Chapter 1
1
Four years later
Dubai
I t was official. She hated Mihir Oshnov. He was a selfish jerk and a bully.
Ananya Mehra stood in a quiet corner of the lawn and looked around at the party happening at her home. It was her younger sister Reina’s birthday in a few minutes. Their parents, Sara and Anvay Mehra, had thrown this party to bring in her special day. It was a small event, with just family and very close friends in attendance. All around her was a feeling of cheer and celebration.
Everything looked beautiful. Tall sconces of lights bathed the lawns in a warm, inviting glow. A delicious buffet was set up on the side. A guitarist, set up in another corner of the lawn, sang soulful romantic songs. The sky was clear—a few stars were visible, and a cool breeze was blowing. November in Dubai was always great, and the weather didn’t disappoint tonight either. However, amidst all the happy chatter, the clinking glasses and the clatter of crockery, were the sad faces of her to-be brothers-in-law, Vedant and Armaan—Mihir’s brothers.
“I absolutely loathe him ,” Ananya whispered to her sister-in-law, Sheena.
Sheena’s eyes twinkled with laughter. “Really? Who?”
Ananya made a face. Of course, Sheena knew who she was talking about. They all knew there was only one man she disliked from the very bottom of her heart.
Ananya tipped her head in the direction of her brothers-in-law. “Armaan and Vedant’s faces light up every time they sense someone entering the lawns. They keep hoping it is him . But it never is. They’re sad, and them being sad means Navya and Reina are sad too. Reina was really hopeful that Mihir would come tonight. It is her birthday, after all. But he has zero feelings about anyone else. Fucking selfish bastard.”
Sheena sighed. “You know, Rajiv has also tried hard to get him to come tonight. It’s annoying how pig-headed he is.”
On the night of the disastrous yacht incident and in its aftermath, Ananya had never imagined that four years later, the Oshnovs would storm into her family’s lives. Her middle sister, Navya, had fallen in love with Mihir’s middle brother, Armaan. And her youngest sister, Reina, had fallen for Mihir’s youngest brother, Vedant. That night, her elder brother, Rajiv, had been forced to come and negotiate with the Oshnovs for Navya and Sheena’s release. But now, surprisingly, Rajiv had become good friends with Mihir.
The Oshnovs had invaded her life. Yet, he chose to shun her at every turn. He refused to talk to her and be in the same room as her, even though they shared a history older than all this.
At one time… Ananya shook her head. She wasn’t going down memory lane again. All that was in the past and the only thing one got from rehashing the past was endless pain and sorrow.
She flicked an agitated hand through her hair, focusing on the present. “All four of them are sad because he’s not here, and he’s not here because of me . What’s worse is that they cannot get married because of me.”
Sheena glared at her. “Don’t you dare think that. None of it is your fault.”
“You do know that Mihir has categorically told Armaan and Vedant that he will not attend their weddings as long as I am present. And I refuse to not be there for my sister’s weddings. Which puts them all in a deadlock, thanks to this… conflict between Mihir and me,” she sighed. “Maybe I?—”
“—don’t even think of it,” Sheena cut her off. “Navya and Reina will not marry without you, and Rajiv and your parents will never accept you not attending the girls’ weddings. Nor will I.”
Ananya gave her a sad smile. She studied her sister-in-law. Dressed in a black shimmery dress, Sheena looked stunning, her bearing regal. Sheena belonged to the affluent Sehgal family from Mumbai. She came from privilege and her entire demeanor screamed of her refined upbringing.
Sheena was one of Ananya’s closest friends. Yet, Ananya had never told her the truth about everything that had happened between Mihir and her in London all those years back.
She couldn’t tell Sheena her deepest, darkest secret. She couldn’t tell her that Mihir and she were still bound together by one tiny thread.
And yet Mihir deliberately chose to distance himself from her. A crushing pain gripped her chest. She ignored it and studied the faces of her sisters. She had to do something...anything to wipe their sadness away once and for all.
But what? And how?
Since Mihir refused to be in the same room as her, how could she ever have a decent conversation with him? How could she ever make him understand?
She looked at her sisters again. Navya was younger than Ananya by a year and Reina by two years. She was so proud of everything they had achieved. Navya was a successful fashion stylist and image consultant, while Reina was a brilliant surgeon.
