The mansion had finally gone quiet.
Lights were dim.
Everyone had retired to their rooms.

Aanya walked silently toward her room, but her steps were slow... heavy... her mind replaying Mrs. Mehra's cheerful words again and again-

"We will fix your wedding date soon."
"Call Bella... tell her I'm back."

A sharp ache stung her chest.
She didn't even understand why it was hurting this much.

She entered the room and saw Ishaan standing near the window, lost in deep thought.
The moment Aanya noticed him, she quietly turned away and started walking toward the bathroom.

That's when she heard Ishaan's voice behind her.

"Aanya..."

She froze.

Slowly turning, she saw him standing there-hands in his pockets, eyes avoiding hers.
He looked tense... regretful... almost tormented.

Aanya lowered her gaze.
"Yes... sir?"

He flinched at that.
"Aanya... don't call me that."

Aanya didn't reply.
She just waited.

Ishaan stepped closer-carefully, like he wasn't sure if he even had the right to.

His voice came out low, rough, honest-
"I'm sorry. For... that. Everything my mom said downstairs."

Aanya's eyes lifted to him, questioning.

"I should've told her the truth," he continued. "But I didn't... and because of that, you heard things you shouldn't have."

Her throat tightened.
Aanya whispered:

"Bella... is she your fiancée?"

For a moment, he didn't speak.
His jaw tightened.
His eyes darkened.

Then he shook his head slowly.

"yes."

Aanya's breath hitched.
Her fingers stiffened around her dupatta.

Ishaan continued, voice low:

"Bella left me, Aanya. Months ago. When everything in my life collapsed, she didn't stay. She didn't even look back."

Aanya's eyes widened slightly.

"She ran away," he added bitterly. "And the only thing she left behind was a text saying she can't be with a man who has nothing to offer."

Aanya's heart broke-not for Bella.
But for him.

She had never seen Ishaan speak like this-so vulnerable, so wounded.

She whispered, barely audible-

"I'm... sorry. You didn't deserve that."

He looked at her then.
Really looked.

Something soft, something silent passed in his eyes.

He took a small breath.

"But I can't tell my mom the truth yet. Not when she just came home. Not when she's this happy. I can't break her again."

Aanya nodded slowly.
"I understand..."

But her voice trembled.

Ishaan noticed.
He stepped closer-carefully, almost hesitantly.

"Aanya... whatever she said about the wedding, about Bella... don't let it affect you."

Aanya looked away.
"How can it not?" I-I know all of this shouldn't affect me so much, but it is... What can I do, Ishaan?"

Ishaan's chest tightened.

She continued in a fragile voice-

"She loves Bella like a daughter. She dreams of your wedding. And I... I shouldn't even be bothered by any of this. I don't have any right." I-I am just a forced wife, just a pawn in your revenge.

Ishaan clenched his jaw.

He stepped even closer, now standing barely a foot away.

His voice dropped into a deep, intense whisper-

"You do. You have more right than you think."

Aanya looked up sharply, breath catching.

Silence.
A charged, fragile silence.

For the first time, Ishaan didn't hide his feelings behind control or distance.

He looked at her like she mattered.
Like she wasn't just a wife in name.
Not just someone staying under his roof.

But someone who affected him.

Someone who mattered.

Aanya swallowed hard, whispering-

Why are you beahiving like that. lik-like i am someone important to you?"

His answer came without hesitation, quiet but burning with truth-

"Mabe youre i dont know either."

Her heart stumbled.

Ishaan closed his eyes for a second, exhaling shakily-

"I don't want you to misunderstand anything. I don't want you to be hurt because of the lies I tell my mom."

Aanya's voice was small.

"I'm not hurt..."

He opened his eyes and stepped even closer.

"Don't lie," he whispered.

Her breath trembled.

Ishaan exhaled deeply, his voice low and unsteady.

"Aanya, I'm trying... I'm really trying to fix everything. I'm trying to find the truth.

I'm fighting with myself... What if I'm taking revenge on the wrong person? What if I'm hurting the one who doesn't deserve it? And that thought is eating me alive from the inside. Because if that's true, then what will I even say to my mom? How will I look her in the eyes?

You're right... I made decisions in a moment of rage, but now I want to set things right. I don't want to hurt you.

I've been trying to figure everything out, and I think I'm getting close to it" ... but then, in the end, everything gets messed up again."

He raked a hand through his hair, frustration clouding his face.
"Every time I tell myself that I won't hurt you again... I end up hurting you anyway. It-it's all becoming too much for me. I don't want things to go that way, believe me."
Just give me some time I will tell mom everything.

Aanya stared at him in shock. This was the first time Ishaan had ever spoken so openly, so vulnerably, letting her see the turmoil boiling inside him.
She felt her heart tighten as she looked at him.

