CHAPTER 49
Wadhwa Mansion – Two weeks later
It was almost evening by the time Mishti finished overseeing the arrangements twice, once out of habit and once out of restlessness. The living room looked perfect and ready.
Karan had said guests were coming for dinner. Special guests. He didn’t mention who, though, nor did she question him. She knew if Karan Wadhwa wanted to keep some surprise, he would never reveal it before the right time.
When the sound of a car finally reached her, her heart lifted in reflex. She turned just as the main door opened and Karan stepped in. Alone.
Her brows drew together as she walked toward him, and she hugged him.
“You’re back,” she said softly, kissing his cheek, then glanced past him, instinctively searching the empty doorway. “Where are the guests?”
He did not answer immediately. Before she could ask again, he shifted slightly to the side.
And that’s when she saw him.
Her brother, Daksh Goel, stood at the threshold, almost rigid, as though still deciding if he had to cross the space between the door and the living room.
Mishti felt the air leave her lungs as her gaze took him in.
He looked thinner than she remembered, his face harder, the sharpness of life having carved lines that had not been there before.
His eyes lifted slowly, hesitating only for a fraction of a second, before locking onto hers.
Her body moved one step forward on instinct, before her mind could catch up. Her brother was here. The only family she had once known.
Then the memory struck. The explosive confrontation at the Goel house. The moment Daksh had realised her involvement in bringing down his company, Trinity & Co. Even though she hadn’t known then that the company actually belonged to him, the damage had already been done.
She remembered every second of it.
His voice raised in fury, asking her to walk out and never return. The way he broke all ties between them and shut the door of the Goel mansion forever for her.
Mishti’s foot stilled mid-step.
Her vision blurred with tears. She blinked hard, holding herself to not cross that boundary he had drawn so clearly between them.
Daksh saw the way she stopped and the way her shoulders tensed. His hands clenched briefly at his sides, mirroring her hesitation without meaning to.
Neither of them spoke.
Mishti’s gaze dropped for a moment, then lifted, not toward Daksh, but toward Karan this time, who stood behind her.
Her eyes searched his face, silently asking him what did this mean? What was Daksh doing here?
“I invited him,” Karan said, reading her doubts.
Her breath caught. Karan and Daksh never got along. Then why would Karan invite him here?
Karan stepped closer and gently held her face between his palms.
“Because I know you missed him,” he said. “No matter how certain I am that I can be your family, that I am enough for you, there is still a part of your heart that belongs to Daksh and Divya. And I wanted to protect that part of you, too. I wanted to give it some peace.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks at the depth of Karan’s understanding and the selfless love in his words.
When Karan had begun his revenge against the Goels, dismantling their empire piece by piece, bringing down Trinity and the DG Group had become his personal vendetta.
But it was never about Daksh. It was always about their father, Dilip Goel.
Karan had wanted to strip him of everything he had built for them.
The companies collapsed in front of the world. And with them, Daksh collapsed too, going financially ruined and emotionally broken.
Mishti had lived with the guilt of that every single day, by becoming indirectly responsible for his situation.
She knew she was not at fault. Yet, Daksh had paid a price for sins even he had never fully committed.
That truth kept tearing her apart all these months.
She was trapped between justice and blood ties.
And somewhere in that silence, guilt kept growing quietly…Guilt for surviving and still getting her happily ever after with Karan, while her brother, Daksh and his family suffered.
Now, knowing Daksh was at her doorstep, and looking at her not with the anger or accusation she had learned to brace herself for, stunned her.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Karan continued. “You didn’t expect me to bring him here. But I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, Mishti. Since Jaipur. After realising what you mean to me, I couldn’t ignore this anymore.”
Mishti swallowed, still surprised.
“You never spoke about Daksh again. At least not in front of me. You pretended you didn’t miss him. But I felt it. That you still love and miss your brother, even after everything.”
Mishti almost let out a sob as he cupped her face tightly.
“He broke all ties with you, because of me, Mishti. But you never once asked me to fix it. That’s exactly why I decided to put this guilt of yours to an end. Because I love you. I don’t want my wife to miss her family and stay quiet about it, only because she doesn’t want to hurt me.”
