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“Ohmigod! Someone tried to kill you,” I cried.
By someone, I meant the Goels. It was too much of a coincidence for it to be anyone else. First, they tried to kill me, and now my brother. Would this nightmare never end?
“Forget about it. They caught the driver before he could escape and he’s in jail now.”
“That means nothing,” said Isha angrily. “I bet he’s just some drunk truck driver who did it for a few extra bucks. The cops won’t find anything to link him to the Goels.”
“It’s not a big deal. And Ma, please stop weeping,” snapped Veer. “I’m not dead yet. Now, what’s this about an elopement? Who’s eloping?”
“Isha,” I said promptly, hoping to distract everyone from my mother’s waterworks.
“Who’s the victim?” asked Veer snidely.
“You seem to be in a lot of pain. Let’s see if a swift kick to the ribs can fix it,” offered Isha sweetly, and I turned to gape at her.
She had never responded so viciously to Veer’s snideness before, but I was very glad to see her giving it back to him. It wasn’t her fault her brother had betrayed me, and it pissed me off when Veer was mean to her. I did my best to keep them apart, but as my best friend, she couldn’t avoid him completely.
Veer grunted in reply and looked away from her. I high-fived her from afar and hastily wiped the smile from my face when my mother glared at me. Meanwhile, Dheer’s mother bit back a smile and winked at her daughter. See? That was how a loving mother responded when her daughter stood up to a bully. I wished my mother would learn something from Dheer’s mom. I sighed as I accepted that for the pipe dream that it was.
“You’re just in time to help us plan Diya and Dheer’s wedding,” said Dheer’s mother.
Veer looked at me in shock.
“Are you serious? You’re going to marry him after what he did to you?”
“I don’t have a choice, Veer.”
“There’s always a choice, Diya,” he began, but our mother broke in hastily.
“Don’t fill her ears with your nonsense, Veer. The wedding has been fixed and she can’t back out of it now.”
“I won’t let anyone force Diya into marrying a man she hates,” declared Veer, and I blinked back the tears that welled in my eyes.
“It’s the only thing that can keep her safe, Veer,” argued Ma.
“I can keep my sister safe,” he insisted.
But what about him? Who would keep him and the rest of my family safe? How long before Ayush and his men went after all the people I loved just to prove their point? I couldn’t risk their lives. But I also knew that if Veer realised why I was marrying Dheer, he’d drag me out of the mandap. My brother had a protective streak a mile long.
“I need to do this, Veer. In fact, I want to,” I lied.
He glanced at me thoughtfully for a few seconds, and then he nodded.
“If that’s what you want. Where’s Dheer? I need to talk to him.”
Isha rang for the butler and asked him to call Dheer while Ma and Dheer’s mother left to discuss the wedding arrangements. Dheer froze in the doorway when he saw Veer, and I remembered that the last time they had spoken to each other had been when Veer asked him to get the hell out of our palace and take his fiancée with him.
CHAPTER 12
DIYA
Dheer stared at the man who had been like a brother to him and I wondered how Veer would react if he hugged him. Maybe he’d beat him to a pulp like he’d threatened to do nine years ago.
“You’re as ugly as ever,” Dheer remarked with a slow grin as he entered the room.
Isha hovered worriedly in the background and he winked at her reassuringly. Meanwhile, I took care to avoid his gaze because I was conscious of Veer staring from me to Dheer.
“And you’re about as charming as I remember,” he drawled. “I was just telling my sister that she could do much better than you.”
