Page 79 of Born in Grief

“You left me in the hospital,” she reminded him mildly. “Told me I was not welcome in your home, essentially left me on the streets to fend for myself, days after I had major surgery.”

“Left you on the streets,” he scoffed. “So much melodrama.”

Her mother let out a high-pitched girlish giggle, her only contribution to the conversation so far.

“You think I don’t know how much money you have in that account of yours? The one that Varun deposited your allowance into?”

Surprise had her sitting forward too. “How do you know what is in my account? Only Varun and I have access to it.”

Her father waved a dismissive hand in the air. Time to change banks, she thought.

“My point is,” he said with a sneer. “You were not on the streets.”

“Statistics say that people who are cared for by loved ones recover faster from injuries.” Dhanush’s clinical voice cut through the conversation. “Didi didn’t have that. She only had the money.”

Dhrithi looked at her father, trying to suppress her smirk and failing. “Yeah Dad. Pay attention.”

“This is about your brother and his future, Dhrithi.” Her father’s voice shook with suppressed emotion. “You know we have to safeguard him against a time when we are not there to take care of him. How can you be so selfish?”

“Actually, that’s not true.” Dhanush chimed in again. “I have an Ivy league degree and a well-paying job. I can take care of myself.”

Dhrithi raised her eyebrows as she met her father’s gaze. She didn’t quite have Ishaan’s eyebrow game, but she was doing her best. “Back to you Dad. What’s the next strategy you want to try?”

“You want to abandon us like this?” Incensed, he rose to his feet, a shower of biscuit crumbs falling to the carpet as he did so. Just how many biscuits did he eat? “How can you abandon your retarded brother and your old parents like this?”

“HE IS NOT RETARDED.” All pretense of civility disappeared as Dhrithi rose to her feet to face her father, rage pulsing through her. “Don’t you dare talk about him like that, in his presence or otherwise! Dhanush will always have me batting for him. Now and in the future. Just like he’s had me to support him in the past.”

She took a step forward forcing her father to take a startled step back, away from her. “As for the rest, you abandoned me first. Ma and you abandoned me the day you pushed me into a marriage with a narcissistic psychopath for money. You abandoned me every single day after that when you saw what he did to me, and you did nothing about it. He would have killed me, Dad. If he hadn’t died that night, he would have killed me one day and all you would have said was, ‘Oh no, the golden goose is dead.’”

“The stupid goose is already dead even if it’s still breathing.” Disgusted with her, he shook his head and stepped away, snapping his fingers at her mother. “Get up. We’re leaving.”

Dhanush and her mother rose, following him to the door where he stopped and turned to face her, one last time. “If you continue to be stubborn, you will lose us forever.”

Dhrithi shrugged. “I never had you to lose you.”

“Not me,” Dhanush interjected. “You will not lose me.”

Dhrithi smiled a little, squeezing his shoulder in farewell and then she stood there in that ornate, over the top living room and watched her family leave her.

And then she was alone again. Just her and the ghosts.

Chapter Forty-Six

AMAY

Amay stood on his balcony, hands gripping the railing as he stared out at the complicated hodgepodge of Mumbai’s skyline. He saw none of it, all he saw was Dhrithi walking out of his home and his life. She hadn’t looked back. It had cleaved his heart in two and still, he’d been so incredibly proud of her. She wasn’t taking anyone’s shit anymore, not even his.

“Are you planning to jump?”

He didn’t turn at the sound of Ishaan’s voice. Maybe if he ignored his annoying friend long enough, he would disappear back into the cave he usually hibernated in.

But Ishaan didn’t disappear. He stepped up to stand beside Amay, looking out onto the same dirty, grimy slice of Mumbai life.

“I’m asking because I’m not sure you’ve written out your will as yet.” He peered over the side of the railing. “And you, my friend, are the sole heir to the Aatre empire. There’s a lot at stake if you decide to spatter yourself on the pavement.”

“Are you angling to find out if you’re in my will, dickhead?”

“I don’t angle,” Ishaan retorted with impressive dignity. “I know my worth.”

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