CHAPTER 28
KW Capital Ventures – Office – Next Day
Karan was in his cabin, with Rajat and Abhimanyu having these intense discussions about last night. He told them how he had shattered the world of Goels by breaking their foundation through Trinity & Co.
Both men were shocked, knowing Trinity belonged to Goels, which Karan had hidden all this time from them.
“Trinity,” Abhimanyu said finally, stopping in his tracks. “Is Daksh Goel’s company?” He let out a short, humourless breath. “And you never thought it was important to tell us that?”
Rajat shook his head slowly. “All these years, Karan. All these decisions. We stood by every one of them. We guarded your secrets like they were our own. And this…” He looked up angrily. “This wasn’t a small detail to hide.”
Karan, who sat behind his desk, said nothing. His gaze was fixed somewhere past them.
Abhimanyu turned toward him, frustration edging into his voice. “Exactly. We are not just family, Bhai. We are even business partners. We had to know this even before we touched Trinity. Why did you hide it from us?”
He paced in the room, losing his cool.
“I really wonder what Mishti bhabhi must have felt. Being made to work on dismantling her own brother’s company without knowing the truth.”
Rajat exhaled hard, rubbing a hand over his face. “She must have broken down,” he said, his voice tinged with pity. “In all this mess, she’s the collateral damage. I really feel for her.”
Their words reached Karan’s ears, but they did not stay there because his mind was elsewhere.
Back to last night, in his bedroom
Back in the soft glow of fairy lights that should never have existed.
Back in the sight of flowers placed with care, candles burning quietly, and a cake with words he had not been prepared to read.
I love you, Karan.
His jaw tightened, remembering the way rage had overtaken him in an instant. How violently it had surged, different from the cold fury he had lived with for years. How he had stormed out, grabbed her wrist, and dragged her back into that room without giving her even a second to breathe.
He remembered her eyes, the shock in them, the tears in them. He remembered his own merciless voice telling her what she meant to him. Telling her what she would never be.
Any man in his place would have felt that bitterness, he told himself again. Any man who had lost a mother to the hands of her father would feel the same revulsion, the same rage.
So why did his chest ache even now?
Why did the memory of her face look less like guilt and more like devastation the longer he replayed it?
Why did it feel like something inside him had burned and cracked forever, too?
He fisted his fingers, recalling the moment she had swayed, her strength giving up without warning. The way she had fallen into his arms, unconscious, lifeless, as if the events and revelations of that day had finally crushed her.
Why had he panicked then?
Why had he carried her to his bed and not hers?
Why had he not been able to leave her lying there and walk away the way he always did? Not without asking Maria to check on her?
Why had he driven fifty miles through the night, then slept in his car like a man running from his own house, his own wife?
Why?
“Damn it, Karan,” Rajat said sharply, pulling him back into the room. “At least say something now.”
Abhimanyu’s and Rajat’s voices continued, overlapping in low, worried tones, finally breaking the chain of Karan’s thoughts. They were still discussing what had unfolded at the Goel mansion, but there were things Karan had deliberately left unsaid.
He had told them about the confrontation with Daksh, about the collapse that followed. But he had skipped over what had happened later in Wadhwa mansion between him and Mishti. That part was not meant for their opinions. It belonged only to him and Mishti. No one else had the right to touch it.
“Mishti didn’t come to the office today,” Rajat said, concerned. “That worries me.”
Abhimanyu nodded. “I’ve already called Komal,” he said, glancing at Karan once, angrily. “She’s on her way to the house. Mishti Bhabhi shouldn’t be alone right now.”
Karan did not object.
If anything, he felt a strange, reluctant relief at the thought. Mishti needed someone who was not him. Someone who could sit beside her, listen, console her, let her speak without fear of being punished for her feelings. He knew he was incapable of giving her that, ever.
This morning, when he had returned home before sunrise, Maria was in the middle of clearing away the remnants of the night before. Candles extinguished and discarded. Fairy lights unplugged and removed. Flowers thrown out. The cake still sat there, untouched.
He had looked at it once and turned away immediately. Maria had glanced at him then, looking annoyed. She had said nothing beyond informing him that Mishti was in her room, resting, and that his bedroom had been cleaned. That he could go in whenever he wished.
