Raya's pov.
Luca had a 'talk' with his parents after Pushyant was found beaten and still delirious, for some reason, he wouldn't name names, but Luca's parents decided it must have been him, which is ridiculous, so they pulled him aside and had a full-blown argument, where they not only brought up, a previous encounter where luca had beat up Sasha's ex-boyfriend but also the fact that he dropped out of med school to become a chef and I quote 'threw all their money down the drain' and that he never even tried to do something that could make him important, just slaved away is some dingy kitchen, their words, not mine. They also tried to use the fact that he was single when his brother was married and that they had to find 'someone willing to deal with his impulsiveness' to 'save the family name'.
Itna chutiya argument to politician bhi nahi dete, tv wali live debates me bhi nahi.
But what luca yells back at them after that comment hurt me.
"me jab bhi yahan ata hun to aap log meri zindagi barbad karne pe tul jate ho, is baar meri us ladki ke saath shaadi karake"
"We only made you get married because you needed to be controlled. You had a perfectly wonderful girl who was willing to marry you despite your impulsiveness, and you broke her heart!"
After that, I slammed the door shut. I didn't want to hear anything else accidentally. And if you're wondering how I knew this, I was in the next room, trying to defuse the situation with the assholes' parents and Nitya's parents, all of whom wanted answers on how the idiot landed up in the main fountain. That was until they heard all the yelling in the other room. After that, they all just gave me sympathetic looks and dropped the whole issue. It was the only good thing to happen that day. And since it was like 5 o'clock and my husband was avoiding me like the plague, plus it was the last day of festivities, I doubted anything even vaguely okay was going to happen.
Either way, I was expected to put on a brave face and enjoy the evening, which was what I hoped to do. But I needed to get ready to do that, which meant a battle with yet another corset. And this time, I doubted my husband would come to my rescue. That's why I suggested that all of us girls get ready together. Well, that and the fact I didn't really want to be alone with my thoughts.
As it turns out, this decision was the wrong one because, during the festivities, I couldn't find luca for the life of me, that is, until I asked his mother where he was, and she said, and I quote,
'kaesa beta hai mera, biwi ko bina bataye hi chala gaya, kab zimmedari ki samaj aegi isko'
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you heard that right. Luca was so upset that he left his little brother's wedding early, and all anyone cared about was what he said about his wedding. But what I was focused on was why the hell didn't he tell me he was leaving the country.
At the end of the night, I was out of breath, and my mind was running at a hundred miles an hour, I had called him so many times that my phone was now dead, I'm pretty sure everyone from his family thinks I'm crazy I because I've asked all of them about a hundred times whether they know where he is.
All of them had the same answer,
'he's gone'
What does that fucking mean?
The only person who gave me some clarity was Takashi, who I was able to talk to for about five minutes because he was busy. And his clarity was translucency at best,
"do you know where your brother is? I've looked everywhere, and I can't find him," I asked him, hoping to any and every god that he knew where luca was,
