Chapter 8
A dull, unrelenting thump rattled against the heavy wooden door, echoing through the silent apartment.
Siya jerked awake and flinched in pain. Disoriented, she rubbed her neck, which was stiff from sleeping oddly on the chair.
She blinked slowly at the dim light flowing in from the television, showing a re-run of her comfort show.
Another set of loud bangs rang urgently. Siya realised someone was at the door when a familiar voice called out her name. Her body ached in protest as she got up, and she kicked through the pins and needles rushing through her numb legs as she went to answer the door.
As soon as the door cracked open, Kashvi stormed in. Her face was flushed, and her nostrils were flared.
‘You’re getting married?!’ she snapped, her eyes wild and red-rimmed. ‘I had to find out from the goddamn evening news, Di! What the hell?’
Kashvi was fire and fury, packed in a petite frame that barely reached Siya’s shoulders, but she was notoriously famous for her anger. Especially at a nearby family restaurant where Kashvi was banned because she had flipped out at a customer for smoking around kids.
Stunned into silence, Siya blinked at her. It had been a while since she had seen Kashvi this angry, and all she could do was hope that the wedding news hadn’t leaked. However, with the way her sister was pacing around the living room, Siya had a bad feeling her hope was misplaced.
‘Have you lost your phone or, I don’t know, common sense? Do you know how humiliating it is to get a text from Dhruv taunting me about the “upcoming big day” when I didn’t even know there was a big day?’
Siya was going to kill Dhruv slowly and painfully, and she’d cherish every moment of it. ‘Kashu, c’mon, I was going to tell you—’
‘So it’s true?’
‘Yes.’
‘When were you going to tell me? At your sangeet? Or maybe after you and Abhay come back from your honeymoon after your “second wedding” because you’re both so in love?
And tell me something, aren’t we like mortal enemies or something with the Agrawals?
’ Kashvi asked, her gaze burning with disbelief.
Siya was still disoriented. She’d skipped lunch and was functioning on one cup of coffee. Her body felt sluggish with sleep, so all she could say was, ‘It’s complicated.’
‘Of course it’s complicated! Everything about our family is complicated.
We’re the kind of people who have sat at the dinner table listening to Dad plan elaborate death scenarios for Nana, so it’s not too out of character for him to have a complicated relationship with another man. But how are you involved in this?’
Siya opened her mouth to answer, but Kashvi didn’t give her a chance. She grabbed onto her shoulders and asked, ‘Tell me this is a prank, or maybe you hit your head and this is all temporary insanity because honestly, I can’t—’
‘Or maybe you could just let her speak,’ Meera told Kashvi, walking into the apartment through the open door, followed by Swayam. She patted Kashvi’s head gently, trying to calm her down.
Thank god Meera is here, Siya thought, and felt the tension drain out of her body. She’s the only person who could help her figure a way out of this tangled mess.
Swayam shut the door and leaned against it. ‘Yeah, then maybe she can answer how, if the entertainment news is to be believed, our two best friends hid the fact that they’ve been married for two years?’
His grin was mischievous, flaunting the fact that he was glad to pour gasoline on the fire. She narrowed her eyes and scolded him, ‘You’re not helping.’
‘I’m not here to help.’ Swayam shrugged with a grin, folding his arms against his chest.
‘Then why are you here?’
‘I am here for the popcorn. Siya Kashyap is married to her sworn enemy. I can’t miss out on watching this plot twist of the year unfold. You’ve got Meera if you want moral support,’ he said, strolling in and casually jumping down on the plush leather Barcalounger.
‘Swayam, don’t.’ Siya warned him with a look that made her junior associates shake in their boots.
He brushed it off him as casually as if it were dirt. He asked, eyes gleaming, ‘I knew something was up! All those brooding looks, storming out of dinners, and now suddenly… wedding bells? I knew all that tension had to mean something. Was this the plan all along?’
‘Are you done?’
‘No. Instead, I’m beginning to wonder if this had been the endgame all along. Did you two meet on some matrimonial site for rich people?’ Swayam asked innocently.
‘Both of you did seem awfully cosy dancing at our second wedding,’ Meera observed, and Kashvi glared at her sister suspiciously.
‘Don’t encourage him, Mihu.’
‘Trust me, I don’t need encouragement. I’m a one-man army,’ Swayam announced smugly.
