Aunt Kavya left the sofa and held out a package for Devesh. An East Indian movie was inside, one that was so old that people had forgotten it existed. His petite aunt gestured to Reign and then tapped the package, signaling that she wanted him and Reign to have it. Watch it, maybe? But why? “I’ll see what we can do,” he said to his aunt in Hindi since she did not speak English. “But I’m going to need you to hold onto it for a moment.”
She nodded, tucked the package under her arm and stepped away.
Devesh gauged the temperature of the room. Everyone seemed to be relieved that he had returned with a reluctant Reign in tow.
All except the pretty strawberry blonde with bluish-gray eyes whose expression was now the saddest he’d ever seen. The fact that he was the reason for such sadness was not lost on him. In all the chaos of becoming an instant father and soon-to-be husband, Amy Seran had become lost in the equation. Tiya must have called her when he left to get Reign. Amy was supposed to be in the middle of a cover model shoot in San Francisco that happened to be on the same day as his birthday.
Children. A new wife. Time to take on a new set of responsibilities. Put away childish things as the Good Book said. And that included a relationship that was never going anywhere. He had known Amy was a placeholder for a while and had planned to break things off with her for good because it wasn’t fair to him or her. But he’d become comfortable with having a buffer to his family’s constant pestering about marriage and children. Those questions all ended when he brought Amy into the picture. Not that they still didn’t want him to marry and have a family; they just didn’t want to encourage it happening with Amy.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“Yes, I guess we do.” She didn’t bother to hide her sarcasm.
Amy had every right to be angry. They had been dating off and on for a few years and had appeared in many photo shoots and videos. All things that were designed to bolster his modeling career, and hers—still an undiscovered actress. But neither of them had caught their big break yet.
“I was not expecting Reign and my children today,” he said guiding her to the far corner of the parlor.
Anaya and Mumma whisked a reluctant Tiya, her husband Hiran, sister-in-law Sana, and cousin Neerav out of the living room to give them some privacy.
“I asked her to marry me,” he said, sliding into the seat next to Amy on the parlor sofa. “It’s only fair that you and I break this off.”
“It would be fair to send her packing,” she said, glaring at him.
“Not going to happen,” he replied. “She is the mother of my children.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to marry her.” Amy flipped her blonde tresses over her shoulder. “You barely know her.”
That wasn’t necessarily true. He had deeper conversations with Reign than he ever had with Amy.
Devesh knew some of the things that drove Reign, her past, her fears—one that had been so tragic at times that what she shared with him brought a fresh ache to his heart. He could discuss anything with her—better ways of handling his finances, the discrimination he’d experienced when paired against blue-eyed males who dominated the field; being blackballed in India by actors who felt threatened by a rising star. Reign understood. She would give him pointers on how to be better prepared when it happened again.
Amy had no such depth and insight. She was more interested in dancing, movies, travel and fun times than she was in the things that Devesh was aware would sustain a dynamic relationship for years to come.
“I always thought you would marry me,” she said, wringing her hands on her lap.
“I’ve never led you to believe that we would marry,” Devesh responded. “That was not the direction I ever saw our relationship moving.”
Her lashes lowered, red lips thinned out in an effort to hold in her emotions.
“We were friends, lovers sometimes,” he continued. “We have a lot in common when it comes to our careers. But I told you early on and never led you to believe otherwise. Every time you pushed for marriage, we took a little break. When you’d push to get back together, I thought you understood that nothing had changed.”
“Yet you slept with her and had children by her while you were with me,” Amy accused, flattening her hands against his chest. “I thought you were an honorable man.”
“Let’s be honest,” he snapped, tiring of the conversation because her skewed take on their relationship was beyond selective. “You gave me an ultimatum before I left to go to the convention that year. I said we needed to take a break because your insecurity was driving me up the wall. I’d had enough.”
“I was right to be concerned about you going down there and being near her,” she shot back, ivory skin flushing crimson. “Tiya had warned me to step up because some thirsty Black chick was sniffing around you like a bitch in heat.” She shook her head. “I didn’t believe her at first, because she showed me pictures. No way would you choose her over someone like me. But whenever you talk about her or someone mentions her, your expression clouds over like … you’re missing something.” She reached out to touch his face. “I tried to be everything that you needed. I can’t believe that I’m not enough for you.”
“That’s where you went wrong, trying to be something that you’re not,” he said, removing her hand and placing it back on her lap. “We were friends. I hope we still can be, but I never saw this going the distance. You saw it being long-term. I lived in the present. Right now my present demands that I do right by Reign and my children.”
“She didn’t do right by you and tell you about them in the first place,” she taunted, not bothering to keep the ugliness at bay. “Yet now you want to break things off with me to be with her. How fair is it that you’re going to break my heart for a woman who didn’t consider you important enough that you needed to be in your children’s lives? And if you hadn’t run into her today at the restaurant, you would’ve never known about them.”
Now that stung because it was the absolute truth. Come to think of it, he still didn’t have a clear understanding of Reign’s actions. But it didn’t change anything that he would do.
