Page 75 of Born in Grief

“I wanted to say goodbye,” she announced.

Ishaan and Virat stared up at her in surprise. Slowly, they got to their feet, still looking confused.

“Goodbye?” Virat asked. “Where are you going?”

“Tonight? Back to the house. The search is done, and I need to pack some more of my things. After that, I’ll figure out where I need to go and how to get there.”

“They didn’t find anything,” Virat said, his compassionate gaze taking in the tight set of her features before looking beyond her to where she was sure Amay stood.

“I’m sure,” Dhrithi replied. “Varun’s father probably had the place sanitized thoroughly before any of us even stepped into it.”

“Not just at the house,” Virat said. “They didn’t find anything at the other places either, the other flats.”

“Oh.” Well, that was surprising. “What does that mean?” she asked Virat. “That Varun wasn’t involved in something shady? Why did his friends turn up here to threaten me then?”

“All good questions,” Virat answered, a brooding look crossing his handsome face. “And I don’t have answers for any of them. Yet.”

“Well.” Dhrithi forced a smile to her face even as her bruised and battered heart crumbled a bit more at Amay’s thundering silence. “If you find anything worth knowing, you have my number.”

Virat nodded, his gaze flicking once more to where Amay stood. “I do,” he said, gently. “Take care of yourself Dhrithi.”

“I’ll try and do a better job than I did before,” she joked, a sad, little quiver to her voice ruining the moment.

She looked around and found the duffel bag she’d packed earlier on the side table. She reached for it, but another long, tanned hand got there first. Ishaan looped his fingers around the strap and smiled at her cheekily.

“I’ll drop you off, Goody.”

“You don’t have to,” she protested immediately. “I’ll Uber it.”

“Hey. I brought you here. I’ll take you wherever you want to go next.” He shouldered her bag, shooting an irritated look at Amay before turning back to her to smile widely. “Shall we? Your chariot awaits.”

A lump of emotion clogged her throat as the simple kindness cut through the carefully constructed wall around her heart.

“You’re not as annoying as you were at school,” she told him.

Ishaan grinned. “Right back at you.”

“Just so you know, the academic excellence trophy was meant to be mine. That extra half mark you got in computer science does not count.”

Ishaan raised an imperious eyebrow at her. “Just because you don’t understand a subject, doesn’t mean the whole subject itself doesn’t count.”

“It doesn’t count because you hounded Barkhat Sir into giving it to you!” She smiled a final goodbye at Virat but didn’t look back to where she knew Amay stood. “By that definition, I should have whined my way into extra marks in English and Math.”

Ishaan rolled his eyes as he walked with her to the door. “Whining doesn’t get you anywhere. A little money under the table would have gotten you the damn trophy.”

“I wanted to earn it!” She pretended outrage as she opened the door, her fingers trembling as she grasped the handle. “I studied the whole year for it.”

“And I was still smarter than you,” he said smugly, stepping through the opened door with her and nudging it shut behind them with his hip.

The click of the latch falling into place resounded in the quiet of the apartment corridor. Dhrithi took a deep, shuddering breath. “Yeah,” she said softly. “You were. All of you were.”

“Are you okay Goody?” he asked now, his deep voice softening, pity and apology soaking through the words.

“No,” she said, smiling brilliantly at him through the tears that stood, unshed, in her eyes. “But I will be.”

And with that she walked out of there, her head held high and her gaze trained on the path forward.

She wouldn’t look back. Not anymore.

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