Page 38 of Since You Stole My Heart

‘Yeah, because I’d risk some intern making mistakes in documents that hold the key to my baby sister’s future. Or better yet, maybe I made an error myself.’

Swayam tilted his head, holding her gaze with the patience he’d built over a decade of friendship. ‘You know that’s not what I meant.’

Siya exhaled slowly, searching her heart for somewhere to contain her rage instead of turning it on her family. ‘I know. God, I can’t tell you how badly I wish it were something as simple as a paperwork issue.’

The resignation in her sister’s voice filled Kashvi with dread.

‘Di, did they say why they rejected it? Maybe Piyush could tell us?’ she asked, hoping their legal liaison had answers.

‘I called him as soon as I got the file back. He checked the submission status and said the board rejected your application because you don’t meet the eligibility criteria outlined in the trust deed.’

‘What criteria?’ Kashvi asked urgently.

Siya sighed. ‘That’s the problem. I don’t know. The board members are anonymous, and the deed is only accessible to them. I don’t know anything.’

‘Ask Piyush!’ Kashvi urged restlessly.

‘I spent the last four hours going back and forth with him. He suggested I put in a formal request to access the deed since I’m a beneficiary. Two hours later, even that was rejected.’

‘Who the hell has the authority to do that?’ Kashvi snapped, enraged.

‘Our father. I recognised his signature on the document.’

Kashvi let out a bitter laugh. Why was she even surprised?

Only he could single-handedly ruin the future of countless people in a matter of minutes.

‘Karthik?’ Swayam asked, incredulous. ‘Didn’t you push him out of the family business? How is he still on the trust board?’

‘As our mother’s widower, he’s still a member of the family trust. He represents us on the board,’ Siya explained.

Luv raised an eyebrow. ‘Can’t we fight it in court? It can’t be legal to hide the deed from beneficiaries.’

‘We will, but there’s no way to know how long that would take. It’s our worst-case option, but we should try to avoid it,’ she said.

Kashvi tugged at Siya’s arm. ‘You found Maa’s will in the family vault and it mentioned our inheritance. What about that?’

‘When Maa received her share, she didn’t accept it. I think she never trusted Dad. She sent it back to the family fund to be split equally and added to our fund. It’s worth a hundred crores now.’

For a second, the room fell silent. Kashvi didn’t quite know how to respond to the weight of that number.

Siya went on, ‘But our money is in the trust corpus, and it’s governed by the trust deed.’

Still reeling from the amount, Kashvi grasped at whatever hope she could find. ‘But Maa wrote in the will that she wanted the money to come to us. That has to mean something.’

Siya gave a heavy sigh. ‘It does, but it won’t override the trust deed. The board has final authority.’

Kashvi scoffed. ‘The board rejected my application because I failed some criteria I’m not even allowed to know?’

‘Yeah. I know how insane that sounds. I’ve spent half the day looking for a loophole, and every single time I circle back to the same problem. That’s why I called Dhruv,’ Siya admitted with a hint of hesitation.

When Kashvi pinned her with a glare, her sister only shrugged. ‘He worked closely with Dad for years. If anyone can get a copy of the trust deed, it’s him.’

‘What did he say?’ Swayam asked.

‘He said he knows someone he can ask. He’ll be here as soon as he gets it.’

Swayam gently rested his hands on her shoulders and turned Kashvi towards him. ‘Once we know the criteria, we can figure out what you need to do. There could still be a way.’