Chapter 7
SAURAV
I was so fucking tired that all I wanted was to collapse somewhere and sleep for two straight days. There would be no thoughts, no memories and no voices, just darkness.
Kavya! That woman had turned my life into a living hell. She was everywhere. She carried my name now, and soon she would be living under my roof. But I swore she would regret the stunt she pulled against me. I would make sure she never walked away from it unscathed.
My steps slowed as I reached the corridor that led toward the private guest suites, the plush carpet muting even the sound of my breathing. The hotel was too quiet at this hour.
Then I heard a hushed whisper cut through it. “I told you my girl is clever,” someone murmured. He sounded familiar to me.
I stilled, trying to recognise the voice.
“She said he forced himself on her when she refused to sleep with him. That’s why this marriage happened. But I knew who forced who…”
My spine locked, every muscle going rigid like I’d been hit with cold water and then another amusing voice replied, “Money and power can make people do anything, Pa. It was her perfect idea. She always dreamed of a big house, luxury, everything Saurav Chauhan can give her. That’s why she falsely accused him. ”
His brother. My jaw clenched so tight pain shot up into my temples. It was the accusation I had fought, denied, drowned in evidence and still never fully escaped. It crawled back under my skin now like poison.
I should have walked away. I knew I should have. But my feet moved on their own, silent on the carpet as I edged closer to the partially closed lounge door ahead. The light inside spilled into the hallway in a thin golden line, like a warning I ignored.
Inside, I heard Kavya’s father.
“We did well,” the older man said, his voice low and satisfied. “Marrying her to him secured everything. Chauhan money doesn’t end in one generation. She just has to play smart. She has always been a sin to our family, but this time she proved she was our greatest blessing”
Her brother gave a soft chuckle. “Kav always said rich men are easiest to trap if you attack their reputation. One accusation and they panic. This one was perfect as he has a uniform job, public image, and family name. He would never risk scandal, would he?”
Then her father spoke again, colder this time. “And now? She’ll slowly get access to his property, accounts, and influence. The more time passes, the harder it will be for him to cut her off.”
My hands curled into fists as my vision blurred at the edges, red bleeding into everything.
“She planned this from the beginning,” her brother said. “Targeted him, trapped him and then flipped the story. That’s a classic.”
Classic? Like my life was some case study or some business strategy.
“Just make sure she remembers,” her father said, voice turning ice-cold, “we didn’t raise her to think small.”
And there was something inside me snapped. It was not loud, just a quiet, final break. I stepped back silently, chest heaving, air burning in my lungs like I’d run for miles. My heart wasn’t racing anymore. It was heavily pounding.
A dark, furious weight settled deep in my bones. It was cold, controlled, and lethal. Not the wild rage of a wounded man. The calm fury of someone who had just learned the truth he was never meant to hear.
I turned, walking away from the door, each step measured, deliberate. This luxury hotel felt different. It felt smaller and suffocating. Like every wall was watching me.
I didn’t see the way the lounge door shifted slightly behind me and didn’t see the thin shadow that slipped into the corridor a second later. And I didn’t hear the soft whisper that followed me down the hallway.
“He knows.”
_________
It was one in the morning, and I was still pacing back and forth along the hotel corridor. I was too angry to walk into that room. Too angry to look at her and to tell her what a vile woman she was.
She had staged all that drama just to get access to my money. The thought tasted bitter. How disgusting. How could I even look at her without feeling hatred crawl under my skin, knowing what I knew? Knowing the “truth” everyone else believed so easily?
“Dammit!”
My fist slammed into the wall beside me as pain shot up my knuckles, but it barely registered. I gritted my teeth, breath coming out in harsh bursts.
“It was all my fault,” I muttered hoarsely. “I was the idiot who invited her into my house. I was the stupid one who trusted her. How could I be this blind?”
The corridor was empty, but the whispers from earlier still rang in my ears.
I glanced toward the door of my suite, the door behind which she had been waiting for me. My wife. Did she really win? The word wife felt foreign.
I ran a trembling hand through my hair. I wasn’t just angry. I was furious in a way I had never been before. It wasn’t loud rage, but it was darker. It sat in my chest like something poisonous. The kind of fury that made a man capable of things he never imagined.
