Page 25 of Forged By Fate

“Is that Dhruv?” asked Daima, coming up to me.

She stared at him curiously and then smiled slowly.

“He’s cute,” she said, and I let out a snort of disgust.

“He’s a loser,” I snapped.

“And you’re jealous,” she murmured.

“Rubbish! I’m just a good judge of people, and that man is trouble, Daima. You need to make sure Sunaina stays away from him.”

“Sure! I’ll tell her to stay away from a handsome, successful doctor who also happens to be very sweet just because her soon-to-be ex-husband doesn’t like him,” she said with an eye roll.

“Boss, there’s something very shady about this whole thing,” said Sufi worriedly.

He had been talking to Aisha while her Daadi and Naani chatted away like old besties.

“Like what?”

“We were supposed to return at the end of the week. Aisha didn’t even know we were coming home today until she woke up this morning. So when did she have the time to text her grandmother and tell her what time our flight was to land?”

I stared across the terminal at the one person who looked the most pleased to see Laxmi Aunty -Tahira.

“If Aisha didn’t tell her, someone else must have done so. Someone who has been causing trouble since she gatecrashed our holiday,” Sufi added meaningfully.

“Find out what Laxmi Aunty is after, Sufi,” I said slowly. “She’s forced herself on us for a long stay. Why would she do that when she lives in the same city? I have a feeling Tahira is behind all this, but I can’t see what she stands to gain by inflicting another guest on us.”

“Is she coming home with us too?” asked Daima with a groan.

“Yes. And she’s the one who invited Laxmi Aunty to stay with us.”

“Some cheek that girl has,” said Daima indignantly. “Inviting someone toyourhouse when she’s a guest herself!”

Sunaina walked up to us, still looking grumpy. I took one look at her face and asked Sufi to get going and call for the cars because the sooner I got her back under my roof, the easier I could be.

Tahira and her aunt drove off in Chachi’s car. I sent Daima, Aisha and Laxmi Aunty home in another car, while Suif, Sunaina and I took mine.

“I’ve just found something very worrying,” said Sufi, pulling up a picture on his phone once we were on our way home. “I asked your legal team to look into Tahira’s activities to see if there was any way we could tie her to the leak about your marriage. They sent me this pic a few minutes ago, which was grabbed from a CCTV camera at her club.”

My blood ran cold at the sight of Tahira and Ajit clinking their glasses together in a toast. This had to be the most unholy alliance I had ever seen.

“When was this?” I barked.

“The day before she joined us in London.”

“So that’s her game,” I murmured.

Ever since she crashed our holiday, I had been wondering why Tahira was still hanging around even though I had made my disinterest in her crystal clear. But now I knew what she was up to. She had teamed up with Ajit.

This was payback. For rejecting her. For marrying Sunaina instead. And she had no qualms about messing with Aisha’s life just to get back at me.

“What do you think they are trying to prove?” asked Sunaina.

“They want to prove our marriage is fake. The adoption rules say we need to prove we’ve been in a stable marriage for over two years. If they find any evidence to support that conjecture, Ajit will fight the adoption.”

“Then we need to make sure they don’t find any evidence,” said Sunaina firmly.

Sufi let out a bitter laugh.

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