Page 85 of Born in Grief

“Ask me Dhriths.”

“Do you ever wonder, Amay, what life would have been like if we lived in a world in which you were mine?” The words were a whisper, a wish cast out on the wind.

“There is no world that exists in which I am not yours, Dhrithi Sahay. As you are mine.”

He strode forward, his arms open and she came willingly into their embrace. “You’re mine,” he told her fiercely.

She buried her face in his shirt, her body shuddering in unspent tears. “There has never been anything I wanted more,” she whispered.

“We’ll figure this out together,” he told her, tipping her chin up, so her wet, tear-streaked face looked up at him.

“As long as we’re together, the rest of it doesn’t matter.”

“You do know I love you, right?” He wiped her tears with his thumbs.

“I know. You told me in ninth grade Chemistry class.” Her smile was watery but radiant. “You sent me a note that said, ‘You’re the acid to my base.’”

Amay groaned. “Virat was right. I had zero game.”

Dhrithi laughed, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him, slowly and sweetly. “All that meant was that you neutralise me. But the truth is, Dr. Amay Aatre,” she punctuated each word with a kiss. “You electrify me.”

“I do?”

“Yeah, and just so you know,” she added cheekily. “Any future kids we have will be taught Chemistry by me, not you.”

Her smile faded as the words left her lips. “Amay, I can’t have kids. I don’t know why I just said that.”

“All I want in my life, Dhriths, is you. The rest, like we said, we’ll figure out. If we want kids, we’ll get them.”

“Get them?” she asked, pretending to be alarmed. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to abduct a baby from the hospital neonatology ward or something.”

He laughed. “If we want a child, Dhriths, we’ll find a way to welcome one into our lives. Legally,” he added, before she could make another idiotic joke.

She hadn’t said ‘I love you’ back, but it didn’t matter. She wanted to be with him and he’d take that over any grand declarations. He loved her and for the moment, it was enough for both of them. The rest, they would work through together.

The doorbell rang and the two of them went to open it to let Virat and Ishaan in. It was time to figure out exactly what muck they were wading into.

Chapter Forty-Nine

DHRITHI

Virat’s eyes were dark pools of deathly vengeance as he stared down at the photograph in his hand. She knew there was history here, a story that she had never heard but she also knew that now was not the time to ask to hear it.

“Are we going to take that to the cops?” she asked when no one seemed inclined to speak.

Virat took a deep breath and shook his head. He closed his eyes and did the deep breathing again and slowly, very slowly, she saw the tension in his body ease as he locked down whatever he was feeling. That level of control over his emotions was impressive…and scary.

“Not right now. All this shows is a woman with multiple partners. Until we can prove it was not consensual, there is nothing here but outrage for the moral police.”

“Maybe it was consensual,” Dhrithi said. Her years mingling in the upper echelons of society had left her very jaded on this front.

“Doubtful,” Amay said, ice in his voice. “Not with their track record.”

“What do you mean?” Dhrithi stared at him, revulsion swarming through her.

“Later.” He mouthed the word at her.

“Is this the only thing you found, Goody?” Ishaan asked, glancing around the cavernous space of the living room.

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