“What are you both doing here in the corner?” a soft feminine voice said from their side.
Ananya looked up into the beautiful face of Avantika Rajpoot Luthra—Avi, as she was fondly called. Avi handed out two champagne glasses, one each to Sheena and to Ananya.
“Thanks, Avi!” Sheena smiled. “Come join us.”
Six months ago, Rajiv and Sheena had introduced all of them to the Rajpoot family and to Avantika’s husband Dev Luthra and their son Neil. It had been a shock for all of them to discover that Rajiv had been friends with the Rajpoots for years and that he’d been protecting them and keeping them safe and hidden in Dubai from their enemies who’d wanted them dead. But now that the threat to their lives was over, the Rajpoots had finally stepped out of hiding. During the last six months, Avantika and her family had become constants in their lives and Ananya was happy to have Avantika as a close friend. Avi was a brilliant photographer and she freelanced for Noir as and when they needed her.
Ananya studied Avi over the rim of her glass. The white strapless dress highlighted Avi’s tattoos beautifully. The swirls of ink extended from her right hand, all the way up her shoulder to the base of her throat. It looked stunning against her pale complexion. Only those closest to Avi knew that the tattoos covered a multitude of scars from a long time ago.
“What’s happening?” Avi wiped the frown from Ananya’s brow with a finger. “You look sad.”
“Mihir’s not come, as usual,” Sheena explained, “and she’s blaming herself for it.”
Avi turned her dark eyes on her. “Him behaving like an idiot is not on you, you know that, right?”
Ananya tipped her champagne glass in the direction of Navya, Armaan, Vedant, and Reina. “Tell the four of them that. They keep hoping he will set his feud with me aside for their sakes, but he simply won’t. My sisters are forced to continue living-in with their fiancés because of that. They all want to get married, but they can’t because of Mihir and me.”
During one girls’ night out with Sheena and Avantika, she’d been a little high and emotional and had revealed a bit of her history with Mihir to Avantika. Now, Avantika knew as much as the rest of her family about her history with Mihir. Nobody, however, knew the entire truth of their relationship.
“Navya and Reina are happy living with their men. Not one of them has said any different.” Sheena looked at where Ananya was pointing. “Mihir is important to them, yes, but don’t forget, so are you .”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Rajiv signal Sheena.
Sheena faced Avi and her. “I have to get the cake out for Reina. Join us soon.”
“So, Mihir and you…” Avi said when they were alone.
“God, even hearing our names together in the same sentence hurts so much.”
Avi faced her. “Why do you allow him to get away with this behavior? He’s punishing you for something you don’t even know. The least he can do is talk to you about it.”
“How, Avi? You know I’ve tried.”
“Not hard enough.” Avi stared at her. “I think somewhere deep down, you feel guilty. You blame yourself for not believing that he lived. For going on for years, thinking that he had died. And now that he’s alive, you’re allowing him to walk all over you. You’re allowing him to run roughshod over your feelings. You’re this bold and brave woman, ready to go head-to-head with anyone, except him. Where’s your spine? Why does it never show up when it concerns him? Just writing about him in your magazine is not the way, Ananya. It’s definitely not working.”
Ananya’s jaw dropped. “Whoa, Avi. That was… harsh.”
“It’s the truth, and someone had to say it. Your entire family walks on eggshells around Mihir and you. I believe they all feel that anything they say will be misconstrued as taking sides and will be held against them by either him or you. No one wants additional conflict. So, they’re allowing the situation to be as is, namely, with him refusing to be in the same room as you, and you printing gossip about him that he doesn’t seem to care about in the least. However, I have no such qualms. I’m telling you the truth, even though it may be hard to hear. Stop feeling guilty, Ananya, and take charge here.”
Her friend was right. Of course, she had blamed herself for believing Mihir had died that night, of never even imagining otherwise. But those years, those miserable days and nights when she’d thought him dead… they’d been the worst time of her life.
She had mourned him for years, only to wake up one day to the harsh and cold reality that he had lived and that he hadn’t even bothered to get in touch with her. He had left her to her misery, allowing her to believe the worst, while he had gone on with his life, uncaring about her.
