Page 54 of Born in Grief

Dhrithi shook her head again. “Sparsha would never prefer anyone to Varun. Charithra Shankar. She’s a Kathak dancer, a pretty big name on the classical dance circuit.”

“So, she thought Naveen’s dick was bigger than Varun’s and that caused a decades old friendship to crumble?” Ishaan asked skeptically.

“I think it was less about how big his dick was and more about what he could do with it,” Dhrithi murmured dryly. “That wasn’t really Varun’s forte.”

Ishaan laughed, a sudden bark of sound and for the first time since he’d entered the flat, he looked directly at her. “Alright, I’ll look her up too. Let’s see exactly what those three were up to, in bed and out of it.”

“How would you find that out?” Dhrithi asked curiously.

“I have my ways,” Ishaan intoned, clearly trying to sound mysterious but only sounding idiotic instead.

Dhrithi laughed and leaned back in her chair, sipping from her now cooling coffee. “Just don’t bring me any videos please. I don’t need those images living rent free in my head.”

“You didn’t care?” Amay asked. “About what he was doing with other women?”

“I didn’t give a shit what or who he stuck his dick in, as long as he left me alone.” The brutal frankness of the answer had the men appraising her differently.

“You don’t get it,” she told Amay. “Or maybe you don’t want to. I didn’t have a marriage. I had an arrangement, one in which the power dynamic was so skewed, the scars it left me with will stay forever. Judge me all you want, but don’t expect me to fake emotions. The only thing I feel about Varun’s death is relief.”

She pushed to her feet, the chair legs screeching against the tiled floor. Coffee sloshed over the rim of her mug and spilled over her hand and onto her foot.

Dark brown stains on the pristine white floor. Apparently, Dhrithi wasn’t done leaving her mark on Amay’s life.

“I’m glad he’s dead,” she said, looking at the coffee stains that marred the otherwise perfect flooring. “I’m glad he died before…”

She felt them still, every one of them watching her. She shouldn’t, she knew she shouldn’t. Years of betrayal and hurt from the people who should have loved and protected her had taught her to guard her tongue, to only show the world the face she wanted them to see.

She looked up and at the three men who were helping her. They owed her nothing and yet, they were risking their normal to help her find her own. Two because they loved their friend, and one because, at one point in her useless, hopeless life, he’d loved her. The time for watching her words was over. If nothing else, she owed them the truth.

“I’m glad he died because if he hadn’t, I would have killed him.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

AMAY

He watched her leave the room. She gathered her long, glorious hair into a bun and tied it back at the nape of her neck. It was the last thing he saw before she disappeared from sight around the turn of the corridor that led to her room.

“They’ve started the search at Varun’s office.”

Virat’s voice dragged his gaze back to his friends. He ignored Ishaan’s smirk and focused on their more mature friend. “Let’s see what they find.”

Virat frowned. “I don’t see them turning much up at the office. If there is anything to be found, it’s going to be at one of their residential properties.”

“Dhrithi seems pretty confident that there isn’t anything at their residence in Mumbai. Maybe the farm at Karjat?”

“Or the flat in Andheri.”

“What flat in Andheri?” Amay stared at them.

“There’s also a two bedroom shithole in Borivali,” Ishaan contributed. “Both bought through a shell company.”

“You went digging,” he said to Ishaan. “Of course you did.”

“I was bored last night,” Ishaan shrugged, making light of his legendary tech skills. If there was information out in the ethers of the digital world, Ishaan Adajania was the one to find it. “There are places in Delhi, Gurgaon, and Chennai too.”

“So, he had a real estate fetish? That’s not exactly surprising.”

Most of the rich believed in investing in properties around the country, if not the globe. And sure enough, Ishaan added, “He’s got a place in London too. Sadly, he only rents in New York. I’m disappointed in him. Dick should have bought it no?”

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