Chapter 14
That night, Shauna sat at the dining table with her family, listening to the conversations around her.
Tonight was family dinner night, and so her whole family was present.
Rishi and Mehak were there with their newborn daughter, Ruhaani, while Rhea and Nirvaan had come with Vayu, who was upstairs fast asleep alongside Sameer and Raashi’s twins, Jhalak and Jash.
Now that dinner was over, everyone was gathered in the living room.
She sat in one corner of the sofa while conversations flowed around her in easy, happy tones.
Yet every now and then, her parents, one of her brothers, or their spouses would glance at her discreetly, as if checking her mood.
She was acutely aware of how carefully her family was tiptoeing around her.
And while she’d eventually resigned herself to speaking to them again, the hurt lingered, and the sting of betrayal hadn’t faded.
She spoke when she had to and stayed quiet the rest of the time.
She hadn’t confronted them, yet. Maybe one day she would.
Maybe there was no point in confronting them at all.
For now, her mind was too consumed by how, in the span of three weeks, the ground beneath her feet had shifted. Not once, but twice.
“I won’t be a footnote in your life.”
Bloody hell. What was she getting herself into?
Was she really going to marry Akash? Her mind had spun in circles around the question.
If she married him, she’d get everything she’d always wanted.
She’d make sure of it. But it also meant allowing him into her personal space. Living with him day in and day out.
Her stomach clenched. She took a sip of water to steady herself, but it did nothing for the sudden heat rising in her chest. The almost-kiss in his office from the week before resurfaced in her mind, sending a traitorous tingle sliding down her spine at the memory.
And then the night in the Maldives followed close behind, the moment when things between them had come dangerously close to going much further. Again. Her heart stuttered.
God. They’d been at war for far too long, and yet the chemistry between them refused to die. If she married him, what would that mean for an attraction that had never truly gone away?
She looked around the room, at couples who had married for love. Even now, their love was visible in the way they looked at each other, the way they subconsciously touched one another.
She’d always believed that she too would marry for love.
Marrying Akash meant setting that dream aside, at least for now.
She chewed her lip. But marrying him also meant that she wouldn’t be marrying without love altogether.
She would be marrying for something she loved just as fiercely: Sehgal Media.
And perhaps that was the best outcome for her.
And if she negotiated her terms carefully, then she could have everything she’d always wanted: the freedom to run Sehgal Media, albeit by his side.
But it was still better than what she had currently.
As Creative Director, she’d never be the one shaping the future of the company or making all the corporate decisions. But by marrying him, she could.
“Shauna?” Someone tugged her knee. Shauna looked up and saw Rhea staring at her, her eyes filled with concern.
“Are you okay?” her twin asked.
Shauna nodded. “Yes, just preoccupied.”
“With what?” Sameer asked.
“Just work.”
“I heard you’ve been working again,” Sameer said, his tone careful. Everyone around them quietened to hear her response.
“From home,” Rishi added. “It’s good, isn’t it?”
He gave her a hopeful look, one she refused to let affect her.
“I haven’t decided what I want to do yet,” she replied. “Until then, I couldn’t simply let my teams flounder.”
Sameer raised his chin. “Look, I’ve given you space. We all have. But don’t you think it’s time we talked about everything that has happened. We’re all here, Shauna, and we want to clear the air.”
She stood. “I’m not ready to talk about it. Perhaps I never will be. So just forget it, okay?”
“Sit down, Shauna,” her father’s voice cut through the silence.
The command startled her. She hesitated, then sank back onto the sofa reluctantly, her pulse quickening.
“This has gone on long enough,” he said, anger threading through his words.
Her father, Jai Sehgal, was always kind, patient, and endlessly calm.
But not right now. She stared at him, stunned.
This tone belonged not to the gentle man who’d always been there for her and her siblings, but to the sharp, brilliant lawyer he was—the one who had deliberately stepped away from the family business to carve his own path.
A strategist. One of the highest-paid lawyers in the country. A man who very rarely raised his voice.
“You cannot keep refusing to communicate with your family,” he continued evenly, “and continue believing that we all betrayed you.”
Shauna’s breath caught. Her hands curled into fists in her lap and a sharp ache rose in her chest. Her gaze swept the room, meeting her twin’s eyes for a brief second. Rhea gave her an encouraging nod.
“Every one of you knew what I wanted,” Shauna said, keeping her tone steady. “You knew my dreams. And yet none of you told me the truth. You kept me in the dark.”
The silence that followed was heavy, charged with everything that had been left unsaid for far too long. Raashi broke the silence first.
“Keya is my best friend,” she said softly.
“I’ve always known her and Akash’s history.
So did Sheena.” She paused, meeting Shauna’s eyes.
“Five years ago, Janak was forced to tell Kabier the truth about Keya, only to clear the terrible misconceptions he’d formed about her.
And that was what led them to understand each other better.
They fell in love, and the rest was history. ”
“Kabier told me,” Sameer explained quietly. “You know how close Kabier is to Rishi and me. We’ve always treated him like an elder brother. He made us promise not to tell anyone.”
Rishi leaned forward slightly. “It was only a long time later that we realized your dreams were clashing directly with Akash’s inheritance.
That’s when it truly sank in for all of us.
” His voice dropped. “We tried, Shauna. Over the years, we tried so hard to nudge you toward something else, to open other doors for you. But you were determined.”
Sameer continued, “We couldn’t tell you directly because of the promises we were bound by, but we did try our best to steer you in another direction. However, you were hell-bent on following your own path.”
She flinched despite herself. She had been determined. Fiercely so.
