Page 38 of Lawfully Yours

“I meant your body temperature.” His eyes flickered over her, slowly. “There’s a lot of heat radiating from you tonight. I hope you don’t have a fever. I was just checking.”

Liar.

That was not what he meant the first time, and they both knew it.

He had egoistically flirted with her, but now twisted his words to make it seem like something else, as if she wouldn’t notice.

It was maddening.

But again, this was Kushal.

A man who could say one thing and mean ten different things, making it impossible to tell when he was being serious or when he was simply playing her.

“Are you flirting with me, Kushal?”

There was a pause.

A beat too long, a stare too intense.

His gaze locked with hers before he simply smirked.

“Not interested.”

Her blood boiled as he casually sipped his drink as if the entire exchange really meant nothing to him.

He had baited her into asking, pushed her to react, and then, he shut her down with two words, dripping in disinterest.

It wasn’t just rejection. He was playing with her, and the worst part? He was winning. Swallowing back the frustration burning in her throat, Arundhati forced herself to ignore him.

She turned her focus, snapping back to Anant and Sadhna’s conversation, trying to block out the lingering heat of Kushal’s presence beside her.

“Why did you want to meet me, Sadhna?” Anant asked.

Sadhna, ever the performer, moulded her expression into that of a victim.

“You know our relationship has reached a point of no return, Anant,” she said. “There’s no way to make it right again.”

Anant scoffed, folding his arms across his chest. “I don’t want to make things right with you. Not after the allegations you’ve thrown at me.”

She sat up straighter. “And those allegations are true. I didn’t lie.”

Kushal and Arundhati, seated next to him, watched the exchange in silence, their legal minds dissecting every word, every gesture.

“That’s not true,” Anant countered, his voice rising. “I never assaulted you. Our marriage may have been flawed, but I never crossed that line.”

“Oh, really?” Sadhna snapped. “Then what about that Diwali night when you raised your hand on me?”

Anant’s patience snapped like a brittle twig. “I didn’t slap you, Sadhna! I was angry because you were insulting my parents, degrading them! You didn’t stop even when I asked you repeatedly, so I—”

Kushal gripped Anant’s wrist under the table. His silent warning was clear.Don’t confess. Don’t give them leverage.

Across from them, Maanya smirked. Kushal met her gaze briefly, acknowledging her attempt to bait Anant into sayingsomething incriminating. He leaned back, exhaling slowly before speaking.

“You don’t have to explain yourself, Anant. Not here.”

Then, turning to Sadhna, he let his words roll out smoothly.

“This might be your first divorce, but for us?” Kushal gestured towards himself and Arundhati. “We’ve handled hundreds. We’ve seen every trick in the book—allegations, fabrications, twisted narratives designed to extract a fortune. But none of it matters unless it’s proven in court. Isn’t that right, Maanya?”