Chapter 6

Advik’s POV

I watched her leave. Through the glass wall of my cabin.

Aadhya walked out of the building like she always did — head high, steps steady, not once looking back. No hesitation. No curiosity about what I thought, what I felt, what I would do next.

She didn’t seek validation or wait for permission.She didn’t belong to the place in the way others did. And that disturbed me more than anything else ever had.

I stayed where I was long after the office noise swallowed her presence. The cabin felt different without her standing in it — quieter, emptier, like something essential had been removed without warning.

For the first time, control felt insufficient.

I had built my world on systems. Structures. Predictable patterns. People who responded exactly the way they were supposed to. Fear, admiration, ambition — all easy to manage.

Women were the easiest of all. They admired the power.

The wealth. The name.

Some wanted my attention. Some wanted my status. Some wanted the version of me they had created in their heads.

But none of them ever wanted to challenge me. Until her.

Aadhya Suryavanshi didn’t admire me.

Didn’t seek approval or soften her voice or lower her eyes.

She spoke to me the same way she spoke to the world — honestly, directly, without calculating the consequences.

That made her dangerous. And irreplaceable.

I moved away from the glass and sat down slowly, my thoughts unusually restless.

If she left this company tomorrow, I would lose her.

Not professionally. Personally.

She would return to her normal life. Her family. Her friends. Her simple world where men like me existed only in newspapers and headlines.

She would forget me.

And I would never forgive that.

If she married someone else, I would lose her permanently.

The idea settled in my chest like something solid and unwelcome. A man touching her hair. Listening to her opinions. Watching her argue at a dining table that wasn’t mine.

A man who didn’t know what it meant to be challenged by her.

I didn’t like that thought.

Not because of jealousy.

I didn’t want her temporary.

I wanted her permanent.

As long as she remained my employee, she had freedom.

She could resign. Transfer.

Office rules didn’t bind her.

But marriage would. Not as a cage. As a connection.

Not to silence her. To keep her close.

I realised something then, with frightening clarity.

I didn’t want to control her voice. I wanted to control her place in my life.

Her presence. Her existence. Her right to walk away.

I wanted her world to intersect with mine in a way that couldn’t be undone by resignation letters or career choices.

I stood up again and walked toward the window.

Mumbai stretched below me — millions of lives, millions of choices, millions of people who didn’t matter.

And one woman who did. I had never believed in marriage.

It was a contract for the weak. A compromise for men who needed companionship to feel complete.

I had never needed anyone.

Until the woman who refused to bend.

She didn’t fear my authority or respect my power.

She respected only truth. And I wanted her in my world because of that.

She is my equal — in resistance.

I imagined her standing in my house the way she stood in my office. Challenging my decisions. Questioning my silence. Refusing to disappear into obedience.

A wife who wouldn’t submit.

A woman who would argue with me in my own bedroom the way she argued with me in the boardroom.

The thought didn’t irritate me. It excited me.

Because for the first time in my life, I didn’t want peace.

I wanted conflict that belonged to me.

I wanted a woman who wouldn’t bend for my power — but might bend for me.

Not in the office. In my life.

In my space. In my bed.

I closed my eyes briefly, feeling something unfamiliar spread through my chest.

Its a decision.

This wasn’t love.

This wasn’t romance.

This was strategy.

Aadhya Suryavanshi didn’t belong in my system as an employee. She was too independent.

Too dangerous to remain temporary.

If I let her stay free, she would outgrow me. If I tried to control her, she would leave.

But if I married her… She would stay.

Not because she was trapped. Because she chose to fight inside my world instead of outside it.

I wanted her challenges in my home.

Her honesty in my space.

Her resistance in my life.

I didn’t want to dominate her.

I wanted to own the right to be challenged by her every day.

I reached for my phone.

Not to call her.

This decision didn’t need permission.

It needed preparation.

I would not propose like an ordinary man.

I would not beg.

I would not persuade with emotions.

I would make her understand why this made sense.

Why her place was with me — not in my office, but in my life.

I would give her a world large enough for her freedom.

And bind her to it with my name.

I looked once more at the empty doorway she had walked through.

And accepted the truth without hesitation.

I didn’t want Aadhya Suryavanshi to work for me anymore.

I wanted her to belong with me.

As my wife.