Page 186 of No Boss
“That I would sell this place.”
"I heard…"
“You heard part of a conversation.” His eyes stayed on hers. “And you ran.”
She had no answer.
“After everything.” His voice stayed calm. “You assumed the worst.”
Her grip tightened around his injured hand.
He looked at their hands. “You love me. I know you do.”
His eyes returned to her face. "But you didn't trust me."
Meera opened her mouth.
He shook his head once. No anger now. That made it worse.
He reached for the oil lamp with his free hand. The other turned, his fingers closing around hers. “Come. Your parents need to see you.”
He lifted the lamp and turned toward the narrow passage. He didn’t release her hand.
Cold spread through her chest.
She felt it in his silence. In the straight line of his shoulders. In the fact that he no longer looked at her.
“Hukum.” Her fingers tightened around his. “Wait. Please. We need to…”
He stopped. Turned. Looked at her. Just looked. No anger remained. No accusation. Only pain, open and deep.
The pain of a man who had loved without hesitation and learned she had doubted him when it mattered most.
Her voice disappeared.
That look went through her harder, straight into the deepest part of her being.
She had trusted her fear over him. And now he knew it.
He turned back toward the passage.
The lamp cast golden light across the stone walls as he began walking. His hand remained around hers, warm despite the wound.
She followed.
The weight of that look stayed inside her, lodged deep inside her chest.
Chapter 34
Abhinav’s hand tightened around Meera’s as they stepped out of the underground passage. They crossed through the hidden exit into the old wing.
Night greeted her.
Meera stopped for half a heartbeat.
The sun had been high when she left. Now the sky stretched black over Anand Mahal, stars scattered wide, lamps burning across the Haveli in long lines of gold.
And the courtyard was… full.
