Not that it mattered to him in the slightest. ‘Perhaps I should let you two talk.’ He took a step away from the bed.
‘No!’ Prita said so loudly, Chandra jumped a little. ‘I want you to stay.’
‘You two obviously have things to discuss.’
‘We have nothing to discuss.’
‘Prita,’ Chandra tried again. ‘You didn’t respond to my last request.’
‘There’s nothing to respond to. You know my thoughts.’
Chandra’s perfect features screwed up so he looked like a pouting child. ‘But you have to come back. My family is on my side in this. So is yours. Nobody understands why you took responsibility for that child. This isn’t like you going away on one of your work assignments. This feels like it’s permanent. How am I supposed to explain that?’
‘Tell them you don’t want a child and I do. Or that we’re working out our differences. Or we need a break. Your choice.’
A sour look crossed his face. ‘Your father should have taken him.’
‘You know that’s impossible.’
‘But it’s ruining everything we planned.’
‘Plans change.’
‘Prita.’ He sounded like a whiny child. ‘What we had was so good. Why would you ruin it like this?’
The whiny tone was getting on Flynn’s nerves, but it just seemed to turn Prita into stone. Her arms tightened around her middle, her jaw squared as she met her husband’s accusatory gaze.
‘It was good for you, Chandra, and I went along with it because I love you.’
Sucker punched, Flynn took a step back.
‘I love you too,’ Chandra said while Flynn was still processing her words. ‘So why would you ruin that?’
Her voice husky with emotion, she said, ‘Chandra, don’t you think it’s time to stop living this lie?’ She looked down at her hands. ‘It’s hurting you and Vivaan … and me.’ Back up at him. ‘I didn’t realise it until Carter came along, but we were stupid to think it would solve anything.’
Vivaan? Living a lie? Flynn felt like he needed to get a hold of something to steady himself, their words whipping around him. He shouldn’t be here. Should walk out of the room. But he couldn’t move as Chandra stepped closer to Prita, his hands outstretched like he was pleading with her.
‘It gave you what you needed for all these years.’
‘Yes, it did. And it gave you the ability to be with the man you love. But I can’t do that anymore. I won’t do that anymore. Not to myself and not to Carter.’ She looked up at him. ‘I want a family.’
‘We are your family.’
‘It’s not enough.’
‘What is enough?’
‘What I’ve got now. With Carter.’
‘What if I agree to be Carter’s dad?’
Prita made a chopping motion with her hands, eyes flashing. ‘Don’t you dare use that beautiful little boy. I let you use me, because I understand how hard this is for you, but I won’t let you use him.’
Chandra put his hands up. ‘Okay. Okay. Sorry.’
Prita sighed, her anger visibly dropping away as quickly as it had come. ‘So am I, Chandra, and that’s why I say this to you. You love Vivaan. You should be with him.’
‘I am with him.’
‘No. Not like you are. You should stop lying and be with him, out in the open. It’s not fair on any of us to keep pretending to be in a relationship with me. It’s not healthy, what you’re doing.’
‘You know I can’t do that. It would destroy my family. Besides, they’d disinherit me.’
‘I know all that, Chan. Don’t you think I know that?’
He kept talking as if he hadn’t heard her. ‘My whole family is saying I need to make you come home or divorce you.’
‘Then divorce me, because I’m not coming home. I’ve bought my own house and started my own practice. I’m staying right here.’
He looked like he was going to cry as he stood there, wringing his hands. ‘You put us in this position. You fix it.’
‘There’s no fixing it, Chandra. Can’t you see? We don’t want the same things anymore. We never really did. Marrying to fool our families into believing we were something we’re not isn’t helping anything. Neither of us were happy and don’t you want to be happy?’
They glared at each other for long silent moments while Flynn’s mind spun around everything he’d heard, finally landing on one truth. ‘You’re pretending to be married?’
Prita’s gaze shot to him, like she’d forgotten he was there. Her hand covered her mouth, but not before he heard her muffled, ‘Oh god.’ Her gaze opened even wider, pleading. ‘Please don’t tell anyone you heard any of this. I don’t want anyone knowing. Especially Carter.’
Carter? What did this have to do with Carter? But he didn’t ask now, simply saying, ‘I won’t. You know I wouldn’t.’
She nodded, but she still looked worried, and exhausted.
‘Do you want me to go?’
‘No.’ Her gaze flickered to Chandra. ‘I want you to go.’
Chandra crossed his arms, firming his stance. ‘We’re not finished our discussion.’
‘We’re finished. There’s nothing more to say.’
She began to cough then, the talking, the emotion, too much for her right now. He felt her frustration, her shame, before she even lifted her head, eyes pleading with him to do something. This is why she’d asked him to stay. Maybe she thought his presence would stop this conversation from happening. He sure as shit wished it had. He didn’t want to hear any more. It wasn’t only that it was too personal, or the fact she’d never mentioned any of this—that hurt more than it should, even though he knew all about not wanting to talk about things that hurt. But he hated seeing her like this, so small and defeated, not like the Prita he’d come to admire so much at all. And this man, he was part of having made her like this. A big part, according to what he’d just overheard.
He wanted to take the prick by the lapels of his expensive jacket and throw him out the door. But, of course,
