A silent billionaire.
A woman trained to kill.
When power marries danger, love turns lethal.
I stood in front of the mirror, staring at the dress while several jewelry boxes lay open beside me and makeup products were scattered across the dressing table. Normally, I wouldn't have spent this much time thinking about clothes, but tonight wasn't an ordinary night.
It was Reyansh's birthday.
The Rathors had apparently decided that a simple celebration wasn't enough. There would be a grand family lunch in the afternoon and a private party at the farmhouse later that night.
Before I could continue my internal debate, the door flew open and Radhika entered.
"You can't wear that, bhabhi."
She pointed dramatically toward one of the jewelry boxes.
"You haven't even seen which one I chose, and they're all beautiful."
"I don't need to."
She marched toward the bed and immediately began sorting through everything I had arranged.
"We're going jewelry shopping in a few hours, and you're coming with us."
"But there's no need, Radhika. You should go. I already have plenty."
"No, bhabhi. You're coming with us. That's final."
Having announced her decision, she headed out of the room without waiting for my response.
I returned my attention to the mirror. Honestly, I could manage perfectly well with what I already owned. There was no need for more shopping, but arguing with Radhika was like arguing with a hurricane.
Anyway, I left my room and headed downstairs to see how the lunch preparations were progressing.
The mansion was unusually lively.
Servants moved in every direction carrying flowers, decorations, trays, and endless lists of things that apparently needed to be done before the guests arrived.
As I walked through the corridor, my thoughts drifted elsewhere.
After the attack, I had gone to my parents' house and told them I was spending the day at Chhaya's house with all my friends. Since it was my first visit home after marriage, I had said we wanted a girls' day out together, just like we used to before I got married. My parents had agreed, but the truth was that I had gone to the party with Ranbir.
Everything had gone exactly according to plan and now I was back at Rathor Mansion as if nothing had happened.
The thought almost made me laugh.
My attention shifted to the sound of running footsteps and laughter as the cousins raced through the house.
Everyone in this family had spent nearly a month preparing for Reyansh's birthday celebration as if it were a national event. Every decision seemed to require at least three emergency meetings.
Watching them rush around the mansion now, I was convinced that if the world ended tonight, they would still spend their final hours arguing over the celebration plans.
And somehow, that was beautiful
Well, everything for the birthday lunch was already prepared. The cooks had practically taken over the entire kitchen, and the dining hall looked ready to host a royal banquet. The only thing left was the birthday cake.
Personally, I thought that should have been the easiest part. But apparently, this family preferred turning every celebration into an operation that required military-level planning.
I was quietly observing the preparations when a maid approached me. "Ma'am, Chotte Sahab has asked everyone to gather in the living room."
I sighed.
Of course, Ranbir.
The man had barely returned to the mansion and was already summoning people like a king calling his court. Now what did he want? A business meeting? A lecture? A demonstration of his latest talent-bullying everyone into obedience?
I honestly hoped whatever he planned to say wouldn't destroy everyone's excitement for Reyansh's birthday.
With absolutely no enthusiasm, I started walking toward the living room at the slowest pace possible. If I walked any faster, he might think I was eager to attend, and I refused to give him that satisfaction.
By the time I entered the room, I immediately realized I was the last person to arrive.
Wonderful.
Every single pair of eyes turned toward me. The elders occupied the sofas. The girls stood together in one corner while Reyansh and Nishant were standing a little distance away. And right in the center of everything sat Ranbir Singh Rathor, looking exactly like a man preparing to sentence people.
The moment his eyes landed on me, his expression darkened. Apparently, my late arrival had personally offended him.
"Why are you late?" he asked calmly.
His calm voice was somehow more irritating than shouting.
"Does it really take this long to walk from your room to the living room?"
I knew he was about to say something annoying, so I opened my mouth, fully prepared to give him a proper reply. Unfortunately, he didn't allow me a single word. His gaze swept across the room.
"Listen carefully. I'll only say this once."
The atmosphere immediately became serious.