"You're carrying so much pain inside you, Ishaan... she thought quietly.

Their eyes met-

Aanya's heartbeat echoed in her chest, loud and uneven.
Ishaan stood close enough that she could feel his breath, warm and shaky, brushing against her skin.

For a moment, neither spoke.

Aanya's eyes softened as she looked up at him.
His face, usually unreadable, was open... raw... almost aching.

Slowly, gently, she whispered-

"Ishaan..."

Something in her voice made him inhale sharply.
He didn't trust himself to speak, so he only answered with his eyes.

And then, without planning to, without fully understanding the courage she suddenly found, Aanya raised her hand and touched his sleeve lightly.

It was the lightest touch-
but Ishaan froze.

Like the world stopped moving.

Aanya dropped her gaze, her voice trembling.

You don't have to hide everything alone."

His eyes softened.
It hit him somewhere deep inside-how genuinely she meant it.

No one had said something like that to him in years.

He whispered back, voice husky-

"Aanya... if I start relying on you... I won't be able to stop."

Her breath caught.
But she didn't step away.
She stayed right there, close enough for their emotions to collide.

Aanya swallowed hard, her voice barely a breath-

"Maybe... you don't have to stop."

The words slipped out before she could think.
And the moment they did, a storm flickered in Ishaan's eyes-
something unspoken, something dangerous, something deeply emotional.

He looked at her like she had just broken a lock inside him.

But before anything more could be said...
before either of them could step closer or step back...

Aanya's expression changed.

Her eyes dropped.
Her fingers curled nervously.
Her next words trembled out of her like a frightened confession-

"Ishaan... can I ask you something?"

He sensed the shift.
His body tensed.

he said softly. "What is it?"

She hesitated.
Her breath shook.
She looked terrified-yet determined.

Finally, she whispered-

"Wha- what happened that day?"

He blinked.

Her voice dropped to a whisper so fragile it felt like it could break-

"The day Nisha di... committed suicide?"

Silence.

A heavy, suffocating silence.

Ishaan's entire body went still.
His jaw locked.
His hands, resting at his sides, curled into fists.

Aanya's heart raced.
She stepped back a little, afraid she crossed a line.

"I-I'm sorry," she whispered quickly. "I know we're not that close... I know it's sensitive... but, I've just wanted to ask for a long time.

Her voice cracked.
"Please, Ishaan. Tell me the truth. What happened that day? What did you see... what did you hear about bhai that made you hate him so much? I just-I just want to understand."

Ishaan finally exhaled, long and slow... as if forcing the air out of lungs that had forgotten how to breathe.

He turned his face away.

He had never spoken about that day.
Not once.
Not to anyone.

How could he?
How do you put into words the day your whole world burned?

That day wasn't just a memory-it was a wound that never healed.
A wound that took everything from him:

His sister.
His mother.
His company.
His lover.
And whatever strength he had left.

All snatched away-piece by brutal piece.

His chest tightened painfully.
For a second, he felt the familiar wave rise inside him-the same suffocating pressure he hadn't felt in months. The same kind of panic that crushed him when he watched his father die in front of his eyes, trapped in that burning car when he was only fourteen.

Back then, that panic took his breath.

And on that day, it returned.

That same suffocating feeling-like his breath was being pulled out of his chest, like the world was collapsing in slow motion.

18th August was the day everything turned to ashes.
The day his life split into before and after.
The day Nisha... his sister... took her own life.

He never wanted to go back to that day.
Never wanted to relive those moments.
Never wanted to remember the screams, the shock, the bloodless numbness that followed.

But then... he looked at Aanya.

At her confused, scared face.
At the questions swimming in her eyes.
At the way she stood there like someone desperately trying to understand why she ended up in this world-this mansion, this chaos, this pain.

She didn't know why she was here.
She didn't know what sin she had committed to deserve all this.
She only wanted answers.

And for the first time, Ishaan felt a deep, sharp sting of guilt.

She deserved the truth-at least a part of it.

He swallowed hard, exhaling shakily.
His voice came out low, rough... almost broken.

"...Okay."
A pause.
"I'll tell you."
Another breath.
"I'll tell you everything."

Ishaan swallowed hard, eyes fixed on the floor as he began.

"It... it all started on 8th August," he said quietly.
"Dii and Aransh were supposed to meet for dinner at a hotel that night."

Aanya listened carefully, her breath held.

"When Dii reached the restaurant, he wasn't there. She waited... and waited. She tried calling him, but his phone was switched off."

His voice tightened with anger and grief.

"And then... a waiter came to her," Ishaan continued. "He asked her if she was waiting for Aransh Verma. Dii said yes. And that's when he told her..."

He paused as if forcing himself to say it.

