Chapter 29
Kashvi glanced towards the broken mirror in her vanity. She dreaded seeing the bruises on her face, but it was time to face them.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed herself off the bed and scanned the room for her concealer. She wanted to cover the worst of it before facing the rest of her family. It was the only armour she had.
Her gaze fell on her bruised face in the few pieces of mirror still clinging to the frame. Kashvi gasped and slowly moved closer.
The girl staring back at her barely looked familiar.
A dark bruise spread across her left cheekbone, the swollen skin distorting the delicate shape of her face.
Faint finger-shaped marks lingered near her jaw, stark and ugly against her skin.
Her brown eyes looked hollow with exhaustion, and tiny cuts lined both her arms in angry red streaks from the shattered glass.
Red-hot anger burned through her veins.
Viraj had really thought that he could break her. But he couldn’t. Not while she still had her family.
‘Kashvi! Where is she?’ Dhruv shouted from the living room.
A spike of adrenaline shot through her, and with a dizzy head, she carefully picked her way through the mess. When she stepped out, she found Dhruv standing at the door, flanked by Vihaan and Luv.
At first, Dhruv didn’t notice her. His focus was locked on the destruction filling the entire space. Vihaan slowly looked around the trashed room with furrowed brows, while Luv stood rigidly beside him, disbelief written across his face.
Then Dhruv looked up, and his gaze landed on Kashvi’s face. His features sharpened instantly with barely contained rage. ‘Who the hell did this to you?’
With a sinking heart, she realised he was talking about the bruises she had forgotten to hide. ‘Try to relax. I’m okay.’
Swayam immediately shook his head. ‘Bad idea. Hearing that doesn’t help.’
‘Damn right it isn’t!’ Dhruv snapped, glaring at him. Taking long strides forward, he grabbed Swayam by the collar and yanked him closer.
‘It was your cousin, wasn’t it? Is this what your family does?’
Swayam didn’t fight back. He simply stood there, taking the full brunt of her brother’s rage.
Her heart lurched at the sight, and she tried to pull Dhruv back with her uninjured hand, but Luv and Vihaan stepped in on either side of him, trying to restrain him.
Dhruv barely registered any of it as he yelled, ‘You tell that impotent bastard to come and face me like a man instead of going after my sister.’
Swayam braced himself, meeting his challenge without flinching. ‘Once I have him in front of me, I don’t think there’ll be much talking.’
Vihaan tried to pull his friend back by the shoulder, but Dhruv’s fists stayed locked in Swayam’s collar. When the soft fabric ripped, Vihaan said, ‘Dude, you’re not thinking straight. This isn’t going to help.’
Luv echoed his words. ‘Dhruv, let go of him and step back. Now.’
Deaf to both of them, Dhruv demanded, ‘Where the hell were you when your cousin attacked Kashu? How could you let this happen?’
‘Swayam stayed over at my apartment last night,’ Luv said. ‘Neither of us had any idea what was happening here until Kashu called Swayam.’
Kashvi grabbed the front of Dhruv’s shirt and tried to pull him away. ‘Swayam came right after Viraj left, so don’t you dare blame him. He did nothing wrong.’
‘Exactly. He did nothing,’ Dhruv shot back, keeping his dark eyes fixed on Swayam. ‘He got here too late, so it’s his fault too. He should’ve been here.’
Dhruv’s resistance threw Kashvi off balance, and she stumbled with a startled yelp when the sudden movement sent pain shooting through her injured hand.
Swayam caught her instantly, gripping her hand before wrapping an arm around her waist to steady her.
Dhruv still had a fist twisted in his shirt when Swayam finally said, ‘Dhruv, you can hit me and yell at me all you want. I won’t stop you.
But wait until she’s not standing right next to us. She’s been hurt enough.’
There was no defensiveness in his voice. No attempt to push back. Just quiet acceptance.
Something cracked in Dhruv’s laser-sharp focus, and he faltered. ‘Exactly. You should’ve been the one standing between her and him, making sure none of this happened. You failed her.’
Swayam didn’t back off.
‘You’re right. It’s not something I’m ever going to forgive myself for. But I don’t think you want to hurt her more, and throwing punches around her will do exactly that.’
The room fell into strained silence. Her heart clenched at the guilt etched so visibly across his face.
With a sharp exhale, Dhruv reluctantly released Swayam’s collar.
