Page 146 of She will Always be Mine

I’m prepared for him to attack but he only stares with silent intensity. Rage storms in his eyes yet he doesn’t act on it. That behavior rattles me more than it should.

“This is the second time you’ve punched me, brother.” He narrows his gaze. “It better be the last.”

“Then never show your face here again.”

His gaze flicks behind me at Nyra and grins. “Why? I can’t come and visit my cousin? Don’t worry, ’cause unlike you, I don’t like to keep it in the family.”

A small hand circles my arm as I step forward threateningly. I stare down into Nyra’s pleading face and her touch soothes me marginally. Zain observes us with an unreadable expression, his gaze laser focused on where our hands are touching. The look is gone as soon as it came.

“Get the hell out,” I bark.

“Don’t be so rude,” he jabs before turning serious. Pushing his hand into his pocket, he sneers in derision, “Like I already told her, I’m not the blackmailer for whatever reason she believes. So before you waste your time coming after me, I suggest you search for the real culprit. Clearly, I’m not the only person disgusted by your relationship.”

I feel Nyra flinch beside me and I want to throttle him until he begs for mercy. But without another word, he walks out.

Unfortunately, I already figured out he couldn’t be the one tormenting Nyra when he already accomplished separating us. It simply doesn’t make sense for him to continue blackmailing her and then send my aunt to come find us. Even the timeline doesn’t match. The threats began long before I confronted him, so he couldn’t possibly be doing it to get his revenge.

Nyra was already frightened enough that I didn’t want to upset and send her into another panic attack by sharing this. I’m going to let her believe it’s Zain blackmailing her the whole time until I figured out who really is hell-bent on ripping us apart. Hence, the extra vigilance.

Seems like being vigilant isn’t enough because my brother just had to bulldoze his way into our lives like a riptide and jeopardize everything.

He really is the definition of chaos.

Turning to Nyra, I pull her into my arms before cupping her face. “Baby, you okay?”

“I’m fine, Riaan.” Her soft smile reassures me as she leans against me. “I don’t think he was here to hurt me. He seemed really upset when I accused him of blackmailing me.”

“But?”

“He may have betrayed us, but a part of me feels bad for him. How sad is that?”

“It’s because you have a pure heart.”

“You believe him too, don’t you?”

My face betrays me. She tries to pull away but I hold her flush against me. “Nyra.”

“God! You must have thought I was stupid.” She laughs to herself. The sound is hollow and sad.

“Look at me.” I force her face towards me until those insecure eyes of hers collide with mine. “I could never think that. If I had been in your tough situation, I would’ve thought the same. Everything pointed toward him. He would threaten to harm you whenever we had a fight, so I almost believed it could be him. We were both wrong, Nyra.”

“Or maybe I just wanted to blame someone so badly that I made it all up in my head,” she says helplessly. “I can’t believe my instincts were this wrong.”

“You couldn’t have known.”

“I spent all these months hating him with every fiber of my being and now I don’t know how to feel. Some stranger has photos of me and I have no clue as to who.” Her chest rises and falls rapidly like she’s about to have another anxiety attack. “What if we never catch this person, Riaan? What if he rips us away again? At least with Zain, we stood a chance.”

Her eyes become unfocused and she staggers on her feet. I catch her before she loses her balance.

“Take deep breaths, Nyra,” I say softly while pushing her hair away from her face and rubbing her back. “Take another.”

When she steadies enough to meet my eyes, I pick her up and carry us to the couch. I sit with her in my lap and play with the soft strands flowing down her back. It always seems to calm and soothe her. Even now, she melts in my arms and rests her head on my shoulder.

“No matter what happens, nobody is taking you away from me,” I promise her. “Whoever it is, we will find them. Until then, you have to be strong. You’ve come so far and you can’t let them win now. Can you do that for me, baby?”

“Yeah. I will be strong,” she mumbles against my chest.

“Just focus on enjoying the weekend. Okay?” I tell her to distract her. “I know you were looking forward to the festival. I’ll take you to campus.”

---