Page 125 of Obsession

Rajiv’s revelation warmed his heart. His closest friend had hoped that he and Anna would reconcile. Really, he was lucky to have Rajiv as a friend.

Rajiv continued, “Don’t look so surprised. I wanted you both to get back together forhersake. She’s my sister, and I know that she has only ever loved you. She’s never even looked at another man after you, even in the years she thought you were dead. My parents recently suggested she try for an arranged marriage, but she resisted the idea.”

Mihir’s eyes went wide. “Your parents want her to get?—”

Rajiv’s answering glare was enough to shut him up. Anna’s parents only wanted her to be happy. But the thought of Anna with another man hurt. It felt like acid was being poured down his heart. He wouldn’t let it happen.

Rajiv took another step closer, a vein ticking in his jaw. “I trusted you not to hurt her. Yet, you sent her back from Moscow pregnant, and blamed her for something she never did. Now, I hear that you both have been married all along! And that you didn’t sign the divorce papers thatyougave her. Why?”

“I love her…” Mihir said. “I’ve always loved only her.”

“Why should I believe that?” Rajiv asked. “For all I know, you’re staying married to her so that, once the baby is born, you’ll probably have the right to take the baby away from her, just because you’re the father.”

Shock made Mihir go still. “How could you think that of me?”

“It’s not me who thinks that,” Rajiv said. “Ananya does. That’s what she told Sheena and my sisters.”

A sting crawled down his throat. How could she even think he’d hurt her like that? How could she think he’d be so cruel? A loud voice in his head told him that he deserved this censure.

“Mihir wouldn’t do that,” Armaan said in Mihir’s defense. “Besides, that’s not even legally plausible.”

“Of course, I know that,” Rajiv said. “But Ananya is too distraught to think otherwise.”

“I swear I will make it up to her,” Mihir said. “I made a mistake. Let me explain.”

All the men stood silently, their gazes fixed on him as he told them everything, from where it all began, to where it all ended in Moscow, and then all the revelations from that asshole, Zeeshan.

By the time he was done, the silence had gotten heavier.

“If you loved her as much as you claim to,” Rajiv began, “then you should have trusted her not to hurt you.”

“In retrospect, yes, that is what I should have done. But the messages were from her phone, Rajiv,” Mihir said. “Would you not have been suspicious? I was injured and in hospital for days. When I finally came to, I was so damn angry. This fucking scar on my face—it was worse then—it made me angrier each time I saw it. I thought Anna had deceived me, that she had betrayed me.”

“We saw how the attack impacted him,” Armaan added. “Mihir was already not very outgoing, but after that incident and the scar, he refused to go out and interact with people.”

Vedant continued, “Once Mihir was slightly better, health-wise, our father announced that he’d adopted us. The media went crazy. Armaan and I stepped into the limelight to protect him. We forced him to go to therapy because he couldn’t stay secluded forever. It took him months to feel strong enough to go for a public outing. We suspected Mihir was involved with some girl in London, but he denied it outright when we asked him after the accident. Neither of us knew a thing about Ananya.”

Sadness crossed Armaan’s face. “Our father tried for a very long time to find out who had hurt Mihir. But Mihir never once told him or us anything about Ananya or what had actually happened on that fateful day. Mihir knew that if he so much as hinted at Ananya’s name, then Alexander wouldn’t have even waited to hear her out. He would have hurt her. So Mihir protected her, even though he had enough proof to believe that she had betrayed him in the worst possible way. We only got to know it was Ananya after she gatecrashed our yacht party four years ago.”

Rajiv shook his head. “You’re his brothers, and so, of course, you will defend him. But I know how devastated my sister was when she returned to Dubai after she heard she’d lost Mihir. She wouldn’t eat or sleep; she wept for weeks. Like him, she, too, had to seek therapy simply so she could move on and get back to some form of normalcy in her life. And then, when she heard you were alive, her world crashed all over again. So, I’m afraid, nothing you say will justify the fact that all this could have been prevented, if only Mihir had had the courage to speak to her.”

He pointed an angry finger at Mihir. “You hurt her, and you rejected her over and over. So now, if she wants to stay away from you, then you will leave her the fuck alone. Am I clear?”

“I’m afraid even you cannot make me do that,” Mihir replied. “She’smine, and she’s carryingmybaby. No one can keep me away from her.”

“Absolutely not,” Rajiv growled.

Dev, who’d been silent all along, placed a hand on Rajiv’s shoulder. “You cannot stop him, Rajiv. If he loves her, then he has to go after her.”

That vein ticking in Rajiv’s jaw jumped. “Are you siding with him too?”

Dev shook his head. “I understand where he’s coming from. You know my history with Avantika. You know I did what I did to protect her and her brothers all those years ago. They perceived everything I did to be wrong. They hated me for years, never once believing that I could have been on their side. But could you blame them? The situation back then was also the same as Mihir’s. He believed in his heart that the woman he loved had wronged him; let’s not forget he had proof too. All that happened afterward stemmed from that belief and those proofs. It’s very easy to say that he ought to have spoken to Ananya and clarified everything. But in reality, it isn’t. He was hurting. Regardless of everything, you must also consider that he couldn’t bring himself to sign the divorce papers and that he intended to fix things with her before he even knew the whole truth.”

To say Dev’s little monologue shocked Mihir was an understatement. The other man was actually defending him, without even knowing him. Against his initial annoyance with the man, he felt a tinge of respect for him.

“Thank you for your kindness,” Mihir said.

Dev nodded and continued to address Rajiv. “For twelve years, I lived not knowing that I have a son. But Avantika and I resolved our differences because we loved each other, despite everything. I think he, too, deserves a chance to make things work with the woman he loves.”

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