All the power? He was defenseless when it came to Tina. “Get out.” His voice was weak and raspy.
Tina went very still. “What?”
“You heard me. Get out.” He pointed at the door. “Get out of this office. Get out of my home. Get out of my life.”
She clasped her hands together and gave him a pleading look. “Dev, I didn’t go to a divorce lawyer.”
“Move out of my house immediately and go to America.” He needed her to go across the world. He would breathe easier knowing she couldn’t invade his life again.
“But...but...” Tina looked at the door and then at him. “What about your investors?”
He gave a humorless chuckle and rubbed his hand over his face. Once he had felt guilty about lying to her. He knew she would be angry when she found out but he’d thought it was for a good cause. His crumbling marriage. “There are none.”
“What? I don’t understand. What happened?”
“There never were investors. I lied, Tina.” Dev watched the realization dawn on her. “I said that so you would stay. I had this crazy idea that if I could have you back home for a few months, you would fall back in love with me and we could start over.”
Tina closed her eyes and pressed her lips together. “Wh-why didn’t you tell me that?”
“Right, because you were so receptive to the idea. You would have run as far as you could in the other direction if you’d known what I wanted.”
“Dev, you have to believe me. I didn’t do anything behind your back. I want to—”
“I’ve heard enough.” That was the problem. He wanted to believe her. He wanted to believe that he misunderstood. That Tina was innocent. And he would keep on believing as she wrung the hope out of him. This time he had to protect himself. “Get out.”
She stared at him. He felt the wild energy swirling around her. An urgency. He knew the feeling. It had happened the last time his world fell apart and there was nothing he could do to save his dreams.
“I mean it, Tina.” He watched her tremble at the menace in his voice. “If you don’t leave right now, I will carry you out myself.”
“But...” she gave another quick glance at the door. “What if I’m pregnant?”
Her words stung like the tip of a whip. His anger spiked so hot that it felt incandescent. Dev decided Tina was lucky there was a desk between them. “Don’t even joke about it.”
“I’m serious. What happens if I’m carrying your baby?”
“Life wouldn’t be so cruel.”
She gasped and jerked back. He knew his words wounded her. It didn’t please him.
“If you’re pregnant, I would stay married to you,” he said. Only this time, he wouldn’t hope for a reconciliation. “We will have separate homes, live on different continents and have separate lives. It worked for my parents. Why should I want anything different?”
“No.” She shook her head. “No, you don’t want that. I know you, Dev.”
But that was before he’d discovered that Tina didn’t want a future or a family with him. How long would she have dangled the promise of forever if the American television deal hadn’t gone through?
“And the child would stay with me,” he said. He couldn’t imagine the demands she would have made if she had carried his child. The Arjun heir.
“No court would allow that!”
He didn’t know why they were arguing about it. Tina had made it very clear that she didn’t want to carry a baby again. Namely, his baby. That had hurt him more than he cared to admit. “Do you think you can fight the influence and money I have?”
Tina blinked as she swayed on her feet. She grabbed the back of the chair as her body began to shake. “You wouldn’t,” she whispered.
He didn’t think he would, but he wasn’t thinking about what was right or wrong at the moment. He was in pain and he was lashing out. “Don’t test me,” he warned. “But you’re not carrying my baby. This time I walk away. This time I’m asking for the divorce. Get out of my life, Tina. I don’t want you as my wife anymore.”
* * *
The drums pounded as Tina spun wildly on the stage. She was giving this performance everything she had. Her lungs burned, her legs shook and she fought the wave of dizziness. She was almost done.... Almost there...
As the music ended with a dramatic flourish, the folds of her tunic still moving, Tina smiled and tossed her hands up in the air to thunderous applause. She wanted to savor this moment, the last time she was going to perform, but the crowd’s reaction didn’t break through the sadness that had settled around her the past month.