Page 73 of Game on, Love

He watched me silently, unconvinced.

“Stop giving me that look. And if it’s not me, what was it about?”

Vedant sighed, leaning on the back of the couch. “It was about Ma. It’salwaysabout Ma.”

Everything inside me stilled as I asked, “What about Ma?”

Though, it was what he did next that made me forget to breathe.

He pulled out a journal from god knows where because the only thing I was focused on was what he had in his hands. He took a step forward in my direction, and then another, and thentook my coffee from my shaking hands as he held the journal for me.

“What is this?” The leather felt rough under my fingers, and my voice barely above a whisper, but even though I had asked it, I knew the connection. Rihaan had mentioned it the first night. I had a similar one upstairs.

“It’s one of Ma’s journals.”

“One?”

“There are more at the house…” His voice trailed off as I opened it.

01 January 2017

A new year, a fresh start and, according to the doctors, my final one. I haven’t given hope yet. They’re staring me on a new…

My eyes shot to his in surprise.

“How do you havethisone?” I asked, but I was already flicking back to the end of the journal.

22 November 2017

It worked. I was going to live. I was going to live long enough to see my little girl fall in love. I was going to live long enough to make it up to my boys all the years I lost with them. I was going to…

My vision blurred as I tried to read the entry from the day before she died.

Blinking a couple of times, I looked back at Vedant, who had an equally broken look on his face as he watched me.

He visibly gulped before replying. “Nanu left them to me in his will. He made a promise to Ma before she died. Each of us got something, and these were mine.”

“How many?”

“Every year since after she moved here with Dad.”

I sucked in a breath. “Have you read all of them?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know?”

He paused, a surprised look on his face. “How doyouknow?”

My brows pulled together. “Because I was there?”

His eyes moved around the room as if he were trying to piece together a puzzle in his head, and then I realised.

He didn’t know.

“Why are they still at home?” I asked as my heart raced.

“I can’t exactly leave them here, can I? Rihaan only knows about this one, and I’m rarely here, so home seemed like the safest option to make sure he doesn’t lash out without any of us around. Plus, Dev has started to go through them.” He frowned as he spoke, clearly unsure why I had asked, but I wasn’t convinced.