Page 107 of Reckless Hate

She didn’t know how long the tears flowed as grief and shock continued to grip her. Ved held her and rubbed gently on her back, continuing to offer comfort.

She knew her life as she had known before was never going to be the same again.

CHAPTER 46

Ved woke up to sunlight filtering through his thick brown balcony curtains. It felt odd to be waking up in his room, especially since he had been used to waking up to see Samantha’s sheer white balcony curtains over the past few weeks.

He didn’t care where he woke up as long as he was with the girl who held his heart. His neck was slightly stiff since he had fallen asleep while sitting with his back against his bed. But he ignored the pain and looked down. Samantha was asleep in his arms.

His heart ached at seeing the dried trail of tears under her eyes. Knowing she was hurting had hurt him in return. She found out the truth, which he had assumed for the longest time that she had always known.

He recalled his mother’s words.

“I know you miss Samantha, Ved.”

Ved had felt angry and guilty for missing her after moving to New York.

“It’s not her fault, Ved,” his mother said gently. “What she saw is right from her point of view. Don’t hate your best friend because of it. Don’t hold on to grudges, son. Life is short. Cherish the ones dear to you.”

He hadn’t listened to his mother then and had continued to hate Samantha… until recently. The night when Samantha was drugged, he thought he might lose her. That’s when he realized his mother’s words held the truth.

But now, he also found out the truth about Samantha not knowing about her mother’s false allegation.

Rage filled his heart towards the woman who had ripped apart friendships and destroyed lives. He wanted to go after Samantha’s mother and destroy her, but he held back because of Samantha. He knew she cared about her stepbrother, and if anything were to happen to her mother, her stepbrother would be taken away by Samantha’s stepfather.

He had to wait until Samantha could gain legal rights to adopt her stepbrother.

While Samantha fell asleep in his arms exhausted from crying and heartbreak, he had called her father. Aravind Roy was surprised at receiving the call. But the older man was relieved when he heard that his daughter was doing fine.

“Talk to my father,” Ved had suggested.

“I badly want to, Ved. But I don’t know if I ever can. I am ashamed of what I did to Viraaj.”

“Dad understands. He told me many times that it wasn’t your fault either. Please call him. He values your friendship a lot.”

Although he had asked Samantha’s father to call his dad, he wasn’t sure whether Aravind Roy would. Guilt was often a powerful feeling.

He recalled how he began hating Samantha because he felt guilty that he couldn’t prove his father’s innocence. He had always known his father was innocent.

His father was madly in love with his wife. He was obsessed with her happiness and would move the world to see her smile all the time. A man like his father would never do anything to hurt the woman he loved.

When his mother passed away, his father was told by many to remarry for companionship. But his father never did.

“I know you need a mother figure in your life, son. But I can’t marry again. I will always love your mother until my death.”

When a Simha falls in love, it burns bright until his last breath. Ved now knew the old family saying was true.

He loved Samantha Roy. And he couldn’t imagine his life without her. She was his past, his present and his future.

Sucking in a deep breath, he touched her cheek gently. “I will never let go of you again.”

He recalled the times he had missed her badly. He wasn’t lying when he said he studied French language in high school and had a private tutor from Paris. But what he had not revealed was that he did it so he could move to France someday and be with the girl he could never forget, even though he had badly wanted to.

Samantha stirred in his arms with a soft groan. He knew her head must be throbbing because of crying for hours. He knew she wasn’t the kind to cry often. When he heard her cry, it pierced his heart deeply.

He reached for his phone and called Abhi. Both his cousins had stayed back in the apartment the previous night because they sensed something must have gone wrong. He appreciated that they stayed in support of him when normally they would have been with their girlfriends.

“Can you order breakfast and have some coffee ready?” he asked his cousin.

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