“Are you not going inside?” I stiffened at the sound of my father’s voice. His footsteps approached. Why did he always have to interfere? “It’s your first wedding night,” he added calmly like it was some sort of business deal.
“Can you please stop talking about this?” I spat, turning to glare at him.
He stopped a few feet away from me. Under the dim corridor lights, I noticed something I rarely saw on his face had a small, almost satisfied smile.
It unsettled me.
“I can’t wait to have grandchildren, Saurav,” he said, his voice oddly soft. “I always dreamed of your marriage. Not like this… but still. I am glad you got married.”
“Dad…” My jaw tightened. There were a thousand things I wanted to say, and none of them were respectful.
He seemed about to say something else, but then he paused, studying me. “I know you’re angry,” he continued. “But I don’t know why I feel this strange happiness. I can’t explain it. When I saw you standing beside Kavya… I felt something. You look good together.”
I frowned at him, disbelief flashing through me. Happiness? He was happy? I had never seen this man genuinely smile. Not after my mother left him for another man. After that, he had become cold, distant, and emotionless. He never laughed.
And now, of all times, when I was trapped in a marriage built on accusation and humiliation, he was smiling.
Was he really enjoying this? The idea clawed at my chest. The man who had barely spoken to me for years now looked almost content. As if my forced marriage had filled some empty space inside him.
“Is this amusing to you?” I asked quietly, my voice dangerously calm.
His smile faded slightly. “Don’t misunderstand me.”
“Oh, I understand perfectly,” I replied. “You think this is responsibility? You think I deserve this?”
“I think,” he said firmly, “that sometimes life pushes us into places we don’t choose but maybe we need it.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “You think I needed to marry a woman who filed a rape case against me?”
He held my gaze, unflinching. “I think you needed something that would shake you.”
There it was. He didn’t believe me either. The realization settled heavily inside me. “Whatever makes you sleep at night,” I muttered. I didn’t wait for his reply. “I gotta go,” I said tightly. “She must be waiting.” The words felt like sand in my mouth.
I walked toward the door, feeling his eyes on my back. For a brief second, I wondered if he would stop me again but he didn’t.
I pushed the door open slowly. The room was vibrant and colourful unlike my dark mood. The air smelled of flowers and incense, remnants of rituals that were supposed to symbolize purity and union. Instead, it felt suffocating.
I looked at Kavya as she was sitting on the bed, dressed in red, her jewelry still on, her posture stiff. Her eyes were distant, and unreadable, not victorious.
I closed the door behind me, the soft click echoing louder than it should have. For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then the anger surged back as I strode toward her.
“You won, didn’t you, Mrs. Chauhan?” I said, my voice was dripping with taunt and accusation.
She flinched at the name. Mrs. Chauhan. She slowly stood up, her movements hesitant. There was a flicker of fear in her eyes or maybe I imagined it. She watched me carefully, as if calculating how close I might come.
She said nothing.
Yes, that was wise because if she opened that filthy mouth of hers to spin another lie, I wasn’t sure what I would become.
I stopped in front of her, close enough to see the slight tremor in her hands. I towered over her, anger radiating from every nerve in my body.
“Say something,” I demanded.
Her chest rose and fell slowly, as though she were trying to steady her breathing. Containing her fear or containing her guilt?
“You don’t look very happy for someone who just achieved her life’s biggest goal,” I continued coldly. “Money. Status. My name, right?”
Her lips parted slightly, but no words came out.
“Was this the plan from the beginning?” My teeth clenched. “Trap me. Cry victim. Force a marriage. Secure the Chauhan fortune?”
Still silent.
The quiet only fueled my rage.
“Do you know what you’ve done?” My voice lowered, but it was more dangerous now. “You didn’t just ruin my reputation. You ruined my father’s. You dragged my family name through the dirt.”
Her eyes finally lifted to meet mine. There was something in them.
Hurt?
No. That had to be an act too. “Look at me when I’m talking to you,” I barked, she flinched.
Fuck!
She was already looking and for a split second, something inside me wavered. Because the fear in her eyes didn’t look fake.
It looked real.
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