It was only after their encounter on his yacht that she’d learned that he believed something awful about her but had not been bothered enough to confront her about it. While he may not be actively seeking revenge from her, thanks to their families now being related, he vehemently believed she had betrayed him, and no amount of pleading from her side had helped the situation.
After the yacht incident, she had cried herself to sleep for nights on end. She had become a shell of her former self, hardly eating, barely living. She had gone on like that until he had told her to her face that he wouldn’t attend their siblings’ weddings as long as she was present. That one cruel decision of his had come as a wake-up call to her. It had broken something inside her. She’d realized then that he and she had no future whatsoever. She and he were done, and she’d finally accepted it.
Mihir didn’t want her, and so she didn’t want him either. She was going to live her life in the best way possible. She’d started eating again, sleeping well, and exercising daily.
She’d started living again.
Avantika looked her in the eye. “I’ve been in the exact same place, Ananya. At one time, I had to force myself to get over Dev. It was nearly impossible. But I did it as best as I could for myself and for Neil. I know you keep saying that you hate Mihir. But knowing you, I know that isn’t entirely true. You have to move on, Ananya. For how long are you going to live with the hope that he will come to his senses and accept you?”
Ananya gasped. No one, not even her sisters, had ever told her this out loud. But hearing it from Avi shook something in her chest.
That night, when Mihir had announced loudly and clearly to her face that he wouldn’t attend his brothers’ weddings as long she was present was also the moment she had openly declared war on him.
From this day on, revenge has a new name for you, and it is Ananya Mehra.
She’d made that grand sweeping statement in that moment of anger and despair. She had thought that seeking revenge from him would ease the ache in her heart. Starting a gossip column in her fashion and lifestyle magazine had been the first step in her so-called revenge plan. She regularly published juicy titbits about him simply to irritate him.
Since, for some reason, Mihir had shied away from the media, she’d thought that seeing his name being splashed in the media would drive him mad—and that it would give her the joy she deserved. Also, somewhere inside her, there was a little kernel of hope that Mihir would come charging into her office and demand to talk to her. That he would ask her to stop writing about him, and she could finally get a chance to talk to him and clear the air. She’d hoped that because they still had that thread connecting them, he would come and find her at some point. But he never had, and now she finally accepted that he never would.
In the six months since she had started her gossip column that focused mainly on him, he hadn’t even blinked an eye. He continued to remain unfazed and went about his life, pretending she didn’t exist and that nothing she did mattered in the least to him. But Avi was right. Her obsession with him had to end, once and for all. She had to harden her heart against him and forget about all this revenge nonsense. She and Mihir were unfortunately related for life, thanks to their siblings. Hurting him would hurt them, and she’d never do that to her siblings and their partners.
Sadness threatened to take over her, but she pushed that emotion down. She had survived his loss in the past. And now, she would survive him rising from the dead like a proverbial phoenix who, for some reason, hated her with every breath he took. She would survive him and his unexplainable contempt toward her. She was done being sad over him. She was done being mad at him. She was done hating him. She would move on from him. She would break that thread that connected them and walk away from him. And in order to do that, she had to stop pussyfooting around him and gather the courage to go and meet him in person. She had to end this once and for all.
She looked around the vast lawns. Rajiv was chatting with Avi’s husband, Dev, and Avi’s brothers, Aaryan, Vihaan, and Shaurya. Their wives were all standing in a group around Ananya’s parents. To the side, she saw Reina, Vedant, Navya, and Armaan huddled together. Reina was talking on the phone, looking agitated. Finally, she put her phone down and shook her head. Armaan’s and Vedant’s faces fell. Ananya knew what had happened. Mihir was most definitely not coming.
She took a large sip of her champagne, her mind made up. “I need your help, Avi.”
“Anything you want.”
Ananya told her what she wanted from her. Avi nodded. Sheena arrived with a lit birthday cake in her hands. Reina and Vedant neared her, all of their friends and family surrounding them. Reina blew out twenty-nine candles while everyone around her cheered for her.
Happiness soared in Ananya’s chest as she saw Vedant kiss Reina’s smiling mouth. Armaan ribbed Vedant from the side, his arm around Navya. She’d do anything to ensure her sisters’ happiness, even if it cost her the last remnants of her past.