"...that he had seen Aransh going into room 208 with another girl."

Aanya's eyes widened.

"Dii didn't believe him," Ishaan said, shaking his head. "She literally told him he must be mistaken. But the waiter insisted-he said he knew who Aransh verma is, and he clearly saw him with a girl. And he told her she could check if she wanted."

Aanya felt her heart sink.

"So... Dii went," Ishaan said softly. "She went to room 208. She knocked."

He inhaled sharply, reliving the scene through his sister's eyes.

"And a girl opened the door... wearing Aransh's shirt. Her neck is covered with marks."
His jaw clenched. "And inside... on the bed... Aransh was sleeping."

Aanya covered her mouth, horrified.

"Dii didn't say anything. She just... she ran away from there. She came home and locked herself in her room and cried until she couldn't breathe anymore."

His voice shook.

"When Mom found her crying like that, she forced her to tell the truth. And Dii finally broke. She told everything."

Ishaan's expression darkened with fury.

"And when I confronted that bastard," your brother. he spat, "he still had the guts to deny everything. Even when dii saw him with her own eyes."

Aanya felt a cold chill run through her.

"We all stopped Dii from meeting him after that," Ishaan said. "She herself stopped.
But slowly... she began to change."

He looked away, as if the memory itself hurt.

"She stopped talking to anyone. Stopped eating. Stayed locked in her room. She was slipping away right in front of us."

Aanya's throat tightened.

"This went on for a week," he continued. "One evening, we were all sitting in the living room. Dii walked in... but she wasn't the same. She looked pale, weak... like she wasn't even aware of where she was."

He inhaled shakily.

"Before any of us could reach her... she collapsed."
"We rushed her to the hospital."

Silence fell between them.

"And that's when we found out," Ishaan whispered.
"She'd been taking drugs."

His voice broke at the end-just a little, but enough to reveal the pain he had buried for months.

Ishaan continued, his voice low, trembling at the edges.

"When we came home from the hospital... Mom sat Dii down and begged her to stop. 'Nisha, how could you take drugs? This is wrong, beta. Don't do this to yourself.'" she said to her.

He swallowed, then looked at Aanya as if reliving that moment.

"You know what she replied?" he asked quietly.

Aanya just looked at him.

"She said... 'I didn't take anything. I'm not doing anything wrong. I go to work and come back. That's it. I didn't take drugs. You're lying. Why everyone is betraying me? First Arsh ( Aransh) did this to me... and now even you are lying to me.'"

Aanya's heart twisted painfully.

"She cried so hard that day," Ishaan whispered. "We couldn't understand anything.
Her words... her behaviour... nothing made sense." she was in so much pain. All because of that basterd aransh.

He rubbed his forehead as if the memory itself hurt.

"We didn't argue with her. We just stayed with her. Took care of her. But she... she stopped talking. Stopped reacting. She became silent. Completely silent.
Just office... and home. That's it."

Aanya felt tears gather in her eyes.

"Then came the 18th," Ishaan said, voice cracking slightly.
"I don't know what went wrong that day."

He took a shaky breath.

"She came home like always. Didn't talk to anyone. We were all worried, but she didn't respond to a single word. We thought it was just another quiet day for her."

His eyes grew distant, dark.

"She went to her room and locked the door. Like always. But some time later... mom heard her screaming."

Aanya stiffened.

"Screaming," Ishaan repeated. "And then sounds of things breaking... crashing."

He closed his eyes.

"I was not home. Mom and Jiya were. They both ran to her room. They tried to open the door, but it was locked from inside."

Aanya covered her lips with her trembling hand.

"I reached home right time," he said. "I could hear them shouting for me from downstairs. Somehow... I managed to open the door."

His voice broke.

"And inside..."
"...Dii was lying on the floor. Lifeless."

Aanya felt tears spill down her cheeks.

"The whole room was destroyed," he whispered. "Everything was shattered. The mirror... the furniture... everything. She had broken the mirror and cut her wrist with a shard."

His breath trembled.

"There was blood everywhere."

Aanya sobbed softly.

"We rushed her to the hospital," Ishaan continued. "They admitted her immediately... but-"

He looked at Aanya, eyes filled with a pain she had never seen in him before.

"You know what happened next?"
His voice was hollow.
Broken.

Aanya could only shake her head silently, tears streaming down her face.

"They said she needed emergency surgery," Ishaan whispered. "But they didn't start it."

He paused, his jaw clenching to hide the tremor in his voice.

"They didn't start... because I didn't have the money."

Aanya's eyes widened in shock.

"What... what do you mean you didn't have any money?" she whispered, unable to believe it.

Ishaan looked at her with a defeated, shattered expression-
as if he was confessing the deepest wound of his existence.

To be continue.....