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Veda came to a halt in front of him. Acutely conscious of the millions of eyes on him, he ran his hand gently down her arm before twining his fingers with hers. Thankfully, she didn’t pull her hand away from his.
“Are you okay?” he murmured.
She nodded, her face tipped up as she looked at him.
“Vedu, we should go.” Ram looked around at all the people pressing against the police barricade. “This mess is going to explode soon and I want you away from here when it does.”
On that, Ram and he were on the same page. Still, Agastya was loathe to let go of her hand, not knowing when he’d see her again or be able to use the excuse of the public to touch her.
“I miss you.”
Her fingers tightened around his but she didn’t respond before slowly pulling her hand out of his. Ram led her away, his arm wrapped around her bent shoulders, her security forming a protective cocoon around them as they kept the crowd at bay.
“Sir, we should go in.”
Agastya ignored Naresh and the screaming crowd around them, his gaze fixed on Veda. He watched them open the car door for her. Veda’s slim hand gripped the top of the door as she turned and looked at him. They stared at each other, the distance stretching like an endless chasm, one he feared they’d never cross.
Maybe, it was time to let go. Maybe it was time to let her go. Maybe it was time to stop holding on to someone who’d never been meant for him to begin with. It felt like his heart was breaking into a million, jagged pieces…and still, he couldn’t look away.
Ram shook Veda by her shoulder, casting a cold, furious look at Agastya as he did so. Whatever he said to his sister worked because she finally looked away and got into the car. Agastya watched Ram shut the car door behind her, say something to her security and then stride over to where Agastya still stood.
“You don’t deserve her. You never have but, after this, even less.”
No, he didn’t. Agastya stared at the other man, a friend in another lifetime, impassively.
“She’s in this mess because of you. You’re fucking lucky she got you out of it but I’m telling you this, Agastya, if even one smear of this shit show is left on my sister’s life, brother-in-law or not, most powerful man in this state or not, I will fucking wipe the ground with you.”
Agastya inclined his head in acknowledgement. “Noted,” was all he said.
“Given where we’re standing, I don’t need to point out that this wouldn’t be the first time the Gaddes brought your family to its knees.”
A humourless smile touched Agastya’s lips, the pain in his heart tightening as he looked at Veda’s shut car door. “There is only one Gadde who’s brought me to my knees, and for her, I’d gladly stay there forever.”
“Remember that,” Ram said, his voice lethally soft. “Once you go in there.”
With that, he turned on his heel and walked away from Agastya who stayed where he was until the last car in Veda’s convoy drove away. Then he, finally, turned towards the police headquarters that loomed over him.
“Let’s do this,” he said grimly to Naresh who was hovering next to him like an overlapping shadow.
It was only as he was walking through the lobby of the building that the first part of Ram’s words sunk in. What had he meant by ‘he’ was fucking lucky Veda got him out of it? What had she done and what had she gotten him out of?
“Anna!”
He looked up at Harsh’s shout and saw Virat standing next to him, a carefully blank expression on his face. And the last pieces of the jigsaw clicked into place. His father came out of a side door, shaking hands with the Commissioner, a relieved expression on his face.
“It’s all good.” Nanna patted Agastya’s cheeks roughly. “All good. They’ve got him nailed down tight, every last thread tied off.”
Agastya still said nothing, fury tightening like a coiled spring inside him. He shook hands with the Commissioner and listened to his assurances of swift justice with a tight smile. He waited until Nanna left, escorted by the Commissioner, before turning towards the other two.
“You had no right to involve her.” His voice was velvet wrapped in silk.
“It was the only way to bring in the information we needed. I needed to track it from her end to see what Ganesh used to do it.”
“He used me.”
When Veda and he had first married, it was Agastya who’d asked Ganesh to set up bank accounts, investments, and initiate all paperwork to ensure she had what she needed as his wife. He’d even had property transferred in her name, the rental income routed directly into her account. It was Agastya who’d handed the other man the tools that he’d later used to frame her.
“You had no right,” he repeated, his guilt landing a hammer blow to his already broken heart.
