Everyone gasped. Even Mishti was stunned by Avni’s rage. Avni slid off the bed and walked straight up to Karan.
“Why all these formalities?” she demanded. “I told you I don’t want you doing anything for me.”
Karan didn’t say a word. But Avni wasn’t done.
“All these years,” she continued, her voice shaking with pent-up anger, “you never cared how I was. What I was doing. What made me happy or sad? You didn’t even care when I needed my brother the most. When I missed you. When I yearned to talk to you, and you never called.”
Her voice rose. “You sent me to London and thought your responsibility was over. And when I finally accepted that reality… why now?” She laughed bitterly. “Why are you doing all this now?”
Karan still didn’t say a word, although he felt her pain. Her outburst was justified.
VK tried to step forward. “Avni—”
“No, Papa,” she cut him off angrily. “Not today. Today, no one is coming between us.”
She moved even closer to Karan. “You wanted the Wadhwa inheritance. You got it. So why are you spending on me now? On this shagun? Why so many ornaments, cash, gifts?”
Then her voice dropped. “And the most important question…why areyoudoing this at all? This thali. These rituals. Technically, your wife should be doing all this.”
Karan swallowed, holding her gaze.
“Where is she?” Avni asked. “In fact, why isn’t she with you here or anywhere? Rajat once told me that for the past eleven months, she was abroad, taking care of her sick aunt.” She scoffed. “Really? Whom are you fooling?”
She looked straight at Karan. “We all know the kind of man you are. Ruthless. Heartless. No woman could ever live with someone like you.” Her words turned venomous. “She must have run away from a monster like you.”
That was it. The moment those words left her mouth, Karan’s eyes welled up with tears. And Mishti couldn’t stay silent anymore.
She strode straight to Avni, grabbed her arm, and forcefully turned her around to face her. “Shut your mouth. Right now,” Mishti snapped. “You’ve said enough. Apologise to your brother. Now.”
Avni clenched her jaw. “No, I won’t. Andyoudon’t come between us.”
“I will,” Mishti shot back without hesitation. “I will not tolerate you saying such things to him, without knowing anything about. Apologise to him, Avni.”
Avni yanked her arm free from Mishti’s grip and snapped, “You don’t need to tell me how I should treat my brother.”
Then her gaze hardened. “And wait a minute. Why areyougetting so hyper? The whole family is standing here. Everyone is angry with me. But no one said a word. Not even my brother.” Her voice rose. “So, who the hell are you to ask me to apologise to him?”
That was when Mishti lost her restraint.
“I am his wife,” she said fiercely. “Mrs Mishti Karan Wadhwa.”
The room froze.
“And no one,” Mishti continued, her eyes blazing, “gets to insult my husband like that. Not in front of me. Not behind my back.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Avni went still. Tears instantly pooled in her eyes. Even Karan exhaled deeply, as if he had been holding something inside all along. He hadn’t wanted Mishti to reveal this truth yet. But the way she claimed him… the way she stood up for him without hesitation… it touched his heart.
Silence engulfed the room.
Then Avni let out a hollow smirk. “I know,” she said, nodding. “I know you’re his wife, Mishti. I’m not a fool.”
She knew?
The words shocked everyone present there.
“Ever since we came here… I’ve noticed it,” Avni began. “The way my brother never once took his eyes off you. The way, whenever the two of you stood in the same frame, it was always… crackling with unresolved tension. My brother, who never bothered to waste time, was suddenly taking us shopping. The way he ate the gajar halwa from your plate and his outburst yesterday when Meena aunty suggested the alliance for you. His possessiveness, madness, and obsession with you were all out there.”
She swallowed. “I had my doubts. And thanks to Kanika, who told me yesterday, that the woman I considered more than a friend… like my sister, is my brother’s wife. My sister-in-law.”
