure them we are alright. We are allowed to speak to them only in the presence of your guards. Yes, you can argue that we can roam the grounds freely and make use of your numerous in-house facilities like the gym, spa, sauna, pool, etc, but it still doesn’t compare to being free. I’ve been forced to lie to my family. They continue to believe that I’m staying at my apartment and that I have a tough few work weeks ahead.”

“I’m so sorry,” Armaan said.

Her gaze jumped to his. “You are apologizing? To me? Why?”

“Because you’rehersister. And because Mihir only had Vedant’s best interests at heart when he gave these instructions. Trust me, it is safer for you too,” he explained. “Do my brothers know who you are?”

“No.”

Armaan thought through everything for a moment. “Mihir knows.”

“What?”

“My brother wouldn’t have allowed you or your team to set foot inside this house and entrusted Vedant’s care to you all without doing a background check on everyone. He knows. I’m sure of it. What he doesn’t know is that I also know who you are.”

“As long as Vedant doesn’t know, it’s fine.”

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