Page 133 of The Ex Factor

“What’s wrong?” Sujit signaled him in, and he stepped only a foot inside the house. Sujit didn’t seem bothered that he was still in his underpants.

“There’s another feature on a gossip website. It picked up fast and is now highlighted as a banner on a major newspaper site.” He stole a guilty glance at me. “Everyone has been trying to get in touch with you.”

“What feature?” Sujit had his back to me, and I couldn’t see his face, but his voice was laced with anger, worry, and impatience.

Imran hesitated and threw another quick glance at me.

“It’s about you and Ms. Aarti,” he said, his voice just above a whisper. “It’s…not good.”

“It has filth about Aarti?” Sujit asked. Even though his face remained shielded from me, I could visualize the angry frown on his forehead.

Another guilty nod from Imran as he confirmed our suspicions.

Manoj stood at the brink of destruction but his zeal for vengeance against Sujit, the need to show him up, to demean him, did not quell. That man was incorrigible.

Imran looked at me, then back at Sujit. “Your family has been trying to reach you. When they couldn’t get in touch with you, they called me to ask if I knew where you were. I…I didn’t tell them, but they assumed.”

This time, he avoided making eye contact with me. “They asked me to find you and give you a heads up. There are reporters outside your home.”

Well, good thing he was here, although it would only be a matter of time before they found out where I lived.

“I’ll be with the car,” Imran said. “If you need me.”

Sujit nodded and closed the door behind him.

“I’ll get my PR team on this immediately,” he said in an eerily calm voice, like the one before the storm. I knew exactly what he was capable of.

I grabbed both our mugs and deposited them in the sink. Sujit had stepped into the bedroom and turned on his phone.

His forehead creased in a gentle frown that got deeper as he kept reading.

“Fuck him!” I was surprised to hear a deep growl from Sujit.

“What is it?” I asked, nervous and infuriated.

“This is deeper than us, Aarti. This is a smear campaign. They got a whiff of the legislation we’ve been working toward.”

He handed me the phone. Bracing myself for the wretched words that would greet me, I read the headline. “Heartbroken Billionaire Finds Solace in the Arms of His Ex’s Husband’s Ex.”

There are tragic stories, and then there is the tale of Sujit Rao’s unrequited love. A source close to Rao, who has requested anonymity, disclosed that earlier this year, theenigmatic tech billionaire suffered a humiliating breakup, which shattered him completely.

Tara Kadam, an up-and-coming artist, was Rao’s girlfriend for almost a year, and Rao was all set to marry her. It seems he had a custom-designed ring ready to propose to her.

I looked up at Sujit. “Did you have a custom-designed ring ready for the proposal?”

With his anger intact, he shook his head. “It’s a bunch of lies. I probably would have done that if things had turned out differently, but it was too early in the relationship for a ring.”

I smiled at him, and he frowned more furiously. Stepping closer, I placed a kiss on his lips.

“I don’t understand. What’s the smile and the kiss for?”

I gave a quick peck on his cheek. “You could have lied to me, but you didn’t.”

“Lied about what?”

“Lied that you had never considered creating a custom ring.”

“You know everything, Aarti. Why would I lie, and why would I ever lie toyou? You’re my life now. You’re my everything.”

---