Page 62 of Born in Sin

“I’ll answer that.” Cara pressed a hand into Kabir’s shoulder as she rose from the arm of his chair where she was seated and walked over to where Virat stood clutching his highlighter. She came to a stop in front of him, her clear, furious gaze meeting his.

“It’s the kind of love that has a man staking his fame, his career, and his reputation to help the woman he loves get vengeance on people who wronged her years before he ever met her. It’s the kind of love that has the same man joining rave parties, a fact that could land him back in rehab after being three years sober.It’s the kind of love that has him contemplating a sex orgy with people he has no interest in seeing naked.”

“Are you sure about the last bit?” Ishaan asked, his cheeky tone clearly intended to lighten the mood.

“I am.” Cara spoke without breaking eye contact with Virat. “Why would he be when he has me?”

Virat took the hit, the pain scouring through him like demon’s talons dipped in poison. She turned, looking away from him and sweeping her gaze over the people gathered there. She smiled at Kabir who shook his head at her, like an admonishing teacher.

“Oh and one last thing,” she added, glancing over her shoulder at Virat. “The Dusty Devils did not destroy me.”

Virat nodded tightly. “Noted. And I apologise.” His gaze moved to where Kabir sat. “To both of you.”

“It’s all good man,” Kabir said with an easy smile before shooting a strangely reproachful glance at Cara.

“So.” Mayukhi spoke for the first time that morning, her sharp gaze moving between the various faces. “Shall we get to it?”

Virat cleared his throat, willing the emotions constricting his throat away. “Two days ago, Majid’s CCTV cameras, the ones that monitor the perimeter of his home, malfunctioned. When the technicians fixed it, they left behind a little return gift.”

“You hacked his cameras,” Amay translated for the rest of the room.

“Yeah we did!” Ishaan crowed.

“We now have eyes inside his home,” Virat acknowledged, making notes on the whiteboard as he spoke.

“Why him specifically?” Cara asked, tension lining her body. “Why aren’t we doing this to Naveen or Ashish? Or all of them for that matter?”

Virat forced himself to meet her gaze, keeping his own calm and steady, no evidence of their earlier altercation visible to her or anyone.

“It would be weird if everyone’s cameras stopped working at the same time,” he answered.

“And?” Cara was relentless, her gaze boring into his.

“And because this is only Phase 1. We’re setting this up for Phase 2 and that phase hinges on this whole plan pivoting around Majid.”

“What is Phase 2?” If ice had a human form, it was Cara Ferns in that moment.

“This plan only works with Majid for a reason. You’ve initiated contact with him and Majid has been relentlessly asking to meet you, for proof that you are Celina.”

Cara frowned but nodded. “He has.”

“So, we’re going to give it to him.”

She didn’t move, not a muscle. She looked at him and then at his whiteboard. Back to him, then to the whiteboard. He waited patiently for her to reach the point where she explodes. And it came in about four seconds.

“He cannot meet Celina or see proof of her,” she gritted out. “Celina doesn’t exist anymore.”

Ishaan raised his hand like an irritating student trying to be the good one in class. “Except for the fact that you’re sitting right there,” he pointed out.

“Shut up Ish,” Virat and Cara snapped.

“We have a computer generated picture of Celina, one that extrapolates what you would have looked like after you aged and if you hadn’t had any work done.”

Kabir swallowed a laugh. “You’re a brave man, Virat Jha, if you’re using the word aged in connection with her.”

“Artificial intelligence is a fucking marvel,” Ishaan said, beaming proudly as he walked over to the table beside Virat and opened up the laptop placed there. He tapped on a few keys and then spun it around, so they could see the screen.

Virat’s breath hitched in his chest as she looked at the picture, her face expressionless. There she was, the girl he’d loved, the girl he still loved, the girl he’d always love. In this avatar or any other, he would love her. But still it burned like a debilitating poison swarming through his veins to see that hopeful, innocent smile on that sweetly pretty face. A face that was similar to the one he watched now, and yet, different on so many levels.

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