Page 113 of Game on, Love

“Sure, over the years, I grew to understand that your mother was just a victim to the relationship as I was, so we both found common ground. We had your brothers, we started a family. We were trying to find our version of happy, but I ran into Anchal again after all those years. Maybe it was a test, I don’t know, but we talked, and she told me she never fell in love again or got married. And the more time we spent together, I had fallen for her all over again.

“I had already given Rohan exactly what he wanted, and he had enough money to help your mother raise the kids. But before I even got to tell your mother what I was considering, she told me she was sick and dying. It was a snap of a decision. If she was dying, I had to stay for the boys. They were barely a few years old, and I’d imagined her raising the kids with her dad, but knowing she was dying, I couldn’t let him raise them.”

I jumped at the sudden contact. Dev was guiding me to sit down; his touch was still cold as he unwrapped my fists, his eyes holding anger in a way I had never seen before. As he stood next to me, he placed a hand on the top of my head, and I looked down at my red palms.

“But then Diya got pregnant with you. For her, it may have been a blessing because you had breathed a new life into her, but to me, it was the moment her lies came out. She was never sick nor on her deathbed. She had found out about my affair and had made up a lie, and what was a moment of one last thing I did for her was a slap in my face. When you came out in this world, you stole my heart in a way your brothers had never done, so when after all came out, I stayed; it was because of you. But when Anchal had said that about you, it was like every time I looked at you, I saw your mother, and it was a reminder of the betrayal and lies she told me.”

Dev crouched in front of me, covering my open palms. “Deep breaths, Rai.”

Watching him take a breath struck me with the realisation that I was holding mine. His grip on my hands tightened when I didn’t copy him, but he could tell I was trying. A strained breath left me, and his glare dimmed.

I knew it wasn’t directed at me, but god, it felt like it might as well as had. It took me minutes in his presence to snap, and just like that it felt like everything I thought I knew was a lie. Something I’d just made up, something I’d chosen to believe in.

Taking a deep breath, I turned to the man who’d referred to himself as more than just a piece of my chromosome. “Thank you.”

“What?”

“Thank you.”

“What for?”

“For being honest, I know that must’ve been hard to share.”

He nodded, though the rare expression on his face told me I had thrown him off. I took another breath and decided to end this for once. “I am sorry that you were used and lied to multiple times, but even after everything, you were still present for the rest of them. More than that, you decided to punish me for something that wasn’t even my fault. When it came to your precious boys, you were ready to stick around and not send them to be raised by someone who had done you wrong, but you didn’t stand up for me once.”

“You had your mother.”

“What about when she died, and you never fought for me then? Was it because I was too“settled”?” My fingers made air quotations, and he narrowed his eyes.

“He told you that?”

I stared at him, shocked. Frankly, I shouldn’t have been. “That’s the first thing you have to say? Really?”

He opened his mouth, but I shook my head.

“You know what? What the hell. No, I overheard you two. But it doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”

“Raina—”

“Look, you’ve said your peace. And if I’m right, I’m pretty sure you’ve still managed to omit the truth from your story.” His eyes hardened at my words. “But I am done. You were happy to pretend that I no longer existed in your world, so let’s not change that. You can keep your reasons and excuses to yourself, because they don’t matter.”

Once I was sure I would be able to hold myself up, I nudged Dev and stood up.

“I am going to take a walk. I need air.”

Dev gave me a nod. “Don’t go too far.”

I gave him a look, silently accepting his request. Just as my hand touched the handle, I turned back to catch them staring at each other.

I wanted to be done with these secrets. I’d said to Dev that he didn’t owe him, and maybe it was one of the pieces of my broken heart that made me want to say it, but I didn’t owe him either. “Make sure to tell him about who else was there at the nets that day,Papa.”

I didn’t wait to see his reaction, but I felt the coldness of his glare on my back as I stepped out in the garden.

Unlike the house, the country path behind our estate felt like an old friend waiting to welcome me back.

As the cool breeze touched my face, I realised that I was crying. Each bristle sending a nerve of shock through me as I walked further on the trail; somewhere in my steps my mind had shorted out, but like muscle memory, I made my way to my old spot.

The ache in my chest was nowhere ready to ease down as I reached it. The sight of the familiar river cruising down hit me inthe chest, but the tug I felt in me was what sent a rushing feeling in me.