AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You found some digital link to me I’m assuming.”
“In a manner of speaking,” Virat hedged, leaning forward in his seat.
“What the fuck did you find? If this doesn’t link to me, then who does it link to?”
“Your wife.”
For a second, Agastya thought he’d heard wrong. He sat there, speechless, as he stared at Virat.
“What the fuck?” Harsh exploded.
“I need to ask you,” Virat said, his hands steepling in front of his face. “Do you trust her?”
“What. The. Fuck?” Harsh’s fist clenched. “That’s my sister you’re talking about.”
“Sister-in-law,” Virat corrected. “And one who is holding a grudge against your brother, if I’m not wrong. There is no more perfect revenge than this.”
“Sister,” Harsh insisted. “Veda would never do something like this.”
“Agastya-“ Virat began.
“Scrub it.” The words were harsh and uncompromising. “Scrub all trace of her from it.”
Virat’s jaw flexed. “It weakens the evidence we’ve collated.”
“I don’t give a fuck!” The words were a muted roar. “Scrub it.”
Virat leaned back in his seat. “I thought you’d say that,” he sighed. “You trust her?”
“With my life,” Agastya said simply.
“This isn’t just your life though,” Virat pointed out. “It’s your entire family’s. It’s your legacy, your career.”
Agastya levelled a viciously calm look at him. “Scrub it.”
Virat’s gaze searched Agastya’s. Whatever he saw there, he knew he’d lost. He gave up the fight and nodded. “Consider it done."
Forty
VEDA
Veda took her position behind the heavy red curtains that shielded the dancers from the audience’s view. Everyone who was anyone was in the audience tonight. Seated front row and centre was the esteemed Prime Minister of their country.
She supposed in a very real way she was performing for her husband’s boss tonight. She stifled a hysterical giggle at the thought. And then the curtains parted and she forgot about everything. Tonight might be the last dance of her career for all she knew and she would let nothing come in the way of her performance. She came to a halt in the middle of the stage, the first act complete. She was rising from her deep bow to the audience when she saw him, sitting in the second row, his eyes fixed on her.
He’d come! Her heart leapt at the sight of him. How many times in the past had she invited him to her performances, via Priyanka or anyone else she could cajole into extending the invitation? But he’d never come. She hadn’t invited him today. But he was there. He’d come for her.
The heavy curtains swished shut, blocking her view of him. Her chest tightened but she forced herself to move, to get off the stage and make way for the dancers taking their positions for the next act.
She stood in the wings, reminding herself not to regress into her past and peek at him like a teenager with a crush.
And then it was time for her to take the stage for the final act. This time, her entire performance was laced with an undertone of emotion. When her character mourned, her own pent-up grief found release. When her character raged, her helpless fury crested until Veda no longer knew where she ended and her performance began.
When the final plaintive note of music died away and she went motionless in the middle of the stage, the applause in the hall swelled to epic proportions, shaking the wooden rafters propping it up. She glanced around to see the entire audience on their feet, giving her a standing ovation. Like a homing pigeon, she looked straight at him. He was beaming with pride, his reclusive smile practically splitting his face as he cheered for her.
The bloody curtains swished shut again and Veda found herself on the other side of a boundary she’d drawn. A boundary she now wished she could erase but didn’t know how to begin doing so. Walking off the stage, the dancers made way for the organisers to set up the podium for the speeches to follow. Veda followed in a daze, walking towards the rooms assigned to them at the back of the large ground the hall was located in.
“Mrs. Kodela?” A strange man stood in the corner where the dancers huddled around the water dispenser. He was darkly, dangerously attractive and had a vaguely familiar air to him.
