Page 37 of The Redemption
Those are the exact words they would latch onto… and build a version of last night that never actually happened. They’ve never seen me with a woman before. Never heard anything remotely close to this. And I’ve never given them any reason to think otherwise.
NowSiya, without realising it, has just given them a completely different picture. And my brother and his wife have no clue that she’s the same mysterious woman whose sandal they still bring up, just to get a reaction out of me.
My jaw hardens as she’s about to say something more, but I don’t let her. Before this spirals any further, I grip her jaw firmly, not enough to hurt, but enough to stop her, and turn her face towards the iPad resting on the table.
Her gaze follows where I guide it, and then she sees it… or rather, she realises that I’m on a video call. The anger on her face wavers and is replaced by sudden awkwardness as it hits her that she has walked into something she clearly didn’t expect.
“Oh… I… I’m sorry,” she says quickly, glancing at the screen.
I then release her, my fingers dropping away from her jaw. Surprisingly, she doesn’t step back. Instead, she keeps looking at the screen, confused.
At Ayaan.
“Uh… why do you look so much like RK?” she asks him, her brows pulling together slightly as she studies him.
I step in before this can go any further and hold her lightly by her upper arms, intending to pull her back out of the frame, out of this conversation, before she starts asking more questions.
But Siya doesn’t even look at me. Without a second thought, she swats my hand away, almost absentmindedly, like it’s themost natural thing in the world. Anyone watching would read it for what it looks like, a sign of two people far too comfortable with each other.
Ayaan blinks once, pulled out of whatever conclusion he had begun to form. “Well, that’s becauseRaghav is my brother,” he says simply. “We are fraternal twins.”
Siya’s expression changes into shock, and her gaze snaps to me. “You have a brother?” she asks, clearly surprised. “That too a twin?”
I hold her gaze. This is not something the Vardhaan mafia princess was supposed to know. But she does now. And I’m not going to explain it further. Pulling her forcefully behind me, I turn back to the iPad, cutting the moment short before it can get messier. “I’ll call you later.”
“Raghav, wait.” Meher leans forward curiously, her eyes flicking between the two of us with far too much interest. “At least introduce us toher.”
“No,” I reply.
That one word is enough. Before she can argue, or Ayaan can step in, I end the call. I turn back to Siya, who is still staring at me in shock, as if she’s just uncovered news of the millennium…the Dark Prince has a twin brother. No one from the mafia world knew this, but that has changed now.
I grit my teeth, forcing the tension in my jaw to ease before it shows on my face.
“You… you have a brother?” she asks in disbelief. “How? I mean—”
“You do realise you have, once again, intruded on my privacy, don’t you?” I cut her off before she can finish. “That was a personal call, Siya Vardhaan, whichyouinterrupted.”
Siya frowns in irritation, clearly distracted from the previous subject. “How was I supposed to know you were on a call? That too a video call? I couldn’t even see your iPad from thatdistance,” she shoots back, her irritation rising to meet mine. “When I came out, I saw you fixing that pendant and—”
“Don’t remind me of the pendant,” I cut in again, this time more firmly. “Because that only reminds me thatyoustole it.”
“I didn’t steal it,” she retorts, her eyes flashing indignantly. “Nor did I have any intention of keeping it with me. I just didn’t want to run after you in the night to return it, especially after the way you behaved at the pool. But I was going to give it back the next day…today…” she adds, lifting her hands between us. “And look what you’ve done instead.”
My gaze drops to her wrists again. There are faint red lines on her wrist where the scarf must have pressed too tightly, proof that her struggle lasted longer than I had thought.
“How could you tie me up like that?” she demands.
“Stop fussing,” I reply. “It’s not like a mafia princess who can take down men twice her size with a single kick can’t untie her own hands from a scarf.”
“It took me an hour,” she fires back. “An entire hour to get free. And these bruises are because of you. Remember that.”
There is no hesitation in her accusation. No fear either.
“And what is it with you?” she scoffs, stepping closer this time. “You couldn’t wait a few hours to get your pendant back? You had to barge into my bedroom in the middle of the night for it? It’s just a pendant, RK. Not the end of the world that you had to come and get it right away.”
That does it. I wrap my fingers around her arms and pull her towards me. In a single motion, the distance between us vanishes, her body stopping just short of crashing into mine because I’m holding her there.
“It is notjusta pendant,” I say quietly, meeting her eyes. “It’s the only thing I have that belongs to my mother.”
