Page 21 of Born in Sin

“So, between that and your plan, it’s two different approaches already.”

They all pretended to ignore the fact that Virat was standing there like a brooding, stone statue. A volcanic, brooding statue.

“I have another idea,” she announced.

“Well, aren’t you a veritable fountain of them?” Ishaan murmured, leaning back in his seat and laying an arm over the back of the couch.

“How many have you come up with, Einstein?” she shot back.

“He had one brilliant idea. He decided to blackmail Mayukhi Chatterjee into a fake engagement to infiltrate their group, then fell in love with her and cocked the whole thing up.”

Amay’s dry reply had a laugh bursting out of Celina.

“Listen, Brain Trust,” Ishaan turned on Amay. “You had none. At least I came up with something.”

The moment took her back to happier times, the friendly bickering, the constant back and forth between the four of them, they were some of her most precious memories.

“So,” she said, interrupting before the conversation ended in a ‘Shut up, Ish’ like it used to. “How is Mayukhi?”

Cara wasn’t often surprised by something anymore, but she watched almost with awe as Ishaan Adajania, the brash, in your face, with the chip the size of a house on his shoulder, boy she’d known blushed.

“Really now?” she murmured, smiling as she watched him scrub his hand through his hair and mutter, ‘She’s fine.’

“Really,” Virat confirmed, a small smile on his face. “It’s pretty incredible to watch.”

“The Fall of the Great Adajania.” Cara laughed.

“It was more like The Takedown of the Great Adajania,” Virat replied, walking over to a chair beside her.

Cara’s entire body tightened in anticipation as he came closer, every nerve ending coming to life. No, she told herself. This wasn’t what any of this was about. This wasn’t them anymore.

She took a deep breath and turned away from him. From the corner of her eye, she saw Virat freeze at her silent rejection. Without another word, he walked over to where Amay was sitting and sat down beside him.

“So, Ams,” she said now, fighting to ignore the pain clawing at her heart. “I hear Dhrithi and you are together now too.”

He smiled, that serious, gentle smile of his. “We are. Now and forever.”

She allowed her gaze to travel between Ishaan and Amay, forcing it not to swing to the right and look at Virat.

“I’m happy for you guys.”

“We’re happy for us too,” Ishaan grinned. “And look at you now, Ms. Superstar.”

Cara shrugged gracefully. “It is what it is,” she murmured. “I’m surprised you guys knew it was me.”

She’d changed so much about herself, minor changes but add it in to all the growing up she’d done, she knew she was practically unrecognizable as Celina Fernandez and she’d gone out of her way to never claim that identity.

“He knew,” Amay said, tilting his head towards a silent Virat. “And what Vir knows –“

“You guys know,” she finished for them.

Grief slammed through her, a naked yearning for what she’d once had with these boys. Acceptance, friendship, trust, and a love so deep, so raw, so powerful, it had had the power to both keep her heart beating and to stop it.

She wanted it back. She wanted them back. And mostly, she wanted him back. But that could never be. Not in this lifetime. This, whatever this was, was nothing, a brief hiccup in the otherwise regular tenor of her life. The commercial break to her life’s movie.

She took a deep breath. “So, like I was saying, I had another idea.”

“Shoot.” Virat leaned forward, watching her intently.