He leaned forward slightly. "From today onward, nobody leaves this mansion without informing me first. And nobody leaves without trained security."
I immediately knew where this was heading.
His voice remained controlled, but the anger underneath was impossible to miss. His eyes landed on the girls, who exchanged uneasy glances.
"I don't care if you're going shopping. I don't care if you're meeting friends. And I certainly don't care if you think nothing will happen."
Now he looked directly at everyone.
"If you leave this mansion without informing me or without trained guards, I'll personally make sure you regret it."
Several people visibly winced.
The meeting ended immediately after that. And somehow, despite not raising his voice even once, he had successfully managed to terrify half the room and annoy the other half.
A truly impressive achievement.
He started discussing business matters with the elders while everyone else began leaving. I still couldn't get over his ridiculous decision.
As he stood up and walked past me, I crossed my arms.
"You think the attackers will strike immediately? They won't attack now that they know you're prepared with your army. How dumb."
He stopped, came directly in front of me, and leaned slightly closer.
"So what should I do, Trishika ji? Because you are going to survive in any situation, but I'm not so sure about the others. I know no one can touch you."
The world seemed to shift beneath my feet.
What did he mean by that?
Of course I could protect myself if someone attacked me, but why would he say it like that?
My body froze. My throat went dry, and a thin layer of sweat appeared on my forehead.
"What are you trying to say?" I asked.
"I mean, who would want to harm a lady who's such a chatterbox and this annoying?" he replied. "You possess the unique ability to ruin an attacker's concentration. You can make anyone suffer with your habit of sticking your nose into everything."
He pointed a finger at my nose, nearly touching it.
How embarrassing.
People were still leaving. They hadn't even left the room yet.
"I was only giving a suggestion. I don't like your idea, and I'm not going to follow it. What do you expect me to do? Take guards to my studio and make them stand in a line so my customers can admire the security arrangements? I'm not doing that."
I immediately took two steps back when his hand moved as if he intended to touch my hair.
"No, Trishika. Don't do that. I'll be really upset." His lips curved into a grin. "And have you forgotten what I said? Anyone who doesn't follow my rules will be punished. And punishing you is always fun for me."
Everyone had already left.
Standing there for even one more second no longer felt safe.
I immediately stepped back and turned to leave, but he grabbed my wrist. I tried pulling my hand free from his grip.
"I'll tie your beautiful hands, and then I'll tie your pretty legs, and I will-"
"Maa is calling me. Leave my hand!" I interrupted quickly.
I had absolutely no interest in hearing the rest of whatever fantasy he was about to describe.
He laughed.
"I'm not done yet."
His laughter only made me more determined to escape.
Finally, he released my hand.
I practically ran.
When I reached a safe distance, I turned back and glared at him. He simply stood there, staring at me with amusement.
"Remember this," he called out, laughing as he waved goodbye.
After Ranbir finally left for the office, the atmosphere inside the mansion immediately became lighter, almost as if someone had removed a storm cloud from the room.
The girls gathered together in the sitting area, whispering among themselves while occasionally glancing toward the main gate to make sure his car had truly disappeared.
The moment they were certain he was gone, the complaints began.
"He acts like we're preparing for war. We're going to a jewelry store. The shop is only half an hour away," Ankita said.
I sat quietly on the sofa while listening to them.
Radhika suddenly turned toward me.
"We're still going."
"Didn't you hear his speech?" I asked, ignoring their enthusiasm.
"I heard every word, and I disagree with most of it. It's a nearby store."
A few minutes later, they had somehow managed to gather all the elders of the mansion and present their case in front of them. The elders exchanged looks. Clearly, nobody wanted to deal with another Rathor family debate before lunch.
Finally, one of them sighed.
"Fine."
The girls immediately celebrated as though they had won a court case.
"But," an elder added firmly, "you go directly to the store and directly back home."
"We will," Priya said.
The girls nodded so enthusiastically that even I didn't believe them.