He wiped her tears and smiled.
“So, the first thing after we returned from Jaipur, and after I slowly recovered from getting shot, I drove to Panchgani, Nashik, and met Daksh personally to sort this out.”
Karan continued narrating how, almost three weeks ago, he initiated this meeting with Daksh.
It was the same period when Karan had begun taking decisive action against Dilip Goel, after discovering that he was the one who had orchestrated his shootout at the private airport.
Although Mishti stayed silent about missing Daksh, he knew how badly she wanted to reach out to Divya and her brother after getting to know through some of her extended family members that they were now parents to a beautiful little girl.
She wanted to meet them, love and pamper her five-month-old niece.
Karan knew she missed the version of her life that had existed before everything broke apart.
She never said a word to him. But the longing was always there.
And that was why Karan went to see Daksh himself.
Through his sources, he learned what Daksh’s life looked like now. After both his businesses had collapsed, after everything had been stripped away, Daksh and Divya no longer lived the life they once knew. The Goel House had been sold long ago, lost to mounting losses and unavoidable debt.
Now they lived in Panchgani, near Nashik, where they had started a small strawberry farming business. It was modest, but enough to keep the family from breaking completely. Enough to survive and still lead a happy life.
The moment Karan got his details, he went to meet them. Since there had always been friction, mistrust, and resentment between them, when Daksh saw Karan standing at the doorstep of their Panchgani home, he was shocked.
“You?” Daksh snapped. “What are you doing here?” he demanded, barely masking his hostility.
Karan did not bother with pleasantries either. “I have no interest in meeting you. I’m here only because of my wife.”
The moment Divya saw Karan standing there, she turned to Daksh and urged him to at least let him come inside.
Even Karan didn’t wait for permission. He walked past them and straight into the small villa.
It was nothing like the Goel Mansion they once owned—no sprawling halls, no marble floors, no quiet luxury screaming from every corner.
And yet, the space felt warm and lived in.
The living room was modest with simple furniture, soft curtains filtering the light, and little touches that made it unmistakably home.
There was a gentleness to the place, as if love had replaced luxury here.
“I have no ties with your wife,” Daksh said, following Karan inside the house. “She is the reason my world collapsed and why I am here. She is the reason for my doom.”
Divya was instantly hurt, as she looked between them, still hiding that one truth which Mishti had asked her to.
But Karan had no intention to keep Daksh in any kind of ignorance anymore, at least not where his wife Mishti was concerned. Hence, he lost his patience fast when Daksh still accused her.
He stepped forward. “Mishti is not the reason for your fall, Daksh. And you know that. You have always known that. You are just not ready to accept it.”
Daksh scoffed, but Karan did not stop.
“Even if Mishti had never been in the picture, I would still have destroyed your businesses,” Karan said coldly. “My revenge had nothing to do with you or her. The real person behind your downfall is your father.”
The room fell silent.
“Dilip Goel started this,” Karan continued. “Everything traces back to him. And you are facing the consequences because of his actions, not Mishti’s. You know it. But you are not ready to accept it because of your ego.”
Daksh’s expression cracked, just slightly.
“And let me be very clear,” Karan added. “Even if I had chosen not to take revenge, karma would have caught up with you eventually. Your companies were already sinking, Daksh. The losses were piling up. You were barely holding them together.”
He looked straight at Daksh, unflinching.
“They were going to collapse someday. Not because of me. Not because of your father. And certainly not because of Mishti. But because you were incapable of handling them.”
That angered Daksh again.
“So now Karan Wadhwa is talking about karma?” he scoffed. “How ironic. I always heard you don’t believe in God. Or any of this.”
Karan did not flinch.
“I didn’t.” He nodded. “I stopped believing in all this the day God snatched my family away from me.”
Daksh looked away, but Karan continued.
“But it was Mishti and her love that made me trust again. In God. In love. In the fact that nothing happens without a reason.”
Daksh’s jaw tightened, his bitterness spilling out before he could stop it.
“She may have changed you,” he snapped, “but she destroyed my world.”
“No,” Karan replied firmly. “She didn’t.”