Chapter 1
Nine Months Later
Sehgal Coral Bay Resort
Maldives
Shauna Sehgal stepped out onto the softly lit pathway and walked across the emerald-green lawns of the resort. Just ahead, the private beachside venue where Kabier and Keya were hosting their fifth anniversary celebration glowed with music, laughter, and warm lights.
From the lively chatter drifting through the night air, it seemed everyone had already arrived. Unlike the others, who’d all come the previous day, she had only just landed in the Maldives a short while ago, and after a quick shower and change, she was heading straight to the celebration.
She smiled as she walked farther inside, taking everything in.
Soft golden lights were strung between tall palm trees, their glow spilling gently across the lawn where the celebration had been set up.
The sound of the ocean rolled softly in the background, waves breaking against the shore just a few yards away.
A guitarist played smooth, easy music while glass lanterns and candles flickered throughout the space, casting a warm, inviting glow.
The highlight, though, was the long table arranged for dinner along the edge of the beach.
Crisp white linen draped gracefully over it, set with polished silverware, crystal glasses, and low, artful arrangements of tropical flowers nestled among tall candles.
Several people were already seated, the table alive with laughter and conversation, the ocean stretching endlessly beyond them under the starlit sky. It was all very beautiful.
“Shauna, you’re here.”
She looked to the side at the sound of Keya’s voice and broke into a smile, crossing the lawn in quick strides.
“Happy anniversary,” Shauna said, wrapping her arms around her. Keya hugged her back without hesitation, then pulled away to study her briefly.
“I’m so happy you’re here,” Keya said. “I honestly wasn’t sure you’d make it. Lately, all I hear is that you’re constantly working.”
“I agree. You work too much,” another voice said from behind her.
She turned, as her eldest cousin, Kabier, came near. He drew her in a hug.
“Happy anniversary, Kabier,” Shauna wished, kissing his cheek. “It feels like yesterday we were dancing at your wedding. I can’t believe it’s been five years already.”
Kabier grinned, looking at his wife. “Five years, two beautiful kids, and here we are.”
Shauna’s chest warmed on seeing the look of adoration on her cousin’s face.
“I haven’t seen you in ages,” Kabier said, facing Shauna again. “I’m so glad you could make it here for our anniversary.”
“I couldn’t miss your special day. And since Rhea and Nirvaan couldn’t make it, one of us sisters had to make an appearance.”
“I miss Rhea, though,” Keya said. “I was very disappointed when she cancelled.”
“She’s sad she’s missing this too,” Shauna explained. “They were supposed to fly here from Delhi. But Vayu came down with a fever, so she and Nirvaan are now extending their stay there with his mother.”
“Yes, of course, I understand,” Keya said warmly. “I hope Vayu recovers soon.”
Shauna smiled, thinking of her eighteen-month-old nephew, her twin Rhea’s son. He was adorable, and Shauna loved him to bits.
“So, where are you coming from?” Keya asked. “Delhi? Singapore? London? Honestly, I’ve lost track.”
Shauna chuckled. “London. I flew in from there.”
“Sameer told me you’ve been traveling for work a lot,” Kabier said. “He worries about you. We all do. In fact, Sameer, Rishi, and I were just talking about you, and here you are.”
Her heart warmed. Her grandfather, her father, her elder brothers Sameer and Rishi, and her cousin Kabier…
these men had always looked out for her, and she adored them all.
They kept telling her to slow down and not push herself as much as she was.
But Sehgal Media was her future. She’d always imagined herself running it one day, and that dream was why she worked so hard.
“Tell me honestly, how are you doing?” Kabier asked. “Is the workload putting too much strain on you?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “You know how much Sehgal Media means to me.”
Kabier exchanged a quick look with his wife before saying, “You don’t have to carry everything on your shoulders, Shauna.
Sehgal Media is just one chapter, not the whole story.
Sometimes I think you’re meant for something beyond it…
and it wouldn’t hurt to slow down long enough to see what that might be. ”
“Not this again, Kabier,” she said.
“He’s right, Shauna.”
She spun around at the sound of her elder brother, Sameer’s, voice. “I’ve told you often enough, there could be a life beyond Sehgal Media. You just refused to accept that.”
