Page 78 of Every Move You Make
“Your father?” Shauna gasped.
“How can it be?” he said, shaking his head. “Honestly, we never knew what happened to him. He just left us with our grandfather and disappeared. But I’m certain it was him.”
He exhaled slowly, then straightened. The turmoil she had glimpsed moments ago on his face was carefully hidden now, locked behind a calm, deliberate expression. Only the tightness in his jaw betrayed him. He instructed the security to send him the image and all the footage before asking her to wait there while he locked up the house.
Upon his return, he climbed inside the car with her.
“I’ve made a few calls,” he said, starting the engine. “Janak’s asked me to come to his house. Kabier will be there too. Do you mind if we go there?”
“Not at all.”
The gates opened slowly, and the car rolled out into the dark street.
She watched his profile as the passing streetlights cut across his face in fleeting shadows. His expression was still. Controlled. But his shoulders were stiff, his fingers were curled tightly around the steering wheel, and his jaw was still rigid.
Akash was trying to hide how deeply seeing his father’s image had shaken him. But she knew, without a doubt, that he wasn’t unaffected. She wondered how he’d dealt with his father’s abandonment at such a young age. She wondered what he was feeling now.
Her grandfather had told her the bare bones of Akash’s childhood. Coming from a loving, stable, and secure family background herself, she couldn’t fathom the trauma he must have experienced at the hands of this man. And now, suddenly out of the blue, this man—his father—was back.
She studied his profile, her heart aching for him in a way she hadn’t expected. She wanted to reach across the seat and wrap her arms around him. Pull him close. Tell him he wasn’t alone. That whatever this was, he didn’t have to face it by himself.
But she didn’t know how. She had never been in a relationship before. Never learned how to show up for someone without the words feeling awkward or misplaced. Their dynamic had always been ice and friction, and more recently heat and want. There had been nothing in between. How did one move from all that to this?
Her fingers tightened in her lap. She was used to knowing exactly what to say. But suddenly, she didn’t. This tenderness, this sudden urge to protect him, felt unfamiliar, unsteady, and so damn confusing. And yet, the longer she watched him in the dim wash of passing streetlights, the stronger the pull became.
She was his fiancée, yet she didn’t know what exactly she was to him.
She didn’t know what they were becoming. But she knew one thing with terrifying certainty. She didn’t want him to hurt alone.
And she had no idea how to tell him that.
21
The city lights streaked past in a blur. His hands were steady on the steering wheel even though nothing inside him felt steady. His father’s face flickered through his mind again. Despite the dull, muted security footage, it was unmistakably him. He was older, leaner, but Akash would recognize him anywhere. That man had traumatized his mother, Keya, and him throughout all the years they’d lived with him. Even after he’d abandoned them following their mother’s death, they each still bore the scars of that childhood.
He tightened his grip on the wheel. His father was back, and for some strange reason, he’d been rummaging through Akash’s house—his grandfather’s house. Why? Why had he resurfaced after all these years? What did he want?
He inhaled slowly. The signal ahead turned red, and he slowed the car to a stop. Only then did he become aware of the silence beside him. Shauna hadn’t said a word. She was sitting quietly by his side. He turned slightly and found her watching him.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice low. “I had to cancel our date. But I really need to see Janak.”
“It’s fine,” she said. After a brief pause, she added softly, “Are you okay?”
“No,” he said honestly. “I’m not.”
He looked back at the road, though the signal was still red. She must have had questions, yet it had been kind of her to give him space to process everything. Nonetheless, he owed her the truth. She was going to be his wife. She needed to know every facet of his life. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
“My father left Keya and me at our grandfather’s house after our mother died,” he said. “He just… left. Dropped us there, took money from our grandfather, and disappeared. We never heard from him again.”
Shauna nodded.
“He abandoned us,” Akash continued. “And before that… when our mother was alive, he was violent with her. And when Keya or I tried to step in, he was violent with us too.”
Memories flashed through his mind… of the shouting, the crockery breaking, the glasses shattering. His mother’s screams. Keya pulling at his arm, trying to drag him away before things escalated further.
He exhaled slowly.
Shauna took his hand, opening his curled fist and linking her fingers with his. “I know all this. You don’t have to relive it. My grandfather told me when he explained your inheritance.”
