Ananya was quiet for a moment.
‘Why did you do it?’ Her voice was steady, but I felt her bruises. ‘You didn’t even know me. I had nothing to do with any of this.’
Rekha’s lips pressed together. ‘It wasn’t personal,’ she said.
Ananya turned her hand over and laced her fingers through mine. ‘Wasn’t it?’
Rekha said nothing. For a moment, her composure slipped – revealing a darker trace underneath. Pain. Or regret.
‘You hate me that much?’ I asked. I felt my ribs cinch tighter.
‘I don’t hate you,’ Rekha said. Her voice was even. Almost tired. ‘I never hated you.’
‘Then what?’
Her mask of composure fractured. Just enough to reveal the capacity for softness she possessed and reserved only for Ayaan and Dad. For the first time in my life, it felt directed at me. ‘It’s not that simple.’
‘It felt simple enough from where I was standing.’
‘I married into a family that had already decided who I was – a witch, for getting pregnant and shackling Vikram into a marriage,’ she said, her voice gaining an edge. ‘A replacement who would never measure up to his perfect dead wife.’ She exhaled sharply, her composure slipping another degree. ‘So I did what I had to do. I protected myself. And my son.’
Her hands trembled before she pressed them flat against her thighs. ‘I’m not the evil stepmother from your childhood nightmares, Jai. I never laid a hand on you. Never said anything cruel.’
‘No,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘But you were ... cold. Distant. Which is worse, because it’s hard to name. Harder to prove.’ The words scraped out of me, harshand broken. ‘I spent years thinking something was fundamentally wrong with me. That I was unlovable. Do you have any idea what that does to a child?’
‘I could have done better,’ she said, and the admission seemed to cut into her, costing her. ‘With you. When you were young. I could have—’ She stopped. Started again. ‘It wasn’t about you. Not really. But I understand that it felt that way.’
‘And when I grew up?’ My voice dropped, but the anger beneath it was molten. ‘When I became a threat instead of an inconvenience? That’s when you got strategic. You spied on me. Stole months of my work. My proposal. Handed it straight to a competitor like it meant nothing.’
The words hung between us, sharp-edged and damning.
‘That’s not a mother protecting her son,’ I said, each word deliberate. ‘That’s you eliminating competition. That’s you hating me enough to destroy me so Ayaan could rise.’
‘What?’ Ayaan’s head snapped up, his eyes cutting across the room to her. ‘You did this forme?’
‘Not just for you.’ Rekha’s hand shot out and grabbed Dad’s arm like a lifeline. ‘Tell him. Tell them both.’
The muscle in Dad’s jaw ticked.
‘Tell us what?’ I demanded.
Dad remained silent for a long moment, and when he finally spoke, his voice was slow. Heavy. ‘After Pankti died, I … I was in a bad state,’ he started slowly. ‘Couldn’t focus on work. Made bad decisions. Almost lost everything your Dadaji had spent his life building.’ He paused, his gaze fixed on his hands. ‘That’s when Rekha got … our marriagewas quick. Unexpected. Her father was furious but gave us money to pay back some debts and expand House of Advani. Forty crore. It was what took us national.’
My stomach dropped.
‘It took me years of blood and sweat, but HoA took off. And when I tried to pay him back, he only took a part of it.’ He finally looked at me, and there was something defeated in his eyes. ‘And kept fifty-one per cent of the factories.’
The room spun. ‘He what?’
Dad’s nod was barely perceptible.
‘And he’s dying,’ Rekha said, her voice barely a whisper.
Her words slammed down like a wall.
Ayaan’s head whipped towards her. ‘What?’
She didn’t look at him, her red-rimmed eyes locked on me. ‘He’s dying. Cancer. And his will ...’ Her voice cracked, and for the first time, she looked afraid. ‘His will says that his stake in the factories only transfers to Ayaan if he’s named CEO and heir of House of Advani. Otherwise ...’ She swallowed hard. ‘Otherwise, he sells them. To the highest bidder.’
