‘Siya!’ his voice echoed before Abhay rushed onto the roof.
Her grip tightened around the railing but she didn’t turn, keeping her eyes trained on the city lights flickering far below. She hoped he’d take the hint and go away. Flushed with adrenaline and rage that bordered on recklessness, she didn’t want to break down in front of him.
‘Siya,’ he called out again as he crossed the distance between them in long strides.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? I got worried,’ he said, tugging at her elbow.
‘I need to be alone. Leave, please.’
His grip tightened and he took a step forward. ‘You’re being crazy if you think I’m going to leave you alone like this.’
The concern in his voice broke the fragile thread of her restraint, and Siya whipped around. The storm raging in the sky echoed the one within her.
She screamed, fighting the sting behind her eyes. ‘I am crazy! I was crazy to spend the night with you, a stranger who charmed me at a party. I was crazy to think my father had any redeeming qualities at all. And I was crazy to think that we can pull off this marriage because you refuse to keep your distance.’
He didn’t answer, just kept looking at her. His silence scraped at her nerves, baiting her into filling the void.
Her voice rose, words pouring out of her now that she was out of the public eye. ‘You don’t get to stand there like a selfless hero, like you didn’t just drop a ridiculous amount of money on a ring and make me feel like the ungrateful one.’
‘I’m not a hero. I’m a miserable man who lost the love of his life because of a dumb mistake I made, and I’ve only ever tried to make up for it.’
A sudden gust of wind rushed around them, and with it, came the first drops of rain, slowly drenching them.
‘I don’t want your pity. I don’t want you fighting for me because you feel sorry. And do you really believe a cheque can heal what was broken?’
‘No, but I believe protecting you with all that I am and all that I have is part of the healing we both deserve.’
‘I never asked for your protection!’ she snapped at him, fisting his collar in her hand. ‘And I sure as hell didn’t ask you to make grand gestures I can’t afford. This cost more than I can even begin to repay.’
The rain dampened her hair, turning the fabric of her dress into something heavy and clingy. She couldn’t feel the cold, though, only the heat crawling beneath her skin, burning at the edges of her composure.
‘Why would you have to repay anything? Everything that’s mine is yours, don’t you know that?’
A bitter laugh escaped from her throat. She tasted bitterness at the back of her tongue. ‘You saw me as a pawn in some gamewith my father but now I’m supposed to believe this version of you is real?’
‘Shut up!’ he said hoarsely, and gripped her hard by the shoulders, startling her. There was thunder in his eyes, lightning with fury and heartbreak.
She blinked up at him, stunned into silence, rain trailing down her face.
‘Enough is enough, Siya,’ he said, his voice cracked at the edges with pain. ‘Stop trying to make me the villain in this story just because it’s easier than admitting you might feel something real for me.’
His intense gaze sparked a fire in her body even under the rain. She wanted to pour all that molten anger on them until it burned out whatever held them together. But, in that moment, all she could do was look into the eyes of a man who had always watched her like he knew how to read her soul.
Abhay pushed her against the slick railing behind her. ‘You can hate me all you want but don’t you dare tell me I don’t love you just becauseyoudon’t know what to do with it.’
‘I’m not doing that!’ she yelled back. Her eyes burned, but she blinked furiously, refusing to let the tears fall.
‘Yes, you are! I know what your father did hurt you, but you don’t get to turn that into another reason to run from me and punish me for his sins. I’m not him, Siya.’
His expression caught her off guard. It was something closer to devastation.
She shook her head, tears finally burning their way to the surface. ‘You lied to me four years ago, and however painful, Iaccepted that as the end of us. Now, you don’t get to rewrite history just because you suddenly decided to be in love with me.’
‘You want to punish me? Fine. Blame me for every bad decision I’ve made, for lying, for loving you when I had no right and for trying to fix things now like an idiot who still believes you’re going to come back to me. Just do it while staying with me. Do it where I can see you, hold you, protect you. Because losing you all over again would rip my heart out,jaan.’
Droplets dripped down the slope of his jawline, his shoulders tense with the force of restraint.
‘I never wanted to use you, Siya,’ he bit out, stepping closer now, the rain flattened the strands of hair to his forehead. His shirt was soaked, clinging to him. ‘I wanted toloveyou. I’ve only ever wanted to love you.’
