Married in Vengeance (Dynasty Rebels #4)

Chapter 36

Thirty-Six

AADHYA

A dull roaring noise filled her ears as she stared at her husband.

Her husband.

Oh my God. What had she done? Whom had she married?

All around them people milled, bustling activity filling the room. But the three of them didn’t move, an island of contained chaos.

The door to the closed set was suddenly flung open and a slew of safari suited men stormed in. Ram looked toward the door, a slew of emotions flashing across his face as he saw his sister and her husband walk through the door.

She saw it all before it disappeared. Embarrassment, humiliation, resignation. All shut down, his face wiped clean of all emotion in the blink of an eye.

Veda came up to Aadhya and wrapped her in a tight hug. Still in shock from Ram’s revelation, Aadhya stood stock still, a statue who didn’t know her place in this drama anymore.

“Why are you guys here?” Ram asked.

He didn’t get an answer before the door opened again and Harsh and Raashi walked in, followed closely by Aarush and Priyanka.

“What’s going on?” Aadhya whispered, pulling out of Veda’s embrace though she wanted nothing more than to put her head down on Veda’s shoulder and weep.

“Wait for it,” Veda replied grimly.

A second later, a harried looking, portly man burst through the door with a small entourage scurrying behind him.

“Sir.” He looked around at the people standing in front of him and said, “Sirs, I mean. I didn’t know you were coming. I would have made arrangements. Please all of you follow me. We will go to the VIP conference room.”

“Thank you but no.” Agastya stepped forward. “This interview won’t air.”

“Sir.” The man paled but did his best to hold his ground. “You are interfering with the freedom of the press.”

“No, we’re not,” Harsh stepped up, a cheerful grin on his face. “We’re offering you a deal, a favourable one.”

“What deal?” The man’s eyes darted between the Kodelas.

“An exclusive live interview with me.” Harsh spread his arms out on either side.

“What’s exclusive about it?”

“It’s not only with him. It’s with us. All three Kodela siblings and their spouses. We’ve never been interviewed on one platform before. We’ll do it for your channel, if you kill the interview and the reveal of the tape.”

The man’s eyes widened.

“Come on man,” Harsh grinned. “You know who has more star power. It isn’t a lawyer and an architect who got married and got frisky. Given the population boom in our country, it’s fairly obvious everyone is getting frisky.”

“Rather than descending into the sleaze of a sex tape, you have the opportunity to interview the Kodela trio, including,” Harsh reached out and dragged Priyanka forward. “This reclusive one.”

Priyanka rolled her eyes but didn’t deny it.

“You guys don’t have to do this.” Ram’s terse interjection was ignored by everyone in the room.

“What’s it going to be?” Agastya stared at the sweating media guy. “The offer is valid for ten minutes.”

“Done.” He nodded, mopping his brow with a handkerchief he produced from nowhere.

“I want all traces of that video and the interview wiped out.” Aarush spoke for the first time since they’d got here. “We need proof of that before any of us sit down for an interview.”

Agastya looked at Virat who nodded and disappeared with one of the many people standing around and staring at them.

“I also want NDA’s from every person in this room, signed and delivered within the next half an hour.” Ram spoke up, a hard edge to his voice. Aadhya wondered if she was imagining the undertone of shame she heard in it.

“Okay. Okay.” The owner nodded so hard she thought his head would roll off. “Please have a seat. We’ll get it all sorted.”

Nobody sat. Ten minutes later when Virat reappeared and nodded to them, Agastya spoke, “Alright then, have the NDA’s signed and delivered to us and we’ll set the interview up.”

“Not recorded,” the owner said. “Live.”

If looks could kill, Agastya’s would have incinerated the man. “Do not assume for one second that you are in the driving seat here. Sleazeballs like you don’t get to apply conditions. You’ll be fucking grateful for the offer we made and remember to say thank you a million times as you rake in the money. Understood?”

The man paled further, sweat trickling down his temples.

“We’ll do it live.” Harsh stepped between his older brother and the media man before the second man had a heart attack and died at their feet. He shoved his brother back a step, not even bothering to disguise the move. “Live is good. Let’s pick a date that works with everyone’s schedules.”