He had not replied.
He had gone straight to his room.
It was back to how it had always been. Cold and devoid of any trace of her presence. This was how he had always believed he preferred it.
He showered, letting the water run longer than necessary, dressed in silence, avoiding his reflection for longer than usual. Without speaking to anyone in the house and having no contact with Mishti, he had left early for the office.
The revenge part, the confrontation that happened in the Goel mansion, was fine. Karan had prepared himself for it for years. That part of the night had gone exactly as planned.
What he had not prepared for was Mishti’s feelings for him.
She had not spoken them aloud, yet he had sensed them in her eyes, in her silence, in the way she had held herself back the moment she understood the truth behind their marriage.
He knew she was on the verge of confessing had the confrontation at the Goel mansion not happened.
Now the thought of facing her every day, of living beside a woman who loved him when he could never allow himself to return it, haunted him. He let out a hard breath, shut his eyes, and rubbed his palms over his face before leaning back in his chair.
Rajat and Abhimanyu noticed the shift immediately.
It was clear to them that Karan was deeply disturbed.
This time, Rajat did not hold back. He said quietly, “It’s hurting you, Karan.
Why can’t you leave Mishti out of this? At least now, when you’ve almost completed what you set out to do.
You’ve taken everything the Goels built. It’s over.”
Karan’s eyes snapped open.
He slammed his palms against the table, anger flaring. “It’s over when I say it’s over,” he said sharply. “And if both of you are done pitying my wife, get back to work. We don’t have time to waste.”
He rose from his chair abruptly. “I have a meeting with the Lexi Group in an hour.”
Without waiting for a response, he walked out of the cabin. Rajat and Abhimanyu exchanged a glance and sighed, both knowing the truth. Karan was not someone who would bend easily. He would hurt himself, and he would hurt Mishti too, but he would never reconsider giving this marriage a real chance.
***************
Wadhwa Mansion
Mishti and Komal sat together in Mishti’s bedroom.
Komal had arrived a while ago, after Abhimanyu had given her a brief idea of what had happened the previous night at the Goel mansion.
She was already seething with anger at Abhimanyu, having finally understood the real reason behind Karan’s marriage to Mishti.
It was not something she was willing to accept lightly, but that confrontation could wait.
For now, her priority was Mishti, and that was why she was here.
What Komal had not expected was the version of Mishti she found today. This was not the fragile, vulnerable woman she had always known, the one who wore her emotions openly and spoke of her husband with unfiltered affection.
Instead, Mishti seemed withdrawn and surprisingly calm. Yes, she looked wounded too, the pain visible in her eyes and on her face, yet she was holding it in, refusing to let it spill the way Komal had assumed it would.
They sat on the couch, and Komal reached out, gently touching Mishti’s arm. “Are you really okay, Mishti?”
Mishti offered a faint smile, one that barely reached her lips.
Komal took a breath and continued softly, “I know finding out that Karan used you to bring down your own brother must have been the biggest shock of your life. And on top of that, learning about the past…” She shook her head.
“Even I, knowing nothing about it before, feel shaken. I can only imagine what you’re going through.
I know you’re not fine, Mishti, and you don’t have to pretend with me.
Let it out. Say whatever you’re feeling.
It might ease the weight, even if just a little. ”
Mishti nodded slowly before speaking. “Some grief never gets lighter, Komal. Truths like these, about a past this bitter, stay with you for a lifetime. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to move past this.”
Komal squeezed her hand. Anger flared in her eyes as she spoke. “When Abhimanyu told me everything… when I realised this was the reason Karan married you,” she said, “for revenge… I swear, Mishti, I wanted to storm into the office and give both those brothers a piece of my mind.”
Mishti remained silent.
“What does Karan even think of himself?” Komal continued bitterly.
“I am not denying his pain or his loss. It is real, and it is devastating. But to drag an innocent life into it, to ruin your entire future for the sake of revenge, is not justified. He had no right to do this to you, Mishti. You didn’t even know anything about that past.”
Mishti’s eyes brimmed with tears, but she did not interrupt.
Komal continued. “And Abhimanyu supporting this? I can’t believe it. A man like him can support something so bitter?”