Page 51 of The Promise of a Traitor

Tanisha: Oh no! Then he definitely needs the map…

Advik: Fuck you guys. All of you!

Rehaan: Tsk Tsk, Adi. No need to overcompensate for all the lost years.

Aastha was still giggling as the messages scrolled by on her screen. Later that night, as she drifted off to sleep, cradling her phone to chest, it was with a smile on her face, her worries forgotten for a night.

Unfortunately, the next morning, when she woke up, they all came roaring back.

Chapter Thirty-One

Advik

“Are you sure about this?” Maya exchanged a worried glance with Yash. “It’s too soon, Adi.”

“I’ve known Aastha for a long time, Mom.” Advik put his fork down and faced his parents. “I don’t need more time to get to know her.”

“It’s still an engagement.” Yash eyed him over the top of his coffee cup, his hair, thankfully, pasta free for now. “It’s a big commitment, son. Are you sure you guys are ready for it?”

He’d been ready to marry Aastha a month into meeting her. Then he’d fallen out of love and into hate with her for close to a decade. He almost laughed as he thought of his plan to get engaged to her and dump her like she’d dumped him. Shrugging off the villain edit felt good. It felt incredible to admit to himself that it had all been a smokescreen. All he wanted was…her. Every moment he could have, every precious second. And he no longer cared why she’d left. She was back. That was all that mattered. And this time, he’d never let her go.

“I am,” he said, realising both his parents were waiting for him to say something. “I guess we’ll have to check with Aastha.”

His phone rang, rescuing him from their annoyed yet concerned looks. “Manish,” he answered, excusing himself from the table to take the call. His CTO immediately launched into a concern over some bugs in their latest launch. Brow furrowed, he signalled to his parents that he was leaving and went to grab his keys.

He was almost leaving when a call waiting beeped through. He pulled the phone away enough to glance at it. His brows rose in surprise. Aastha’s mother. With only the smallest pang of shame, he ignored it. He wasn’t going down that road right now. That was for Aastha and his mother to handle.

He finished the call with Manish and got into the car, waving the driver off. Most days, he preferred to drive himself, enjoying the few moments of music and solitude before the demands of the day hit.

His phone started ringing, right on cue. He rolled to a stop at a traffic light and glanced down at it. Aastha’s mother again. Before he could answer, it clicked through to voicemail. He shrugged as the light changed to green and he drove on. Unease filtered through him as he navigated peak office traffic. Why was she calling? When traffic stalled due to an accident between a lorry and an unfortunate divider, he dropped his mother a voice note asking her to check on her friend.

He finally made it to the office, parking in the basement of the building and making his way to the bank of elevators. His company had the entire fourteenth floor of the building and he saw a few employees waiting along with him.

“Sir,” one of them approached him, “I needed to discuss Project 503 with you. If you could find time in your schedule for me?”

“Ronin right?” Advik asked, smiling at the relatively new hire. He pulled out his phone and checked his schedule quickly. “How does post lunch, 1:30 PM sound?”

“Perfect. Thank you.” The young boy hitched his backpack higher and saluted Advik. The elevators arrived and Advik got in along with the others. The journey to the fourteenth floor was a bare blink of time and then he was out, striding through his reception, nodding to the receptionist and using his thumbprint to open the door to the inner spaces.

It was only then that the flash of sky blue in the periphery of his vision registered. He turned slowly and noticed her sitting in a corner of the reception, looking as out of place as a daisy in an industrial zone.

“Aastha?”

She smiled nervously. “Hi. Do you have a moment?”

His receptionist, Shriya, appeared at his elbow. “I tried telling her that you don’t see anyone without an appointment but she was insistent.”

“Shriya,” Advik said, his gaze on Aastha who stood now, looking flustered, her blue maxi dress spilling in soft folds around her.

“Sir?” His receptionist had stiffened at his tone.

“This is my fiancée Aastha. She needs no appointment to see me. If she wants to see me, she does.” Aastha’s gaze collided with his, a warm flush climbing up her cheeks. “Is that clear?”

“Yes Sir.”

To Aastha, he said, “I have several moments.” He held out a hand, gesturing to her to precede him through the open door. She walked past him, the citrusy scent of her fragrance causing his gut to clench.

He led her to his office, acutely aware of her gaze taking in every bit of the large, open plan space, the busy hive of activity lined on either side with the more private conference and meeting rooms. He took her to the end of the space where his own cabin was located, ushering her in and shutting the door behind him. The busy noise of the outside disappeared, leaving them in a cocoon of quiet.