Damn it.What is this woman doing to me?
“You’re really on edge today,” Reyansh says, strolling in without knocking and flopping onto the chair across from me.
“If you have something to say, do it directly. I’m not in the mood to play riddles with you,” I mutter, reaching for a file on my desk to avoid looking at him. I flip it open, pretending to read about a seven-year-old kidnapping case we closed months ago.
“You want it straight? Fine. You look like hell. And it’s written all over your damn face that you’re hopelessly drawn to Nisha, someone you don’t even know.”
I look up and lock eyes with him. “Yeah, I don’t know her. But I don’t need a damn biography to know what I feel. She matters to me. That’s all you need to know.”
Reyansh doesn’t say anything at first. He just leans back in his chair, studying me like he’s trying to see through me.
“She’s not your redemption, Sidharth,” he finally voices.
I narrow my eyes at him. “That’s not what this is. Didn’t you hear the part I said she matters to me?”
“I did. But I also know you, Sidharth. I know why you’re hovering around her. You’re confusing your instinct to protect with the guilt you still haven’t let go of. This isn’t just about Nisha, it’s about you.” His eyes lock on mine as he leans forward. “You’re doing this because you couldn’t save her.”
I stare at him, unblinking. He’s never broughtherup before. He knows how much it hurts. Even now, after a year, the pain of losing my sister still feels raw. And just like that, all of it comes rushing back—the way she’d gotten involved with that asshole who was into drugs, the way I’d tried to talk sense intoher. But she didn’t listen. She just shut me out. And by the time she realized the danger, it was too damn late.
Nevertheless, I carry that guilt every single day. The guilt that I should’ve fought harder. The guilt that I’d failed her. That’s on me. And that’s the reason I left London. I just couldn’t bear to stay in that place, even though my parents are still there, my dad running the export-import business, and my mom helping him with the accounts.
Over the months, they begged me to stop blaming myself. They tried to make me understand that my sister made her own choices. That none of it was my fault. They even pleaded a hundred times for me to come home. But I turned a deaf ear to all their pleas.
Starting my detective agency in India was my way of dealing with it. I threw myself into other people’s mess. Solving crimes and hunting for justice became my salvation, the very thing I couldn’t get for her.
“You can’t bury yourself in this damn case. Solving it is enough. It’s done. You’re not meant to fix every part of her life, Sidharth,” Reyansh interrupts, cutting through my thoughts.
“You’re wrong,” I snap, standing up. “I’m not doing this out of some goddamn guilt.”
“No?” Reyansh lifts an eyebrow in challenge. “Then tell me, why are you personally getting involved in this case? You’ve never crossed that line before. So why now?”
I open my mouth to reply, but he cuts me off.
“Because it’s a trigger. Nisha is around the same age your sister would’ve been. And Prakash is involved with drugs… just like the guy who ruined her. You couldn’t save your sister, and now you’re protecting Nisha like it’s your second chance,” he says bluntly, his eyes locked on mine. Then he adds, his tone softer but firm, “But she’s not a substitute for the past you couldn’t change.”
My jaw clenches, and my hands are pressed flat against the desk. Maybe some part of me knows he’s not entirely wrong. But he isn’t right either. Because whatever this is, whatever I feel for Nisha… it isn’t just about guilt. It’s something more. Something I haven’t felt with any woman before. Not even with the ones I’ve bedded and forgotten by morning. This is different. And that’s what scares me.
“Don’t you dare,” I growl, glaring at him. “Don’t you fucking dare reduce her to my redemption arc. Nisha is not a stand-in for my sister, and she’s sure as hell not my guilt playing dress-up.” I push back from the desk. “What I feel for her is real. And it has nothing to do with the past. So stop trying to box it up like you’ve got it all figured out.”
Reyansh folds his arms across his chest. “Just for the record, even the best men break when they try to fix what was never theirs to fix.”
This time, I don’t respond. He’s pushing for a reaction, but I won’t give him one. He knows me too well, knows my mind’s made up and there’s no turning back now.
He exhales, running a hand through his hair. “Look, I’m not old-fashioned enough to tell you to back off just because she’s my woman’s sister. All I’ll say is…” He rises to his feet. “You’re a good man, Sidharth. I trust you won’t hurt her. But think carefully about how you want to move forward with her. Given her condition, you know better than anyone that you’ll need to tread carefully.”
With that, he heads for the door, then stops at the threshold, flinging one last look over his shoulder. “Think about what I said. Tread lightly.”
And then he’s gone.
I flop back in my chair, my mind spinning. No matter how it looks to the world, I know one thing—this time, I’m not doing it for the ghost in my head.
Chapter 5
Nisha
“You do realise you don’t have to babysit me,” I mutter, eyeing the spoon Kavya’s holding up. I’m sitting cross-legged on my bed, my hair still slightly damp from the shower I took after therapy, when she walked in with a bowl of soup, asking me again for the millionth time how I’m doing, just like she has for the past few days. She hasn’t left my side much, hovering like a mother hen, always anticipating what I need before I can even say it. And somehow, that makes me ache even more, not from the pain, but from the emotional guilt of knowing I’m worrying her more than I already have.
“Well, I’m loving every bit of it, so don’t you dare tell me to stop,” she fires back, nudging the spoon towards me. “Come on, before it gets cold.”
