Flashback

Jay had just returned to his dorm room after a lecture when his phone rang.
Arav calling.

A small frown crossed his face. "Why is Arav bhai calling me?" he muttered, before picking up. "Hello, Arav bhai?"

"Jay." Arav's voice was heavy, urgent. "What are you doing right now?"

"Nothing, I just finished class. I'm back in my room. Why?"

"Listen carefully," Arav's tone sharpened. "You need to come to India. Immediately."

Jay blinked, stunned. "What? Why? What happened, bhai?"

"You'll know when you get here. I've arranged everything. Someone will come to pick you up in a few minutes. A private jet is waiting at the airstrip. Pack your bag and be ready."

"Wait, Arav bhai! At least tell me what's wrong—" But before Jay could finish, the line went dead.

Five minutes later, his doorbell rang. A man stood there, sharp and formal. "Mr. Jay? Arav sir sent me. Please, come quickly."

Confused and unsettled, Jay grabbed his backpack and followed. Within hours, he was on a plane to India, his mind restless with unanswered questions.

When he landed, a driver was waiting. Without explanation, he was taken straight to a hospital. Jay's heart pounded. "Why are we here? What's going on?" he demanded, but the driver remained silent, only leading him inside.

The sterile smell of antiseptic hit him like a wall. The quiet, the hushed whispers of nurses, the weight of grief hanging in the air—it all felt wrong.

Then he saw her.

Jiya. She was clinging to someone, her body trembling with sobs, her cries raw and broken. The sight made his stomach drop. Jay rushed forward, only to see who she was clutching.

Ishaan.

But this wasn't the Ishaan Jay knew. He was slumped against the cold wall of the waiting room, his face blank, his eyes empty—like the soul inside him had been ripped away. Jiya wept against him, but he didn't move. He didn't even blink. He just stared at nothing, as though he himself had died while his body remained.

Jay's knees weakened, but he forced himself forward, reaching Jiya first. "Ji... Jiya..." His voice cracked as he placed a trembling hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, her face streaked with tears, then without a word she threw herself into his arms and broke again.

"Ji-Jiya, what's wrong? Why are you crying like this? And... bhai—what happened to him? Where's Mom? Where's Nisha di?"

He kept firing questions, his panic rising with every word, but Jiya couldn't answer. She kept repeating, brokenly, "Nisha... Mom... Nisha..."

Before Jay could press further, Arav appeared. His face was pale, his eyes bloodshot. Jay stumbled towards him. "Arav bhai, tell me—where are they? What happened?!"

Arav took hold of Jay's shoulders, his grip firm as if to keep him from collapsing. He inhaled deeply, then whispered the words that shattered Jay's world.

"Jay... Nisha di is no more. And Aunty... she's unconcius ."

The ground vanished beneath Jay's feet. His chest constricted, his breath caught, and the room spun violently. "N-no..." he stammered, shaking his head furiously. "No! That's not possible! I—I just talked to her yesterday! She was fine! She was laughing, she was—" His voice cracked, rising into a scream. "You're lying! Tell me you're lying, Arav bhai!"

His denial turned into wild sobs, his voice echoing down the sterile halls of the hospital.

Arav pulled him into a rough embrace, whispering, "I wish I was lying, Jay... but it's the truth. You have to accept it."

Jay shoved away, his vision blurred with tears. "No! I won't! Where is she?! I want to see her!"

Arav didn't stop him. He simply pointed towards the ward where Ishaan sat like a lifeless shell. "Look at them, Jay... they need you."

Jay stumbled towards his brother. Ishaan didn't move, didn't even blink when Jay knelt in front of him. His face was hollow, his body trembling yet frozen.

"B-bhai..." Jay's voice cracked as he cupped Ishaan's face, forcing him to look at him. "Say something... tell me it's not true. Tell me Arav bhai is lying." His tears dripped down his cheeks, hot and desperate. "Please, bhai... answer me..."

When Ishaan remained silent, Jay shook him violently, screaming, "LOOK AT ME, BHAI! TALK TO ME! OUR  ROCKSTAR OUR NISHA DI CAN'T BE GONE!"

That when, Ishaan broke. His hollow eyes finally blinked, finally focused on Jay. He lurched forward and clung to him, hugging him so tightly it hurt. His body shook with silent sobs, his eyes burning red, but no tears fell. Not until that moment.