Siya looked down at her lap and began fidgeting with the hem of the old hoodie. It had become so comforting and familiar to her that she forgot it belonged to Abhay. ‘Excuse me, whatever happened to calling before showing up at my apartment?’ she asked, trying to distract herself from his thoughts.
Swayam raised an eyebrow. ‘When do we ever call before we show up at Meera and Raghav’s home?’
‘That’s precisely a tradition I’d love to break!’ Meera chimed in with a glare directed at him. ‘Raghav and I are newlyweds, and we’re yet to spend a single weekend without you and Luv showing up for parathas and life updates.’
‘C’mon Mihu, friendship vetoes common courtesy. True friends know that,’ Swayam said, blowing her a kiss. Meera threw a cushion at him in retaliation.
Kashvi snapped. ‘Guys! Can we please focus on why we’re here? I need answers!’
Silence followed in the wake of her anger. Siya looked at her sister and noticed her hands fisted at her sides in the way she did when she was trying not to cry. Confusion, tinted with betrayal and a desperate need to understand, shimmered in her eyes.
Siya hadn’t meant for Kashvi to find out like this. She’d meant to tell her gently, when her own pulse wasn’t thundering in her ears, and she hadn’t found words to explain a decision she was yet to fully process herself. So, she decided to play offence.
She exhaled slowly and pulled on a manufactured calmness as she said, ‘What I want to know is why you’re home. Weren’t you supposed to be in Uttarakhand until next Friday?’
Taken aback by the sudden shift in conversation, Kashvi huffed out a breath.
For the first time since she’d barged in, she hesitated.
‘On our call last night, I could tell you were feeling down. I called you all afternoon today, but you didn’t answer.
You’ve been overworking, skipping meals…
I was worried about you, so I flew back early. ’
Siya sighed, trying to ease some of the pain bubbling in her chest. ‘Kashu, you worked for months to get onboard their volunteer program, and you walked away from it just like that?’
Kashvi retorted back. ‘Don’t do that. Don’t try to flip this on me. Did you honestly not think that your sister deserved a heads-up before the entire damn country?’
‘Entire country? What are you talking about?’
Kashvi exclaimed. ‘The news! All the media channels in the first class lounge were showing your wedding story as their exclusive headline. I thought it was some fake entertainment segment until they started showing pictures of you and Abhay.’
Swayam laughed aloud and waved his phone in the air. ‘Oh no, it gets better. You haven’t seen the “explosive new twist.”’
He picked up the remote from the couch and flipped through the channels before settling on one.
The moment he turned up the volume, the high-pitched voice of the news anchor filled the room.
Her narration overlapped with dramatic B-roll footage of Abhay stepping out of a car, then of Siya from an old charity gala playing on a loop.
‘…has announced a new alliance between rival jewellery empires, Kashyap Luxe and Agrawal Jewels. We are shocked to find out that Siya Kashyap has been secretly married to Abhay Agrawal for over two years. In light of this development, a Kashyap representative has said that Abhay and Siya will be making it official with a private ceremony in the presence of friends and family next weekend.’
Siya exhaled slowly through her nose and dragged her fingers through her curls. Her first instinct while watching the news was disbelief. Then came the realisation that her father hadn’t kept his word and that maybe he had never meant to.
Her stomach tightened with the familiar churn as anger and disappointment buried their way through her. She still fell for her father’s tricks. It would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic.
After Abhay left in the morning, she’d called Kartik to tell him that Abhay had agreed to the sham marriage, keeping his one-year marriage deadline only to herself.
All she’d asked in return was that this news be kept under wraps until she’d spoken to Kashvi.
It should have raised alarms in her mind when Kartik had agreed too easily. When would she learn?
‘Sources claim that a potential pregnancy might be the reason the couple is finally announcing their union. Could it be that the jewellery heiress is carrying the Agrawal heir? Could this baby be the olive branch that finally ends their long-standing corporate hostility and give a happily ever after to the star-crossed lovers?’
Of course, that would be the angle. A scandalous and sensational pregnancy rumour. She leaned forward, dropped her face in her hands, and blinked against the dull throb building behind her eyes.
Meera groaned audibly. ‘I swear to God, if one more news channel uses the words “star-crossed lovers,” I’m throwing my TV out.’
‘We can easily create a drinking game out of it. After all, today calls for a celebration, doesn’t it? Will you please make us some pakodas?’ Swayam poked Meera’s arm, but she swatted it away.