“You’re going to marry her on the spot,” Amy said, practically snarling, which was not a becoming look on her. “No courting. No engagement period. Just—” She arched her hand in a dramatic flourish. “Right down the aisle and to the preacher man. I’ve been with you the longest and didn’t get that kind of consideration. What’s right about that picture?” She put her focus on Tiya, who had tipped back in and was eyeing them with mild suspicion from her spot near the living room threshold. “I took all of those pictures, let you sell my stock photos and I didn’t charge you a dime.”
Devesh put a pointed glare on Tiya and waved her away before focusing on Amy again. “It helped your career, too. So don’t make it seem like it was only for my own benefit.”
Amy stared at Devesh with eyes as sharp as daggers. “What career? Mine hasn’t gone anywhere. Neither has yours. And if you marry her, what little chance you have at a career will circle the drain and go down for a royal flush.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” he challenged, noticing Reign slide from the den into the living room both of which had an open view of the parlor. She captured Leena before the little girl made it to Devesh, who said, “Give me a minute, Leena. Alright?”
Leena nodded and only then did she allow her mother to take her hand and lead her away.
“Try showing up to a photo shoot with her.” Amy left the sofa and moved to plop down on a wingback chair that gave her a better vantage point to see Reign who halted at hearing those last words.
Amy laughed, the sound of it bitter and brash. “Oh, definitely won’t be strolling down the red carpet with that. Love to see you explain her to the public.” She raised her voice so Reign could hear. “You’d bypass me and all those beautiful models to marry a troll.”
Reign flinched. He could tell that it was taking everything in her not to
say something that would put Amy on notice.
“Amy, there are a lot of things I’ll tolerate,” Devesh warned. “But talking about the woman who’s going to be my wife is not one of them,” he said, taking in her sour expression. “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize that there’s such an ugliness in your soul.” He stood, towering over her because he couldn’t bear to sit next to her any longer. “I’m marrying Reign because she has always had my heart. From day one. I was just too afraid of my family’s disapproval to move forward in having a relationship with her.”
“So what was I?” Amy asked, getting to her feet. “The second runner-up in the Devesh Maharaj pageant?”
“No, I never saw you that way,” Devesh confessed, though the truth of the matter was somewhere laced in between. “We took it day by day. It’s just that on this day we have to end things.”
Amy inched forward so they were closer than he would like. “She doesn’t want you the way that you want her,” she said, shifting her blue eyes to Reign, who was eyeing them with interest. “She doesn’t want you. Otherwise, she would’ve come to you long before now. Are you willing to lose your career for her?”
“She told me early on that small-minded people in the industry would try to use my relationship with her to negatively impact my career,” he confessed with an intense glare at her. “None of it mattered to me.”
Amy’s tears seemed to dry up instantly. “I can still be there for you,” she whispered, reaching up to touch his face.
Devesh extracted her hand and placed it back down to her side.
“I will be there for you,” she said, her eyes filled with unbridled pain. “I love you. Don’t let me go.”
Amy’s pleading seemed to suck all of the air out of the room. Reign shook her head and finally walked away.
“You’re not hearing me,” he said, quirking a confused brow. “I love her. I’m sorry that saying this hurts you, but you wanted the truth and I’m telling you the way things are.”
Amy’s ivory face darkened to an unrecognizable shade. “You’re going to regret this,” she said through her teeth, and there was a fire in those blue eyes that he’d never seen before. “You used me. All this time. You used me. And if there’s ever a day where I can let the world know just how much, you better believe that I will.”
Amy snatched away from him, ran out of the parlor and struggled to open and run out of the front door.
Devesh turned in time to see the sly smile that lit Tiya’s features, and he wasn’t all that pleased that it was coming at his expense.
Chapter 7
The next day, Devesh perched on the edge of the king-sized bed in Reign’s master bedroom in Chicago, watching as she placed some of the last of the items she was taking back with her to California. The rest of her things were packed in a series of boxes that would be shipped via freight and would arrive a week later. He had insisted on coming to help her with the transition. What he really wanted was to make sure she actually returned to Newport Coast. To be honest, he also wanted to lay eyes on the man who had somehow become important to Reign in recent months. He also hoped coming to Chicago would help him better understand the woman he would marry in a small ceremony in the place that would become her home. Devesh was set to fly her son, two nieces, two nephews and three friends as her witnesses and to offer support so she wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the sheer size of the extended Maharaj family.
He found it amazing that the reason she had so little family was because she had spoken out against something that happened to the female children of the family at the hands of a male relative. Later, being pregnant with Jay caused a wider separation with her family. He still wondered about what transpired, but never pressed for more. It amazed him more that she had no desire to have any input in her own wedding. When Mumma called to inquire, Devesh could only state what he believed to be her wishes. If he didn’t know any better, he would swear she was ready to bolt with the children and disappear altogether.
Couldn’t she see how much he wanted her? Wanted his children and her—a true family? Could she come to love him again? And whether she had told him or not, he knew so long ago that she had. Fear on both sides had kept them apart for far too long.