When Jiya joined them, all three siblings collapsed into each other's arms, their cries filling the sterile, suffocating silence of the hospital.

And for the first time, Ishaan's tears finally spilled. His voice, broken and raw, tore through Jay's heart.

"I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry... I couldn't save her... I couldn't save her..."

He kept repeating it, over and over, as if the words could rewrite the tragedy. But they couldn't. The weight of his failure drowned them all.

And the world they knew, the family they loved, was never the same again.

"Ishaan Mehra—the unshakeable pillar of his family, the storm of the business world who could bring empires to their knees with a single command—was shattered today. Tonight, the world's conqueror lay defeated... not by power, not by men, but by the cruel hands of destiny."

 Flashback end.

Jay's eyes were wet, the weight of that day still pressing on his chest like an immovable stone. His trembling hands gripped the armrest of the chair as though he needed something solid to hold himself together. Aanya's own vision blurred, her heart aching at the sight of his tears. Without thinking, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.

For a moment, Jay resisted—like a man too ashamed to be vulnerable—but then he broke. His body shook against hers, the sobs he had buried for so long erupting as though they had been waiting for this very moment. Aanya held him tighter, whispering soft, soothing words, her voice a fragile thread trying to stitch together his shattered pieces.

"It's okay, Jay... it's okay... you don't have to hold it all in. You're not alone anymore," she murmured, gently rubbing his back.

Jay clung to her like a child who had lost his way in a storm, his tears soaking her shoulder. In that shared silence of grief, Aanya felt his pain as if it were her own. The heaviness in his chest echoed in hers, and together, they let the sorrow flow.

After what felt like an eternity, Jay finally calmed. His sobs softened into uneven breaths, though his eyes were still bloodshot, rimmed with the exhaustion of unspoken agony. He pulled back slightly, his voice breaking as he spoke, each word carrying the sharpness of old wounds.

"When I reached the hospital... it was already too late. Nisha di was gone. I didn't even get to say goodbye." His voice trembled, and he looked down at his hands, as though they were guilty of not being there to save her.

"And Mom..." His lips quivered. "She... she couldn't bear the shock. The moment she heard, she collapsed. They told us she had a massive heart attack. At first, we thought she might survive, but the damage was too severe. Her heart gave up, and within hours she slipped into unconsciousness. By the time we realized, she had already fallen into a coma."

Aanya gasped softly, her own heart twisting. She couldn't imagine the cruelty of fate that could tear through one family so violently in a single day.

Jay's eyes filled again, but this time his tone was hollow, numb—like a man who had spoken of his grief too many times in his head. "We couldn't even wait for her to wake up.

We had to perform the funeral without her... without our mother standing beside us. It felt wrong, incomplete... like we were betraying her by moving on without her presence. But what choice did we have?" His voice cracked, pain dripping from every word.

Aanya sat frozen, her own throat tight, tears silently slipping down her cheeks. She could see it all—the hospital corridors drenched in despair, Jiya's cries, Ishaan's broken silence, Jay's helpless confusion, and above it all, the unbearable emptiness left behind.

He went on, his voice trembling. "Bhai... he was destroyed. He didn't cry the way we did... but that was worse. He just... stopped living that day. It was like the light inside him died with Nisha di.

And Mom's coma only pushed him deeper into that darkness. If it wasn't for Badepapa and the relatives handling things, I don't know how we would have survived that week. We were just... children forced to face a storm far greater than us."

Aanya's hands tightened into fists in her lap. The image of that once-bright, joyful family now shattered into pieces cut her deeper than she expected. She had always sensed Ishaan's anger, his walls, his coldness—but now she could see the truth behind them. He wasn't cruel.

He was broken. He was carrying grief so heavy that it had reshaped him into something unrecognizable.

She lowered her gaze, whispering almost to herself, "How does someone survive so much pain in a single day?"

But in her heart, she already knew the answer: they didn't survive. Not fully. They only learned to breathe through the wreckage, one broken day at a time.

Jay continue. When we returned home after everything, Arav bhai was by my side. I still remember the question that spilled out of me, broken and trembling—
"Why, bhai? Why did Nisha di do this to herself?"

Jay lowered his gaze, his voice heavy with truth that burned like poison.
"She was cheated, Aanya dii... by the very man she loved. Nisha's boyfriend deceived her—not just her heart, but our family too.

