Page 56 of Born in Grief

“It’s none of your business,” Amay snarled, his control breaking. His voice lashed her with the force of a whip making her take a startled step back.

“You made it my business when you brought me home, when you offered to help me. You can’t offer support and then snarl at me when I take you up on it. Make your choice, Amay Aatre, and then stick with it.”

“Like you did, when you chose him over me?” he asked, his voice icy with disdain.

Dhrithi went white, colour leaching out of her face. But she held her ground, meeting his gaze. “At least I stuck with it.”

The truth of her words hung in the air between them. She looked at them, all three of them. “You can tell me or I can go digging for information another way. But either way I’ll find out.”

She turned away from them and was about to leave when Ishaan sighed. “Sit down, Goody.”

Amay glared at him. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Did you honestly not think it would come to this? Where did you see this going when you brought her home from the hospital?”

Amay had no answer to that. He should have known that this was where they would end up but he hadn’t been thinking. Hehadn’t been thinking at all. He’d only wanted to keep her safe, keep her healthy…keep her close.

And now, the lid on Pandora’s box had come loose.

Chapter Thirty-Three

DHRITHI

“Sit down, Goody. I’ll tell you what you need to know.” Ishaan, for the first time since she’d met him outside the hospital sounded tired and lost. His trademark sneer seemed to have disappeared into the hazy dusk that was slowly descending on the city of Mumbai.

“What I want to know,” she corrected him, still standing, her arms folded over her chest.

Now he smiled, a small peek of the shark he kept hidden within his civilized exterior. “Don’t push your luck,” he told her gently but the steel in his warning came through loud and clear.

Virat stood up from the chair he’d been seated on and walked over to the banister. Every muscle in his body tensed as he braced his forearms on the metal railing and stared out into the distance. She was pretty sure he wasn’t looking for the ocean sliver. She watched his profile, carved from aged grief, and she felt fear streak down her spine like lightning. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what had happened. Theexpression on Virat’s face told her she was better off living in ignorance.

“What did Varun do?” she whispered.

“It wasn’t just him.” It was Amay who answered her. “It was the Dusty Devils.”

The old nickname for Varun’s gang at school was a jarring reminder of happier times. It took her back to boisterous meals in their lunch hall, quiet study hours trading notes with friends, giggling gossip sessions in their dormitories after the lights went out, and an innocent friendship with the studious, quiet boy in the seat beside her.

“They bullied you?” she asked, when no one said anything further. But then The Dusty Devils bullied everyone.

“Not just us.” Ishaan scrubbed his hands through his hair. “It was graduation night. After the party, we managed to score a couple of bottles of beer and snuck out into the gardens in the far east corner of the grounds.”

Dhrithi knew the spot they were talking about. Far away, bordering the wall that hemmed the school grounds in was a little grove of thick trees. It had been a popular make out spot between the older kids. It had been the spot where Varun had forced their first kiss on her. She blocked the memory now and focused on the conversation, her hands instinctively rubbing at her arms to banish the sudden chill that had set in.

Amay glanced at Virat who was still staring into the distance, seeing God knows what. “They had someone tied to a tree. The massive old banyan tree near the-“

“I know which one,” Dhrithi whispered. That was the tree Varun had pushed her up against and-

She squeezed her eyes tight and shook her head to dispel the memory, revulsion crawling through her.

“It was a girl, wasn’t it?” she murmured, her voice a bare breath of sound. They had tied a girl to that tree.

Nobody answered her but she knew she was right. Instinctively, she knew that whatever was coming was nothing good. She could still feel the bark of the tree against the thin cotton of her t-shirt as Varun had smashed his lips into hers and ground himself against her, ignoring her whimpers of protest. Varun had chosen that tree for a reason, one that she had known nothing about.

“Yes.” Amay stepped forward, blocking her view of Virat. There was something deliberate in the movement but Dhrithi was unable to comprehend hidden meanings in that moment. She was already struggling with the truth being laid bare. He didn’t bother to elaborate on what they were doing to the girl. Dhrithi didn’t need to know. Bile rose in the back of her throat as the reality of what she’d always known about her husband smacked her in the face.

Husband.

The very word made her skin crawl, a thousand bugs skittering through her veins, revulsion living its truth in her very essence.

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