Chapter 5: The Backup and the Lead

Kabir doesn’t know!

He was never on my list of choices—not that anyone ever gave me a list to begin with.

I still let Ananya stay at the Kabir residence. She claimed she had nowhere else to go.

"Meera, you’re my best friend, na? You can’t throw me out. If it wasn’t for me, you’d never have married Kabir!"

A headache bloomed at my temple. "Don’t worry, Ananya. How could I not take care of you?"

I put her in the room next to Kabir’s study.

She seemed pleased, but then her eyes shifted.

"Meera, do you still sleep in the same room as Kabir?"

I nodded.

Her smile turned brittle. "That’s so middle class. In good families, couples have their own rooms. You two are really lacking in sophistication!"

"That’s right!" I shot back, a note of sarcasm in my voice.

Meanwhile, I quietly sent someone to look into the goings-on at Prince Yashvardhan’s residence.

The news was exactly what I expected.

When Yashvardhan married Ananya, he’d sworn to never take a second wife. Their love story was legendary—a match made in heaven!

But three years after their fairy-tale ending, a scandal broke out.

Yashvardhan never took a second wife, but he did keep a mistress.

During a heated argument, Yashvardhan exploded:

"Don’t think I don’t know everything. Two years ago, when Kabir took a knife for you, you held his hand and swore you’d never let him down."

Ananya pleaded, "It was just a desperate promise, nothing more."

"Yes, Kabir said he’d divorce his wife for you, and you said there was no reason not to! So Kabir found two thugs to threaten Meera, but Bhagwan ki kripa, they were beaten up by bystanders..."

I remembered it well!

That day, on my way to a party, two men blocked the road, but a stranger stepped in and saved me—risking his life because I’d once helped his sick wife.

So this was the truth!

The fight ended with Yashvardhan storming off with his mistress.

That was when Ananya came to me in the rain.

Looking at it now, Kabir was more of a hero than Yashvardhan—more generous, more loyal, but so loyal that everyone else was invisible to him.

A maid rushed in, breathless: Ananya wanted to move into Kabir’s room!

I strolled over. Ananya had already tossed my things out into the corridor.

When she saw me, her expression was apologetic, but only just.

"Meera, I can’t sleep without Kabir! He used to tell me stories, hold my hand until I drifted off—you understand, right?"

I listened, smiling, as her story unravelled.

Seeing I wouldn’t react, she grew desperate, her voice rising.

"This was my place first! Besides, you don’t even like Kabir, do you?"

So, she knew all along!

"You’re just clinging to your position now. Or is it that you’ve fallen for Kabir?"

I scoffed, "How could that be?"

No matter who I might have loved, I could never love a man who once tried to have me harmed.

A crash sounded behind me!

I turned—

Kabir stood in the doorway, hands clenched, knuckles pale as jasmine buds. The clock in the hallway struck the hour, and the aroma of frying onions drifted in from the kitchen, grounding the drama in the familiar. All three of us stood frozen, the echoes of broken trust hanging in the air like distant thunder.