What amazed me was that they were too nervous to speak against Ranbir when he was actually present. Most of them barely talked in front of him, yet here they were, planning to ignore his instructions behind his back while knowing perfectly well how angry he would be if he found out.
Every eye in the room turned toward me, but I had already made my decision.
"No."
I didn't want any kind of argument, and this obsession with buying matching jewelry sounded ridiculous. It might have been important to them, but it certainly wasn't important to me.
The last attack had already been difficult enough. Protecting them while making sure my identity remained hidden had been exhausting.
My life was not something I intended to gamble with every week.
"No one is going," I said firmly. "And if you do, I'll inform him."
The girls stared at me in disbelief.
"Why? Please, Bhabhi, let's go," Radhika pleaded.
"Not before I call him."
"He won't allow it. It'll only take a little while," Ankita argued before narrowing her eyes at me. "You sound like an obedient wife who does whatever her husband says. Do you ask his permission before doing everything?"
The three girls immediately burst into laughter.
I rolled my eyes. That wasn't true at all. I was my own boss. No one controlled me.
"You won't even take a single step outside unless he personally takes you out himself," Radhika added, lightly hitting my shoulder.
"Bhabhi probably won't even go to the garden without him," Priya joined in.
I narrowed my eyes at them.
Why exactly did they think Ranbir ruled me?
If only they knew.
I was a woman whose name was whispered in the shadows of the criminal world. A woman who had survived blood, violence, and death. No one owned me. Not even after my soul left my body.
"Fine," I said abruptly, standing up.
My eyes practically blazed with determination.
I would show them exactly how wrong they were.
Five minutes later, I found myself being dragged toward the entrance along with everyone else.
Apparently, proving a point was far easier than resisting three determined Rathor women.
The elders repeated their warnings at least three more times, and despite all the excitement around me, I found myself wanting to finish everything as quickly as possible.
As the cars rolled out through the gates, I glanced back at Rathor Mansion.
For some reason, I had the strange feeling that this trip wasn't going to remain as simple as everyone believed.
The drive truly took only half an hour. The girls already had specific designs in mind, so they immediately began searching for their chosen pieces. Meanwhile, by some miracle, I spotted a jewelry set that matched my outfit within minutes.
For once, the universe had decided to be kind.
I selected it, handed it over for billing, and considered my mission accomplished.
Thankfully, they already knew exactly what they wanted before coming here, so the shopping didn't drag on forever. About an hour later, everyone had finally chosen their jewelry. We collected our purchases and headed out of the store.
It would take another half hour to reach home, and within just two hours, we would have finished everything and be back at the mansion. Honestly, it had been surprisingly easy.
As we stepped onto the street, the others immediately became busy comparing their purchases.
I left them to their crisis and glanced across the road. That was when I spotted Chhaya.
She was walking toward her law firm, a leather file tucked beneath her arm while her attention remained fixed on her phone.
Her office was nearby.
I had completely forgotten that.
I was about to wave at her when a black car suddenly stopped beside the curb, and out stepped Reyansh.
What was he doing here? It was his birthday.
Shouldn't he be at home being treated like royalty by his family?
Instead, the poor man was carrying a thick stack of files, but his eyes immediately lit up at the sight of her, while Chhaya wore a politely fake smile-the one she used whenever a client was testing her patience.
Reyansh said something to her.
Of course, I couldn't hear the words from this distance, but judging by the way his hands moved, he was definitely trying to impress her.
Chhaya responded with another polite smile, and the poor man looked encouraged.
The Rathor family handled many of their legal matters through the firm where Chhaya worked. She had personally managed several of their cases over the years.
Apparently, Reyansh had found another excuse to visit, and now the birthday boy was spending part of his birthday delivering legal documents while attempting to flirt with an attorney.
How romantic.
He had personally delivered Chhaya's invitation and had repeatedly reminded me to make sure she attended the party. That alone said a lot.
On the other hand, Ranbir Singh Rathor was allergic to celebrations.
I was convinced of it.
