Page 23 of Born in Ruin

“I’ll do it,” she said finally, with a short nod. “Not because of him.” She jerked her head in Ishaan’s direction. “But because of you.”

“Why?” Dhrithi asked. “You owe me nothing.”

“Do you know why I dumped him?” Mayukhi forced herself to meet Dhrithi’s eyes. “He wanted me to go to the grove at the end of the grounds. You know the one with the huge tree?”

Dhrithi nodded. They all knew that grove, each one of them had it burnt into the very marrow of their bones. They all knew that tree too.

“I knew what it meant.” Mayukhi’s eyes were unfocused, her gaze on a distant past only she could see. “I went along with it because even then, even before it all, I was scared of upsetting him.”

“Yukhi no!” Dhrithi’s distressed whisper had Mayukhi closing her eyes.

“No,” Mayukhi said, a single tear escaping her iron will. She scrubbed it away even before it could slip down her cheek. “No. It didn’t get that far. I changed my mind the minute he tried to kiss me.”

“Against the tree,” Dhrithi murmured, a horrified knowledge in her voice.

“Against the tree,” Mayukhi confirmed with a shudder. “I heard their voices, his friends, in the distance, laughing and talking. They were coming towards us. It distracted him. I forced him away from me just as the rest of the gang came into view. He was furious with me but he didn’t want to cause a scene in front of them. So, he made it look like they’d interrupted us and we’d stopped for lack of privacy. They apologised, made a few vulgar comments, shared a cigarette with him and left.”

Mayukhi stared down at the palm of her hand, her thumb rubbing at a small, circle of hardened skin, a callus of sorts. She held her hand out, palm up for them to see.

“I refused to continue what we’d started. He stubbed his cigarette out on me in retaliation. He held me in place and ground it out in my palm as I screamed and pleaded with him to stop. They heard me scream. I know they did. They heard me scream and they didn’t come back to help me. I’ve never forgotten.”

Dhrithi’s eyes glistened with tears. Mayukhi continued to look at her and only her. She couldn’t look at the others. She could handle hate, disdain and even anger. She couldn’t handle pity. Not from him.

“I should have warned you,” she told Dhrithi now. “I was so grateful that his attention had shifted from me to someone else, that I just…I didn’t want to do anything that would bring his attention back to me. I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.”

She leaned forward and held her scarred palm out to Dhrithi who clasped it with her own.

“I’ll make it right. I’ll do this. For you.”

Her phone started to ring again and this time Mayukhi picked up, putting it on speaker.

“Naveen,” she said, her voice remarkably calm for what they’d just been discussing. But then, Mayukhi Chatterjee had spent a lifetime perfecting her mask, the only face she shared with the outside world. “I’m working,” she added. “What’s with the constant calls?”

“We need to talk, Yukhi. It’s urgent.”

She could see Virat place a recording device beside her phone and she pitched her voice a little higher to ensure clarity

“What about?” she asked.

“Are you really in love with Ishaan Adajania?” Naveen demanded, his voice ripe with fury.

Mayukhi met Ishaan’s guarded gaze. He shook his head slightly but she ignored him.

“No,” she said. “This engagement is a business arrangement with my father as I’m sure you’ve already figured out. Baba’s forcing me into it.”

The men in the room stilled, a wave of suppressed emotion rolling through them. She hoped they would trust her to know what she was doing.

“Perfect.” Naveen’s satisfied smirk was visible in his voice. “I knew you wouldn’t lower yourself to his level, Yukhi.”

“What do you want Naveen?” She forced herself to sound bored. “I have work to do.”

“We want you to help us take down your fiancé and his friends.”

Mayukhi smiled, fire lighting up her eyes. “It will be my absolute pleasure.”

Game on, bitches.

THIRTEEN

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