Chapter 5
Present Day
Siya opened the door of her apartment and swung it closed behind her. The adrenaline was crashing hard, and just taking off her heels drained the rest of her energy. She stumbled onto the couch and pulled Kashvi’s comforter around her.
The night wind blew loose strands of her hair and tangled them against her cheeks, but she didn’t bother to push them away.
She still felt trapped at that dinner table. The argument played on a loop in her mind, but one moment stood out the most. The way Abhay had spoken up on her behalf had splintered the anger that encased her heart.
Her father’s cold ambition clashing against Abhay’s concern had lit a spark of rebellion in her. When Abhay had said her opinions mattered, it meant more to her than she wanted to admit. Especially when she had spent the last four years convincing herself everything they once had was a lie.
She pulled the blanket tighter around herself, and a wild thought took seed in her mind. Could she have been wrong back then? Maybe she had jumped to conclusions. Maybe—
The doorbell rang, shattering her train of thought. It rang again, multiple times. She had an inkling of who it was, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to face him just yet.
Her stomach dropped, and with the blanket around her, she padded barefoot to the door. Kartik stood in the hallway, dressed in the same jacket as before. It looked like he had come straight here after the dinner with the Agrawals.
Siya had been hoping to avoid this confrontation for a day or two, but she should have known her luck would run out before that.
He didn’t wait for an invitation—he simply walked in as if he owned the place. His overpowering cologne drifted in with him.
Kartik stopped in the middle of the room and scanned the modest living setup. His expression said it all. ‘I’ll never understand why you girls choose to live here.’
There it is, Siya thought to herself. She let out a long sigh, shut the door, and turned to face him. She swept her gaze over the room and tried to see it from his perspective.
The furniture consisted of essentials only, with no bespoke designer tag on them.
Kashvi had picked the curtains and drapes from a factory outlet on sale, and filled their apartment with little clay models designed by her.
The rent for the place left little margin in Siya’s monthly budget, but they managed very well.
The walls were adorned with some of the paintings their mother had made before she passed away.
They were the only things worth millions, painted by one of the country’s coveted jewellery designers at the time, but nothing could make Siya sell them.
They were a part of her mother’s legacy, and that made them priceless in her eyes.
To Siya, the place felt like home, filled with love and shared moments between her and Kashvi, but she could see how it would look bland to him.
After all, he was well-known for collecting antiques and hosting private showings at the Kashyap townhouse.
But he’d never made space for his late wife’s paintings, so Siya brought them here.
‘It’s enough for us. We love it here,’ Siya said.
‘Love what, living like unpaid interns? We are the Kashyaps, Siya. You need to maintain the image of being a part of this family. I still don’t understand why you moved out of our townhouse and came here,’ he noted with a hint of anger.
The way he said it made it sound like they were living in a dumpster. She fought the tide of anger rising deep within her.
Siya knew her father loved to hold on to the delusion of a united family, and growing up, she did everything she could to make it true, but as an adult, she refused to contribute to that falsity. She simply said, ‘Kashu and I like our space. We’re fine here.’
‘You have all the space you want there. Dhruv lives there too, doesn’t he? At least one of my kids understands the value of living close to the family. On the other hand, you chose to move to Bandra, far from us.’
‘He is the exact reason we don’t want to live there,’ Siya said, not doing the least bit to hide the bitterness in her voice. She didn’t need to elaborate on the matter. He knew about the tense dynamic between the step-siblings, but chose to pretend it didn’t exist.
As she’d expected, he disregarded her comment with a swat of his hand and sat down on the leather couch. ‘Let’s talk about tonight.’
Siya crossed her arms and leaned against the wall across from him. ‘You already made your point, Dad, but I am not changing my mind.’
Kartik raised a hand to stop her, and an unprecedented emotion coloured his expression. Regret. ‘Listen to me. I shouldn’t have brought up this topic in front of the Agrawals.’
Siya froze where she stood, unable to comprehend his words. Her father’s vocabulary never consisted of “I shouldn’t have” and she didn’t know what to do with this new development.
His tone was softer than she’d ever heard from him before, and it made her pause. She’d given up hoping for affection from him, and it took her decades to make peace with it. But now?
‘I… understand. If you don’t want to marry for the business’s sake, we’ll let it go,’ he added, his tone gentle.
