Husband For Hire

28. To the Hospital

28. To the Hospital
Every person I attached myself to was snatched away from me by my kismet.

* * *

As soon as Ashar opened the file, he froze.

His eyes scanned over each and every document.

I was going to kill Cecily with my bare hands!

"Ashar . . . " I cautiously walked around the desk to try to diffuse the impending storm heading my way. "I can explain."

"Go ahead." He shut the file and threw it on the desk. His jaw turned rigid, and he crossed his arms waiting for my explanation.

"Ashar, I—"

My phone rang but I dismissed the call. It rang again.

Roshan's name flashed across the screen. As soon as I cut the call, he called me again. Though I wanted to ignore him right now, my gut told me to pick it up. As soon as I accepted the call, this Christmas Eve became the worst Christmas Eve of my life.

"Annie, you have to come," Roshan said in an urgent tone. "This girl ran into my car and she's saying call 'Anmol Majhraut' on her phone. Do you know someone named 'Aara?'"

"Aara?" I had to repeat to make sure. That got Ashar's attention. "Roshan, where are you? Send me the location. We'll be there ASAP."

"What is it?" Ashar asked me.

"Annie, she looked drugged," Roshan said in a lowered voice. "I brought her to the hospital."

"Oh Roshan, just . . . send me the address," I said not knowing what to do.

I swallowed hard and looked at the worried brother in front of me. I couldn't hold back my tears as I showed him the text Roshan sent me with the hospital location.

Ashar wasted no second running out of the room and I ran right behind him. He grabbed his car keys and hurried out of the front door.

When I tried to get in the car with him, he asked spitefully, "Haven't you done enough?!"

"You'll need me," I stressed. "You can yell at me later, but I have to be there right now."

Rather than arguing further, he opened the door and let me in with him. The drive to the hospital was dead silent except for my crying and sniffling. If I was imagining the worst, I didn't know how Ashar was feeling. It was his little sister. I had fought by her side for him to let her go to the ball.

We arrived at the hospital rather quick as the roads were empty. Roshan was waiting at the front door as I had instructed. He ushered us to the emergency department where a nurse told us to wait outside the room.

"She ran into my car," Roshan said. He handed me Aara's phone. "When I went to talk to her, she looked completely high. She kept mumbling to me to call you. She said not to tell her brother. I didn't know what to do, so I brought her here."

Ashar threw us both death glares as if it were our fault.

"You set her up," Ashar accused, staring at me.

"What?"

"Just like you did last time with your friends," he said as if some revelation had dawned on him. "I was wondering why you had turned so kind towards her and us—"

"Ashar—"

"You got her clothes, you changed her look, and you sent her to the stupid charity ball!" he snapped. "On purpose! You and your friends still haven't changed at all! I was stupid for believing you had finally become a better person!"