Manhattan's Most Scandalous Reunion--An Uplifting International Romance

by Dani Collins

  “Oh, I love that idea.”

  They sat down with the men then, eating grapes and cheese and crab croquettes while they finalized the press release.

  “Do we bother waiting for the DNA results?” Vijay asked, glancing toward the terrace. “I think we’re losing our chance to stay ahead of the story.”

  Photographers had been gathering outside in greater numbers since Oriel and Vijay had arrived.

  Nina looked to Reve. It meant putting him under a microscope as well as herself.

  “It’s your decision.” He squeezed her hand.

  “It feels like the nuclear codes,” she said with a pang, thinking it was the first test of this tentative future they had agreed to try. She glanced at Oriel. “Do you want to run for shelter before all hell breaks loose?”

  “Hell is already loose in my life,” Oriel said wryly. “Honestly? I want to stand on that terrace and show the world I have a sister.” Her eyes grew bright with happy tears, her smile wide and unsteady. “But you should do this however it suits you best.” Her glance flickered to Reve as if she read Nina’s concern there. “I know I have a sister. That’s the most important part for me.”

  Nina knew then that she really did have a sister in Oriel. The truth was that she was equally excited to tell the world she had a twin.

  Whether her sudden fame would destroy what she had with Reve was a question that could only be answered by letting the secret out. It wasn’t a secret they could keep forever anyway.

  She gave a jerky nod. “Let’s do it.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  NINA’S APPEARANCE ON the terrace last night with Oriel had set Paris on fire. The news traveled around the world within hours. Despite the downpour in Mumbai when they landed, even bigger crowds were gathered at the airport and outside the building where Oriel and Vijay lived. The roar when they paused to wave before hurrying out of the rain and into the high-rise rang in Nina’s ears as they stepped into the elevator.

  “It’s a lot, I know,” Oriel said with a small wince of empathy, leaning into Vijay.

  “Settle in and rest,” Vijay suggested, looping his arm around his wife. “Jalil and my sister will join us for dinner, but we’ll put off talking about interviews and appearances until tomorrow or the next day.”

  “I think the baby needs to nap,” Oriel said with a sleepy blink up at him.

  “Then baby should.” Vijay settled his hand on her belly, seeming completely enamored with her.

  Nina’s heart pinched and she glanced away, but her gaze was snagged by Reve’s intense one. She looked down guiltily. She couldn’t help it that she was envious, and wished he hadn’t noticed. It put a lot of pressure on him that she didn’t mean.

  The pair stayed in the elevator while she and Reve departed two floors below her sister’s penthouse into a very swanky apartment with a living space that opened onto a covered terrace overlooking the sea.

  Nina immediately went to stand at the rail. Rain gusted toward them, but she only grinned at the storm waves and heavy gray skies.

  “Doesn’t it smell good?” She drank in the sweet, earthy, salt-scented air.

  “It does, but—” Reve nodded at someone pointing a camera toward them from the beach twenty stories below. He drew her back into the apartment. “Can you imagine bringing a child into this sort of fishbowl?”

  She bit the corner of her lip, debating how to react.

  “Oriel’s mother is a renowned opera singer so she’s used to being the daughter of someone famous. She seems comfortable with the attention, but they weren’t planning to have a baby this soon.” In a private confidence between sisters, Oriel had confessed that she and Vijay had married because Oriel fell unexpectedly pregnant. Nina kept it to herself.

  “Accidents happen,” she said with a defensive shrug. “I’ll try not to have any and certainly wouldn’t deliberately let it happen, but you should probably consider that it could.”

  He walked into the kitchen and her heart sank. She followed and found him glowering. Her stomach cramped.

  “Look, if you’re not comfortable with that risk...” She couldn’t finish the sentence. She hated how tentative this was! Without any firm promises between them, every little thing felt as though it could defeat them.

  “I don’t like this kitchen. We need to remove that wall and put in an island so you can cook without me getting in your way.”

  “Really?” she said, perplexed.

  “Am I being sexist? I thought you liked to cook.”

  “Sure, but that sounds very... I mean, I can’t afford this place.”

  “The show has done well, and I have every confidence you and Oriel will quickly become a force to be reckoned with in the fashion industry. At some point, you absolutely will be able to afford this, but I’ll buy it. That way we’ll have somewhere to stay when we visit.”

  Her stomach swooped. “I thought we were taking this day by day. Did you hear what I just said about accidents?”

  “Yes. And if I’m not comfortable with that risk, I can wear condoms as an extra precaution. I probably won’t, unless you want me to.”

  “Really?” A bubble of optimism rose to press painfully behind her breastbone.

  “Really. Let’s go see if we like the bedroom.”

  * * *

  The next days were challenging and busy, but Reve couldn’t resent the demands and privacy difficulties when Nina was positively incandescent.

  And while he still loathed the intrusion of paparazzi, he discovered what a disservice he’d done to her and himself in the past, when he had refused to meet her family. He had thought it would feel like an overstep to allow strangers into his personal life, but spending time with Nina while she got to know Oriel allowed him to see parts of her she had never revealed before. At night, she decompressed, confiding in him the complicated feelings she had about all of this. It formed tiny threads that meshed them closer together.

