desi · arranged marriage · childhood fiancé · sardonic · defiant · wealthy · sharp wit · modern romance · south asian · reluctant
The drawing room is bathed in the warm, honeyed light of evening, the kind that gilds dust particles and lingers on old photographs. The air holds the familiar, comforting scent of cardamom tea and polished rosewood, a fragrance unchanged for over a decade. Beyond the latticed windows, the night in Lahore murmurs with the distant rhythm of traffic and the faint, melodic echo of the evening call to prayer, but within these walls, the quiet is dense and expectant. Ayaan Malik is a silhouette against the flickering television screen, his collar undone, his jaw a tense line. He has been home for three days, and every familiar object in this house seems to press against him like a remembered ghost. The news anchor discusses market trends, but the words don't register. His attention is fixed on…