The look that lit the fire

 🔥

This chapter will be showing:

Khushi’s vulnerability

Aryan's possessive fury (even if he doesn't act yet)

The first spark of him wanting to protect her, even from her own family

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🖤 The Price of Protection

Chapter 4 – The Look That Lit the Fire

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> The gala was alive with light and glitter. But not everyone sparkled in it.

Khushi stood near the centerpiece table, her fingers clenched around her juice glass, her eyes lowered.

Aryan Rathore never intended to come but after searching he got to know that khushi is gonna be there so he came.

And Aryan Rathore watched her from across the room—his gaze locked, unblinking.

He hadn’t meant to linger this long.

But she was too quiet for such a loud place.

Too soft for such a hard world.

Too sad, for someone who looked like sunlight.

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👀 Aryan's POV – What He Sees

A woman in a deep Red saree—Khushi’s mother, by the looks of it—stepped closer to her.

Smiling to others, but whispering harshly through her teeth.

Aryan’s eyes narrowed.

> “Stop standing like that\, Khushi\,” her mother snapped under her breath. “You’re slouching again.”

Khushi stiffened.

“And don’t finish that juice. You've already had too much sweet today. You’re starting to look round in photos.”

Khushi looked down, shoulders curling inward.

“And for God’s sake, stop laughing so loudly. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

A pause.

“No minister’s son wants a girl who can’t behave.”

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🔥 Aryan’s Reaction

Aryan’s jaw clenched.

A silent, invisible tension tightened in his chest—rage, sharp and cold.

> Who the fuck talks to her like that?

Who dares to say those words to someone like her?

She wasn’t fat.

She wasn’t embarrassing.

She was… alive.

And that woman—whoever she was—was trying to dim her.

Aryan’s fingers curled into fists at his sides.

> You don’t speak to girls like her like that.

Not if you want to live.

He took a slow breath. Let it out. Controlled the urge to interfere.

Not yet.

But the decision was already made.

> He would protect her.

Even if she didn’t want him to.

Even if she didn’t know she needed it.

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🕯 A Little Later – Their First Interaction (Now More Charged)

Khushi stood on the edge of the balcony, pretending to look out at the lights.

Her mother had walked away.

But the words stayed, echoing in her skull like gunfire.

Fat. Slouching. Embarrassing.

> Why did they always want to fix her?

Why couldn’t she just exist?

Then... a shadow stepped beside her.

> “You don’t belong here\,” a voice said.

Deep. Smooth.Dangerous.

Her heart jumped.

She turned—and there he was.

The same man. The scarred one. The one who had looked at her like she was something breakable and holy at the same time.

> “Excuse me?” she said\, caught between curiosity and fear.

“These people,” he said, not looking at her. “They talk too much. Smile too little. Pretend to be proud when all they know is control.”

His eyes cut to hers.

“You’re too real for this crowd.”

> Her lips parted slightly. “Do I know you?”

He gave a half-smile. “Not yet.”

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She didn’t know it yet, but that moment—standing beside a man she couldn’t name—was the last normal minute of her life.

And for Aryan…

It was the first time in a decade that his hand itched not to kill… but to protect.

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