Her brows drew together as she walked toward him, and she hugged him.
“You’re back,” she said softly, kissing his cheek, then glanced past him, instinctively searching the empty doorway. “Where are the guests?”
He did not answer immediately. Before she could ask again, he shifted slightly to the side.
And that’s when she sawhim.
Her brother, Daksh Goel, stood at the threshold, almost rigid, as though still deciding if he had to cross the space between the door and the living room. Mishti felt the air leave her lungs as her gaze took him in. He looked thinner than sheremembered, his face harder, the sharpness of life having carved lines that had not been there before.
His eyes lifted slowly, hesitating only for a fraction of a second, before locking onto hers.
Her body moved one step forward on instinct, before her mind could catch up.Her brother was here.The only family she had once known.
Then the memory struck. The explosive confrontation at the Goel house. The moment Daksh had realised her involvement in bringing down his company,Trinity & Co.Even though she hadn’t known then that the company actually belonged to him, the damage had already been done.
She remembered every second of it.
His voice raised in fury, asking her to walk out and never return. The way he broke all ties between them and shut the door of the Goel mansion forever for her.
Mishti’s foot stilled mid-step.
Her vision blurred with tears. She blinked hard, holding herself to not cross that boundary he had drawn so clearly between them.
Daksh saw the way she stopped and the way her shoulders tensed. His hands clenched briefly at his sides, mirroring her hesitation without meaning to.
Neither of them spoke.
Mishti’s gaze dropped for a moment, then lifted, not toward Daksh, but toward Karan this time, who stood behind her.
Her eyes searched his face, silently asking him what did this mean? What was Daksh doing here?
“I invited him,” Karan said, reading her doubts.
Her breath caught. Karan and Daksh never got along. Then why would Karan invite him here?
Karan stepped closer and gently held her face between his palms.
“Because I know you missed him,” he said. “No matter how certain I am that I can be your family, that I am enough for you, there is still a part of your heart that belongs to Daksh and Divya. And I wanted to protect that part of you, too. I wanted to give it some peace.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks at the depth of Karan’s understanding and the selfless love in his words.
When Karan had begun his revenge against the Goels, dismantling their empire piece by piece, bringing down Trinity and the DG Group had become his personal vendetta. But it was never about Daksh. It was always about their father, Dilip Goel. Karan had wanted to strip him of everything he had built for them.
The companies collapsed in front of the world. And with them, Daksh collapsed too, going financially ruined and emotionally broken.
Mishti had lived with the guilt of that every single day, by becoming indirectly responsible for his situation. She knew she was not at fault. Yet, Daksh had paid a price for sins even he had never fully committed. That truth kept tearing her apart all these months. She was trapped between justice and blood ties.
And somewhere in that silence, guilt kept growing quietly…Guilt for surviving and still getting her happily ever after with Karan, while her brother, Daksh and his family suffered.
Now, knowing Daksh was at her doorstep, and looking at her not with the anger or accusation she had learned to brace herself for, stunned her.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Karan continued. “You didn’t expect me to bring him here. But I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, Mishti. Since Jaipur. After realising what you mean to me, I couldn’t ignore this anymore.”
Mishti swallowed, still surprised.
“You never spoke about Daksh again. At least not in front of me. You pretended you didn’t miss him. But I felt it. That you still love and miss your brother, even after everything.”
Mishti almost let out a sob as he cupped her face tightly.