He betrayed our trust and targeted our company. She was fighting this darkness for a long time, silently. We all thought it was just a couple's quarrel... something that would pass.

 But it wasn't. She fell deeper into despair, and in that loneliness... she turned to drugs. We all knew she loved him too much. That's why she couldn't bear it when the truth shattered her world. And then... one day... she gave up the fight. She took her own life."

Jay's voice cracked at the memory, his fists curling.
"And as if that wasn't enough, that same day our company was sealed in a drugs case. We think... maybe Nisha already knew what was about to happen. Maybe she saw the storm coming and it crushed her from the inside before it even arrived."

Aanya, stunned, whispered, "What kind of... drugs case?"

Jay's jaw tightened.
"Someone filed a complaint against us. They accused Nisha di and bhai of secretly supplying drugs through our company."

"Who filed it? Do you know?" Aanya asked, her voice thin with shock.

Jay shook his head. "No one knew at first. But after the scandal broke, an investigation began. Bhai... even though he was broken, he didn't give up. He fought, he begged, he used every ounce of strength he had to reopen the case.

And when reinvestigation happened, the truth came out. The drugs found in our company were planted. It was all staged. A trap to destroy us."

Aanya's brows furrowed. "By whom?"

"By our own employees," Jay said bitterly. "People who worked inside the company. And they confessed... they admitted they did it under Nisha di's boyfriend's orders."

Aanya's breath caught. "They confessed it themselves?"

"Yes," Jay said. His voice dripped with rage.

"But... why would her boyfriend do something so cruel?" Aanya asked, her heart pounding.

Jay's eyes flared with anger.
"Because he wanted to shut Mehra Corporation down. He stole confidential files, our secret projects—everything. He used Nisha's di trust to destroy us from within. He was never with her out of love, Aanya di.

He was only after her access to the company's secrets. He wanted us ruined... so that his own company could rise."

"That's... horrible," Aanya whispered, her chest tightening. "All just for power?"

Jay's lips curled bitterly. "Yes. Just for power. Just to stand at the top.

Who was her boyfriend, what was his name.? aanya sked.

 His name... was Aransh Verma."  jay reply.

The world seemed to collapse under Aanya's feet. Her lungs froze, her heartbeat stopped, and her body turned cold as ice. Tears blurred her eyes as the words echoed in her head.
No... no... this can't be. Not bhai. Bhai can't do this.

Her lips trembled as she asked again, her voice almost breaking, "W-what did you say?"

"Aransh Verma," Jay repeated, venom lacing every syllable. "Nisha di's boyfriend."

Aanya staggered back, her breath uneven. "Aransh Verma... the CEO of Verma Corporation?"

"Yes. Him," Jay spat, his eyes red with rage. Hatred burned in them so fiercely that Aanya thought, if Aransh stood in front of Jay right now, he would kill him without hesitation.

Aanya's tears slipped down uncontrollably. This means... bhai—the brother I love and trust—was the reason Nisha di ended her life. No... no, it can't be. Thats why Ishaan... Ishaan married me only to take revenge? To punish me for being a Verma?

Her thoughts crashed against each other like waves in a storm, drowning her.

"Aanya di?" Jay's voice broke through, soft but worried. She didn't hear. She was lost in the maze of her torment.

"Aanya di!" Jay shook her lightly by the shoulders.

"Huh?" She blinked, dazed, pulled back to the present. She looked at Jay, her lips parting to speak—but nothing came out. Instead, panic and confusion surged through her veins.

Suddenly, she stood up, wiping her tears quickly. "Jay... I-I just remembered—I have some work to finish. I need to go now. We'll... we'll talk later, okay?"

Jay frowned, reaching out. "But Aanya di, you—"

"Jay, please," she cut him off, her tone sharp but shaky. "It's important. I need to leave. We'll talk another time."

Before he could protest, she turned and rushed out, her footsteps unsteady, her heart pounding so hard it felt like it might shatter her chest.

"Thank you for staying with me through this chapter.
Aanya's world has just been shaken by truths she never imagined—betrayal, loss, and the cruel hand of fate. Sometimes life shows us faces of the people we love that we wish we'd never seen, and the pain of that realization is unbearable.

But remember, every story of darkness carries within it a spark of light. Keep turning the pages with me—because the journey of Aanya, Ishaan, and the scars of the past is only just beginning."

Thank you <3