Page 96 of Born in Sin

Virat nodded. “I think so.”

“Vikram.” Digvijay didn’t have to say anything more.

The Inspector stood up. “I’ll get the file, Sir.” He left without another word.

“It’s necessary kya to involve these celebrities and all?” Digvijay asked now. “They are only a headache, never of any help.”

“We wouldn’t be where we are without their help.”

Digvijay grinned. “You would have found a way.”

Vikram hustles back into the room with a file under his hand. “There was no autopsy,” he tells Virat briefly, clearly still not sure what to make of him. “He died peacefully in his sleep, a heart attack.”

Virat tensed. “Is the funeral over?”

“Yes. Cremation.”

Virat struggled not to let his frustration show. “Well, that’s that, I suppose,” he muttered. “Alright Diggy, I’ll keep you posted.”

“Vikram will keep me posted,” Digvijay said wryly. “You…” His voice trailed off and then he added, “Be careful, Vir. These guys are sharks.”

Virat smiled, a feral baring of teeth. “In the waters we swim in, Diggy, they’re all sharks. There are no small players.”

“But still, watch your back, my friend. I would miss you if you disappeared.”

“You mean like die peacefully in my sleep, a supposed heart attack?” Virat raised a hand in farewell. “That’s not the plan and for the first time in my life, I have big plans for myself.”

“And what are they?”

Virat smiled. “I’m going to step out of the shadows and embrace a life in the sunlight.”

Crestwood

The chandelier in the center of the restaurant winked, light fracturing from it and streaming through the room. All around them, tables filled and emptied, people laughing, talking, and eating the fancy yet delicious food that was being served to them.

And yet, Celina sat in a pocket of frozen silence. Her father and mother ate quietly, neither making eye contact with the other. The tension at their table was a direct contrast to the laughter that spilled from the others that surrounded them.

“So,” Celina’s father cleared his throat. Hope rose inside her as she waited for him to say more. “Do you want dessert?” he asked finally.

Celina’s hope deflated. “No, thank you,” she murmured. She noticed he didn’t ask her mother the same question. It was pretty clear her mother noticed too.

“What plans after this, Celi?” he asked now, patting his mouth with his napkin.

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I haven’t thought of much beyond passing my exams.”

“She’s interested in the arts,” her mother interjected, clearly fed up with being ignored.

“Are you interested in the arts, Celi?” her father asked, keeping his gaze on her.

“Theatre, if I’m being honest.” She spooned in her last bit of rice as she thought it over. “If I really need to pick something, it would be acting.”

“Acting,” her mother snorted. “Fancy being the next casting couch scandal?”

Her father said nothing, but he looked disappointed in her ambitions.

“Or I suppose I could be an English teacher,” she muttered. “And spend the rest of my life making people miserable.”

A faint smile flitted over her father’s face as he signaled for the bill. Her mother looked livid but then there was nothing new in that. The waiter brought the doggy bag to their table, and her father paid the bill, scrawling his signature on the slip.