Married in Vengeance (Dynasty Rebels #4)

Chapter 40

Forty

AADHYA

As you wish.

Aadhya stared at the man she’d married. How little she knew him if he could let her go so easily. He hadn’t even put up a fight!

She turned on her heel and walked out of the courtroom without another word, her brother and sister-in-law hot on her heels.

“Aadhya, hold on,” Priyanka said breathlessly as they reached the ground where the cars were parked. She grabbed Aadhya’s hand and tried to tug her to a stop.

Aadhya shrugged out of her grasp and walked faster, beeping her car open. “I need to go,” she said distractedly. “I can’t do this right now.”

Priyanka caught her hand and pulled her car keys from it. “You’re not driving when you’re this upset.”

“I’m not upset.” Aadhya grabbed for her keys, but Priyanka jumped back a step, evading her. “I’m relieved.”

“Aadhya.” Aarush’s strong voice cut through their scuffle. “You’re not driving. Either Priya drives you or I do. Take your pick.”

She looked between the two of them and turned away in defeat. “I don’t care.” She got into the passenger seat of her car and slammed the door behind her. Slumped against the door, she didn’t look towards Priyanka when she slid into the driver’s seat beside her.

They pulled out of the parking lot and into the crowded road beyond. Aadhya gazed sightlessly out of the window.

As you wish.

Hurt and fury started to churn within her, a toxic mix that threatened to spill out of her in a venomous gush.

“Drop me off at Gadde House.”

Priyanka’s hand jerked on the gearshift before she shifted into third, her eyes darting toward Aadhya’s red face and then back to the road.

But when she spoke, all she said was, “Okay.”

Priyanka flipped the indicator on and did a u-turn, the sudden move catching an auto driver off guard. The irate man screamed something at them, but the words were lost in the air as they pulled away from him.

“Ram’s not going to be there though,” Priyanka said, after a few moments of silence. “He’s working on the case with Aarush and Virat.”

“I don’t need him to be there.” Aadhya’s fingers tapped a restless tattoo on her thigh, her nails digging into the flesh under the cotton.

Priyanka didn’t speak again until they were pulling into the lane that led to Gadde House.

“Do you need me to drop you here and leave or park and wait?” Priyanka asked, turning into the gateway and waiting for the security guard to open it.

“You should leave,” Aadhya answered. “Ask two of our drivers to drive a couple of the SUV’s down here.”

“And what are you going to be doing?”

“I’m going to pack my stuff. It should fit in two of the bigger SUV’s.”

“Oh.”

Priyanka came to a stop a few feet from the main entrance. “Do you want to think about this a bit more? There’s no hurry for any of this.”

Aadhya got out of the car, slamming the door behind her. “I’ll see you at home,” she told her sister-in-law before marching up the stairs and ringing the doorbell. She didn’t want to use the code to get in when she planned to leave this house permanently.

One of the maids opened the door and smiled when she saw her standing there. “Namaste Akka,” she smiled, stepping back to let her in.

Aadhya forced a smile back and murmured, “Namaste Pragya.”

She stepped around and hurried to the stairs, taking them two at a time and striding down the corridor to the room she’d so briefly shared with Ram. She shoved the door open and came to an abrupt halt.

Her gaze went to the shirt Ram had clearly discarded on the bed that morning to the cupboard door that hung ajar on the hinges. He must have been in a rush for court if he hadn’t even closed it completely. Ram was meticulous about things like that.

She hovered on the threshold, pain and grief squeezing her heart until it felt like it was nothing but a pulpy mess of failed, unrequited love. Her hand gripped the doorknob even as her knees gave out and she slid to the floor, tears streaming down her face.

It was all over. All her hopes, all her dreams, all the love in her heart…none of it would ever come to fruition. Noiseless sobs shook her body as she wrapped her arms around herself, desperately trying to get herself together.

Harsh, racking sobs had her doubling over as she slowly stood and walked into the room, shutting the door behind her. Her hand closed around Ram’s discarded shirt, the soft material clenched between her fingers. She couldn’t stop herself from bringing it to her face, inhaling the inherent scent of him, her heart breaking all over again at the thought of never getting the chance to hold him in her arms again.

“Aadhya?” Her mother-in-law’s shocked voice had her dropping the shirt and scrubbing at her cheeks but failing to hide the ravages to her face. The older woman came to an uncertain stop beside her. “Are you okay?”

Was she okay?? Aadhya laughed, a harsh, bitter sound. “No, Athama. I’m not okay.”

After a hesitant silence, Athama asked, “What’s going on? Ram won’t tell us anything. All I know is that you’re living at your parent’s house and he’s walking around like a ghost in this one.”

Aadhya glanced down at the shirt in her hand, her fingers still unwilling to let go of it. She didn’t know how to answer her mother-in-law. She didn’t fully understand how this had all fallen apart. She hadn’t asked and he hadn’t explained.

As always, their conversations hadn’t consisted of words. Only actions. The story of their entire failed relationship was summed up in that.

“I’m leaving,” she told the woman who’d welcomed her so warmly into the family. “I’m leaving him.”

Her mother-in-law’s face tightened but she didn’t look surprised. “May I ask why?”

Aadhya raised her hands into the air and dropped them, Ram’s shirt still clutched in her right fist.

“Whatever is broken,” Athama said gently, “can be fixed.”

“There has to be something for us to fix.” Aadhya turned in a circle, taking in the room she’d lived in so briefly and one she was devastated to leave behind. “He broke us before we could even be an us.”

“What did he do?” Anger flashed in the older woman’s eyes.

“I think that’s a question you should ask him,” Aadhya replied, unwilling even now to let Ram down. “He deserves the right to tell you himself.”

Her mother-in-law cupped her face gently and kissed her forehead. “Whatever else he may deserve, he clearly didn’t deserve you.”

The dam Aadhya had just managed to shore up broke again. She wept on the other woman’s shoulder, her grief a bottomless ocean of tears.

“We women,” her mother-in-law murmured, “waste too many tears on these men. No wonder we’re permanently dehydrated.”

Aadhya laughed, a watery sound. She slowly pulled back, wiping her tears with Ram’s shirt. The irony of that was not lost on her. She stared at the damp material in her hand for an endless moment before finally letting go. It fell to the ground at her feet and she stepped over it and towards the storage space at the end of the room. She pulled out her largest suitcase and tossed it on to the bed.

“I came for my stuff,” she told the older woman who stood motionless at the foot of the bed, watching her.

Pain and compassion formed a tortured mask on Dhanvantri Gadde’s beautiful face. After a brief pause, she nodded and said, “I’ll help you pack.”