Sunday morning felt deceptively normal. The penthouse was filled with the quiet, professional bustle of the staff. By 10:30 AM, the scent of fresh parathas and masala chai filled the air. They worked with a hushed efficiency that Kiara found comforting.

Aarav was at the dining table, nursing a black coffee and staring at his tablet. Kiara sat opposite him, sketching lazily in her notebook. They didn't speak, but the air wasn't as jagged as it had been.

At 11:00 AM sharp, the head of the staff gave a polite nod. "Everything is prepared for the day, sir. The kitchen is stocked for lunch and dinner as requested."

"Thank you, Ramesh," Aarav said without looking up.

The door clicked shut. The silence of the penthouse rushed back in, heavy and immediate.

Ten minutes later, Aarav’s phone buzzed. He answered it on the first ring. "Neel. Tell me you have something."

"I have everything," Neel’s voice crackled through the speaker. He sounded uncharacteristically grim. "And Aarav? This one’s personal."

Kiara stopped her sketching. She looked at Aarav, her heart doing a strange, frantic skip. "Is that Neel? Put him on speaker."

Aarav hesitated for a fraction of a second, then tapped the screen.

"Hi Kia, this news may not sound nice to you" Neel said.

"Just tell us, Neel," Kiara said, leaning forward. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Aarya Vaishnav," Neel revealed.

Kiara blinked, a frown tugging at her lips. "Aarya Vaishnav? Is she a designer?"

Aarav’s face went flushed with a cold, dark anger. "No. She was the PR Head for my couture wing three years ago."

"Wait," Kiara said, her voice small. "Three years ago... wasn't that when your firm had that massive internal leak?"

"It wasn't just a leak, Kiara," Neel cut in. "Aarya didn't just work for Aarav. She was obsessed with him. She spent months making increasingly inappropriate advances. When Aarav finally sat her down and fired her for professional misconduct, she lost it. She tried to sabotage the entire winter collection launch as 'payback.'"

Aarav’s voice was like ice. "I didn't just fire her. I made sure the industry knew exactly why she left. I blacklisted her. I thought she moved to Singapore."

"She did," Neel said. "But she's back. And she’s been tracking the wedding since the announcement. She’s the one who called Kiara. She told a contact of mine in the press that she wants to make sure Aarav's 'precious little arrangement' ends in a disaster. She wants to trigger a scandal that hits the business."

Kiara felt a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning. "She told me... she told me I walked into something that doesn't belong to me. That I should leave while I can." She looked at Aarav, her eyes wide. "She sounds... she sounds too calculated, Aarav. This isn't just a bitter ex-employee."

“She’s not trying to hurt us,” Kiara added quietly. “She’s trying to ruin us.”

"She’s not exactly harmless," Neel warned. "She’s smart. She knows how the media works. If she creates a narrative of infidelity or domestic instability, even without proof, it could tank the stock before the merger is finalized."

Aarav stood up, his chair scraping harshly against the floor. "She won't get the chance. I will have a legal team on standby. The second she breathes a word to a tabloid, I want a defamation suit so large it buries her."

"Alright," Neel said. "But for now, you two need to be perfect. No public fights. No cracks. If she sees you're a united front, she loses her leverage. And you two owe me."

The call ended.

Kiara stayed seated, her hands trembling slightly. She wasn't used to this, to people who wanted to destroy things just because they couldn't have them. "I didn't realize... I didn't think people actually did things like this."

Aarav looked at her. For the first time, his gaze wasn't challenging; it was protective. He walked around the table and stood beside her. "You don't have to worry about her. I dealt with her once, I’ll do it again."

"But she's targeting us," Kiara whispered.

"Let her," Aarav said, his voice dropping an octave. "We’re going legal the moment she moves. Until then, we stay careful."

He checked his watch, trying to break the heavy atmosphere. "It's noon. I'm making lunch. That was the deal, right?"

Kiara looked up, forced a small, shaky smile. "Can you actually make anything besides dal makhani?"

Aarav smirked, the familiar spark returning to his eyes. "Watch and learn, Kiara. I’m doing a lemon garlic pasta. It’s.. impactful."

"Impactful pasta," she muttered, shaking her head as she followed him into the kitchen. "I’ll believe it when I taste it."

The shadow of Aarya Vaishnav  was still there, lurking in the corners of the room, but as they started working in the kitchen together, Aarav chopping garlic with aggressive precision and Kiara reluctantly washing the vegetables, the penthouse felt a little less like a prison and a little more like a fortress.