He turned to her, but kept his gaze lowered. ‘I’m sorry, Kashu. I couldn’t keep my temper in check when I dealt with Viraj. Now he’s pissed and making you pay for it.’
Vihaan stepped forward beside him. ‘He’s right. One of us should’ve dropped you home.’
Kashvi shook her head. ‘This happened because things didn’t go Viraj’s way. He can lash out all he wants, but I won’t stop fighting him. I need all of you with me, helping me through this, not drowning in guilt.’
Dhruv said, ‘We’re with you. Every step of the way.’
‘Then fighting with my husband for something he didn’t do isn’t helping me,’ she argued gently.
Dhruv glanced at Swayam, the anger behind his earlier outburst slowly fading. ‘Swayam, I’m sorry. You told me she’d been attacked, but I didn’t realise how bad it was until I saw her. I just… lost it.’
Swayam patted him on the back. ‘We’re cool. Though if it helps, I don’t agree with my wife. You have every right to be mad at me, so you get one free pass to punch me whenever you want.’
‘What the hell?’ Kashvi snapped.
‘You want to sugarcoat things, but I don’t.’ Swayam shrugged. Then he pointed at Dhruv’s black eye. ‘Besides, I’m jealous of him because, from the looks of it, Dhruv got a shot at Viraj while I still have to wait. At least it gives me some peace knowing he’s hurting a little.’
‘A lot,’ she corrected. ‘I slashed his cheek with glass.’
Swayam chuckled softly and pulled her closer. ‘That’s my girl.’
Dhruv watched him for a beat, then asked, still unrelenting, ‘You can say that now, but what happens when your family finds out? From what I’ve heard, you’re close to Viraj’s mother. When it really comes down to it, are you actually going to stand against them?’
Swayam tucked her closer against his chest as he answered with bold, unwavering clarity. ‘It doesn’t matter who or what we face in life, the only place for me is by Kashvi’s side. She’s my wife, my choice, and my priority. End of discussion.’
His declaration settled deep inside her, grounding her in a way she hadn’t realised she needed.
Dhruv asked carefully, ‘So you didn’t go to meet that girl?’
Swayam’s brows drew together and he exhaled, faintly offended. ‘Of course not. What kind of question is that?’
‘Yeah,’ Dhruv muttered, some of the tension leaving his rigid posture. ‘I figured.’
Luv looked between them. ‘So that’s why Viraj got desperate enough to do all this?’
Vihaan nodded. ‘He was supposed to get money from that girl’s father, and we stole his phone, so he lost a lot of money last night.’
Kashvi hesitated, her fingers curling into a fist. Then she said, ‘He had backups. He cornered me when I got home and showed me the pictures on a new phone.’
‘Fuck!’ Dhruv shouted, dragging a hand down his face.
‘So what does he want now?’ Vihaan asked.
‘He wants a hundred crores.’
‘What? Is he out of his mind?’ Luv snapped.
Dhruv dragged in a frustrated breath. ‘So everything we did last night was for nothing.’
Swayam remained firm at her side. The warmth of his presence steadied her nerves despite the growing pain twisting through her stomach.
‘He’s given me until tonight to get it ready.’ She turned towards the broken window, the afternoon sun glowing softly beyond it. ‘We have maybe six hours.’
Dhruv’s expression hardened. ‘Wait. Last night, he made it sound like he’s done this to other girls too.’
Kashvi thought about it with dread. ‘The camera was hidden in the bathroom at the party, and a lot of people must’ve used it before I destroyed it.’
‘There could’ve been other parties too where he pulled the same trick, and no one would’ve known,’ Luv suggested.
It wasn’t just about her anymore. The helplessness she’d felt earlier twisted into hot, molten rage as she thought about the other girls who might’ve felt that same suffocating panic and helpless loss of control.
This needed to end.
Swayam’s expression darkened as he processed it. ‘He’s a very money-minded man, and not everyone he targets is going to be a jewellery empire heiress with a hundred crore trust fund.’
A sharp ping cut through the room. Dhruv glanced down at his phone. ‘Siya and Abhay have boarded their jet. They should be here in two hours.’
Swayam nodded. ‘That’s good. Siya will know what we can do legally in this situation.’
‘Did you tell her about this?’ Kashvi asked, gesturing at the destruction around them.
‘I told her what happened to you. She deserved to know,’ Dhruv said firmly.
Kashvi reluctantly agreed, but it was yet another thing she would have to deal with now. ‘Di better find a way, because I’ve got nothing. The money has already been allocated to the organisations, and I’ll pull it back over my dead body.’
