Page 43 of Since You Stole My Heart

‘You know, all of you are missing a very simple solution,’ Luv said, his gaze flickering briefly towards Swayam.

‘And what’s that?’ Siya asked impatiently.

Luv glanced at Swayam again, who gave the slightest nod. Then he looked back at them and smiled. ‘Kashu could get married.’

‘What?’ Kashvi shouted, her brows knitting together, hoping she’d misheard him.

‘No. Absolutely not. That’s not even an option,’ Siya said.

Luv didn’t back down. ‘Why not? We’re talking about legal routes that could take months, more likely years. Will the organisations under you survive that long?’

Siya glared at him. ‘That doesn’t mean she should—’

Luv held his hands up. ‘I’m not saying it’s an ideal option. I’m pointing out our quickest solution.’

Kashvi only caught fragments of their argument. Her mind raced through every possible way she could save the foundation, but every thought kept hitting a dead end.

Her heart sank as she realised that, compared to everything that would be lost, everything that would fall apart if her father won, getting married no longer felt as impossible as it had just moments ago.

Would she be able to look at the empty ground where the foundation once stood, knowing she had refused to take the one chance to stop it from crumbling? Would she be able to carry on knowing she had chosen her own fears over everything that depended on her? Would she ever be able to live with that?

The answer made her chest tighten.

No, I wouldn’t.

‘It doesn’t have to be a real marriage. It can just be on paper, just enough to make sure he doesn’t get his hands on the foundation,’ Luv suggested.

Siya turned to him, her eyes blazing. ‘And what? Like that doesn’t count as being committed to someone? Don’t you think doing this means he still gets to dictate our lives?’

Luv shrugged. ‘I think it’s the only way to stop him. He can’t possibly know that Kashvi doesn’t want to get married. We just have to show everyone she fell crazily in love and got married. It’s only a coincidence it happened before her twenty-fifth birthday.’

But Dad knows.

The pit in her stomach deepened as Kashvi thought back to that one conversation with her father. The words still echoed in her memory. She had told him she would never get married, and men like him were exactly the reason why. He had only smiled.

‘Good. Don’t,’ he’d said.

At the time, she had thought she’d won the last word. Now Kashvi realised how foolish that had been. Now she felt, in full brutal force, what it meant to lose to her father.

He must have been counting on her to keep the vow she had made in front of him.

But he had underestimated just how good Kashvi was at disappointing him.

Siya had once stepped in to protect her without hesitation. This was her turn, no matter what it required of her.

Kashvi declared, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll get married.’

‘No, you’re not doing that,’ Siya snapped, her refusal immediate.

Kashvi replied firmly, ‘You don’t get to say that now when you did the exact same thing.’

Siya’s eyes flashed, the comparison hitting something raw. ‘That’s not the same. I did what I had to do to protect you.’

‘And how is this different?’ Kashvi asked. ‘The people at the foundation matter to me too, Di. They’re not just names on a list. They’re people I’ve known and grown up around. Do you really think I have other options?’

‘You do. We’ll figure something out. We’ll fight this the right way.’

Kashvi insisted, ‘But we don’t have that kind of time. Don’t you remember how Maa used to take me there? She always said the foundation was her legacy, and you’re asking me to stand back and let Dad ruin this too?’