“What’s going on?”
His worried gaze locked with hers. Wordlessly, he extended his phone toward her, his screen opened to a social media site with the word ‘breaking’ splashed across the top of a photo in a glaring red font.
She gasped, horrified when she realised the picture was of her from the green room. With Vihaan on his knees and a caption that made it seem like it was a. . .secret proposal?!
One would think that all these years of busting her ass to project the image of a confident and capable professional would’ve taught her how to respond appropriately under pressure. How mistaken she was.
“What the hell is this?”
Vihaan’s grim face was unreadable. His hand covered the mic at his lapel before he spoke up, forgetting that hers was still on. “Youwanted me to kneel before you, and I did. Now, the world sees it too.”
“Huh?”
She’d lost all capacity to formulate sentences. She felt trapped within a bubble that could pop at any moment. The heat of the spotlight grew unbearable, sweat dotting her forehead as she blinked, willing her thundering heart to settle and her wits to return. This was fixable, wasn’t it?
Her surprise took a sharp turn when the furor beyond the stage caught her eye, their whispers finally loud enough to reach her ears—
“What’re they saying?”
“Did he propose?”
“She just said haan.”
“Haan? That’s a yes!”
38
Her Villain
Vihaan
The period between endingthe interview and being escorted back into the green room was like zooming through a time warp. Vihaan held Vera securely against his chest as they exited the studio, using one hand to shield her face from anyone trying to sneak a picture. His heart was beating so hard, he thought he’d pass out from the shock of what had just occurred.
Someone had taken a picture of a very personal moment between them and posted it on social media, the topic having picked up traction and being shared widely across different platforms. His name, along with Vera’s, was trending for reasons other than their series launch, and he needed to make sure she was okay. He was used to dealing with people talking about him, but Vera wasn’t.
The minute they stepped into the green room and locked the door, Vera spun around to face him. “Did you do this?”
Vihaan stopped short, his gaze snapping to hers in surprise. The simmering hostility in Vera’s low tone perplexed him. “Me?”
“Is this some sort of ridiculous power play?” she spat. “You knew how much this broadcast meant to me.”
Any flicker of hope in him extinguished in the echoes of her hissed accusation.
“Of course I do, damnit!” He ran an agitated hand through his hair, completely destroying any efforts his hairdresser had made that morning. “You can’t honestly believe I would leak our picture to go viral. And when would I have had the time? When I was begging you for forgiveness or when I was on stage, sitting right next to you?”
Her lips tightened, her mistrust a punishment in itself.
“There was press on site. People backstage who could’ve seen us. Anyone could have done this. It wasn’t me. I own the bloody channel. If the project fails, so do I.”
“Yet, you have far less to lose than I do,” Vera declared, angrily poking his chest. “People are probably gossiping about me, spreading rumours about how I seduced you for my career. They believe I was being proposed to. And then you, with your ‘I want a happily-ever-after’ nonsense. What were you thinking?”
When she jabbed him yet again for emphasis, Vihaan’s fingers wrapped around her wrist, pulling her to him till their chests collided. For a breathless moment that stretched past its time, the two remained locked in a quiet battle—one angry, one disappointed, both hurt.
Slowly, reluctantly, his grip loosened, determination hardening his features. The cloak of desperation that had shrouded him lifted, as thought he’d come to a decision internally that had made his path forward clear.
“Then let’s silence the rumours,” he finally murmured.
“How?”