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I cringed at her words. Did I really say that out loud? I wouldn’t blame Ma if she disowned me. What was wrong with me?
I straightened up when I remembered that it wasn’t my fault at all. I looked around the room for the real culprit and found him cowering behind his sister. Well, as much as a man standing six feet tall and built like a tank can cower.
“He did that to me, Ma,” I declared, pointing a finger at Veer. “You need to yell at him as well. It’s only fair!”
“Stop with the kindergarten behaviour, Isha,” scolded my mother. “Ranveer did not pour that drink down your throat. You chose to drink it.”
“He tricked me into drinking it,” I cried indignantly.
“I did, Aunty. It’s all my fault,” the asshole said contritely. “Isha didn’t know there was vodka in it until it was too late.”
I waited for my mother to blast him into outer space because she was a stickler for good behaviour, especially in public. To my surprise, her gaze softened at his confession.
“It’s okay, beta. I know you didn’t mean any harm.”
“He did so mean a lot of harm!” I argued, but she quelled me with a look.
“If one drink makes you forget everything you have learned in life, Isha, maybe you need to stop drinking altogether,” she said quietly.
“That man was passing around cocktails at Dadi Sa’s funeral and you just gave him a clean pass?” I asked in disbelief.
“That man is a guest in our house. And he is not my daughter. I expect a lot more from you and Dheer than I expect from anyone else, Isha. Yes, Ranveer should have warned you before you took that first sip, but you… You should have set the glass down immediately instead of chugging it down,” Ma pointed out.
I sighed heavily and wished I could throw up some more on her precious Ranveer. Too bad he was on the other side of the room. Maybe I could projectile vomit in his face from all the way here. Unfortunately, I wasn’t possessed by the pea soup-spewing ghost in The Exorcist. I had to be content with glaring at him with all the hatred in my heart.
Dheer entered the room with a phone glued to his ear.
“Ma, it’s fine. My assistant combed through all the footage of the funeral available online. They did catch Isha being sick, but we blamed it on heatstroke, and they didn’t catch the Raavan bit. Good save, Veer!”
Ohmigod! Were they congratulating him now?
Good save, my left bloody foot! Veer was the reason I humiliated myself and my family in the first place!
I hated him!
Like I had never hated anything or anyone before. If I could, I would run him through with one of the swords on the wall, because right now, I hated him even more than I lusted after him.
I hid in my room for the rest of the evening because there was literally nothing Ma could say that I hadn’t said to myself over and over. I was thoroughly ashamed of myself and I wished I could go back in time and pour that fucking drink over Veer’s head instead of pouring it down my throat.
I think Ma forgave me eventually because if she hadn’t, she would have forced me to join our guests for dinner as punishment. She sent my dinner up on a tray and considering she’d sent me my comfort food - a bowl of Maggi noodles - I knew she couldn’t be too mad at me. Still, it was better to stay out of her way until matters cooled down.
I spent the next twelve days in my room, except for when there were rituals to be performed for Dadi Sa’s immortal soul. The rudaalis added to the gloom in the palace because it seemed fake to have professional mourners for a woman who wasn’t mourned at all. But we had to keep up appearances, even if the high-pitched wails of the women gathered below in the courtyard made me grit my teeth and put on noise-cancelling headphones.
After the big feast on the twelfth day, I heaved a sigh of relief because none of the Google alerts that popped up for my name made any mention of my drunken behaviour at the funeral. It was a sultry evening and after a while, my voluntary confinement began to feel like a jail sentence. I waited until I heard everyone come upstairs one by one before I poked my head out of my room.
My bedroom was on the first floor in the East wing of the palace. Bhai Sa and Diya’s Maharaja Suite was in the West wing on the other side of the palace. Unfortunately, Ma’s bedroom was a few doors down from me, and worse, it was very close to the staircase. If she caught me sneaking out of my room, I was sure she’d throw me into the old dungeons in the basement.
I tiptoed up to her door and put my ear to the heavy wood, but I couldn’t hear her moving around. With my heart in my mouth, I walked past the door softly and hurried towards the staircase. I peeked over the banisters and the hall below was in darkness. There was no sound from Bhai Sa’s study either, which meant the coast was clear.
I skipped down the stairs, taking care to jump over the last three because they creaked despite the thick carpet covering them. I made my way to the console table by the door in the dark and fumbled in the top drawer until I found the keys I was looking for - the keys to my ATV.
Bhai Sa liked to ride across the desert on his horse, Pasha. But I liked the safety of an all-terrain vehicle. I liked to speed across the sands, especially in the moonlight when there weren’t any nosy tourists about. I knew where I was headed now. To the only place that could soothe my grumpy soul - Gulab Mahal.
With a silent prayer to all the gods in heaven, I slid back the big bolt on the front door and pushed it open slowly. I had one foot over the threshold when I heard a voice that made me freeze in my tracks.
“Now where do you think you’re going at this hour?” purred Veer, emerging from the darkness of Bhai Sa’s study.
CHAPTER 4
