She tried to stand up, but her father pushed her back down. “After everything I’ve done for him,” her father mumbled almost to himself. “I will make sure he lives to regret the day he dared to step out of his measly gutter and look at my daughter.” He started pacing. Shoban’s heartbeat sped up with each step he took. “I paid for his daughter’s wedding, for his wife’s treatment and wake, his son’s education, and he does this to me? Is the bastard stupid? He owes me millions of rupees.”

Omar’s father was in debt to her father?

Her father reached for the phone on the sideboard.

“Who are you calling? Daddy, wait. Please.”

“I’m firing that son of a bitch. He will get out of my house and return every penny he owes me. I will make sure he ends up naked on the streets.”

“Aijaz Uncle has worked for you for thirty years. How can you talk about him like that?”

“He’s worked for me. Now he wants to use his son to make his way into my family?”

“It wasn’t like that. He doesn’t even know. Please don’t call him.” She needed to think. “Just give me a little time. I can fix this. I swear.”

“Fix it?” he spat. “If you so much as step out of your room I’ll make sure your precious Aijaz Uncle lands up in jail.”

“What? You can’t do that.” She stood.

They were face-to-face. For a moment she thought he’d hit her again, but he just leaned closer to her. “Try me, then. The man owes me more money than he can ever repay. He has access to my estate. You can’t even imagine the things I can accuse him of. I can have him locked up until his dying day. If you don’t believe me, try me.”

“Please, Daddy. Don’t do this. Be fair.”

He laughed at that. “Fair? You think I want to destroy a man I’ve taken care of all my life? You’re the one who holds the power to destroy him and you want me to be fair?”

She sucked in a breath. Tears burned in her throat, but crying would help no one. She had to think. Think. “What are you going to do?”

“The bigger question, beta, is what are you going to do? What will you do to make sure a man doesn’t have his life destroyed?” He walked to the door.

She followed him. “How can you do this?”

“Do what? Be a father and make sure you don’t throw your life away on a servant’s son from a religion that seeks to annihilate ours? When you can have the life of a princess and not shame our ancestors?”

“You know Aijaz Uncle doesn’t believe anything of that sort. Omar doesn’t even believe in organized religion.”