The first day they’d arrived in the Windy City, Jay slid by the house and scooped up Leena and Kamran, so Reign was able to drive Devesh to see a few of the sites since he’d never been to Chicago before. They took in a breakfast meal at the Grand Lux Café on the Magnificent Mile, visited the Baha’i’s Temple in Wilmette, then the Museum Campus and later had an eye-opening experience at dinner which further served to put Devesh on notice.
When they walked into the place with its warm décor of reds and purples with glass and silver accents; the host, the waiters, even the bartender came to greet Reign as if she was a long-lost relative. But it was the owner who moseyed from his office and put a lust-filled gaze on Reign that made the hairs on the back of Devesh’s neck stand at full attention. Reign went into the man’s arms willingly, and the embrace they shared was unsettling. The smile on the man’s lips at having her so close to him was nothing short of an unspoken challenge. He was of medium height, olive skin, a layered haircut that gave him a well-lived lifestyle look further complemented by the European tailored suit draping his slightly muscular frame. The man was well aware of his sensual power and evidently had hoped it would work with Reign.
“And who might this be?” he asked over Reign’s shoulder.
Devesh met the man’s look measure for measure as he said. “The man she’s going to marry in three days time. And you are …?”
“Samir,” he said simply, with a curious glance in Reign’s direction as he stroked a hand down the small curve of her back, dangerously close to her shapely rear end.
“You can release my woman now,” Devesh edged, moving forward to extract her from his hold if necessary. “I’m sure you’ve said enough of a hello right about now.”
Samir ignored that not-so-subtle warning and said to a wide-eyed Reign, “I wish I had known that you’d taken an interest in more than East Indian cuisine. I would have—”
“Been able to show us to a table a little faster, maybe,” Devesh supplied drily though he didn’t miss the alarm in Reign’s expression. “We’re famished with all the packing and everything.”
The disappointment etched in Samir’s face was rewarding. Message received.
“I didn’t know,” she whispered to Samir, and there was a slight sound of regret in her tone. “I truly didn’t know.”
So much for all that charm. Gratefully, it had gone right over Reign’s head.
“Best wishes on your upcoming nuptials,” Samir said, flickering a look between Reign and Devesh. “You will be my guest tonight, as is always the case when you come to me.”
“No, I will take care of her meal. I can handle everything when it comes to my woman,” Devesh said, clasping a hand on the man’s shoulder in a gesture that was not at all friendly. “Wouldn’t want you to think I’d let her starve … on any level.”
Samir’s low throaty chuckle rankled Devesh’s nerves, but he said, “As you wish. Right this way.”
“That was uncalled for,” Reign said when they were seated at one of the best tables in the place.
“No more than the fact he insisted on keeping his hands on another man’s fiancée,” Devesh countered. “I just wanted him to understand there was no need for any consideration on that level where you’re involved,” Devesh whispered and she averted her gaze. “Seems like the only person who doesn’t know how beautiful, intelligent, amazing, and desirable you are … is you.”
They left the restaurant with no further incident from Samir other than a lingering look of longing when he laid eyes on Reign. And that’s all the man had better do—is look. Devesh would do whatever it took to transition their marriage into something more than just friends sharing the same space and time; even if it took her a while to truly embrace the idea.
After dinne
r, they took a stroll along the path of Lake Michigan. Devesh had a special love for large bodies of water, but Lake Michigan was nothing like his beloved Pacific Ocean and the beautiful beaches of California. The lake’s murky waters did not move him the way the California waves and sunlight did. Chicago seemed to be a nice place to visit, but the sun and ocean shore would be good for his children. And his wife to be, if she could release the anxiety she felt when it came to him and his family. Everything in its time.
Reign’s row house in the heart of Historic Pullman was perfect for a small family. Two bedrooms, eat-in kitchen, and moderate living room. This place would fit into the Maharaj home seven or eight times over. The home was simply furnished with a cuddling chair and sofa, television, sofa table, and some vibrantly colored Jackson Junge artwork. The kitchen held a dining table that could seat six, but it was pushed against the far wall so that it only accommodated three instead. The appliances were stainless steel and looked as if they had been recently purchased, and the natural wood floors had been polished to a shine. The place smelled of citrus and freshly washed linen, which gave it a warm, inviting feel. Though clean and well-organized, he would never want his children so sparsely attended. It made him wonder if Reign was struggling financially.
Earlier, he had stood outside, taking in the area. Reign told him the homes had been built for workers of the Pullman Car company and had later been taken over by the State when Pullman cut wages for the men who built the train cars. Unfortunately, Pullman did not lower rent payments for the workers which started a riot that cost several lives.
Now over a hundred years later, a blend of freshly rehabbed houses intermingled with ones that were so dilapidated it was a miracle they were still standing. A group of young men was posted up on a porch three doors down from Reign’s place, another trio was on the sidewalk, and other small groups were sprinkled on front porches and lawns all the way down Champlain Avenue. Three of them on the porch nearest him were passing some cannabis between them. The pungent and unwelcome smell floated down to where Devesh was standing. Children were on the sidewalk not far from them, playing with a water hose, trying to cool off. Did those men have no decency or shame? Children should not inhale such a thing or be subjected to behavior that was disrespectful not only to them, but to women and elders as well.
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