She blinked, and hope bloomed in her chest again. Maybe he’d finally come around and was choosing his daughter first.
‘Really? Are you serious, Dad?’ she asked, searching his face for a lie, but there was no hint of deceit.
Kartik met her eyes and nodded once as he said, ‘I am. I mean it.’
She didn’t trust it entirely, but the tension melted from her shoulders, and she leaned against the wall in relief. Tears sprang to her eyes and she took a deep breath to stop them from falling.
‘Where’s Kashvi tonight? Is she not home?’ Kartik enquired, looking around once again.
‘Volunteer trip to Uttarakhand. She’ll be back in a couple of days. Why?’
‘I had some news for her, and was hoping to talk to her about it.’
A vine of unease pierced through her heart. When was the last time he’d asked about Kashvi? A long time ago. If a person didn’t know her family tree, they’d think Kartik Kashyap had a son and one daughter, not two.
His sudden interest in Kashvi’s whereabouts made her gut tighten with worry. ‘What news, Dad?’
‘Speaking of it, I’d love your opinion on it too.’ He pulled out his phone out of his jacket pocket and began scrolling through it.
Kashvi’s debut in the family business? She’d made plans to talk to their father about involving Kashvi in the upcoming exhibition, and it warmed her heart to think it wouldn’t be necessary anymore. Maybe with time, he’d warm up to them more, and they’d finally have a father figure in their lives.
He got up and walked over to her and turned the phone toward her to see. A photograph filled his screen.
It was of a well-dressed older man, with a round face and a balding look, smiling straight at the camera.
Ravindra Bhatt. He was one of the leading textile business tycoons and made regular appearances on the covers of business magazines. She remembered him from the New Year’s party four years ago. He had been practically drooling around her, and she could still feel his slimy gaze.
Kartik asked, ‘What do you think of him?’
Siya frowned, trying to catch up. ‘As in… an investor or business collab?’
‘As in a match for Kashvi,’ he clarified with a straight face.
A beat passed as Siya processed what he meant, and then her blood turned to ice in her veins. ‘You mean—what?’
‘As a matrimonial match for Kashvi,’ he spoke slowly, reiterating every word as if speaking to a child. He spoke of it as casually as if he were discussing the weather. ‘Ravindra has been looking to remarry for a while, and he’s interested in Kashvi.’
Her breath rushed out in a harsh exhale, and she took a step back. ‘Are you insane?’
Kartik raised an eyebrow. ‘Don’t raise your voice. I’ve taught you better than that.’
Siya couldn’t forget how he’d taught her that even if she wanted to. Years later, she still couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge the emotional trauma he’d caused her. But she’d succeeded in keeping Kashvi away from that environment, only to fail now.
‘She’s twenty-four, he’s sixty, and you’re thinking of setting them up?!’
‘He’s fifty-eight,’ he corrected her. ‘Ravindra is well-established and wealthy. It’s a respectable proposal. Kashvi can do a lot worse than him.’
‘She’s still in university,’ Siya said, trying to reason with him, but she knew that look on her father’s face. He’d made up his mind, and that meant her valid arguments would fall on deaf ears.
Kartik shrugged. ‘She’s nearly done. Someday, when she’s older, she will thank me for securing her future. And this alliance will be beneficial for us too.’
‘You’re not securing her future. You’re selling it to a man who is more than thrice her age and has been accused of sexual harassment by his ex-wife!’
He disregarded her words with a casual shrug, and Siya barely resisted the urge to pull her hair out. ‘We’ll make sure she’s comfortable.’
Her hands were trembling so hard that she clenched them into fists. Her heart was pounding loudly. ‘You think I’m going to let you trade her off like an object? She’s my sister!’
‘You’re letting sentiment cloud your judgement, just like before at the dinner. Emotions are temporary, but legacy isn’t, so stop overreacting and act like an adult,’ he said, his tone laced with warning.
‘I’d rather be sentimental than soulless. How could you even think of him for Kashu?’
He casually fixed his cufflinks as he replied, ‘She’s of age. And he’s offering a seat on his board, which gives us access to new investors and new markets in Dubai, London—’
‘I don’t care if he is offering ownership of the moon!’
The polite mask her father wore cracked just enough for her to see the flash of rage underneath.
‘Ravindra is powerful, connected. So what if he has been accused? He was never convicted. As a lawyer, you should know what innocent until proven guilty means.’