Heeriye

Seventeen.

Shehnaaz

"A trampoline!" Ruhi squeals.

She takes off at a run and Jahan and Chaya zoom off behind her. I throw Kanan a side glance. "Who says money can't buy love, huh?"

Kanan chuckles. "That's not what he's doing."

"Oh, no? Yesterday, it was a bounce castle on the lawn. This morning, it was a zipline through the trees. Now, this? If he's not trying to buy their love, then he's trying to overcompensate."

"For what?"

"For not being around."

"They're not his kids. He doesn't have to be around."

Kanan is right. But it still pisses me off. I skewer him with a glare, then turn and start stomping back towards the house. I hear his footsteps come up behind me. "Whoa, Shehnaaz. Hold up. I'm sorry. That didn't come out the way I meant it."

I clench my teeth, but I let him draw me to a stop. "It's accurate, though. He isn't their father. They shouldn't be caught in the middle of all this misery."

Kanan exhales and looks over at the kids. They're all trying to do back flips on the huge trampoline and laughing hysterically, even Jahan. "Yeah, they look utterly miserable."

"Whatever. You're his man. Of course you're gonna see his side and only his side."

"That's not fair. He's my priority, sure. But that doesn't mean you and I can't be friends."

I frown. "Is this you overcompensating for the fact that I'm not allowed to talk to my only friend?"

"We just want to be safe here, Shehnaaz." Kanan rubs his chin and sighs. I'm sure he's as sick of giving this explanation as I am of hearing it. "The more information Palak has about you, the more of a target she becomes."

"Right. Spare me the lecture. Bottom line is, I'm completely isolated with no one to talk to."

"You can talk to me."

"So you can go give Sidharth a full report? C'mon. I'm not stupid, Kanan."

"You two belong together," he mumbles. "You're as paranoid as he is."

"Does he think I'm up to no good?" I demand. "Spying for someone else now, I suppose. Probably the government. Or Maybe some rival mafia don?"

He smirks. "I'm not reporting on you to Sidharth."

"You'll forgive me if I don't believe you." I immediately regret my snark. I can't exactly afford to alienate Kanan. Not when I have so few people to talk to here. Not when he's the one helping me get custody of the kids. "I'm sorry... I'm being a bitch. It's the hormones."

"Yeah, you better milk that excuse while you can."

I can't quite suppress my smile. "Do you know what's going on with Bhavan, by the way?"

The laughter vanishes from Kanan's face. He's all fun and games at first glance, but beneath that is a stone-cold killer who doesn't like Bhavan any more than the rest of us do. "He's lying low for the moment. I don't think he understands why or how he's being snowballed. All the momentum he gained with that CNN interview fizzled out overnight."

Take that, you bastard.

"He's hit the bottle pretty hard," he adds.

"Predictable," I snort. It must be nice to have a coping mechanism available for the price of a six-pack at the corner store.

"But," adds Kanan, "your parents are another story entirely."

My eyes snap to his. "My parents?"

"Your old phone has a ton of messages and missed calls from a Santokh Gill and a Parminder Gill. I'm an espionage genius, so I put two and two together."