Page 127 of Lawfully Yours

Arundhati’s eyes snapped open. That was her house help. She didn’t need to be told what had happened.

Heart racing, she flung the duvet aside and rushed out of the bedroom, pulling up the straps of her satin gown.

Kushal was in the living room, looking utterly unbothered as he searched for something…most likely his car keys.

The house help bolted toward Arundhati, wide-eyed and shaken. “Didi, who… who is he?” she stammered. “I used the extra keys to come in, and he was already here! Just walking around like this was his home!”

Before Arundhati could respond, Kushal spotted his car keys lying on the couch, exactly where he’d carelessly tossed them the night before when he had entered the house.

He picked them up and turned to the house help. “The house may not,” he said smoothly, “but your‘didi’belongs to me.”

Arundhati’s breath caught mid-inhale.

He didn’t stop there. No, Kushal wasn’t done playing with fire this morning. He turned to her now, that infuriatinglyconfident grin stretching across his face, and added with deliberate slowness, “Yourdidiis my wife.”

Then, as if he hadn’t just lit a match and tossed it into gasoline, he strode toward the door, opened it, and walked out, adding a casual‘bye’, leaving stunned silence in his wake.

Her jaw still hung open. Did he seriously just say that? To her house help? With a straight face? The audacity. The sheer Kushal-ness of it.

He hadn’t lied, though. Not technically. He was still her husband. Yet,how dare heclaim her like that?

And in all this, what burned hotter than embarrassment was the blush creeping up her neck. Her house help was now staring at her like she’d just watched a movie play out in real life. And with Kushal leaving in night clothes, the implication was pretty damn obvious. That he had stayed over last night… in Arundhati’s bedroom. Not something she would have ever thought, even in her dreams.

“Just bring me some hot coffee,” Arundhati said, brushing past her like nothing unusual had happened. “I’m leaving early today.”

The woman nodded, but the teasing smile on her face as she walked to the kitchen made Arundhati want to throw a cushion at someone.

She reached her bedroom and looked around, at her bed where they slept last night, at the dressing table where he was just dressing up to leave.This apartment had always been hers alone. A quiet, untouched space where his presence never reached. But that too had changed now. This bedroom would never be the same again. She would never be able to sleep on that bed without remembering the heat of his body beside hers, the way he had looked at her in the dark and how his hands had roamed over her soft curves, giving them a gentle squeeze here and there in his half-sleep mode.

She exhaled shakily and pressed her fingers to her forehead, as if she could rub the thoughts out. But they clung to her. Damn him. He always left like a storm…louder in absence than in presence. Even now, her lips were tingling from his morning kisses.

What was happening?

Chapter 23

Verma & Associates Office

Arundhati stepped into the sprawling, glass-walled office to start her day. But even before she could reach her cabin, her assistant intercepted her with a hurried whisper.

“Ma’am, the media has arrived. Raj Sir has asked you to meet him in his cabin before the briefing.”

“Media?” She paused mid-step, brows narrowing.

“Yes, ma’am. We are setting them up in the conference room. The press meet is in a few minutes.”

Nodding, she turned swiftly on her heel, cutting across the floor toward the corner cabin where her uncle waited.

She stepped in without knocking.

“What is this sudden media circus?”

Raj Verma looked up from his desk, calm as ever, pen in hand.

“Good morning to you, too,” he said dryly, then gestured for her to sit. “The circus is called damage control.”

Arundhati didn’t sit. She folded her arms. “Why are we entertaining the press without court movement?”

Raj exhaled, removing his glasses. “Because the press isn’t waiting anymore. The speculations around Noyonika’s statements are getting out of hand. The media wants answers. So we give them something, just enough to buy us peace until the courtroom date.”