Married in Vengeance (Dynasty Rebels #4)

Chapter 34

Thirty-Four

AADHYA

Horror swept through her as she stared at the clip playing on her father-in-law’s mobile phone. She didn’t need to look at it to know that it was Ram and her. This was from before their wedding, before anyone knew they were together, before they’d been whatever complicated mutant relationship thing they’d become now.

“How?” she breathed, the word a strangled sound.

Ram watched her, an undefinable look in his eyes. What was he thinking? And was that relief she saw in those dark, dark eyes of his. That didn’t make any sense. Nothing made sense.

“Does the media house know who sent it?” he asked his father, his voice toneless, a man completely removed from the situation.

“Anonymous.”

Her father-in-law wouldn’t look at her. There were two people in that video but the only one who her father-in-law couldn’t look at was her. Bile rose in the back of her throat as the memory of that video played like a movie clip in her head. She spun on her heel running from the study and down the hall to the tiny powder room at the end of it.

She’d just finished emptying the meagre contents of her stomach when Ram’s strong arm came around her waist, holding her up.

“Easy,” he murmured. “I’ve got you.”

She shook her head, her body heaving in his grasp.

“I’ve got you, Aadhya,” his voice low and intense. “And together, we’ll get the bastard doing this.”

He did have her, she thought dimly. No matter what other madness erupted in her life, she knew that much. Ram had her.

They still needed to have the talk about whatever lunacy had been part of the early days of their marriage but if there was one thing she knew without a doubt, it was that Ram had her.

He helped her rinse her mouth and face, flushing the remnants of her loss of control away before she had to face it. Aadhya buried her face in the front of his shirt, tremors racking her body.

When she finally felt like she had some semblance of control back, she pulled out of his embrace, straightening her shoulders and wiping her still wet mouth with the back of her hand.

“Well, I can’t really say that starring in a sex tape was on my bucket list.” Her voice was a hoarse rasp, but she was still proud of the fact that it stayed steady.

Ram’s hand came up to brush her curls out of her face, his gaze on her. “You’ve never seen that video before?”

Aadhya shook her head, a strange numbness overtaking her. “Why would I have?” she asked, trying to shake off the fatigue and failing.

How had it come to this? Her entire life was falling apart. Her work, her family, her marriage, everything.

But Ram had her. She held on to that thought, using it to anchor herself in the middle of the chaos in her mind and heart.

“What happens now?”

“Why don’t we get out of the bathroom before we decide to figure out our battle strategy?” he suggested, leading her out of the pretty but cramped powder room.

She balked a little when he turned towards the study but Ram propelled her forward.

“Don’t do that,” he ordered. “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

His words struck a chord in her heart.

“Neither do you,” she told him, pausing at the door to the study.

Ram hesitated, his hand on the doorknob, a pained expression crossing his face. “I wish that were true, Aadhya. But it isn’t.”

She didn’t have time to puzzle that out before he pushed the door open and ushered her into the room.

“We need to get an injunction,” his father said as soon as they entered the room. “We can’t let this air.”

“No.”

Aadhya was mid nod when Ram’s abrupt denial stopped her like a jerky marionette who’d had its strings cut.

“No?” She gawped at him.

“No,” he repeated. “We don’t know how many copies of this video are out there and we didn’t know who all have access to it. We can’t spend our lives serving injunctions. This news house did us the courtesy of an advance warning. We don’t even know how many others got the clip and said nothing.”

“We didn’t get it,” his father muttered, sounding disgruntled at missing out on the scoop.

“Try to control your disappointment,” Ram said drily.

“So, what are we going to do then?” Aadhya asked. “Wait for them to destroy our world? Allow whoever is trying to ruin us to win?”

“We’ve been reactive until now. This person has been spinning chaos and mayhem in our lives and we’ve been scrambling around doing damage control.” He smiled; a feral baring of his teeth that made Aadhya supremely glad that he was on her side. “Now? Now we play this on the front foot. We take the fight to them.”

“Is this speech ever going to end?” Chaitanya Gadde asked irritably. “Get to the point.”

Ram tossed his father’s phone to him. “Call your friend who tipped you off. Ask him if he’d like an exclusive interview with Aadhya and I.”

Aadhya froze, the world tilting on its axis. “What?” Shock had her swallowing the rest of her words.

“We’re married, Aadhya. We aren’t going to be shamed for loving each other. We’re going to take control of the narrative. This is not a dirty, little secret.”

They loved each other? Was he saying he loved her? Was that what he’d meant by choosing her? Her thoughts scrambled around like a hamster on a wheel as she tried to focus.

“Why do we need to give an interview about our sex life?” she asked finally.

Her father-in-law flinched at her words.

“We’re not. We’re going to talk about the person who leaked this to the press intending to shame and embarrass a newly married couple for doing what every married couple is expected to do.”

“We weren’t married when we did that.” Aadhya pointed to the phone her Mamagaru had clenched in his fist. The older man groaned and muttered under his breath.

“You are not a shameful secret. You are my wife, and I am proud to be your husband. And I will be damned if I will let anyone sully that.”

“You can do the interview on our channel,” his father interrupted the rather romantic declaration her husband was making. “We’ll have more control that way.”

“No,” Ram replied, still looking at Aadhya. “They did you a favour with the heads-up. Let’s return the favour.”

His father cursed but he turned away from them, making the call and putting the phone to his ear.

“I will fix this, Aadhya,” Ram said, cupping her cheek and tilting her face up so she met his gaze. “Trust me.”

She did. Strangely enough, despite all the upheaval in their lives and in their relationship, she did.

He had her back. Ram did. He had her. The reality of that fact finally cemented itself into her heart soothing its hurt and bruised spaces. Maybe there was hope for them after all.

But first, they had a story to tell. Their story.