Page 74 of Fixation

“I’ve been avoiding a war with you for years,Anna. Don’t give me a reason to fight with you. That ring is my legacy. I will destroy you for it.”

“Not if I destroy you first,” Ananya challenged.

Oh God. This was going crazy. Before he could say something to calm the situation, Armaan spoke up, “Guys, no one is destroying anyone, okay?”

But Ananya wasn’t done. She stepped closer to Mihir. “You want a war; I’ll gladly give you one. I’ve wasted years of my life yearning for a selfish bastard like you. But now, I’m done. I’m done pining over you. I’m done hoping to have a decent conversation with you to clear the air. I don’t even care what you think of me anymore. You are an asshole, and you don’t deserve me. Ever since that yacht incident, I’ve been miserable, depressed, and upset because of you. I’ve even stopped looking after myself. But that stops today. I can’t get those tears and years back, but I will get retribution for the time I wasted on you.” She lifted her head higher. “From this day on, revenge has a new name for you, and it is Ananya Mehra.”

Oh Fuck. Mihir could never resist a challenge, and he’d never back off from one thrown by this particular woman.

Mihir’s lips curved. “Fancy words, but then you always had a good play on language,da?” He lowered his face to hers. “Bring it on. Let me see what you’ve got,Anna.”

Ananya lifted her nose. “Never even in my wildest dreams I imagined I’d feel this for you, much less say it, but I truly hate you from the bottom of my heart.”

“Good, now you know what it feels like.”

They stared at each other for a hot, electrifying moment before Ananya walked away. Reaching the door, she looked sideways. “Don’t forget to read the next issue of Noir. It will be the beginning of your doom, Mihir Oshnov.”

With that parting shot, Ananya stormed away. Mihir opened the terrace doors in the direction opposite her and left through them.

“Have they gone?” Vedant asked.

“Fuck, yeah.” Armaan looked as shocked as Vedant was.

Vedant chuckled. “Am I the only one here who thinks that their conversation was filled with sexual tension?”

“So much that I wanted to fan myself,” Navya replied.

“Well, I think this war might just be good for them then,” Vedant said.

Mihir needed to hash out his differences with Ananya Mehra. It was long overdue, and it was high time that his brother found some closure with her. Good or bad, this needed to happen.

With a quick goodbye to Navya and Armaan, he disconnected the line. Tyrion entered the room.

“Sir, I have news,” he held his iPad out. “We’ve been scanning through the flight manifests of various flights out of London for the last three weeks.”

Vedant’s heart soared. “And?”

“I found out that Su Min took a flight from London to Seoul soon after she left from here. Further enquiries show that she has family there.”

Okay, this was a relief that, at least for now, this woman didn’t pose a threat to Reina if she was out of the country.

“There’s more,” Tyrion said. “No airline had a passenger named Dr. Reina Singh on their manifest for the last three weeks.”

“Fuck.” Disappointment swamped him.

“But there was a Reina Mehra who took a flight to Dubai,” Tyrion quickly added.

Vedant froze.

“Something about that name bothered me,” Tyrion explained, “so I returned to the ownership and rental records ofthe building where the cab driver had dropped Dr. Singh that night. Like I’d suspected, there was an apartment owned by a Ms. R. Mehra in that building. I’d missed it out because our team was looking for a Dr. Reina Singh. Nonetheless, I believe Reina Singh may actually be Reina Mehra.”

Her name was Reina Mehra? His heart began to speed as so many thoughts rushed into his head. He tried to puzzle through them slowly. Fuck. It couldn’t be… But everything pointed to only one possibility.

Armaan giving Reina her phone back… Reina trusting Armaan to help her… Armaan being protective of Reina, so much so that he was willing to battle with Vedant over her… Navya mentioning right now on the call that her sister was in town...

Reina had told him that she was the youngest. That she had a brother and two sisters. And finally, Armaan’s words: “Even God won’t be able to help us once her brother learns that she was held hostage here, and she was forced to leave because of something you did.”

Fucking hell. Why had he not thought of this before? There was only one man unafraid to take the Oshnovs on. Only one man who had stood against them in the past and would willingly do it again. Rajiv Mehra.

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