If he attended a party for too long, he would probably develop a rare medical condition called happiness. That man avoided celebrations the way normal people avoided contagious diseases. Unfortunately, he also had a habit of dragging everyone else into his misery.
At least Reyansh seemed genuinely happy today, probably because he had found a perfectly acceptable excuse to spend time with Chhaya.
The problem was that Chhaya was just as allergic to romance as Ranbir was to celebrations.
I had watched countless men try their luck with her over the years, but she dismissed all of them. Her goals came first. Everything else came later.
Watching them disappear into the building together, I shook my head and smiled.
Poor Reyansh was chasing a woman who would always choose herself and her ambitions first.
The ride back to Rathor Mansion was far quieter than the ride to the jewelry store. Not because anyone was tired, but because every one of us knew exactly what would happen if Ranbir somehow found out we had left the mansion.
The girls still chatted occasionally about dresses, jewelry, and the evening party, but there was a noticeable nervousness beneath their excitement.
Fortunately, by the time the mansion gates came into view, no phone calls had arrived from home. Which meant we were safe.
At least, I hoped so.
The moment the cars stopped, everyone quickly stepped out and headed inside. The mansion was unusually quiet. Servants stood frozen in perfectly straight lines, and I immediately knew the thing we had all been fearing had become reality.
The second we entered the main living room, every instinct inside me screamed that something was wrong.
The elders sat stiffly on the sofas, and in the center of the room sat Ranbir Singh Rathor.
My heart dropped.
Well we were dead.
The girls stopped walking so abruptly that one nearly crashed into another. Every bit of excitement from five minutes ago vanished instantly.
Ranbir sat on the couch, far too calm, with one leg crossed over the other.
His gaze moved slowly across the room before settling on us. Nobody even seemed to breathe properly. Radhika and Ankita stood a few steps away on either side of me, while Priya was practically hiding behind my shoulder.
Why was I always leading a squad? And why did my luck always find a way to punish me for every decision I made?
"Sorry, bhabhi, from all of us," Radhika whispered in my ear.
They had provoked me and questioned my freedom just to convince me to go with them, and foolishly, I had fallen right into their trap.
Ranbir smiled softly. A smile directed straight at me. Somehow, that was even worse.
"So," he said quietly.
The room fell into complete silence. I could hear the faint tapping of his fingers against the armrest.
"Did everyone enjoy the shopping trip properly?"
The girls stared at the floor. Not a single person answered. Not even the elders said anything in our defense. Perfect. Everyone had abandoned us.
He slowly rose to his feet. His eyes never left us.
"I remember saying something before leaving for the office. I specifically remember gathering the entire family and explaining something."
His jaw tightened as he walked forward until he stood directly in front of us.
"Perhaps I wasn't clear enough."
"They said yes," Ankita whispered while staring at the floor. "The elders said we could go."
Immediately, everyone started shifting the blame around.
I resisted the urge to groan.
We had made a mistake. Why couldn't we just admit it? And why was he so angry? Was he really this shaken by the attack, or had something else happened that I didn't know about yet?
He raised one hand in the air, and everyone instantly fell silent. His attention shifted toward the elders.
"How could you approve this?"
One of the elders cleared his throat.
"They only went to a nearby jewelry store. They came back immediately."
Every defense sounded weaker than the last.
Ranbir listened patiently, but right now, nothing and no one could convince him.
"What if something had happened? What if there had been another attack?"
His voice rose, echoing through the room, and his eyes burned with enough fury to reduce someone to ashes.
"Do you think I enjoy receiving calls telling me my family has been attacked? Do you think I enjoy wondering whether I'll arrive in time or be too late?"
The attack had affected him far more than he admitted.
I didn't know much about the history of Rathor Mansion, but it was becoming increasingly clear that it wasn't a pleasant one.
Radhika cautiously stepped forward.
"Bhai... we're sorry."
But the anger in the room didn't lessen, not even slightly.
So we remained silent and listened.