It took another half an hour before things were settled to everyone’s satisfaction. They left the studio, a tense, quiet group with Agastya’s security fanning out around them to keep people at bay. Before they got into their individual cars, Ram stopped them.

“Thank you.”

Agastya turned on him, fury lining his face. “Why the fuck did you agree to this interview?”

“Because this solves nothing.” Ram faced off with him, equally enraged. “We don’t know who else has copies of this video and who else the blackmailer has sent it to. We need to control the narrative. We need to get ahead of it. This interview was supposed to do that. Squashing the story and offering another interview in return doesn’t do that! We don’t even know how many more copies of this video this news channel has.”

“None as of half an hour ago,” Virat answered. “I took care of that.”

“You should have come to us!” Agastya seethed as if Virat hadn’t spoken.

“Why?” Ram demanded. “Because your insufferably large ego cannot exist without solving everyone’s problems!”

“Because we’re family, you asshole! Your family.”

“Of course that’s what it all comes down to. Your reputation and the fact that this smears shit all over it.”

“No, you insufferable fuckhead,” Harsh drawled. “It comes down to the fact that we love you.”

Ram’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but no sound came out.

“Agastya Anna called you family,” Harsh smiled. “He only loves family. His mutant version of love that is.”

Agastya turned on Harsh with a snarl and Veda stepped between them. “Enough,” she said firmly. “We’ll discuss the rest of this at home. But not tonight. Everyone needs to take a step back from everything.”

“We need to find the shithead who is doing this and destroy every copy of this video that exists,” Aarush said, jagged temper biting through his words. He looked exhausted and his legendary composure was fraying around the edges. “That’s the only thing that’s going to put a stop to this.”

“I think I know who it is,” Aadhya spoke for the first time since the group had erupted on to the sets.

“I think I do too,” Virat murmured.

“Well, who the fuck is it?” Aarush asked, his composure disintegrating. “Or is it a secret the two of you plan to take to your graves?”

“Prasad.” The answer shot out of both at once.

Aarush stilled. “Shit no!” he breathed.

“Shit yes,” Aadhya retorted in a monotone, her tone completely emotionless.

Aarush shook his head, betrayal and devastation written all over his face. Prasad Garu was their father’s most trusted aide, the architect who’d helped him raise Laxmi Builders to the pinnacle of its success.

“Fuck!” he muttered again. “Fuck!!!!”

“I’ll work on building the wall of evidence we need to close the court case completely.” Virat sounded calm but they could all hear the strain in his voice.

“The first hearing is on the fifteenth,” Aarush told him. Priyanka stepped over to wrap her arm around his waist and rested her head on his chest. He held on to her tight, his chin resting on her head.

“I’ll be ready,” Virat promised. “And knowing it’s him helps in working backwards to destroy all copies of that video.”

“Great,” Ram muttered, scrubbing his hands over his face.

“I think we should all get some rest,” Raashi yawned. “Not everyone wants to be a night owl like my dear husband.”

“Yeah,” Harsh agreed. “I’ll night owl on my own. All you old fogies go to sleep.”

Everyone started to move toward their own vehicles, muttered goodbyes and quick hugs being exchanged.

“Anna?” Aadhya stopped her brother with a hand on his arm when he pulled out his car keys to unlock his car.

“Ya, Chinna?” Aarush stopped, one hand going around her instinctively and drawing her in for a hug.

“Can I come home with you?”

Everyone stilled, eyes darting between Ram’s frozen form and Aadhya and Aarush.

“Of course,” Aarush replied, his own burning gaze going to Ram’s blank one. “You can always come home.”

Nobody said a word as Aadhya got into the backseat of her brother’s car. She didn’t look at Ram. She couldn’t look at Ram. She couldn’t look at the man who’d done the one thing she’d sworn no man would do.

She couldn’t look at the man who’d broken her.

But as the car drove past his motionless form, she did look. Not at the man who’d broken her but at the man she loved.

And watching him watch her leave and not say a word to stop her broke her all over again.