She shook her head.
No.
This was paranoia. It had to be.
Bharat was controlled. Strategic. Precise. But cruel?
She thought of the studio he had arranged for her. The kitten he had allowed to stay. The emerald pendant that had belonged to her great-grandmother was recovered from an auction and left beside her breakfast plate without a word.
The ceremonial sword he had offered in front of an entire valley.
The way he kissed her now.
None of those things were in the contract.
Her chest tightened.
She was falling for him.
That was the part that frightened her most.
Because the man she was beginning to want could not be the same man who had been silently pulling strings from the beginning for revenge.
She pressed her fingers briefly against her lips.
His kiss last night hadn't felt like revenge.
It had felt like something else entirely. Something she didn't have a word for.
But what if he had done this?
To punish Rahul. To punish her for running away five years ago.
The studio felt too small suddenly.
She picked up her phone again. Her hands trembled slightly as she called the royal security number.
The security head answered immediately. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Mr. Tikku, I'm ready to return to the palace,” she said. Her voice came out even.
“The car will be at the entrance in five minutes.”
She ended the call.
Across the room, Pooja looked up from the prints. “Leaving already?”
“Yes.” Yamini kept her expression neutral. “I need to go home.”
She picked up her bag.
Home.
The word sounded different from how it used to.
She walked out of the studio with her heart still racing and one thought turning over and over in her mind.
If this wasn't a coincidence, she had been living inside a carefully constructed revenge plan the entire time.
