Page 69 of Born in Ruin

Her father stopped walking, his back to Ishaan. He sighed and turned back to face him. “Why did you do it? Return the shares?”

Ishaan swallowed hard, staying silent.

“I know why you started this whole thing. You have no idea what these people are capable of. You just decided to wade into their mess and drag my daughter along for your own selfish reasons. So what changed? Why the sudden bout of conscience?”

Ishaan said nothing, letting the other man continue to rant.

“You decided she was something more than a pawn to be used in your little chess game with them?”

Whatever Shantanu Chatterjee saw in his face had him pausing. “Oh no. Is that it? You’re in love with her now so you suddenly grew some moral fibre?”

Ishaan met the older man’s gaze, allowing him to see what he felt for Mayukhi.

“I guess she was the one to get us out of this mess in the end, after all. But you’re supposed to be the smart one, Adajania. How did you end up like this?”

Shantanu Chatterjee shook his head, smirked once, before turning on his heel and yanking the front door open. A startled Virat, his hand raised to input the code reared back. Shantanu shouldered past him without another word and headed for the elevator bank at the end of the corridor.

Virat stepped in, followed by another two men. “All okay?” he asked Ishaan quietly. Ishaan jerked his chin towards the console table where the ring sat, shining away like a freaking lighthouse in a storm.

“Fuck man, I’m sorry,” Virat murmured.

“It was a fake engagement.” Ishaan turned away from the sympathy he saw in Virat’s eyes. “It doesn’t matter.”

Virat grabbed his arm, stopping him from moving away. “Lie to us all you want but don’t lie to yourself. It matters. She matters.”

He dropped Ishaan’s arm and walked towards his team who were setting out assorted equipment on Ishaan’s dining table.

It matters. She matters.

She did matter, more than anything else in his world. Eight days since he’d last heard her voice, since he’d last seen her smirk or snark at him. Eight days since he’d traded insults with her, kissed the words right off her lips. Eight days since he’d taken a full breath, since his world had lost all its colour. Eight days since he’d fallen into her arms, lost his heart, and never found his way back again.

He pulled out his phone and pulled up their last message thread.

I’m sorry.

He watched the messages get delivered, two ticks appearing immediately, but they didn’t turn blue.

“Ishaan, are you ready?” Virat was still looking at him, sympathy darkening his eyes. “We’re ready to get you set up for tonight.”

“Does Mayukhi know about tonight?” he asked his friend, a question he hadn’t dared voice until now.

Virat nodded. “Dhrithi and she have been in touch. Nobody from the DD’s reached out to her about it so I guess it’s trulymeant to be all boys only. She’s happy for you, for us…She knows it’s the break we’ve been waiting for.”

Ishaan took a deep breath. He reached for the ring, pocketing it.

“I’m ready,” he said.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Mayukhi

Mayukhi sat in her car, in the basement of her office building and stared at the message on her lit screen.

I’m sorry.

What was he sorry about? Blackmailing her into an engagement? Buying her father’s company out from under him? Planning to use her and dump her? Or stealing her heart along the way?

The heart she hadn’t thought she possessed. The heart that ached for him. She wanted to forgive him. She wanted to forget everything she’d heard and go back to the Ishaan who’d held on to her like she was the most precious thing in his world.

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