Ranveer Singh Randhawa had everything-power, wealth, and the world at his feet. But the one thing he never wanted? Shayari Chatterjee. The perfect, poised, and infuriatingly brilliant woman who had been a part of his life since childhood. For years...
The Randhawa estate pulsed with celebration—laughter, music, and a thousand fairy lights glimmering against the twilight sky. Anisha and Rishi's wedding was in full swing, and every corner of the mansion buzzed with joy.
But inside Ranveer Randhawa, there was only noise.
For weeks turned months, he'd felt it—a strange tightness in his chest, a constant unease every time Shayari smiled at someone else, laughed at someone else's joke, stood too close to Meghaditya. He'd told himself it was irritation. Maybe guilt. Maybe nostalgia. Never love.
Definitely not love.
Now, as the wedding rituals unfolded before him, that unnamed feeling was tightening around his chest like an iron grip.
Anisha, dressed in a stunning red bridal lehenga, sat in the center, her golden Kalire hanging from her bangles. The unmarried women gathered around her, eagerly waiting for the ritual where she would shake the Kalire over their heads. If a piece fell on someone, it was said they would be the next to marry.
"Shayari, come here," Anisha grinned, pulling Shayari into the group.
Shayari, hesitant at first, finally stepped forward. The fairy lights caught the soft shimmer of her emerald saree, and Ranveer's breath caught. Not because she looked beautiful—she always had—but because of something else. Something he couldn't yet name.
Anisha shook her hands, and one delicate golden piece of Kalire floated down—straight onto Shayari's head.
The crowd erupted with laughter and teasing, "So its Shayari next? Meghaditya's wait is finally over!"
Ranveer's body went rigid.
A dull ringing filled his ears as he watched Shayari smile at the jokes, a light flush on her cheeks. Why did it bother him?
His fists clenched. His jaw locked.
What was that feeling? Jealousy?
He turned away, but as he did, memories—unbidden—rushed in.
A younger Shayari—eight years old—crying by the garden steps. Her knee scraped. Her pigtails messy. He'd seen her and almost run to her... but stopped when he saw his mother kneeling beside her, gently blowing on the wound. His father ruffling her hair, whispering something that made her laugh through tears.
They'd always done that—his parents. Given her a place in their hearts as if she was theirs.
And he—he'd hated that.
He remembered pushing her away when she offered to share her crayons. Ignoring her during playtime. Mocking her obsession with books. Why? Because everyone loved her. Because she didn't need him.
While the wedding festivities carried on, Ranveer found himself in the vast gardens of the estate, trying to make sense of the storm inside him.
Ranveer stumbled into the garden, the air thick and unsteady in his lungs. It couldn't be... no, it had to be guilt. Old guilt. That's all it was. Right?
But that ache in his chest said otherwise. And then, he saw them
From the shadows of the pathway, he saw Meghaditya and Shayari standing beneath the canopy of twinkling lights.
The man he had spent months resenting. The man Shayari was now closest to.
And then, he heard it.
"I wanted to wait until the right moment," Meghaditya said softly, gazing at Shayari with an intensity that made Ranveer's stomach churn. "But after being away for so long, I realized something—I don't want to wait anymore."
Shayari looked up at him, her expression unreadable. "Meghaditya..."
"I know," he interrupted gently. "I know you don't love me. Not yet. But I also know that love isn't always about what we feel in the moment. It's about the choice we make for the future." He exhaled. "So, I'm asking you, Shayari—will you marry me?"
Ranveer's hands clenched into fists. His pulse roared in his ears. No. No. NO.
A long silence stretched between them. Ranveer held his breath.
There's no future for me and Ranveer. There never was, she told herself.
She smiled faintly at Meghaditya, her voice calm yet distant. "I don't love you, Meghaditya... but one day, maybe I will."
And then, she gave her answer.
"Yes."
Ranveer felt like the air had been punched out of his lungs, he staggered back, his world spinning.
She had chosen someone else.
And in that moment, denial shattered. Jealousy faded. Guilt silenced.
What was left was clarity.
It was love.
He loved her.
He always had.
Ranveer didn't know how he made it back inside. His hands trembled as he poured himself a drink, but it did nothing to ease the storm inside him.
And then—he heard voices.
His parents. Naveen and Madhavi.
"You always wanted Shayari as our daughter-in-law, didn't you?" Naveen's voice was laced with quiet nostalgia.
Madhavi sighed. "More than anything. She was perfect for Ranveer."
Ranveer froze.
His mother continued, her voice soft but certain. "She was in love with him for years, Naveen. Since she was a child."
Ranveer's breath hitched.
"She never said anything," Madhavi added, sadness in her tone. "And why would she? He never saw her. He never cared enough to look."
A sharp pain shot through Ranveer's chest, the glass slipped from his hand and hit the floor with a dull thud.
Shayari... had loved him?
All these years?
A shaky exhale left him as the truth settled like a dagger in his heart.
He had spent years convincing himself that Shayari was just part of the background—always there, always quiet. But never his. Never truly. But now, as she walked away into a future with someone else, he realized the cruelest truth of all—
'She had always been mine, but I had never been hers.'
✨Just a double update✨
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