Page 40 of Forged By Fate

“Sunaina, can we not talk about Sarang and his family tonight? I need this to be only about me and my music if that makes any sense.”

“Of course,” I agreed readily because I knew what she was feeling.

When your husband was so famous, your very existence was obliterated by his fame. It became all about him. That’s exactly why I had held onto my job because it kept me from falling into the trap of believing I was really a billionaire’s wife. For the past two years, I’d had to constantly remind myself that when this was over, I was going back to a small flat in the suburbs, and it showed me the importance of being independent.

Tarana needed her music to be separate from everything that Sarang created, especially when she was going to be accused of nepotism anyway. It wouldn’t matter that she was an amazing singer in her own right. The trolls would always find a way to put her down just because she was married to Sarang.

‘So what’s the plan?” she asked.

“I have no plan,” I confessed. “Tanvir saw your video and wanted to meet you right away. Shall we see how it goes?”

She nodded doubtfully as I stopped to pick up a couple of bottles of wine before our car pulled up outside a run-down colonial bungalow in one of the by-lanes of Bandra.

“Why are we meeting him in a bhoot bangla?” she hissed as I pushed the rusty iron gate open and made my way to the front door.

The paint on the outside of the house was peeling, but we could hear cheerful voices coming from inside. When we rang the bell, a bearded giant opened the door.

“Tanvir?” I asked carefully.

“Hey, come on in,” he said with a warm smile. “You must be Sunaina. And I recognised Tarana from the video.”

We followed him into the house and found it to be a warm, welcoming space with a large living room that opened into a dining area.

“Meet the band! That’s Atharva, our bassist, and that’s Gino, who plays keyboards, and his wife, Perpetua, is our drummer,” said Tanvir.

“Nice to meet you guys. This is a lovely house,” I said, which was true. It might look like a bhoot bangla from the outside, but the inside was lovely.

“This is Gino and Perpetua’s house. Atharva and I crash here most of the time, too, so we use this as our base,” said Tanvir.

“I hope you guys are hungry. Atharva and I have been slaving in the kitchen since evening,” said Gino as his wife opened the bottles of wine that I had brought along.

“We’re famished,” said Tarana, with a grin. “And something smells delicious!”

“That’s Atharva’s mom’s fish curry. The bastard won’t share the recipe, but he cooks it willingly enough, so we forgive him,” said Perpetua with a laugh. “We also have veggie options in case you’re vegetarian.”

Tarana happened to be vegetarian, and I was touched they went to so much trouble for our sake.

Dinner was a fun affair, with The Bandra Boys regaling us with tales of how they came together to form a band.

“But why are you called The Boys when Perpetua is a girl?” asked Tarana in confusion.

“We had another drummer when we first started out. We were all from the same boys’ school in Bandra, so the name came naturally to us. Perpetua joined us when Nikhil left the band to go into banking, and we offered to change the name, but she likes to see the look of surprise on people’s faces when they see her,” said Atharva, with a boyish grin.

“Tell us about yourselves,” said Perpetua. “Where are you girls from?”

I shrugged awkwardly and knew that we couldn’t go ahead with the evening without letting them know our real identities.

“In the interests of full disclosure, I need to tell you guys right now that my full name is Sunaina Chaudhry. I’m Viren’s wife,” I said slowly and found them staring at me in confusion.

“The Viren Chaudhry who has our asses in a sling right now? You’re his wife?” asked Tanvir with an angry glint in his eyes.

“Yes, but I’m here purely as Tarana’s social media manager, not as Viren’s wife. He has no idea I’m here because this has nothing to do with him,” I said hastily.

“And Tarana? Who are you?” asked Perpetua shrewdly.

Tarana raised her chin and met their eyes with defiance shining through hers.

“I’m Sarang Sharma’s wife,” she announced.

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