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“Then how in everlasting hell do you claim that there was nothing between the two of you?” I hissed.
“Because there wasn’t,” he said uncomfortably. “I hired her to pretend to be engaged to me for that evening.”
“What! Why would you do that when you knew you were supposed to ask for my hand that evening? Oh!”
I figured out why he faked an engagement with another woman instead of asking for my hand. Because he didn’t want to marry me.
The breath left my body in a whoosh. I had thought I was hurting last night, but that was nothing compared to how I felt. Sure, I grieved for having loved a man who never loved me back. Not then, and not now. But I also felt deeply humiliated. Dheer had to fake an engagement to get rid of me. Because I couldn’t take a hint. I was also furious! How dare he play such childish games with me?
“So you didn’t have the balls to tell me to my face that you didn’t want me, but you had the balls to come up with such an elaborate charade? Do you know what I went through, apart from being the laughingstock of our society? I spent the past nine years trying to get over you. You sacrificed your friendship with Veer! And for what? I can’t believe you were so cruel to me when you could just have told me that you didn’t want to marry me,” I said, with tears running down my face.
“I had my reasons,” he yelled.
“I don’t want to hear your bloody excuses. Despite what you and I were to each other, despite what you and Veer were to each other, despite what our families were to each other, you didn’t think I was worthy of one honest, painful conversation,” I replied bitterly, wiping my tears away. “In light of all that, I can’t understand why you married me at all. But we can correct that mistake, Your Highness. We’re done. Now and forever.”
I turned around and walked out of the room with my head high because I’d rather die than shed another tear in Dheer’s presence.
“Diya, wait…” he called, but I ignored him.
There was nothing more to be said. My marriage was over. Raksha was waiting outside the room when I walked out and she hesitated when she saw me.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Your Highness. For the part I played in hurting you,” she said softly.
I walked past her without replying and she sighed heavily as she entered Dheer’s study. I waited until I heard the door swung shut behind her before I made for the front door. Ramsingh wasn’t at his usual post in the hallway, and there was no one to see me leave the palace.
I was done with Trikhera for good, I decided. I walked out of the palace and when the guards looked at me enquiringly, I told them I was going for a little walk. They looked doubtful, but they opened the gates for me after I assured them that His Highness knew about it.
It took me ten minutes to reach the main road, and I hailed a passing auto-rickshaw.
“Airport chaloge?” I asked and hopped in when the driver nodded.
Thankfully, I was still carrying my purse when I’d gone into the study. I could buy a ticket back home at the airport.
I don’t know when I realised something was wrong, but maybe it was the way the driver kept peering into the rearview mirror that tipped me off.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Someone’s following us,” he said, sounding worried. “And they have guns!”
I whipped my head out of the auto to check what was going on and gasped in horror when I saw a whole convoy of SUVs bearing down on us. For a minute, I wondered if it was Dheer chasing me down, but Dheer would never shoot at me.
I ducked back in when a hail of bullets whizzed past my head.
“Chalo, bhagao gadi,” I cried, but the auto driver shook his head apologetically before he pulled up by the side of the road and jumped out of the vehicle. He ran for cover as the cars roared up next to me.
I jumped out of the auto, prepared to run for my life, but Alka Goel blocked my way.
“You bitch,” she hissed. “You couldn’t leave well alone, could you? And now, my son is in jail. Because of you!”
“He deserves it,” I said defiantly. “He’s a murderer.”
She backhanded me sharply and my head snapped back with the force of the blow.
“Aukaad mei reh, chhori,” she snarled. “I think it’s time to teach all you royals your real place.”
She grabbed me by the hair and dragged me to the car that was closest to us. I struggled like I was possessed, but she was very strong for such a skinny and spare woman. Maybe it was anger that gave her that strength. She threw me in the back of the car and got in next to me. Before I could jump out from the other side, the driver locked the doors and we set off.
I stuffed my hand inside my handbag and tried to unlock my phone surreptitiously, but the blasted thing needed my face ID.