He stopped shouting, and several moments passed. He simply stood there, staring at all of us, looking like a man who felt betrayed by his entire family. His chest rose and fell slowly.
When he shouted, at least everyone knew what he was feeling. But when he became quiet, nobody knew what would happen next.
"You all knew what happened a few days ago. You knew there was an attack. You knew people were actively trying to hurt this family."
His voice was calmer now, but somehow more dangerous.
"And yet every single one of you decided my words weren't important enough to listen to."
Nobody had a reply because there wasn't one.
The anger in his eyes came from fear. From the possibility of losing someone.
"I wasn't asking for obedience," he said quietly. "I was asking for common sense."
His gaze swept across the room.
The atmosphere felt suffocating, and the girls looked seconds away from crying, their bodies trembling.
"I am trying to protect all of you. What else am I supposed to do when everyone insists on acting like fools?"
He dragged a hand through his hair.
He looked exhausted, like a man carrying a burden none of us could see. Then his eyes landed on the nearest chair, and something inside him finally snapped.
He grabbed the heavy wooden chair with one hand and lifted it.
A collective gasp escaped from everyone.
With a roar of pure frustration, he hurled the chair across the room.
The heavy wooden chair slammed into the wall, the impact echoing through the mansion as wood splintered and glass shattered. Everyone flinched.
Ranbir stood there, breathing heavily, his fists clenched and his eyes dark with anger. For a terrifying moment, I thought he might destroy the entire room.
But instead, he looked away, his expression closing off completely.
"Do whatever you want," he said coldly. "I clearly wasted my time."
Those words hurt more than his anger because beneath them was disappointment.
He turned and walked away, leaving the room frozen behind him.
Only after his footsteps disappeared did anyone breathe again.
The birthday lunch was supposed to happen in a few hours, but the atmosphere of the mansion had completely changed. Our foolish decision had turned a day meant for happiness into something heavy and silent.
Everyone slowly drifted out of the living room after Ranbir left.
The girls escaped first, still shaken by the explosion of anger they had just witnessed. The elders followed soon after, exchanging worried glances and quiet conversations.
Within a few minutes, the massive room had fallen silent again, leaving behind only scattered pieces of broken wood, shattered decorations, and a few servants beginning the unpleasant task of cleaning the mess.
I remained where I was because something caught my attention.
It was the wall.
More specifically, the section where the chair had crashed.
The servants immediately started collecting the larger pieces, but curiosity pulled me toward the damaged area. Since I had nothing else to do before lunch preparations, I crouched beside them and began helping gather the broken wooden panels.
The family tree wall had always been one of the first things I noticed after my marriage.
Every Rathor family member had their own framed photograph attached to it, connected through carved wooden branches and decorative arrows showing generations and relationships. It was how I had memorized everyone's names during my first few weeks in the mansion.
But now, standing this close, I realized something I had never noticed before.
The family tree wasn't attached directly to the actual wall. Instead, the entire structure was made of polished wood, and behind it was another wall.
A brick wall.
I paused.
Why would anyone build a decorative wooden wall in front of a perfectly normal brick wall?
The broken section near the bottom exposed part of what had been hidden for years.
At first, I thought it was simply old paint, but then I looked closer. My hand froze around a broken wooden piece.
It wasn't paint.
It was a mural.
A massive painted portrait. Not individual photographs, but an actual family painting.
The damaged opening was only near the lower section, making it impossible to see the full picture, but I could clearly make out several pairs of legs and feet standing side by side, as if the entire Rathor family had once posed together for a formal portrait.
My curiosity instantly doubled.
Why hide a painting? And not just any painting, but a family portrait.
The servants continued cleaning around me while I shifted closer to the exposed section.
The upper portion remained covered by the wooden family tree, preventing me from seeing the faces.
Only the lower half was visible. Still, I guessed whose legs belonged to whom, but something felt strange, so I began counting.
I reached fifteen, and my eyes narrowed, so I counted again. The result was the same. The third time was no different.