  He enjoyed coaching her and Oriel on their business plan for the fashion house idea, too. Nina’s confidence in her worth as an artist grew by the day, making him so proud he was in danger of becoming insufferable. Vijay’s sister wanted in on their fashion label idea even though she was already busy with the security work she did with Vijay, and soon Reve was sent to do “boy things” with Vijay and Jalil. He enjoyed their company, too.

  With the evidence Reve had found, Jalil was commencing formal legal action against Lakshmi’s manager. Suing the clinic was much trickier since the business had been dissolved two decades ago and the doctor who’d colluded with Bakshi was dead. Still, they were going to try. In fact, Reve had just left Nina with Oriel and Jalil at the lawyer’s office and was killing time by wandering down the block.

  Restlessness chased him. He was ignoring his own business by lingering here with her, but he didn’t want to leave, even though he knew she would be okay. Jalil was footing the bill on the legal proceedings and security. Everyone had welcomed Nina with open arms. She was regaining her sense of self and making decisions about her future. She didn’t really need him.

  Which wasn’t as comforting a thought as it ought to be. If she didn’t need him, why was he here? Because she loved him and he didn’t want to hurt her by rejecting that love?

  That was true, but he was also starting to realize that he needed her. He had already tasted life without her voice and touch and laughter. It was empty and meaningless if he didn’t have their playful bickering or quiet moments of sincerity.

  From the moment she had stumbled back into his life, he’d been thinking he should pry her out of it, and he hadn’t once found the strength. He still didn’t think he was right for her, but their soft promise of “wait and see” wasn’t enough for him. He saw the commitment between Vijay and Oriel and knew Nina wanted that. Love, marriage, children... It still felt very foreign to him. Impossible to achieve.

 
Yet, every time he saw Vijay touch Oriel’s belly, curiosity rose in him. He wanted to ask him, What is that like? How does it feel? How do you know you’ll be a good father?

  He looked at his ghostly reflection in a shop window and was struck by how much he looked like a younger version of his father. Had there been a time when that man had loved him, before he’d lost the woman he loved and gave himself up to a bottle of grief?

  Could this man reflected back at him be a good father after that example had been set for him? Despite Reve’s mind riffling through all the ways he would make a terrible parent, a resounding truth rose above the noise. Nina wouldn’t let him fail. She would help him be better. He knew that.

  A swell of possibility rose in him.

  “Sir, would you like to come in? Can I show you one of those rings?”

  Reve focused his gaze and realized he was standing outside a jewelry store.

  * * *

  “You still need to go to Berlin, don’t you?” Nina asked Reve the next morning.

  They’d had a late night. She and Oriel had been interviewed on a television show, which had been surreal, but seemed to result in a wave of public outrage for what had been done to Lakshmi and support for them. Reve had been quiet and distracted, and she wasn’t sure if it was because of the attention or because he was growing tired of playing second fiddle to her needs.

  “I have business in New York that needs to be addressed sooner than later. Why? How long were you thinking of staying here?”

  “Forever?” she said on a wistful sigh and flopped onto the sofa. “I love it here, but I feel very far away from my family. I also haven’t even started the work I need to do with Andre. I have to fill those orders so my investor doesn’t send his goon squad after me.” She reached her toe out to nudge him in the thigh.

  “You’re saying that having a twin isn’t as convenient as it sounds?” He caught her ankle and sat to swing her feet into his lap. “Isn’t it like having a clone? Can’t you be in two places at once now?”

  “Turns out, no. Family is many things, but convenient is rarely one of them.” She shifted to straddle his lap, so in love with him she thought she might die of it. “Even so, you can never have too much.”

  She faltered slightly as she realized how that might sound.

  “Nina, it’s okay that you say what’s on your mind and in your heart.” He tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at her in a way that sent a spear of hope straight into her chest. “That’s how I know I can trust you.”

  “Do you trust me? Because sometimes I worry it’s not the publicity that will drive you away,” she confessed softly. “I worry it’s the moments when I get excited about Oriel’s baby or I do something else that makes you think I need what she has. I only need you.” She cupped his stubbled cheeks. “I promise you that.”

  “It seems impossible that I could ever be enough.” He searched her eyes pensively. “I keep thinking that I need to do more.”

  When she started to shake her head, he tightened his hands on her hips, forestalling her from saying anything.

  “I can’t ask you to leave places where you have roots and family and people who love you to follow me around the world. Not unless I give you a good reason to.”

  She wanted to ask, Such as...? She had stopped breathing, and her eyes teared up.

  Ask me to marry you, she silently pleaded, pulse rushing in her ears. If he was her family, she would go wherever he wanted to take her, convenient or not.

  He swallowed and started to reach into his shirt pocket.

  Her heart stuttered and soared with anticipation.

  His phone rang in the opposite pocket. He swore, glanced at her sheepishly and made a face of annoyance as he drew it out and looked at the screen.

  His features froze with concentration. Hardened. When he clicked it off, his expression was grave.

  “I have to leave.” He spoke quietly and with a finality that landed on her like a meteorite.

