‘What the hell are you talking about? Can you get straight to the point?’ she asked, confusion fogging her mind.
‘Abhay Agrawal, or are you on a nickname basis already? I saw you with him out on the balcony hours ago, and both of you looked real cosy.’
It felt like her mind was moving too slowly to keep up with what he’d just said. She opened her mouth to correct him, to laugh and call him an idiot, and tell him that he was mistaken, because she hadn’t been with anyone but Abhinav all evening. She had—
The breath froze in her lungs, and dread slid like icy fingers down her spine. Desperate for any explanation, she said, ‘Dhruv, this isn’t some college mixer. How would Abhay even get into the party? It was a Kashyap-hosted party, and Dad personally oversaw the guest list.’
His laugh felt infuriating to her frayed nerves. He said, ‘Siya, don’t be so dense. We have a few parliament members present along with elite industrialists and half of Bollywood in here tonight. You think everyone here who came went through a detailed background check?’
She pinched the bridge of her nose, pacing by the bed. ‘You’re exaggerating.’
‘I’m not. The Agrawals and the Kashyaps have enough mutual “friends” to fill three ballrooms. He could’ve slipped in as anyone’s plus one.’
‘You’re mistaken. I was with someone else,’ Siya said, staying adamant in her belief. Abhay was someone her father had not stopped cursing since he’d entered the business world, and he couldn’t have felt as safe as Abhinav did.
‘Right, and this someone else just happened to look like the golden boy of our biggest competitor?’
Siya closed her eyes, and their moments from the fair replayed in her mind. The way he had bent down without hesitation to coax a terrified child off the Ferris wheel, the way his eyes had crinkled at the corners when he’d made her laugh, and how gently he’d put the anklet on her.
Her fatherwouldn’t allow her to attend any meeting that had an Agrawal family member present, so even though she’d heard of Abhay, she never met him.
‘What would he want with me?’ she thought out loud.
‘You’re the one person he couldn’t get to through a boardroom door, so he must have found another way,’ he said, sounding serious.
‘I’m not a pawn!’ she snapped, furious.
‘Are you sure about that? Because from where I was standing, he played you perfectly. I mean, really, what better way to rattle the great Kartik Kashyap than to go after his precious daughter?’
The words hit her like a battering ram, and she recoiled at the implication that she was only good enough to be used for nefarious means.
‘We were under the scrutiny of the elite of the elite tonight, Siya, and all I could think was surely you’re notthatnaïve. But when you left with him, I understood you’re too easy to manipulate.’
‘I have to go,’ she said and ended the call.
Dhruv’s thorny words had burrowed inside her, making her skin crawl. She didn’t know how to live with them if they were the truth.
She quickly opened her browser and typed in the name “Abhay Agrawal.” The picture that came up made the room spin around her.
Her heart cracked into pieces as Siya stared at the door, where she’d just stood minutes ago, sharing an intimate moment with a man who told his name was Abhinav. But the social media images and his company bio proved him wrong.
He was Abhay Agrawal, son of their biggest rival, and he’d lied to her from the very beginning. If Dhruv was right, if this wasn’t coincidence but calculation, then every moment, every glance, every word had been a performance. And she’d fallen for it like a fool.
She pressed her palm to her mouth to wipe away the memory of his kiss. A sob caught in her throat, jagged and humiliating, as she reached blindly for her stilettos. He would come back and laugh in her face over how easily he had fooled her. She couldn’t stay with her father or Dhruv, so she decided to fly back to Delhi immediately. She refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her break.
Siya picked up her travel bag and checked that she had everything she needed to leave the city. When she bent down to slide the strap over her heel, it caught on the anklet.
That damn anklet! She’d begun to love it, but now the memory, the sweet gesture, was forever tainted, and she wanted nothing more than to take it off. Quickly unclasping the anklet with trembling fingers, she placed it on the bedside table.
Acting on an impulse, she grabbed the notepad on the table and scribbled on it, then folded the note and placed it under the anklet. She indulged in the mad urge to touch the tiny seashells one last time as she whispered, ‘I should’ve known you were too good to be true.’
The hoodie still lay by the door, and to make sure no one caught her leaving, she quickly picked it up and pulled it on. Without wasting another second, Siya walked out, yanking the hotel door closed behind her.
***
‘Siya?’ Abhay called into the quiet of the room, an edge of urgency in his tone.
He moved further into the suite as he rubbed his neck and scanned her bedroom. The bathroom door was open, and the bed was untouched, but the first prickle of unease settled in his gut when he saw that her bag and phone were missing.
