27. He is...

I stared at him.

He stared right back at me. A challenge in his brown eyes.

I wasn’t one to back down but…

“Fine”, I sighed sadly and left the cable in its place. Aarav relaxed a bit and turned back to his screen, but he kept an eye on me from the corner of his eyes.

I walked to my seat and dragged it round the table so it could sit right next to Aarav’s seat.

Eyebrows raised and mirth in his eyes, he asked, “What are you doing?”

“I want to understand why you don’t want to tell me. Is it related to the notes I keep getting?”

His straight back straightened further and I winced. It was the same person. I knew, even if he didn’t verbally say it out loud.

“What’s the deal with him? I know you don’t want to say it, but why not? Tell me that, at least, please”, I asked, my voice breaking in the end.

“It’s my life that has turned around completely, don’t I deserve at least that much information?”, my eyes watered but I held them in. I was strong.

He looked uncomfortable. His eyes kept wandering around, but I needed him to look at me.

“Look at me”

His eyes met mine and I hoped that the pain I felt, the desperation, the need for information, was portrayed in my eyes. Hoped that somewhere in his heart, there was compassion that would yield in answers.

“Please tell me”

“We don’t want you to know because the person we suspect to be behind all of this is related to somebody very close to you. And we, as in, me and your father, believe that someone is involved in this.”, he said.

“Wh…what?”, I stuttered out. I wasn’t close to a lot of people, I had my group of friends and Dev, and that was all. Somebody of these five were possibly a traitor?

I was initially confused, but now I was raging. This was unbelievable.

I knew they’d never do anything. I knew them for years. If anything, he was the one who might be behind all of this.

“How dare you imply such a thing?”, I pushed at his chest, but he didn’t move an inch. It angered me more.

“They are my friends. That I’ve known for fucking years. And I bloody love them. Don’t you dare bring any of them into whatever little mess you have going on.

I can vouch for everyone I am close to, because I bloody know them.”

I pushed at his chest with great force, and I was satisfied when he jerked a little.

“They were the ones when my parents sold me off for a wedding I had no intentions of doing, so if anything, you are the one who are behind all of this. Because I don’t fucking get why I had to get married without any fucking reason”

Breathing hard, I tried pushing at him again, but he held my fist mid-air.

“Stop”, he warned, his voice low.

“No, I won’t bloody stop”, I jerked my hand away from his hold and pushed again, “Do you know how frustrating it is to not know why your life was screwed? Do you know how stressful it is to just believe that your parents are doing the right thing without any context whatsoever? Do you?”

I pushed him again and took a step closer, my face right below his and glaring into his eyes. I could feel his breath on my forehead, but I was so enraged, all I wanted to do was smash his face to a nearby wall. All my problems would definitely be over then.

I had tried to be calm. Really tried.

But if Aarav decides to randomly come and point at my friends, I was going to be mad.

I pushed at him again, but he held my hand; I tried with my other hand, but he did the same. Not one to get discouraged, I stepped on his toes, hard, and spat, “No, you don’t. Because you’ve been going about your own business while I had to uproot my whole life. So don’t you dare point a finger at any of my friends, or I will chop your very finger off”

He laughed, a sinister sound coming out of his lips. He pinned me to the side of the wall as he glared down at me.

“You’ll chop my finger off, oh, I’d love to see you try. Because you are the one that has brought on all the mess, and we never would have had to marry if not to save your silly feelings”

“Please, don’t you go blaming everything…”, I started but he cut me off.

“Shut up. You want to who it is?”, he paused, glaring down at me and the next words that left his mouth were crueler than anything else in this world.

“It’s the one you were moaning about 2 days ago”