Rebel Hard (Hard Play #2)(70)

“At least she cares about me instead of being a coldhearted bitch!”

“Go to my place,” Raj told Aditi.

His baby sister didn’t argue. She just grabbed the spare key to his place from the kitchen drawer, picked up her phone and her math textbook, and hauled ass. Raj, meanwhile, took the stairs up to Komal and Navin two at a time. He found his parents already there, his mother looking shell-shocked and his father pale.

“You bastard!” a sobbing Komal cried. “You slept with that whore!”

“I’m not the one who’s cheating!” cried a Navin with scratches on his face. “And even if I was, who’d blame me with such a bitch for a—”

“Shut up, both of you!” Raj’s voice cut through the caustic mix of rage and pain in the air. “Ma, Dad, why don’t you go for a walk?”

When his parents accepted his suggestion in silence, Raj realized exactly how shaken they were. “This is enough,” he said quietly to his brother and sister-in-law after the three of them were alone. “I don’t care what the problem is between the two of you. You do not do this in front of our parents and Aditi.”

Navin flushed and Komal wouldn’t meet Raj’s eyes.

“In fact,” he added, “I think you two need to think about finding your own place. Clearly living here isn’t working for you.” Not if Komal was accusing Navin of being a mama’s boy when Sangeeta Sen made a point of staying out of the married couple’s problems.

Komal looked up, glanced at Navin. “I’m okay with moving out,” she said, and her tone was relatively calm.

“Why don’t you move in with your boyfriend?” Navin said before twisting on his heel and slamming his way down the stairs.

Tears shimmered in Komal’s eyes, and when his sister-in-law started crying, Raj could do nothing but hold her. She sobbed against him for a long time before he pulled away.

“I should’ve married you,” she whispered, her eyes red and swollen.

Shrugging away the statement—given Komal’s emotional meltdown, she couldn’t know what she was saying—Raj nonetheless took another step back. “Do you want me to call your sister?” Komal had stayed with her sibling on more than one occasion when she and Navin had a tiff.

She rubbed off her tears. “No. I have a night shift. Navin will be gone by the time I get home, so I have time to think about what I want.” Turning, she glanced over her shoulder at him. “Navin and I aren’t suited, were never really suited. But we thought we could make it work. You should think about that.”

The bullet hit home, but Raj kept his face expressionless as he turned to leave.

“Raj?” Komal’s voice halted him, her next words sharp. “Love marriage or arranged marriage, the commitment has to come from both sides.”

Raj left without listening any further. Komal could stir trouble elsewhere. Raj had made his decision and he’d see it through.

He was halfway down the path to his flat when his phone rang with an unfamiliar number. “This is Raj,” he answered, figuring it might be a client who hadn’t previously called him.

“Raj beta,” said an elderly female voice. “It’s Nayna’s aji. Mr. Hohepa fell on our walk. Can you come drive him home?”

And that was how Raj found himself playing wingman to a dapper sixty-seven-year-old. “Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?” he asked Tawhiri Hohepa after successfully getting him inside his home and all set up in bed.

“No, no. It’s just a turned ankle. Old rugby injury—a good night’s rest and I’ll be back up and around.” He winced. “Sure wish Heera hadn’t seen me fall though.”

Nayna’s grandmother bustled in then, a mug in hand. “Your favorite herbal tea,” she said with a smile. “Let me tuck you in.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Raj got himself out of the room and hoped Nayna’s aji couldn’t tell he was blushing. She came out only minutes later, gave him one look, and laughed. “You young people. Where do you think you came from, huh?”

“I arrived by stork,” Raj said seriously. “My brother and sister by magic.”

Tucking an arm through his, Nayna’s aji patted at his arm. “You’re a good boy to come. I didn’t want to call Nayna out so late, and she wouldn’t have been strong enough anyway.” She beamed up at him. “It’s a smart thing I memorized your number from Nayna’s phone.”

Raj didn’t want to ask why. He really didn’t. “The back door, Aji?” he said instead, after they were out of Mr. Hohepa’s house.

“Let’s walk to the park and back,” she said, and so they walked under the quiet night sky. “I wanted to talk to you,” Nayna’s grandmother told him on their journey back. “My Nayna, she’s flowering, but some things have always mattered to her. Family, love, a place to call home.”

Raj frowned but didn’t interrupt.

Aji patted his forearm again. “Before Madhuri did her silly running away, Nayna would talk about traveling and seeing wild places, but she also looked at bridal magazines and planned her own wedding as girls often do.”

“People change,” Raj said, thinking once again of Navin and Komal.

“Yes. Look at me with a boyfriend at my age.” Delight in every word. “But I’m still the Heera my husband married too. Just because we grow doesn’t mean we forget our old selves. We are all created of many skins.” Waving him down when they reached the back door, she kissed his cheek. “You love her as my Nayna deserves to be loved. Don’t lose faith in your own ability to grow.”