“We’ve been dreading this day. We’ve all been so conflicted about this,” Rishi continued. “And we’re deeply sorry we couldn’t tell you. But some promises…” He shook his head. “Some promises cannot be broken.”
Shauna stared down at her hands, her fingers laced tightly together. She did understand what they were saying, but it was still unbearably painful.
Her father spoke then, his voice quieter now, stripped of its earlier steel.
“As for me,” he said, “I am the General Counsel for Sehgal Corporation. Of course, I knew before any of them.” He met her gaze without flinching. “Your grandfather confided in me when Dhiraj Mishra passed away. He told me everything.”
“And I’m sure Mom and Mehak knew as well,” Shauna said, the words heavy with defeat.
Mehak tilted her head slightly. “Please don’t blame your dad or Rishi for confiding in their spouses. When people are in love, they sometimes share the burden of difficult truths with the one person they trust most.”
Mehak met Shauna’s eyes. “Rishi told me only recently, that too because he couldn’t carry the weight of it alone anymore. And because he knew that when the truth finally came out, it would hurt you.”
The room felt impossibly still.
“We hate that you got hurt, Shauna,” her mother said gently, speaking for the first time. “That was never our intention. We all love you, but like Rishi said, some promises cannot be broken, no matter how hard one wants to.”
Shauna swallowed hard, her chest aching with the weight of it all.
She got what they were all saying. She truly did.
Because the truth was, she had to accept her own part in this too.
They all had tried to steer her elsewhere over the years, but she had been too stubborn—too determined to let Sehgal Media go.
But understanding all this still didn’t erase her pain. However, it did dull it, and so she was grateful to them for forcing her to clear the air. She loved her family, and being at odds with them had been too damn taxing.
“Akash is one of my closest friends,” Nirvaan said, speaking up for the first time.
“And yet he never told me this. Everyone else in our circle knew except me.” Nirvaan shook his head.
“Yeah, it hurt when I found out. Hurt that he hadn’t trusted me with it.
But he called me immediately after the announcement and explained why.
And he was right not to tell me because keeping this from Rhea would have been. .. hard.”
“You’re my other half, Shauna,” Rhea said.
“And Akash knew that asking Nirvaan to keep his promise meant forcing him to choose Akash over you, and he didn’t want to put Nirvaan in that position.
” She paused. “So, what Nirvaan and I are trying to say is that we genuinely believe that Akash didn’t want to hurt you, and you cannot blame him for fate choosing him to run Sehgal Media. ”
Sameer leaned forward. “Please understand, it was never you versus Akash. No one chose him over you. But look at the situation reasonably. It isn’t his fault that Sehgal Media is his legacy. He didn’t ask for it, but he has worked bloody hard to be worthy of it.”
Her heart pinched. It was true. No matter that she and Akash never saw eye to eye, she had to admit that he was good at his job. And if she were being even more honest, it really wasn’t his fault that he had inherited Sehgal Media. He hadn’t won it from her. Destiny had made it his.
Her father continued, “You’ve always loved working there. And you have achieved so much. You could continue working there for a while. You could support him, at least until you decide what you wish to do next.”
“I agree,” Sameer added. “We only want you to be happy.”
Rhea linked her fingers with her. “You need to move past this, Shauna. I’m sure there is something better out there that could make you happier. You just need to look for it.”
Her heart thumped. Her twin was wrong. There was nothing else that could make her happier.
There had always been only one thing she truly wanted, one thing that had the power to make her immensely happy.
Marrying Akash would tie her irrevocably to Sehgal Media.
She could still pursue her dreams, even if it meant doing so as his wife.
It didn’t have to be forever. If she was smart, and she was, she could structure the terms of their arrangement carefully, plan everything with precision.
A contract marriage could be undone just as methodically as it had been entered into.
Suddenly, with startling clarity, she knew exactly what she would demand from him.
She rose, facing her family. “Promise me that whatever I decide next, you all will stand by me.”
Sameer stood. “I promise. We all will stand by you no matter what. And on behalf of all of us, I’d like to apologize for hurting you in any way.”
She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.
She felt Sameer relax against her, heard his quiet sigh of relief.
Her eldest brother had always been her fiercest protector, and she knew he would be the hardest to convince if and when this worked out with Akash and she announced her marriage to him.
Rishi was the softer one. She’d always been able to convince him easily.
Sameer… he would ask questions. Difficult ones.
At that point, she’d have to tell them all the truth.
No one would believe that she had suddenly fallen in love with Akash and decided to marry him.
This wasn’t a fairy tale. It would have to be explained carefully and honestly.
Sameer had promised to stand by her, and she would hold him to that promise.
One by one, the others hugged her as well.
She could see the relief lining their faces, the tension in the room dissipating.
Soon, the room filled with laughter and easy chatter, the kind of comfortable chaos that always followed their family gatherings.
Excitement stirred inside her for the first time in days.
The pain she’d been carrying eased, fading in the background as she looked forward to what came next. To doing what she needed to do. Her mind buzzed. There was much to be done. She had plans to make. Terms to think of. Conditions to lock down. If she was going to do this, she would do it right.
As she slipped away to her room, her thoughts sharpened with sudden purpose.
A smile curved her lips as she started to note down her conditions.
It was late when she was finally done. Her phone felt warm in her hand as she opened Akash’s contact.
It had been a long time since she’d texted him.
She paused for just a moment, then typed.
I’ve thought through everything. I’m willing to marry you. But I have terms. We need to talk.
She sent the message and set the phone aside, a quiet sense of certainty settling over her. Whatever came next, she felt lighter than she had in days. It was time to claim the future that had been denied to her.