Raghav Khanna stopped pretending the moment Ishita didn't call.
For three days after the contract was destroyed, he waited.
Not because he needed confirmation — but because obsession, when denied, always demanded escalation.
On the fourth day, he moved.
---
The invitation arrived as a headline.
MALHOTRA GROUP FACES INTERNAL COUP — EMERGENCY BOARD MEETING CALLED
Ishita read it twice on her phone, fingers trembling.
"What does this mean?" she asked quietly.
Aarav didn't answer immediately.
He stood at the window of his office, city stretching beneath him like a battlefield, jaw clenched so tightly she thought it might crack.
"It means," he said finally, "Raghav has stopped circling."
She stood. "Is he behind this?"
"Yes."
"Because of me?"
Aarav turned then, eyes dark. "Because you were the leverage he couldn't buy."
Her stomach dropped.
"Talk to me," she said. "Don't shut me out now."
He exhaled slowly, as if choosing every word carefully.
"He's aligned with three board members. Promised restructuring. Power redistribution. They think I've grown… distracted."
Her gaze softened painfully. "Because of us."
"Yes," he admitted. "And I don't regret it."
"But you might lose everything."
Aarav walked toward her, stopping just inches away.
"I'd lose it anyway," he said quietly. "Raghav was always going to come for me. You just made it personal."
That should have scared her.
Instead, it anchored her.
---
Raghav's next move was subtle.
Too subtle.
Ishita noticed the flowers first.
White lilies. Delivered to the hospital reception. No name.
Then the article.
Aarav Malhotra's Wife: The Woman Who Changed a Titan.
It wasn't hostile.
It was admiring.
It painted her as gentle. Influential. The quiet force behind his decisions.
It painted her as important.
"You see?" Raghav said later that evening, when she finally answered his call. "The world is already watching you."
Her voice was ice. "Stop this."
"I can't," he replied softly. "Not anymore."
"You said you'd walk away if I didn't choose you."
"I said I wouldn't force you," he corrected. "Public truth isn't force. It's exposure."
Her chest tightened. "What do you want, Raghav?"
"To be chosen," he said. "Openly. Honestly."
She scoffed. "You're turning my life into a spectacle."
"No," he said. "I'm revealing it."
She hung up.
Her hands shook.
---
The board meeting was chaos.
Ishita watched from the glass gallery above the conference room as men in tailored suits tore into Aarav with sharpened smiles.
"You've compromised the company's neutrality."
"Your judgment has been emotionally influenced."
"This marriage—"
Aarav cut them off.
"My personal life is not a weakness."
Raghav's voice drifted in smoothly from the end of the table.
"Only when it's hidden," he said. "Transparency builds trust."
Ishita froze.
Raghav hadn't been invited.
Yet there he was — confident, calm, already seated.
"You have no authority here," Aarav snapped.
Raghav smiled. "I do now."
He slid a document forward.
Hostile takeover.
Temporary power redistribution.
Emergency vote.
The room shifted.
Aarav's eyes flicked upward — not to the documents.
To her.
She felt it like a pull in her bones.
He wasn't asking for help.
He wasn't asking her to interfere.
He was asking if she was still there.
She nodded once.
That was all.
The vote passed.
Barely.
Aarav retained the title — but not the control.
Raghav watched Ishita as it happened.
Not triumphantly.
Hungrily.
---
The press conference was announced within hours.
Mandatory.
Public reassurance.
Ishita knew before anyone told her.
"They want you there," Aarav said that night. "By my side."
Her voice was steady. "And Raghav?"
"He'll be there too."
She inhaled slowly.
"This is the choice he wanted."
"Yes," Aarav said. "And I won't stop you from making it."
She searched his face. "You won't fight for me?"
"I already did," he said quietly. "Now I trust you."
That trust was heavier than any chain.
---
The hall was blinding.
Cameras. Flashbulbs. Murmurs.
Ishita stood beside Aarav, hand resting lightly against his sleeve — not gripping.
Not claiming.
Just present.
Raghav stood across from them when the questions began.
"Aarav Malhotra," a reporter asked, "has your marriage influenced recent leadership changes?"
Before Aarav could answer, Raghav stepped forward.
"May I?" he asked smoothly.
The moderator hesitated, then nodded.
Raghav turned toward Ishita.
"Mrs. Malhotra," he said, voice gentle, "you've been the subject of much speculation. Perhaps it's only fair you speak for yourself."
A hush fell.
Aarav stiffened beside her — not in anger.
In restraint.
Every eye turned to her.
This was it.
The public choice.
She stepped forward.
"My marriage," she began, voice calm but clear, "was never about power."
Cameras zoomed in.
"I was asked to be a symbol," she continued. "A stabilizer. A quiet presence."
She glanced at Aarav.
"And I chose to stay when I could have left."
Raghav smiled faintly.
"But choice," she said, turning to face him fully, "is not something you earn by pressure. Or exposure. Or obsession disguised as freedom."
A murmur rippled through the room.
Raghav's smile faltered.
"I will not be a prize," Ishita said. "Not for an empire. Not for a rebellion."
She turned back to the crowd.
"I stand here not because I'm bound," she said. "But because I choose to be."
She reached for Aarav's hand.
This time, she held it.
Gasps.
Cameras exploded.
Aarav's breath hitched — once.
Raghav's expression finally cracked.
"You're making a mistake," he said quietly, too quietly for the microphones.
She met his gaze, unafraid.
"No," she replied. "I'm making it publicly."
---
That night, the fallout was immediate.
Markets reacted.
Board members panicked.
Raghav retreated — but not defeated.
In the silence of his penthouse, he stared at the paused footage of Ishita holding Aarav's hand.
"She chose him," his aide said carefully.
Raghav's jaw tightened.
"No," he said. "She chose now."
His eyes darkened.
"And I don't lose."
---
Back home, Aarav stood on the balcony, city lights flickering like distant warnings.