But how could that be?
Because according to the current Rathor family tree hanging in front of me, there should have been only fourteen.
My pulse quickened.
There was one extra person in the hidden painting, and that person was a man.
A man who existed in the portrait but didn't exist on the family tree. A man who had been removed. If he were dead, his picture should still have been on the family tree. Their late grandmother's photograph was still there, with her date of death engraved on the wooden frame. She was remembered even after her death, but this man had simply vanished from the family.
The Rathors hadn't simply covered an old family painting. They had hidden someone, and judging by how carefully the entire wooden family tree had been built in front of it, they hadn't wanted anyone asking questions.
The realization sent a strange chill crawling down my spine.
Who was the missing family member? And why had an entire wall been built just to erase him from sight?
After spending several minutes staring at the hidden section of the wall, I finally forced myself to leave.
The mystery wasn't going anywhere. Unfortunately, my curiosity was very much going somewhere. Right now, there were more immediate problems to deal with, one of them being an angry billionaire who had stormed out of the living room like he wanted to personally declare war on the entire world.
I found him exactly where I expected-his private office. The room was quiet except for the sound of papers being moved across the desk.
Ranbir sat behind it, reading through several documents, or at least pretending to.
I wasn't entirely sure.
The moment I entered, he noticed me. I knew he noticed me. Unfortunately, he immediately returned his attention to the papers as if I didn't exist.
"I'm sorry," I said, putting as much sincerity, guilt, and emotion into those two words as possible, even though I felt his anger was becoming a little too much now.
He didn't respond. Instead, he continued working, turning the pages of a file or pretending he was too busy to even look at me.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Are you seriously pretending I don't exist?"
Again, no response.
Now I was annoyed, and I walked forward and planted both hands on his desk.
His eyes finally lifted for a second, then returned to the file.
I wanted to throw something at him.
I knew I had made a mistake, but he had scolded me enough. Now I was even apologizing.
The pen in his hand paused briefly, then continued moving.
I almost laughed.
The man was acting like a child who had been hurt by a friend and had decided he would never speak to her again.
I reached forward and closed the file. Finally, his eyes lifted to me, and his jaw tightened.
"What do you want?"
"I came to apologize."
He didn't look interested enough to listen to me for even one second, but still, I wanted one chance to correct my mistake.
"You already did. Now leave me alone."
His gaze moved away again, and suddenly I understood.
This wasn't really about the shopping trip. Something else had happened.
I studied him more carefully and recognized it.
The tension in his eyes. The clenching of his hands.
My stomach tightened.
"What happened?"
His expression immediately darkened. He leaned back in the chair and rubbed a hand across his face. The anger I'd seen earlier seemed to drain away completely, leaving only frustration and fear.
"You have done me a great favor by apologizing to me. I will never forget this. And I'm sorry for interrupting everyone's happiness."
He looked away before continuing.
"You know what? This morning, we found the dead body of one of our guards, and there was an envelope on him. A message was attached to it."
Slowly, he picked up the envelope and threw it onto the desk toward me. I quickly opened it, and written inside were the words:
You saved them once.
You won't save them twice.
Next time, choose carefully which family member you want to bury.
It was a threat.
Now I understood. He wasn't angry. He was terrified of losing a family member.
His voice cracked slightly.
"I care about making sure nobody ends up buried because I wasn't careful enough. And I will make sure everyone stays safe, even if it makes me look ruthless and harsh to them."
His hands clenched.
"You think I enjoy shouting at my family? But I know no one will understand me."
He continued, his voice breaking.
"Like a monster, I behave in front of them every time. But the truth is... I care. And I don't want everything to repeat once again."
He broke down slightly but turned his face away from me.
"You should leave me alone now."
He moved toward the window, and the cold winter afternoon wind drifted into the room, moving through his hair.
He took a deep breath and waited for me to leave without looking at me anymore.
I didn't know how many mysteries this house held or how many people were living double lives here while pretending everything was fine.
