CHAPTER 16
The estate was quiet in the afternoon. Most of the family rested or worked in their separate wings. The staff kept to the kitchen and service areas.
Nimisha had been returning from the library, her arms full of research books, when she heard footsteps behind her.
She turned.
Kabir.
Her stomach dropped.
He was dressed casually—dark jeans, a crisp white shirt. Out of place in the Ranawat estate at this hour.
"Kabir." She kept her voice even. "I didn't know you were visiting today."
"Tanisha invited me for lunch." He moved closer, closing the distance between them. "But she's taking a nap. I thought I'd explore the house."
"I see." She adjusted her books and turned to continue walking. "I should get back to my work—"
"Why do you ignore my gifts?"
She froze.
Turned back slowly. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't play coy." His voice had dropped the charming veneer, something harder underneath. "The bracelet. The flowers. The other things I sent. You never acknowledged any of them."
Her throat went dry. "Those were from you."
"Obviously." He moved closer, his smile too sharp. "I was beginning to think you didn't appreciate the effort."
"I didn't receive them," she said carefully. "They must have been intercepted."
"Intercepted." He laughed softly. "Yes. By your husband's men, no doubt. He's very territorial about you." His eyes swept over her. "I can understand why."
"Kabir—"
"You're wasted on him." The words were quiet, almost gentle. "He doesn't appreciate what he has. You deserve someone who sees you, Nimisha. Someone who doesn't treat you like an obligation."
Her skin crawled. "You're engaged to his sister."
"A business arrangement." He dismissed Tanisha with those three words, and Nimisha's rage ignited. "Not unlike your own marriage."
"Leave me alone."
"I could make you happy." He took another step forward. "I know I could. You just need to give me—"
"Move," she said, her voice cold. "I'm not interested. I've never been interested. I will never be interested. Do you understand?"
His expression flickered with something ugly.
She tried to step around him.
He blocked her, his hand reaching toward her face. "Just listen—"
A sound from around the corner made every hair on her body stand up.
Not footsteps. Not a voice.
A growl. Low, building, absolutely lethal.
Bruno appeared around the corner like a nightmare in flesh—his massive body low, his lips pulled back to reveal teeth that had torn men apart.
Kabir stumbled back. "What the—"
Bruno advanced, step by deliberate step, his eyes fixed on Kabir with ancient, murderous fury.
"Easy, boy—" Kabir's voice had gone thin with fear. "Crazy dog—"
Bruno's growl deepened into something that vibrated in Nimisha's chest.
"Boo." Her voice was soft, steady. "It's okay."
Bruno's eyes flicked to her, the question clear as words.
You sure? I can end him right here. Say the word.
"Not yet," she said quietly.
Bruno looked back at Kabir, communicating something wordless and terrifying.
You got lucky this time.
He moved between them, his massive body pressing Kabir back against the wall, and stayed there—a living, breathing wall between Nimisha and the threat.
Kabir's face had gone pale. He looked at Nimisha with something new in his expression.
Not desire. Not entitlement.
Fear.
"Keep that animal away from me," he said, his voice shaking slightly.
"Then stay away from me," Nimisha replied calmly.
Kabir straightened, smoothed his shirt, and walked away with as much dignity as he could manage.
Bruno tracked his retreat with unblinking eyes until he rounded the corner.
Then the dog turned to Nimisha, his expression shifting.
Are you alright?
Her hands were shaking.
"I'm fine, Boo," she whispered. "Thank you."
She needed to tell Samarth.
Samarth's Study - 3:47 PM
She found him in his office with Abhay and Armaan, going over what looked like surveillance photographs. He looked up when she entered, and his expression shifted immediately when he saw her face.
"Out," he said to Abhay and Armaan. They left without question, closing the door behind them.
"What happened?" He was around the desk before she could answer, his hands on her arms. "Are you hurt?"
"No. I'm fine."
"Nimisha—"
"Kabir cornered me in the east corridor." The words came out steadier than she felt. "He admitted to sending the packages. The bracelet. He said he could make me happy. That you don't appreciate me."
Samarth's expression was utterly blank, which somehow was more terrifying than anger.
"He reached for me," she continued. "My face. Bruno appeared before he could touch me."
"Did he touch you?"
"No. Bruno stopped him."
"Good." His voice was dangerously quiet. "Because if he'd touched you, I'd have to kill him in a way that's considerably messier than what I have planned."
"Samarth—"
"I'll kill him." Not a threat. A statement of fact, like announcing the weather. "I'm going to kill him."
"He's marrying your sister."
"No." His jaw hardened to granite. "He's not. That ends today."
"You can't just—"
"Family meeting. Tonight." He was already reaching for his phone. "I'm done gathering evidence. I have enough."
"Tanisha is going to hate this."
"Better she hates me than marries a predator." He met Nimisha's eyes, something fierce and protective burning in his gaze. "You matter more than Tanisha's feelings about me. You matter more than anything."
Her breath caught.
He touched her face then—both hands, cradling gently, his thumbs stroking her cheekbones.
"You did the right thing coming to me," he said. "You always come to me. Understand?"
