“My arm’s going to lose blood circulation if you clutch it any tighter,” Gabe jokes from my side. Frowning, I pause mid step and look at my hand. Sure enough, my fingers are digging into his arm. I loosen my fingers and we proceed forward.

“So, Damien lives here now?” I ask Gabe.

He stops to meet an acquaintance of his and introduces me as the owner of Alpha Arc, a design firm based in India. This is indeed true as Damien has made me a joint owner of the business and staying as close to the truth as possible is the best way forward.

“Damien hasn’t lived here in the last decade or more. But he did grow up here,” Gabe explains as we make our way ahead.

“And now?” I ask.

“He lives in his apartment in Belgravia. But his mother lives here and technically, this is all his.”

“Aargh, I didn’t even know he has an apartment in London. He told me he sold all his assets when he moved to India. How could he have kept so much from me Gabriel? I just don’t understand this. It’s so unlike him.”

When Damien met me all those years back, he told me he had given up his whole life in England, that nothing and no one mattered there for him to return to. In the space of two months, I’ve learnt how little he has told me and how much more he’s kept from me.

On my return from England, after visiting Damien in the hospital, I ransacked our house and his office in the hope of finding anything from his past to help me understand why he’d given up his life here. Even a small morsel would have helped me gain better insight into his thought process but there was nothing. Why couldn’t he have confided in me? At times, I want to throttle him for keeping me in the dark.

“Aaliya...my arm!” Gabriel winces, nodding at my hand that is once again clutching his arm too tight.

“Sorry!” I exhale my pent-up breath and ease my hold on him.

“Relax, Aaliya! Damien had his reasons for what he did. Just trust me when I say that he didn’t tell you things because he must have wanted to keep you safe.”

“Safe,” I scorn. “I’m beginning to hate that word.”