She grimaced. Ever since she’d turned twenty and decided she wanted a place at Sehgal Media, they had tried steering her elsewhere.
Her father. Her brothers. Even Kabier. All of them, in their own way, had discouraged her.
They had nudged, persuaded, and insisted she look beyond it and build something of her own.
And she still didn’t understand why. They all knew what she wanted. They always had.
She could still remember the day her father had sat her down during one of her visits to India from London and offered her an internship under him instead, hoping she’d take an interest in the legal side of Sehgal Corp.
Hoping she’d choose to study law going forward.
He’d even gone so far as to map out a future for her there, explaining how she could one day take over that division of Sehgal Corp.
from him. She’d tried for his sake, but it had never been what she wanted.
She couldn’t understand why they all wanted something else for her when everything she’d ever wanted was right in front of her, barely a hand’s breadth away.
She’d never listened to them. Instead, she’d listened to her heart and chosen to work at Sehgal Media.
She smiled at Sameer and rose onto her toes to kiss his cheek.
“Hello, big brother,” she said. “I missed you too, you know.”
Sameer made a face. “The house feels so empty. With Rishi and Mehak in their own house and Rhea married, we miss having you at home.”
Shauna grinned. “What? Your two little hellions don’t make enough noise for you?”
Sameer’s expression softened. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Just because I have my own twins now doesn’t mean you’re any less special. You were my baby first. You and Rhea—always.”
Her chest warmed. Sameer was nearly ten years older than Rhea and her, while Rishi was a year younger than him.
They had treated them both as their babies all along, and they were extremely protective of Rhea and her.
She smiled, thinking how impossibly lucky she was to be wrapped in this kind of love, to belong to a family that never let her forget she mattered.
“Okay, while I agree with Kabier and Sameer that you need to slow down,” Keya said lightly, “tonight we are not talking shop.” She leaned in and pressed a warm kiss to Shauna’s cheek.
“We’re all here together in this beautiful resort in the Maldives.
Hence, we’re going to relax, take it easy and celebrate.
And let me tell you once again how happy I am that you’re here with us. ”
Keya dragged her away from Kabier and Sameer and toward the table at the center.
Keya was always radiant, warm, and effortlessly kind.
Shauna had always liked her. Even before Keya had married Kabier, she’d been best friends with Sheena, Kabier’s sister.
Keya, Sheena, and Shauna’s sister-in-law, Raashi, had been close since school, and those three women had been woven into Shauna’s life for as long as she could remember.
And now Keya and Raashi were family to her.
Keya was warmth and light and goodness, so unlike…
She shook her head sharply. No. She wasn’t going to think about Keya’s awful brother right now.
She wouldn’t let him invade her thoughts.
Not tonight. Not when she was finally free from work and among family and friends.
She wasn’t going to think of him, or Singapore, or how he’d left her so deliciously wrecked after that night.
Instead, she let herself be drawn into the circle of family and friends as she hugged and kissed everyone present.
Most of her close ones were here. Her parents, Jai and Rita, were here, along with Kabier’s mother, Mina.
She met all of them first before heading down the table toward everyone else.
Kabier’s sister Sheena and her husband Rajiv had flown in from Dubai to celebrate this happy occasion.
She met them all, Rithwik and Aisha, VJ and Diya, Aaryan and Sanjana, Dev and Avantika, Aditya and Sabrina, and Damien and Aaliya.
So many of them had traveled from far and wide to be here.
Even Rajiv’s sisters had made it from Dubai with their husbands.
Ananya and Mihir, Navya, and Armaan, and Reina and Vedant were also here.
She greeted them in turn, until Keya dragged her to the end of the table, where her brothers sat with their wives.
Rishi stood and gave her a hug. “How are you?” You were gone too long this time. I’m so glad you’re here. I hope you’re staying in Mumbai for a while now.”
“I have no plans to travel at the moment,” Shauna said.
In fact, she had something on her mind. Something she needed to discuss with her grandfather. She squinted as she looked around the table. Where was he, though?
“You need to slow down. Sehgal Media isn’t everything, you know,” Rishi said.
She groaned. “Not you too.”
“I agree,” Raashi, Sameer’s wife, said. “You need to look after yourself and take a break from work. You’ve made Sehgal Media your priority, which is not right. You need to relax more and spend time with all of us.”