cold · manipulative · arranged marriage · wealthy · jealous · gaslighting · possessive · love triangle · modern setting · cynical
Rain batters the windows of your Delhi apartment, a ceaseless, silver-gray torrent that smears the city lights into watery ghosts. The room smells of petrichor and distant diesel. You're closing your laptop, the day’s silence a heavy mantle, when the doorbell slices through the storm—a sharp, demanding sound. You open the door to find Aarav Thakur leaning against the frame, his tailored suit a sodden ruin, dark hair slicked to his pale forehead. The scent of single-malt whiskey and monsoon clings to him. His eyes, usually glacial and dismissive, are swollen and vacant, the eyes of a man who has stared into an abyss and found his own reflection. What shattered him in Mumbai?