He quickly ended the call and reread Shauna’s email. Irritation surged through him. Shauna was walking away from Sehgal Media without even speaking to him face-to-face. They had a history. They’d started out as friends, and over time, become distant. That night in Singapore hadn’t changed anything. The night in the Maldives had only confirmed what he already knew: whenever he and Shauna came together, it was chaos, heat, and conflict. But amidst all that… there had always been something between them. Which was why he’d expected her to talk to him at least once before simply resigning.
Then the anger ebbed, replaced by something heavier. He knew exactly why she was leaving. She and he had never really gotten along. Hence, she was protecting herself. From the humiliation of answering to him. From him being her boss. Shauna Sehgal was too proud, and she’d rather quit the job she loved than report to him.
The realization settled uncomfortably in his chest. Sehgal Media without Shauna felt wrong. She was woven into its fabric as deeply as he was. And SEHVA… she had been with it right from the start. Shauna had done outstanding work in her role as creative director of SEHVA and Sehgal Studios, and yet she was choosing to leave all of this behind?
His jaw tightened as he considered his response to her email. His phone rang again, snapping him out of his thoughts. He glanced at the screen and smiled. It was his architect calling.
“Hey, Aaliya,” he said.
“Hi, Akash,” Aaliya replied. “I believe congratulations are in order. How are you feeling?”
He let out a breath. “Overwhelmed, to be honest.”
“You’ll do great,” she said easily. “Keya’s so excited. She’s been waiting for this day for far too long. I wish you’d announced the news a few days earlier. Then we could have celebrated together in the Maldives.”
Lady Aaliya Singh Talbot, the Duchess of Kitteridge, was Keya’s friend. She and her husband, Damien, had been in the Maldives for Keya’s anniversary party and had returned to London post that.
“The timing just wasn’t right then,” Akash explained. “But we can celebrate soon.”
“Of course we will,” Aaliya said warmly.
Aaliya and Damien ran AlphaArc, one of the premier architecture and interior design firms in the world. They were both brilliant, and despite living in London, their services were in constant demand all over the world. They personally took on only a handful of projects, and Akash was genuinely grateful they’d agreed to redo his Malabar Hill mansion—the house his grandfather had left to Keya and him.
Keya had never wanted the house. But he had. He’d been waiting for the day it was restored, rebuilt, and finally felt like home again. Renovating it felt like waking it from a long sleep.
“How’s the house coming along?” Akash asked. “With everything going on at work, I haven’t had a chance to visit or check on everything there.”
“Don’t worry. It’s all going well, actually,” Aaliya said. “As you know, the exterior work is nearly done, and we’ve moved on to the interiors now.”
She walked him through the progress, explaining what her team had finished, what was still pending, the delivery schedules, timelines etc.
“The way I see it, the house should be ready for you to move in within a few weeks,” Aaliya said.
Akash smiled, the tension he’d been carrying easing for the first time that day. “That’s amazing.”
There was a brief pause.
“Akash,” she said, “there’s something else I need to tell you. I think someone’s been getting into the house at night.”
He straightened. “What? How do you know?”
“Last week, my team came in and found a few things disturbed. A side table had been tipped over, some boxes had been shifted, and dust sheets had been pulled aside. We thought maybe a stray dog had wandered in.”
“Okay, and?”
“It happened again. Twice last week. Each time, in a different room. Yesterday, we found footprints in the mud near the back entrance. Human ones.”
“Could it just be a homeless person seeking shelter?” Akash asked.
She exhaled. “I don’t think so. It feels like they’re searching for something. Every time, it’s a different room with things moved around or overturned. Once, even a patch in the garden looked like it had been dug up. It doesn’t feel random.”
“Where was security?”
“On the perimeter,” Aaliya replied. “Whoever this is knows how to avoid being seen.”
Akash leaned back slowly, the weight of her words settling in. “We need to get cameras installed immediately. I know we had decided to wait to add this security measure until the house was fully ready. But this can’t wait. Let’s do this as soon as possible.”
“I already have,” Aaliya said calmly. “The cameras went in yesterday. Full coverage, inside and out, for now.”
