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Dheer held my eyes as he spoke to his grandmother.
“It’s already too late, Dadi Sa. And Diya can do whatever she likes. She’s the bride,” he declared.
“And we are the ladke-waale,” cried his grandmother. “Doesn’t that stand for anything?”
“Welcome to the twenty-first century, Dadi Sa,” he said, with a grin.
“Hmph. I don’t care for this modern nonsense,” she muttered, banging her walker on the floor again. “And what do you mean by letting her work after the wedding? How can the Trikhera bride be a model? People will laugh at us.”
“I will not be a model, Dadi Sa,” I replied coolly, with a challenging look at Dheer. “I’m a supermodel.”
“And we’re very proud of you,” he said gently, leaving me confused and conflicted. “Diya has every right to keep working after the wedding, Dadi Sa. I want her to be happy.”
That’s how he planned to keep me trapped in this marriage, I realised. By keeping me happy. The sneaky, scheming bastard!
“I’m flying off to Kenya in two weeks,” I informed him. “And I’ll be gone for around a month.”
“Maybe I’ll join you there after your shoot is over for a late honeymoon,” he said, stretching his legs out until his juttis rested against the leg of my chair.
If his grandmother weren’t sitting with us, I would have stomped on his big feet, but I restrained myself because the sight of me kicking his feet instead of pressing them like a dutiful wife would surely finish her off. And while I might have killed a man in self-defence, I was no murderer.
“I’d love that,” I replied through gritted teeth, wondering if I could feed him to a lion while we were there and pass it off as an accident.
“Which reminds me… I have put my smaller Gulfstream at your disposal.”
I froze in the act of sipping my nariyal-paani and turned to him in surprise.
“Your what?”
“My smaller private jet. It’ll make your travels easier.”
“Eww! I cannot use a private jet, Dheer! I’m a brand ambassador for the Gates Foundation’s climate change campaign,” I exclaimed.
“You’ll be spending way less fuel if you travel directly to your destination, instead of taking multiple flights,” he argued.
“Not if I’m travelling alone!”
“Fine, I’ll accompany you every time if you insist,” he said with a theatrical sigh, and I wondered what had just happened here. Somehow, Dheer had finagled an invite to ride along for all my work trips. Like I said, the sneaky, scheming bastard!
“But… I didn’t mean…”
“You can thank me later. Dadi Sa, I need to speak to Diya in private.”
“Hmph! In our time…” began his Dadi Sa, and he cut her off.
“Diya’s mother’s making a mess of the mayra display, Dadi Sa. Why don’t you go and set her straight?”
That was all it took to force her out of her seat. As she made her way to where my mother was arranging all the wedding presents sent by her brothers, I turned to Dheer. He no longer looked amused.
“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly.
He looked around to make sure we were alone and then held out a photograph.
“Is this the woman you saw being killed?”
CHAPTER 16
DHEER
