PROLOGUE

Under the Wrong Veli

🖤 "She wasn't the one I chose... but now she's the one who'll pay."

This wasn't the plan.

Not the bride.

Not the face.

Not the girl.

Abhay Thakur stood still as the crowd whispered, the priest chanted, and the flames crackled in mock celebration. Beside him sat a girl-not the one he'd promised to... but her innocent, wide-eyed replacement.

Sharanya Tripathi.

The quiet one. The fragile one.

The mistake.

She hadn't even lifted her face beneath the veil, hadn't dared speak as the garland was slipped around his neck. She looked scared-like a deer thrown into the lion's den.

Good.

She should be scared.

Because Abhay Thakur wasn't a husband.

He was a storm waiting to destroy.

He didn't know her.

He didn't want her.

But now that she was his... she would suffer for every scar her sister left behind.

And yet-

When she finally looked up, with trembling lips and eyes full of unshed tears...

Something twisted inside him. Not pity. Not mercy.

Something darker.

Something possessive.

He didn't choose her.

But he would keep her.

Even if it broke them both.

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