Page 29 of She will Always be Mine

Until now, my anger was boiling under the surface but now that it’s found its focus, it’s breathing fire. But that doesn’t mean I’ll let it control me like a barbarian.

My brother will pay for this and I know just where his weakness lies.

Since my phone is ruined, I call my assistant from the landline on my desk, and ask her to reschedule the rest of my meetings for the day and call Zain to come meet me at my office in the evening. I should feel guilty for what I’m about to do but as I said before, there are no lines I wouldn’t cross to protect Nyra.

Even if it means going against my own blood.

Chapter Eleven

RIAAN

The floor-to-ceiling glass window in my office provides a beautiful view of the high-rises and the dark starry sky. The height alone has adrenaline pumping through my veins every time I get a chance to get lost in the sight before me.

It not only makes me feel alive but also provides me with a calm to sort out my wayward thoughts when they become too much.

Yet tonight, it evades me.

I’m too hard-wired, pulsing from the betrayal by Zain to enjoy any peace or quiet while I wait for him since I know he’ll be here any minute now. My mind plays our childhood back to where we were thick as thieves.

Our parents called us hellions, always causing destruction but through all of it, we always had each other’s back. It was an unsaid pact, an invisible oath between two brothers. Some may even find it unbelievable but we never fought, something our parents appreciated the most.

He and I have never stood on opposite sides our whole lives, never had to. I never thought anything oranyonecould create a divide between us, but I’m proven wrong.

If I were a lesser and irrational man, I would blame it all on Nyra—my heart says she’s already doing it herself—for coming between us and breaking our bond, but I’d be wrong and selfish.

She isn’t the one who went behind my back.

She isn’t the one who orchestrated the whole ordeal.

He’s the one who put us miles apart, not her.

I blink back to focus when I hear the sound of the door jerking open to my office. I don’t turn around because if I see Zain before I have my fury in check, I’d be tempted to beat his face into a pulp. And the last thing I need is to lose control.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve been avoiding me, bro,” he says with a chuckle.

His jovial and laid-back tone, like he didn’t deceive me, has me clenching my teeth so hard to avoid shouting at his smug face that I know everything.

From my peripheral vision, I see him sit on the couch, one arm thrown on the back and his legs spread as he gets comfortable. Either he didn’t notice my silence or is acting clueless as he keeps on talking.

“What was so urgent that you couldn’t even bother to text me yourself?”

“Broke my phone,” I reply curtly. Smoothing my tie, I casually prowl toward my desk and sit behind it while picking up the envelope in front of me. Twisting it between my fingers, I finally lift my gaze and speak in an impassive voice, “I also wanted to show you this.”

His brows knit together in curiosity as he stands up and walks over to me, his hand reaching forward as I pass him the envelope.

Sitting back, I steeple my fingers under my chin and watch while he opens it, a huge grin splitting across his lips as soon as he realizes what it is.

Meeting my eyes, he replies excitedly, “Is this true? You’ve been keeping this from me this whole time.”

“Very much is.” Before he can celebrate, I pull out another paper and slide it across to him with my fingertip as I declare, “But then I changed my mind and sold it to Manav today.”

He stills and cuts his gaze back to mine. I watch the emotions from shock to confusion to anger dancing across his face, before finally settling on hurt and betrayal, mirroring mine.

“You did what?” he yells in fury.

Most people don’t know that Zain is just as ambitious and creative as me, maybe even more. They only ever notice the surface with his carefree attitude, the bad-boy charm, and playboy reputation he lets everybody see, even my parents.

While I wear my intensity like a badge of honor, he hides his under many layers. He and I are a lot similar but the only difference is, I never hide who I am.

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