I walked over and gently held one of his hands with both of mine. He flinched slightly.
"I understand you. I always will. If you're comfortable enough to tell me anything, I'll listen. And I will always support you when you're trying to protect the people you love."
"Liar," he said, smiling faintly at me.
"I'm not lying," I said, irritated. "It's useless talking to you."
Maybe he was right.
I wasn't sure about what I had said, and I couldn't promise I would stay beside him until the end. I simply didn't know.
"You're still staying for lunch."
I gave him a bright smile, one bright enough to outshine the sunlight. I wanted to lighten the mood and remind him what today was.
"No. I have work."
He said it while looking at me with eyes that clearly had no interest in listening to anything else I had to say.
"It's your brother's birthday."
"He'll survive. He won't cry," he said, lifting an eyebrow as he pointed toward the side.
"Move."
He walked toward the table, picked up a file, and headed for the office door.
I quickly ran forward and blocked his path.
He looked at me with annoyed eyes, but I didn't care. The battle had officially begun.
I wasn't about to let anyone ruin this family moment. Even if the girls and I were the culprits who had destroyed everyone's mood by making the Majesty of the House angry, I was going to fix this disaster.
"No. You are not leaving before lunch."
"I have meetings."
"Cancel them."
I crossed my arms.
The look on his face was priceless.
For the first time all day, a tiny crack appeared in his expression. Then he laughed.
"There is genuinely something wrong with you. You're behaving like a child."
"Why do you always want to disappear from family gatherings? Don't you want to be part of the pictures?"
I spoke with genuine emotion. That family was already cracked from the inside, and I had made it my mission to fix it. Because now I was a part of this family too, and whatever came to them-whether pain or happiness-would eventually reach me as well.
"You may not see it, but your family always misses the elder son of the house during every celebration."
His expression slowly softened.
"When you grow older-which, honestly, you already are-and your memories start fading with age, those pictures will remind you of these moments.
Your family respects you. They care about you. But seeing you with them makes them even happier. It makes them stronger."
I had never spoken such heartfelt words to anyone before. This was my first time, so I just hoped they settled properly inside his head.
"So now you're staying."
He looked down at the floor and didn't say anything.
I decided to take that as a victory.
"Fine."
He continued.
"How do you become so logical at the most inconvenient times?"
My jaw dropped, but I didn't want to start another argument, so I ignored him and left. I made my way toward the dining hall. Everything was now perfectly arranged on the table.
Everyone gathered around the dining table, but a slight disappointment hung in the air.
Reyansh kept looking toward the entrance, waiting, knowing perfectly well that his older brother had left angry.
Maa sighed softly.
"He must have gone to the office."
The disappointment on Reyansh's face deepened slightly before he quickly covered it with a smile.
"It's fine."
If Ranbir still decided to go to the office before lunch after my emotional lecture, then he was really dead. But I believed he wouldn't do that, so I was waiting for him to show up for his family.
Finally, footsteps echoed through the hallway, and he walked into the dining room.
Maa blinked twice.
"That can't be possible."
Even the elders looked shocked, and Reyansh was the first to recover.
"Bhai. You stayed?"
Ranbir pulled out a chair and sat down as if nothing unusual had happened.
"It's your birthday."
For a moment, Reyansh looked ten years younger.
"Thank you, Bhai, for staying."
Then he looked directly at me.
"And thank you, Bhabhi, for making it happen."
Every head at the table turned toward me.
I wanted to disappear.
All I had done was convince one stubborn billionaire to attend his brother's birthday lunch, yet everyone looked at me as if I had achieved something impossible. Beside me, I could practically feel Ranbir trying not to laugh.
The lunch that followed was loud, chaotic, and filled with laughter. The mansion felt normal again-happy and alive, just the way it was meant to be.
After lunch, everyone was dragged into the living room for photographs-individual, sibling, cousin, and family pictures. Even those who hated cameras ended up joining.
Despite the chaos earlier, the laughter and camera flashes created a memory we would all carry for years.
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