Arjun's POV

Love.

A word that slips off other people's tongues like poetry. They make it sound sacred, a hymn, something worth dying for.

To me, it has always been a joke. An illusion. A leash fools willingly wrap around their own neck and call bliss.

I was never meant for love. I was meant for hunger-for ambition-for the fire that keeps you awake until you've burned every ghost of your past to ash.

And my past has only one ghost.

Raj Malhotra.

I remember the day with perfect, painful clarity. I was twenty-one, still raw, still bleeding from life, but foolish enough to hope. I walked into his office with a file clutched in trembling hands-a proposal built on months of sleepless nights. All I wanted was a chance. A place to begin. A way to rise.

He didn't even look at my papers.

"Orphans like you should know their place. Business is not charity."

One sentence. One cruel, careless sentence that sliced deeper than any knife.

I stood frozen as his laughter echoed, each sound hammering in the same truth: I was nothing. I was worthless. A stray who dared to dream.

That day, Arjun Mehra the dreamer died.

What rose from those ashes was Arjun Mehra the storm.

Years have passed since then. I built an empire with my own hands. Mehra Industries now stands taller than the men who once laughed at me. People call me ruthless, arrogant, untouchable. Women whisper my name like a forbidden prayer. Enemies spit it through clenched teeth. Friends-well, I have only one. Kabir.

The only man who knows that beneath the flawless suits and cold eyes still lives the boy who once begged the world to see him.

But even Kabir cannot extinguish the vow etched into my bones. It still burns, relentless and demanding.

Raj Malhotra will kneel.

And destiny has finally handed me the perfect weapon.

His daughter.

Aarohi Malhotra.

I had seen her once before-across a crowded gala. She was nothing like the other daughters of powerful men who carried arrogance like perfume. No, she was softer. Untouched. A girl raised in sunlight and lullabies.

Blue eyes deep enough to drown in. Porcelain skin. A nervous, innocent smile. Pastel pink draped over her like a whisper. On anyone else it would have looked childish. On her, it looked like purity.

For one second-one dangerous second-I forgot myself. I stared too long. Wondered too much.

Then I remembered her father.

And the fire returned.

The plan formed instantly, sharp as a blade.

I will charm her.

Play the man every girl dreams of-gentle, patient, protective.

I will make her heart race, make her cheeks flush, make her soul believe.

She will give me her trust.

She will give me her love.

And eventually... she will give me herself.

Her first kiss.

Her first love.

Her first surrender.

All of it-mine.

And when the moment is right, I will break her.

Not because I want her.

Not because I need her.

But because nothing will destroy Raj Malhotra more than watching his only treasure shatter.

I will record it. Capture her innocence turned to ruin. And place it before him as my victory.

Give me the project-or the world will see what your daughter has become.

Cruel? Perhaps.

Ruthless? Always.

But revenge is not gentle. Revenge is a flame you feed until it consumes everything-including you.

I lean back in my chair, Mumbai glittering beneath the glass walls of my penthouse office. The amber scotch in my hand glows like liquid fire. Somewhere deep inside, a whisper stirs-an image of her smile, soft and heartbreakingly unaware.

I crush it instantly.

I am not here to feel.

I am here to conquer.

Aarohi Malhotra will be the blade I press against her father's throat.

And when he finally bows, I will walk away victorious.

At least... that is what I tell myself.



Aarohi's POV

They call me a princess.

They say I live in a palace of glass.

But what is a princess if she has never stepped beyond her tower?

My life has been safe-too safe.

Father built walls around me out of pride and fear. Mother decorated those walls with comfort. I have never known hunger, never known heartbreak. My friends say I blush too easily, trust too quickly, feel too deeply. Maybe they're right.

I can't help it.

I was raised on fairy tales-on stories where love is magic, not a negotiation between families.

I'm twenty years old, studying literature because numbers suffocate me and words feel like air.

In stories, I can breathe.

In stories, love is gentle.

But even in my sheltered world, loneliness sneaks in. Father is always busy. Mother is always tired. Friends drift in and out, but at night it's just me and my dreams. Sometimes I wonder how it would feel to be seen-not as Raj Malhotra's daughter but simply as Aarohi.

It was at one of Father's galas that I first saw him.

I hadn't wanted to go. I never do. These events are cages-rooms full of polished smiles and empty conversations. I had slipped into a quiet corner, pretending to admire chandeliers, when I felt it.

Eyes.

I turned.

And I saw him.

Arjun Mehra.

I had heard the name before-spoken in my father's office, always with irritation or warning. A rival. A shark. A man made of ambition and sharpened edges.

But seeing him in person... that was different.

He was tall, broad, his suit molded to him like sin. His face was all hard lines and quiet power. His presence pulled attention the way storms pull the sky.

And his eyes-molten honey, fierce, alive-locked onto mine.

For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

Something inside me trembled. Not fear. Something else. Something unfamiliar and dangerously warm.

The world seemed to slow, sounds fading until all I heard was my heart pounding against my ribs.

I looked away quickly, cheeks burning.

But the moment followed me home.

It stayed with me long after the gala ended, long after the lights dimmed, long after I hugged my pillow and tried to quiet my racing thoughts.

Why did he linger in my mind?

Why did I feel those eyes even with my bedroom door locked and lights off?

He is dangerous, I tell myself.

Father would never approve.

He is everything I should avoid.

And yet the thought of him refuses to leave.

Maybe it's foolish. Maybe it's just curiosity.

But a part of me-the part that has always longed for something beyond these glass walls-whispers that maybe, just maybe, the man with the molten eyes is the beginning of the story I've always dreamed of.

I don't know why I feel this.

But tonight, when I close my eyes, no fairy-tale prince comes to mind.

Only him.

Author's POV

And so it begins.

Two souls-one carved from vengeance, one woven of innocence-drawn toward each other, unaware of the storm that waits.

He sees her as a weapon.

She sees him as a mystery.

Neither understands how fragile their worlds will become when love and hate collide.

What happens when a lie feels more real than truth?

What happens when the first touch, the first kiss, the first surrender is born not of love but of revenge?

And what happens when the man who vowed to destroy her discovers that in breaking her... he has broken himself?

Will she forgive him?

Will he ever forgive himself?

Or will their story end like most lies-drowned in regret and torn apart by pride?

The answers lie ahead.

But one truth is already written:

Love born of deception is a fire.

And fire, no matter how bright... always leaves ashes.