Ethan froze as he absorbed her words. “Pri…You’re scared. I get it. But you’re also incredibly strong. You can do this.Wecan do this. You just need time to adjust.”
“It’s not that simple.” She shook her head, her vision blurring as she looked at their clasped hands. “I’m no good for you, Ethan. I’m only going to bring you down. Everything I touch falls apart. This is already affecting your movie’s release. And you’re facing a potential lawsuit from that photographer. Meanwhile, everyone out there is picking apart my entire life.” Tears slipped down her cheeks. “I’ll never be good enough for you in their eyes. Not now, not ever. No matter how long we hold on. The spotlight isn’t for me, Ethan. I’m already cracking under all the attention. And you, you’ll get tired of constantly reassuring me. Eventually, you’ll start resenting me. And I couldn’t bear that, Ethan. I never want to see that day,” she choked out. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s better for me to walk away.”
As Priya began to withdraw her hand, Ethan’s grip tightened. “Don’t,” he said. “Don’t do this, Pri.”
Priya’s heart ached as she met his gaze. She could already see the endless cycle they would fall into—breakups and makeups, their souls refusing to untangle. Their connection defied a clean break. Ethan wasn’t going to give up without a fight, and her own resolve would waver time and again. But the same issues would keep emerging, pulling them apart. Priya preferred to endure the pain of separation over the unbearable agony of losing Ethan over and over.
Taking a deep breath, she gently pulled her hand free. It was more than just an unclasping of hands—it was an unscripting of a future, an unsparking of dreams, an unmerging of lives.
Ethan’s eyes dropped to his hand as if he could still feel Priya’s warmth slipping away. “This isn’t over.” He lifted his head and looked at her. “You told me you wanted this, Pri. We agreed we’d face it together. You’re spooked, Priya, and I’m not letting you give up at the first sign of trouble. We’ll—”
“I never wanted you here to begin with,” Priya said, cutting him off.
Ethan’s laugh was sharp and incredulous. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Moving almost mechanically, Priya picked up her phone and launched the app she had installed to control the lights in the coach house. She chose a sequence, and almost immediately, the kitchen lights began to flicker. Ethan’s eyes narrowed, his gaze shifting between her and the bulbs. Tilting the screen toward Ethan, Priya selected another sequence. This time, the lights at the entrance began to turn on and off.
Confusion crept into Ethan’s expression as he realized Priya was remotely controlling the lights. “You rigged the lights?”
She lowered her eyes, her hands trembling slightly as she placed the phone down. “I made up the rest, too—the circle of salt, the stories about Bhooa masi, the haunting. None of it was real.”
“Why?” He shook his head in disbelief. “Why would you do all that?”
“Because I wanted you gone.” The words tore out of her like a jagged blade.
“I don’t get it.” Ethan’s eyes searched hers as he tried to make sense of what she was saying. “If you really wanted me gone, why get involved with me in the first place?”
“It was just supposed to be a fling,” Priya said. “I told myself I could handle it, that I’d walk away when the time came. But somewhere along the way, I got lost in this…inus. I thought we could actually make it work. But we were living in a bubble, Ethan, and now that bubble’s burst. The truth is we’ll never be equals.”
“And what exactly would make us equals, Priya?” Ethan’s voice was thick with frustration. “The same fame? The same paycheck? The same social standing? That sounds a lot like what your parentsbelieve. What about the things thatreallymatter? Like how you melt when I touch you? Or how my whole world shifts when you smile? What happened to all the talk about breaking free of the template you’re born into? Of rewriting your code and changing your story?”
Priya flinched as his words hit home.Maybe I am more like my parents than I realized. How do I escape something so deeply embedded in me?
“Break free with me, Pri.” Ethan reached across the table, offering his hand. His words hung in the air, an invitation to change the scripts that had been running her life for too long.
The sudden glow from Priya’s phone caught their attention—an incoming call from her parents’ cell phone. Their eyes locked, both understanding the weight of the moment. They either stood together or fell apart, depending on how they handled the conversation ahead.
Slowly, Priya put the phone on speaker. “Hello?”
“Priya,” her father’s voice came through. The way he said her name sent a sinking feeling straight to her heart.
Twenty-Five
“Yes, Puppa.”
“Don’t ‘yes, Puppa’ me. I just got off the phone with Suraj Verma.”
“With who?”
“Dinesh’s father. We met him and his family just this week,” Puppa said, sounding impatient. “He’s seen the photos of you and Mr. Ethan. He says you’re romantically involved. Is this true, Priya?”
Priya felt her throat tighten. Answering her father while Ethan watched was like being caught between two fires.
“Answer us, Priya!” Her mother joined the call, her voice crackling through the speaker. “We are here trying to find you a decent guy, and you are fooling around with Mr. Ethan there?”
Across from her, Ethan’s expression shuttered.Now he knows exactly what they think, that he’s a wrong turn I should never have taken.Face burning, Priya took the call off speaker. “It’s not like that, Mumma.”
“No? Then let me ask you one thing,” her father cut in. “Has Mr. Ethan proposed?”
