Page 54 of Born in Sin

His eyes closed, weighed down with defeated sorrow. “Celi, I’m-“

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry.” The fierce words cut through his regret like a hot knife slicing through butter.

“I don’t want Majid’s regret or your penance. I want only my vengeance. And when I’m done extracting it, I hope to never set eyes on either of you ever again.”

A phone rang in the silence that echoed after her statement. They glanced down, in unison, at the burner, but the sound wasn’t coming from it. Virat watched as Cara pulled her personal phone out and glanced at the screen. Kabir was calling.

She answered, holding the phone to her ear. Music and screaming sounded loud enough through the speaker for Virat to hear even from where he sat.

“Car, I think I’m in. These guys would lick my balls tonight if I asked them to.”

“Please don’t ask them to,” she murmured. “It’s not quite the agenda we were aiming for.”

“I have to brief you on shit and not over the phone. Where are you?” he asked.

Cara’s eyes met Virat’s. “Nowhere important,” she replied. “Shall I meet you at your place?”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll see you there in half an hour.”

She pulled her foot out of Virat’s palm, leaving a gaping absence behind, one he already knew he would feel forever. He rose with her and walked her to the door in silence. At the door, she paused, her head bent, gaze trained on the floor.

“I’ll let you know what he tells me.”

“Will you come back?” he asked, trying to hide the hope in his voice and failing. “Until this is done, will you come back?” The words ‘to me’ were left unsaid, but they heard them anyway.

“I will,” she said, her voice devoid of all emotion. “We need to talk and plan in private. And privacy is a concept that’s unheard of in my life. This place is the only place we can meet. So, I’ll come back. Not for you, but for me.”

She looked up at him, met his gaze, confused, tangled, messy feelings floating in the space between them.

“Goodnight Vir.”

“Goodnight Celi,” he murmured, standing in the doorway and watching her leave him to go to another man.

“Ask me for anything, Vir, and I’ll give it to you. But don’t ask me to leave you. I will never leave you.”

Endless days he’d fought her, begging her to leave him, in the hope that distance from him would keep her safe. And now that he’d gotten what he’d asked for, he didn’t know how he was going to live with it.

Crestwood

“Celina.”

She turned, sighing as her mother’s angry face hove into view. Her mother was always angry these days…mostly at Celina.

She exhaled, a long suffering sigh as her mother bore down on her. “What did I do now?”

In response, her mother grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into an empty room, the Chemistry Lab. Celina’s gaze wandered to the window in the far wall. The wall behind which, Virat and she had spent endless hours huddled. A small smile escaped her irritation with her mother as she thought of her serious, brooding boyfriend.

“What are you smiling about, you stupid girl?” Her mother pinched her arm to get her attention.

“OW!” Celina rubbed her arm resentfully. “What is your problem?”

“You are my problem.” Her mother crossed her arms and stared at her. “And it’s all because of that boy. You just won’t listen to me.”

Celina didn’t bother with a reply. There was no point in arguing with her mother. She was convinced that Virat was Satan’s spawn and there was nothing Celina could say to change it.

“Are you listening to me?” Maria Fernandez hissed.

“No,” Celina retorted. “Didn’t you just say I don’t listen to you?”

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