Page 116 of Every Move You Make
“You don’t know what I’m capable of.”
He shook his head, his eyes burning. “No. I don’t believe you. I’m not accepting this. Whatever this is, if you’re angry, if you’re hurt, then I’ll fix it. But this? This isn’t you. I refuse to believe that you don’t love me.”
“This is exactly who I am, Akash. You just never saw it.”
Traffic moved around him, horns blaring faintly in the distance, but everything felt distant. Muted.
“You used me,” he said as the realization finally dawned on him. “All of this… just to claim Sehgal Media.”
“It was always about the business.”
The simplicity of that hit harder than anything else.
Of course. Sehgal Media had always been her endgame. And what better way to claim it than by tearing him down? Bydismantling him in front of the board. By walking away and making it look like he wasn’t worthy of the mantle. If he was failing so completely in his personal life, how could he possibly be trusted to run a company? They had doubted him once. Now, they would never believe in him again.
Fuck. His head was reeling.
Still, some part of him couldn’t accept it. She wasn’t heartless. She wasn’t cruel. This… This wasn’t her.
Then, almost lightly, she said, “Take care. Don’t call me again. And don’t worry about our families. They will deal with this too.”
“Shauna—wait?—”
There was a pause. He heard the slight hitch in her breath, and then the line went dead.
Akash stared at the phone in his hand, unmoving. The glow of the screen faded, leaving only his reflection staring back at him and the slow, painful fracture of his heart.
The car rolled forward, turning into the narrow alley that led to his house. Their house. The placed where he had imagined building a life with her. A future that now felt like a cruel illusion.
Something in him snapped.
“Turn the car,” Akash ordered, his voice sharp.
The bodyguard hesitated for half a second, catching the shift in tone.
“Sir—?”
“I said turn it,” he bit out. “We’re not going there. Take me to my apartment.”
The car slowed, then smoothly pulled out of the lane, merging back into traffic.
Akash leaned back, his jaw clenched, his hands curling into fists.
She had planned everything. Her words echoed in his ears. A hollow laugh almost escaped him.
Of course it was. Of course she’d calculated every move, every word, and every moment. None of it had been real.
His chest tightened. He dragged a hand through his hair, his breaths uneven. But even as the anger surged, something weaker, something stubborn, refused to give in.
No. No, this didn’t make sense. This wasn’t Shauna. He knew her. She wouldn’t hurt him like this.
His phone rang.
The sharp sound cut through everything, making his heart jolt. For one short second, hope flared inside him that it would be Shauna calling. He grabbed the phone.
It wasn’t her. The light in his chest flickered out just as quickly as it had come. He tapped the button to answer his sister’s call.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice flat.
