Page 5 of Right Where I Belong
Yes, all of them were Sabrina’s friends, but she wasn’t really a part of theirclique. Thanks to her best friends Aisha Bali and Diya Jaisinghania being part of said group, she was always invited to all their events, big and small. Despite all of them being wonderful, she deliberately chose to stay away from them. Most of them in that group were rich and famous, and she wanted to… No, she had to remain anonymous. One wrong picture posted on social media by any of the guests at their events, and her carefully built life could possibly crumble. No, thank you. She liked the safety net she’d built around herself and Ahaan.
There was also another reason, her heart said. But she shut that thought even before it formed. Since she wouldn’t attend her friends’ events as a guest, they now called her to cater and organize for them so she would attend anyway. Thanks to all of them, her clientele was growing rapidly. She truly had been blessed with the best people in her life, and Kanika belittling her or her work because of her association with all of them was unacceptable.
Instead of the several scathing remarks bubbling in her head, Sabrina forced her lips to curve into a smile. “I put my best effort into all my clients’ events, friends or not. As you can see, tonight has turned out fabulously, just the wayyouwanted.”
“Of course, a lot of it was because of my own input,” Kanika remarked.
Sabrina’s anger simmered beneath the surface. Women like Kanika refused to give credit where it was due and wanted all theaccolades. However, in her line of work, she couldn’t afford to be rude.
“It’s almost midnight,” Sabrina said calmly. “Should I get the cake out?”
Kanika scanned the entrance again before facing her. “Did you send out all the invites for today?”
“Yes, my team couriered your invites and gift baskets to every single guest on your list.”
Kanika’s eyes returned to the entrance, and her face fell. A second later, however, her eyes widened, and a cunning smile stretched on her lips as she hurried back to her fiancé.
Strange. That woman was so… Suddenly, Sabrina felt the air shift, followed by a hush. The silence rippled in a slow wave around her, and she turned.
And there he was. Tall, gorgeous, and dressed in a charcoal suit that probably cost more than her staff’s combined salaries. His stylish hair was swept back from his wide forehead, just a touch too long, and his sharp jaw was dusted with that ever-present stubble that made him look like trouble with a capital T. But it wasn’t his looks that had sent a hush through the crowd. It washim.
Aditya Wahi.
The man the bride-to-be had been dating just six months ago. The ex. And now he was walking through the lawns like he owned the place, commanding attention with every step that brought him closer to his ex and her new fiancé.
All eyes were on him as the flurry of whispers started.
Why was he here?
Was he going to create a scene?
What did he feel about his ex-girlfriend being engaged to someone else now?
Did he care? Did he not?
Aditya looked unconcerned. In fact, a corner of his mouth was tipped in a smile. Fuck. He looked like trouble, and most definitely, he was here to stir up more of it.
Sabrina didn’t mean to stare. But there was something about the way he moved—controlled, cool, shoulders relaxed, and totally unbothered by the whispers following him. There was a raw magnetism to Aditya Wahi, the kind that made people stop and stare. The kind that always madeherstop and stare.
Aditya Wahi, owner of the Gemini Group of Companies, was an integral part of Aisha and Diya’s close circle of friends. Kanika and he had dated for five months before she had called it off. And now, a month later, Kanika was engaged to be married to someone else. Aisha, who was also Sabrina’s sister-in-law—her late husband’s younger sister—had told her something to that effect, but now she couldn’t recall more of what she’d said. She wished she’d paid more attention to her then. But when it came to him…
Aditya’s eyes met hers across the distance, and his face lit up. The careless smile on his lips turned to something warmer, and he gave her a naughty wink. Her lips curved and her heart rumbled. Uff. Aditya Wahi was like a force of nature, andthemain reason she stayed away from their common group of friends as much as she could. He was the only man to ever make her heart stumble in years, the only man in whose presence her heart and mind reminded her that she was also a woman… a single woman who’d been lonely for far too long. Oh God. She stopped all those scandalous thoughts and focused on the present.
Why was he here? Was he invited? As usual, Dilnaz had handled all the invites. Had he been on that list? Fuck. If only she’d paid attention to the guest list. Her gaze flicked to Kanika, who stood taller, her back ramrod straight, her hand tightly wound around her fiancé’s, her smile loud and vibrant, and herleft hand fluttering in the air, quite conveniently showing off her large, sparkling diamond. All of it looked like a performance, carefully rehearsed and perfected… forhim.
Everything suddenly became clear. Kanika had deliberately invited Aditya. In fact, she had been waiting for him to arrive. She wanted Aditya to see her like this at her fancy engagement party, with her new fiancé, and her flashy diamond. And Soham, Kanika’s fiancé, didn’t even know he was a prop in Kanika’s revenge opera. The poor guy looked at her with stars in his eyes, like he’d found the most perfect woman.
And then there was Aditya, who was cutting through the crowd like a slow-moving storm, about to erupt and cause chaos. If there was one thing that made any party unforgettable and the talk of the town, it was the scent of scandal in the air.
Sabrina didn’t bother to stop the smile from spreading on her face.
Because this? This had just become the event of the season.
2
Aditya Wahi winked at Sabrina when he spotted her in the crowd. She was his friend Aisha’s sister-in-law and her closest friend. He’d met her enough times in the past to know her as more than an acquaintance, but right now, he didn’t have time to focus on her. His appearance here was creating quite a stir, and he might as well finish doing what he had come here for.
He fixed his gaze on his ex-girlfriend. Kanika had invited him just to show him how she had moved on, and that another man had given her what he had refused to. His mother would skin him alive for coming here. His friends had warned him not to give in to Kanika’s games, but he’d ignored all of them.
