"I'm leaving," Meera announced. "And I'm not coming back until morning. Whatever you two need to work out, work it out."
"Meera—"
"Talk to him, Advika. Or don't. But stop torturing both of you." She grabbed her bag, pausing at the door. "For what it's worth, I've never seen a man look at a woman the way he looks at you. Like you're the sun and he's been living in darkness."
Then she was gone, leaving Advika alone with her thoughts and the man standing in the rain outside.
Advika watched him for another hour. Watched him shiver. Watched people hurry past him, some recognizing him, all giving him strange looks. Watched him stand there with a determination that should have been annoying but was somehow... devastating.
The sun was setting, the rain showing no signs of stopping. He'd been out there for over twelve hours. All day. All night, if his appearance was any indication.
For her.
"Goddammit," Advika whispered.
She couldn't do this anymore. Couldn't watch him stand there, soaked and miserable, waiting for her. Even if she was angry. Even if she was hurt. Even if she wasn't sure she could trust him with her heart again.
She walked to the door, unlocked it, and pulled it open.
Sidharth's head snapped up, his eyes—red-rimmed and exhausted—locking onto hers.
"What do you want?" Her voice came out harder than she felt.
"You." His voice was hoarse, probably from standing in the cold rain for hours. "I want you."
"You had me. You didn't want me."
"I did want you. I do want you." He took a step forward, water dripping from his hair, his suit clinging to his body. "I was just too much of a coward to admit how much."
"That's not—"
"I was scared." The admission seemed torn from him. "Terrified, actually. Of what you make me feel. Of how much power you have over me. Of how completely you've destroyed every wall I spent five years building."
Advika's hands clenched at her sides. "So you pushed me away."
"So I pushed you away," he agreed. "Because loving you feels like standing on the edge of a cliff. One wrong move, one moment of trust misplaced, and I could fall. And the fall would destroy me."
"Loving me?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
"Loving you," he confirmed. He moved closer, standing just outside the door now, rain pouring over him. "I love you, Advika. I'm completely, terrifyingly, irrevocably in love with you. I don't know how to do this. I'll probably mess it up. I'll probably default to being possessive instead of open, controlling instead of communicative. But I love you."
The words she'd been desperate to hear for months. And now that she was hearing them, she didn't know what to do.
"You can't just say that and expect everything to be okay," she said, tears mixing with the rain on her face.
"I don't expect anything." He fell to his knees right there on the wet pavement, looking up at her. The mafia king, on his knees, in the rain, in front of anyone who might pass by. "I'm not expecting you to forgive me. I'm not expecting you to believe me. I'm not expecting anything except the chance to prove it."
"Sidharth—"
"You're not a Pradhan to me. You haven't been for a long time. You're not the treaty bride or the illegitimate daughter or any of the labels people have put on you." His voice cracked. "You're Advika. The woman who bakes at 2 AM when she can't sleep. Who stands up to my sister even when it costs her. Who's brave enough to love a broken bastard like me. You're my wife. And I want you to be my partner. In everything. Business, life, all of it."
"I asked you for one reason to stay," Advika whispered. "And you couldn't give me one."
"I know. And I've regretted it every second since you walked out that door." He reached for her hand, and she let him take it. His skin was ice cold. "I'm asking now. Begging, actually. Come home. Let me prove I mean this. Let me show you every day for the rest of our lives that you're the most important thing in my world."
Advika looked down at him—this powerful man on his knees in the rain, looking at her like she hung the moon—and felt her carefully constructed defenses crumble.
"You stood out here all day," she said.
