Bound by Law

Bound by Law || 28- Out in the Open

"Aisha..." he let out a shaky sigh, "was Aman's girlfriend."

My fidgeting stopped and I stared in shock at a stoic-faced Jai. My jaw went slack and my eyes bulged out.

"You mean ex-girlfriend?" I asked, my voice shaking.

He scoffed. "No. I mean his girlfriend; they never broke up," he replied with a sardonic smile.

"What do you mean?"

No, don't ask that.

But I had to know. I didn't want it to be a secret, I wanted to know the truth. My fidgeting was now uncontrollable as I searched his eyes desperately, trying to find any trace of humour.

Yet, I found none. Since Aisha was also his lover, I knew this would be crushing him too.

"I mean," he echoed, biting the words out, "I was in a relationship with my brothers' girlfriend, and I didn't know."

Raising both my hands up to cover my mouth, my eyes fell downcast at the un-touched pizza that had probably gone cold.

What?

"You helped her cheat on Aman?"

Jai sucked in a deep breath, clamping his eyes shut. His face was twisted in pain.

"I said I didn't know," he growled defensively. "He never fucking told me he had a girlfriend in the first place because we hated each other. We've never even had a civil conversation."

His lips curled up angrily. "If I had known about this, I would have broken up with that cheating slut ages ago."

I flinched at the insult but said nothing as I didn't want to make him even angrier than he was.

He didn't know? So he wasn't doing anything intentionally?

My eyes glanced up to look up at Jai, his eyes glazed over, looking lost in thought. My stomach swirled with guilt for accusing him of helping someone cheat.

"It's not your fault, Jai." My voice caused him to snap out of his thoughts, his amber eyes trained on me. "You said you never knew, so what could you have done?"

"I don't know." He clenched his jaw. "I should have told him and we could have worked things out together. Instead, he heard it from his girlfriend who wanted to keep us apart. And as soon as Aisha told me the truth the day before our camping trip, I broke up with her instantly. That's why I was so off that day when Sanaya came over. She had called right after and told me shit and I demanded to see her to get the full story."

Everything finally makes sense...well, not everything.

"But why did she decide to tell you?" I asked, suddenly confused. "She didn't have to. She could have kept it a secret for a long time and you never would have known."

"She didn't want to hide things from me anymore, apparently. She wanted to start fresh with me because she wanted to run away with me and get married even though I'm with you. It was fucking stupid."

He shook his head, scoffing to himself. "And I was even more stupid. Even when Aman blamed and attacked me for seeing Aisha, I just thought it was because he was jealous of our relationship. I didn't know it was because they were together and that I was the reason they had become distant because he never told me. I think he thought it was deliberate and that I was fooling around with her despite knowing she was his. He probably wanted to hear the truth from me, but I didn't know. I know what he was assumed was far from the reality of what had happened. But, if he had just told me..." Jai sighed, running a hand down his face. "If he had told me, I would have gladly stepped out of the way."