Vihaan rubbed a hand over his jaw, thinking out loud. ‘But that’s what’s bothering me. Not many people know that exact figure, so how did he find out?’
Kashvi glanced at Swayam expectantly, who furrowed his brows in confusion. ‘What?’
‘You didn’t tell him?’ she asked.
He answered immediately. ‘Of course not.’
A creeping sense of unease spread through her. She’d assumed Swayam had let personal details slip during a casual conversation with Viraj. But if he hadn’t, then how did Viraj know?
‘Did you tell him we got married?’
Swayam shook his head immediately. ‘I wouldn’t have done that without checking with you first.’
She grabbed his arm as urgency took over. ‘Did you tell him about Di and Jiju’s adoption plans?’
His forehead creased. ‘Why would I talk to him about them?’
Kashvi swallowed, her throat suddenly dry.
‘Did you talk to him on the phone today?’ she asked shakily.
‘I called him a lot yesterday, but he never answered. I’m pretty sure he blocked me last night.’
‘Viraj seems to know a lot of personal things about all of us,’ Dhruv observed with a frown.
Swayam turned towards him.
‘But he didn’t hear any of it from me. I don’t talk about my friends’ private lives behind their backs. I wouldn’t do that to them,’ he said with conviction.
Kashvi barely registered the conversation around her. Her mind kept circling back to the phone call that had stopped Viraj. She’d assumed it was Swayam calling him, but now she knew it wasn’t.
So who was the man Viraj obeyed so immediately? Who could make him back down when he’d been seconds away from hurting her further?
Her pulse hammered against the base of her throat. ‘Viraj left because he got a call from someone. He was furious, but he still obeyed that man.’
Swayam frowned. ‘That doesn’t add up. Something’s not right here.’
Vihaan hummed softly, his eyes turning distant as he thought.
‘What?’ Dhruv asked, catching the shift in his expression.
Vihaan’s gaze locked onto Kashvi. ‘This morning, do you remember warning us not to share your drunken ramblings with Karthik?’
Kashvi cringed at the memory. ‘I’m sorry again.’
‘That’s not what I meant,’ Vihaan assured her. ‘I know it came from fear of your father. But that’s exactly my point. You have good reason to be scared of him because he’s proven time and again that he’ll cross any limit for his own benefit. So… could he be behind this?’
Her heart pounded so violently it felt like it might burst out of her chest.
‘But how could it be Karthik?’ Luv asked. ‘He only knew about your inheritance and the wedding. He couldn’t have known about Siya’s adoption plans, right?’
Dhruv’s eyes widened. ‘Siya had to ask the trustee board for character certifications during the adoption process. Dad was on the committee, so he knows.’
Her father had access, influence, and motive. Cold unease spread through her as her mind resisted pulling at that thread, terrified of where it might lead.
Swayam shifted beside her, drawing her attention. ‘Mausa, Viraj’s father, handles finances for a lot of influential families who move in the same circles as yours. There’s a good chance he came across Karthik through those connections.’
‘It’s possible,’ she whispered.
Luv raised his hands. ‘I think we need to slow down. I’ve seen enough to know Karthik is capable of horrible things. But as a father, would he really blackmail his own daughter with something like this for money?’
The moment he said it, the answer hit her with brutal clarity.
Yes, he would.
Dhruv clenched his jaw and gave a grim nod. He was too familiar with their father’s cruelty to deny it. ‘Yes, he would.’
Vihaan cut in. ‘If we’re going to accuse Karthik of a crime this serious, we better have solid, undeniable proof tying him to Viraj.’
Dhruv dragged a hand through his messy hair. ‘If he’s involved, he’s not going to leave anything obvious behind. He’s too careful about that, so he gets someone else to do his dirty work.’
Her vision blurred at the edges, dizziness making her sway as the weight of it all pushed Kashvi to the brink.
Swayam tightened his arm around her. ‘I’ve got you, baby. I know this is a lot.’
‘Thank you.’ She closed her eyes and leaned against him because there was nowhere else to go. He was her tether to sanity while the storm inside her mind raged harder, fed by the pain coursing through her veins.
The doorbell chimed, sharp against the heavy silence, and Vihaan immediately moved towards it.
The second he opened the door, he froze.
Kashvi breath caught as she looked past him towards the figure standing outside.
Lavanya.