  Her limbs became cold and unwieldly, too weak and heavy to fight him as he moved her off his lap and rose.

  “Right now? Why? I’ll go with you.” Panic edged into her voice as she scrambled to her feet.

  “No. Spend time with your family. Tell them...” His expression tightened. “Tell them I’m sorry.”

  Dread slid down her back in cold fingers. Nina scanned his features, growing more and more distressed. Maybe she and Reve hadn’t made any promises for a future, but she had thought she would have more warning if he decided to leave.

  “What happened?” She looked at the phone he’d tucked away.

  “The smear campaign has begun.”

  “On me? By who? Lakshmi’s manager?”

  “On me. There’s nothing Bakshi can say to discredit you, is there? You’re an innocent victim. He’ll only look worse if he comes after you. Better to say your accusations against him are being prompted by a man who lacks morals. One who makes up any story for money.”

  “Oh, Reve, no. I am so sorry.” She took a faltering step toward him, but he was already putting up a hand to hold her off.

  “It was bound to happen, Nina.” He was speaking in a tone she hadn’t heard in a long while, the one that said nothing could touch him. Except it could. She heard through that aloof tone to the pain it disguised. “He’ll soon discover he has started a fight he doesn’t want with a ruthless bastard who stops at nothing. But my past, and the dirty fight we’ll have, cannot be your problem. So here we are. This time we really will end it.”

  “No.” Pain began to seep like poison through her veins and arteries and nerve endings, growing too intense to bear. “Reve, I don’t care what he says about you. I love who you are. Everything about you.”

  “Nina.” His voice was gentle, as though he was holding something fragile and trying to release it into a breeze. “It’s not just you I’m protecting.” He nodded to the ceiling and Oriel and Vijay, two floors up. “They’ll all suffer if I allow myself to be used as a weapon. If I leave, he has nothing against any of you. You don’t need me anymore. You’ll be fine.”

  “No, I won’t! I do need you. We belong together. You know that. You were just about to ask me to marry you, weren’t you?” she demanded, pushing the strained words through her tight throat.

  He looked away and a muscle clenched in his jaw. “You don’t want to be married to this. I’ve always known that, and you would have seen it, too, if you had really wanted to. When you do, you’ll thank me for making the hard choice that you refused to.”

  “That’s bull. You’re being a coward.”

  His head jerked back as if she’d punched him.

  “I’m doing what has to be done.” He walked into the bedroom where he threw a few necessities into a bag, gave her one last look of agonized regret and then left.

  She didn’t go to the shower. She was too devastated for tears. She sat on the sofa in a paralysis of loss, unable to form a thought through the pulsing pain that enclosed her.

  Eventually, she became aware that her jagged breaths were the only thing she could hear in the otherwise profound silence. She had never felt more abandoned in her life.

  But she wasn’t alone, she realized dimly, and ran in a blind hurry up to Oriel’s apartment, banging urgently on the door.

  “Nina? Are you okay?” Oriel let her in, alarmed.

  “No! Something happened.” The words stumbled against the sobs that were stacked like uneven blocks in her throat. “Gouresh Bakshi is dragging up Reve’s past to discredit me and harm Jalil’s case. Reve left. And I don’t know how I’m going to bear it.”

  “Oh, Nina.” Oriel’s arms came around her.

  Nina clung to her sister and heard Vijay swear vehemently.

  “That can only mean one thing,” he said.

  He sounded so grim that Nina was pulled from her anguished need
to weep and lifted her head. “What?”

  “I’m next.”

  * * *

  Reve’s jet had gone back into service after dropping them here in Mumbai. It would meet him in Dubai, and a conventional executive jet had been chartered to get him there. He was stuck in a private lounge, waiting for it to make its way onto the tarmac.

  Would he start drinking, he wondered? He tried not to use alcohol as a coping mechanism, but he really didn’t know how he would survive leaving Nina. He had to protect her, though. Had to.

  Because he loved her. He must. There was no other explanation for this feeling—it was as though a part of him had been amputated. He could hardly breathe.

  Although he wanted to berate himself for letting it happen, he hadn’t had much choice in the matter, either. Not from the first moment she had approached him at that New Year’s Eve shindig, saying with the wide-eyed blink of an ingenue, Your performance of boredom is extraordinary.

  He had never been bored again. Not while she was around. Now, all he could think was that his life would become a wasteland again. Meaningless.

  Ironically, by leaving her, he was trying to be the sort of man who deserved her. He was trying not to hurt her by hurting her. It was the most untenable position to be in, but he understood now. Love wasn’t a selfish thing you used to make others do things. It was something that drove your own actions on another’s behalf. It was complete selflessness. The sacrifice of your own happiness for their betterment.

  Why was he forcing loss on her, though?

  His phone pinged again. He’d been ignoring it. His PR people were becoming aware that his reputation was being attacked. They were reaching out for guidance and, furious as he was by Bakshi’s efforts, another part of Reve couldn’t care less. If he couldn’t have Nina, what was the point in fighting? Let Bakshi do his worst. He’d rather be dead.

  Someone was trying to video call. He gave in and pulled his phone from his pocket, but missed it. Vijay.