“You should take your time and consider your options,” he told Tina. “The pressure can be intense. I know what it’s like. I’m the only child and have to continue the Arjun dynasty. There was a great deal of pressure from my parents to perform to their expectations. If I had failed...” He shuddered at the thought of it.
“But you didn’t,” Tina argued. “You exceed expectations every time. Your parents have almost always been proud of you.”
Almost. He caught the word. His parents had not been happy with his choice of wife and they didn’t hide their opinion. No matter what she did or how she behaved, they disapproved of Tina.
“I’m surprised they weren’t at your party,” she muttered.
“You really don’t know, do you?” he said in a whisper.
Tina stiffened and turned sharply to meet his gaze. “Know what?”
He wasn’t sure if he should tell her. He may have decided he wasn’t going to treat her like a fading flower, but he wasn’t sure how Tina was going to handle the news. “My father died.”
Tina’s lips parted in shock. “How? When?”
“Four months ago.”
She slowly shook her head as if she was trying to make sense of it. “Four...” Tina closed her eyes and swallowed hard. “When?”
“The week after you walked out.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“DEV...I’M SO SORRY.” She flattened her hand against her chest. Her heart was pounding from the news. She felt shaky and off-balance. “I didn’t know.”
“It made the international news.”
She heard the disbelief in his tone. “I wasn’t following the news at that time,” Tina explained. She didn’t want to tell him that she’d had no access to the television or computer. No magazines or newspapers. The lack of media had been surprisingly helpful.
“The commemorations lasted for weeks. There’s going to be another one at an award ceremony soon.”
He probably thought she was heartless because she hadn’t rushed to his side. She hadn’t been there in his time of need. Dev didn’t rely on anyone but she knew he’d had a complicated relationship with his father. That would make the loss even harder to bear. “What happened?”
“He had a heart attack and died instantly,” Dev said.
Tina closed her eyes as the guilt slammed into her. “How is your mother doing?”
“She’s fine and back at work,” he said. Tina noticed how he spoke in short, choppy sentences. It was clear he didn’t want to talk about it. “She’s in London doing a movie.”
Tina stared at Dev with incomprehension. What was it with the Arjun family? They didn’t grieve or stumble; they kept working. They were like machines.
Or was this how Dev had learned to grieve? She had judged him for returning to work right away. For not showing his grief like she did. She didn’t consider that this was how he coped. Dev didn’t weep or stay in bed for days. He lost himself in his work. “She couldn’t possibly be fine. She was married to your father for over thirty years!”
“Despite the fact that my parents were one of Bollywood’s legendary lovers on film, their marriage wasn’t a love match. It was a business arrangement. They led separate lives and rarely stayed in the same house together.”
“Still...” she protested weakly. Tina had sensed that Gauri and her husband, Vikram, were more of a partnership than a couple. They had worked together to build the Arjun brand instead of the Arjun family. And yet they had managed to stay together. In contrast, Tina had been deeply in love with Dev and their marriage had fallen apart within a year.
“They were indifferent to each other,” Dev said. “My mother reacted to my father’s death as if he had been a colleague instead of a husband.”
Tina shook her head. Dev hadn’t been allowed to grieve with his mother. He hadn’t been able to turn to his wife in his hour of need. How did he manage to meet every challenge head-on without breaking? “Wait, this means that you’re in charge of Arjun Entertainment.”
Dev nodded and gave a quick glance at his watch. “And I’m very late for a meeting. I’ll have the driver take you home.”
“And this is why it’s so important to get the investors,” she said softly as she rose from her seat. “The industry isn’t too sure about having a daredevil in charge of one of the largest media companies.”
Dev cast a suspicious glance at her. “They will soon realize that they have no reason to be concerned.”