Page 70 of Born in Sin

“Vir.” Her breath caught in her chest, her eyes wild with fear, remembered and felt, her hands shaking as she fisted them in his shirt. “Vir, I-“

He pulled her to him, pressing her face to his chest, his arms going around her holding her close. She wrapped herself around him like a desperate koala clinging to a tree. He buried his face in her hair and held on to her trembling body.

“We’ll call it off,” he whispered. “We’ll call it all off, if that’s what you want.”

She stilled in his arms, her face still buried in his shirt. And then she asked, “You’d do that?”

“I’d do anything for you, Celi.”

His voice cracked at the edges—too quiet, too full of everything he couldn’t say.

Hehaddone everything. Bled for her. Lied for her. Ruined pieces of himself without hesitation. All of it, only and always for her.

“We can’t do that. We can’t call it off,” she whispered. Her fingers clung to his shirt, trembling, like if she let go, she'd fall apart.

“We can do anything we want to,” he said. “Anythingyouwant to.”

“Can we?” She looked up at him then, eyes glassy, smile like a fresh bruise. “Can we disappear? Pretend none of it happened? Live on some forgotten island, like the world wouldn’t come clawing back for us?”

The silence that followed wasn’t quiet. It was loud with everything they’d never outrun.

“If that’s what you want, I’ll charter the ship myself,” he said, swallowing hard.

“What I want is impossible,” she replied softly, stepping out of his embrace. As he watched, she built her walls back up, shutting him out.

“Nothing is impossible. Tell me what you want and I’ll make it happen for you.”

“I want to turn back time. I want that night to have never happened. And I want the boy I loved to have not abandoned me on a hospital bed.”

Virat stayed silent.

Cara laughed, a humourless sound. “So much for tell me what you want and I’ll make it happen.”

She glanced at a point beyond his shoulder, staring into the night. “Kabir has been there for me when no one else has.” Unspoken were the words that he had been there when Virat himself hadn’t. He cannot get hurt, Virat. Promise me.”

“I promise.”

“This is a promise you cannot break,” she warned him, her gaze flashing to his. “Swear it to me.”

“On my life,” he told her quietly. “He will be safe. I swear.”

A sharp knock sounded on the glass door, the sound slightly muffled by the curtain.

“Sir.” Shourya sounded apologetic for the interruption. “I have some information on the FountainMore case.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

Shourya’s footsteps faded away as he left.

They stared at each other in silence, shadows gilding their faces.

“How are you managing the rest of your work with this going on?” she asked, curiosity seeping through her words.

Virat shrugged. “I have a good team. We’re on top of stuff.”

Cara walked forward, coming to stand beside him near the railing, her earlier panic seemingly under control.

“Can I ask you something?”