"I wasn't sure you'd—"
"I'll always believe you," he said firmly. "Always. Now sit down. I'm calling the family."
Main Drawing Room - 6:23 PM
Raghbir sat in his chair with the expression of a man who'd seen enough of life to be difficult to shock, but was managing anyway.
Saroj sat beside him, her face carefully neutral.
Kritika had been asked to leave—family only for this conversation.
Shaurya stood by the window, arms crossed, expression dark.
Tanisha sat on the sofa, Kabir conspicuously absent, her face a portrait of confusion.
Samarth stood at the front of the room, his expression carved from ice. He'd laid out the evidence with clinical precision—the harassment allegations, the NDAs, the surveillance photographs, the package sent to Nimisha.
The security footage of Kabir at the sex shop.
The footage of him following Nimisha to the bookstore.
The recording Abhay had managed to pull from the east corridor camera—audio of his confrontation with Nimisha.
Silence had settled over the room like snow.
Then Tanisha spoke.
"You're lying." Her voice was flat.
"Look at the evidence, Tanisha—"
"You're lying!" She stood, her face contorted. "You've never wanted me to be happy! You've always needed to control everything and everyone—"
"These are facts," Samarth said, his voice steady. "Not opinions. Documented facts from multiple sources."
"Documents can be forged! You have the resources—"
"Seven women, Tanisha." His voice hardened. "Seven women who've signed NDAs after reporting his behavior. Seven lives he disrupted with money and threats. Do you think I fabricated seven separate women's testimonies?"
"I think you're jealous." Tanisha's voice cracked. "You're stuck in a loveless marriage, and you can't stand that I found someone who loves me—"
"He doesn't love you," Samarth said, and the gentleness in his voice was almost worse than the coldness. "He's using you to get close to this family. To get close to—" He stopped.
"To Nimisha." Shaurya's voice filled the silence. "Say it, bhai."
"To my wife." The words were hard. Possessive. "He's obsessed with Nimisha. That's why he pursued the engagement. That's why he sends her gifts. That's why he cornered her today when he thought she was alone."
Tanisha's gaze swung to Nimisha, who'd been sitting quietly in the corner through the entire meeting.
"You." Tanisha's voice changed. "You seduced him."
The room went very still.
"Excuse me?" Nimisha said softly.
"You seduced him! You wanted him to look at you, to want you—"
"Tanisha—" Raghbir's warning voice.
"She's always walking around this house like she's the only woman who exists! Men stare at her constantly! She knows what she does to them and she uses it—"
"I want nothing to do with him." Nimisha's voice was quiet but absolute. "I have never encouraged him. I have spent months trying to avoid him."
"You're jealous I found love and you didn't!" Tanisha's voice rose. "You're jealous because my mother loves me and yours barely acknowledges you—"
"Tanisha, enough!" Saroj's sharp voice.
"I pity you." Nimisha stood, and something in her stillness made the room go quiet. "You're blind. And you're going to keep being blind because it's easier than facing that the man you love has been lying to you."
Tanisha crossed the room in three steps and slapped her.
The crack of the impact was obscenely loud in the silent room.
Nimisha's head turned with the blow, her cheek immediately reddening.
No one moved.
Then Bruno, who had been lying quietly in the corner, rose to his feet.
The sound that came from him was unlike anything anyone in the room had heard before—a sound from deep in his chest, building and building until Tanisha staggered back, knocking into Saroj.
The dog's eyes were fixed on Tanisha with absolute, unequivocal threat.
"Bruno—" Saroj's voice shook.
"Oh my god," Kritika breathed from the doorway where she'd apparently been listening.
Bruno advanced one step. Just one.
Tanisha turned and ran from the room.
Bruno stopped. His ears turned back toward Nimisha.
Samarth crossed the room in seconds.
"Touch her again," he said, his voice carrying down the hallway after his sister, "and I will not call him off. Sister or not."
He turned to Nimisha.
She was standing perfectly still, one hand raised to her cheek but not touching it. Her face was composed, her eyes dry.
Always fine. Always composed. Even now.
He reached out and gently moved her hand away from her face, replacing it with his own palm. The mark was vivid, her skin already warming with the beginnings of a bruise.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine."
"You're always fine," he said, and his voice was rough with something complicated.
"That's the role," she said, her composure finally cracking, just slightly, at the edges.
He looked at her for a long moment. Then he pulled her against his chest, his arms wrapping around her completely. Not sexual, not possessive.
Just holding.
Like she was something precious that had been damaged and he was the only thing between her and further harm.
She felt his lips press to the top of her head.
"Not with me," he said quietly, fiercely. "Not anymore. You don't have to be fine with me anymore."
She closed her eyes and let herself lean into him.
Behind them, the room was silent. Saroj and Raghbir exchanging a long, loaded look. Shaurya's expression was carefully blank. Kritika in the doorway, watching her best friend hold his wife like she was his entire world.
Understanding settling over all of them.
Whatever this marriage had been, it wasn't that anymore.
Something had changed.
Something irreversible.
And whether they welcomed it or not, the Ranawat family was about to learn that the woman they'd overlooked for a year had become indispensable to the one person in this family who mattered most.