Page 54 of Okay Boss
The realization hit like a physical blow.
Every expert dissecting his expression, his body language, his unguarded face, they were absolutely right. That hadn’t been a performance. That had been the truth.
And now millions were watching it. Analyzing it. Owning it.
His eyes drifted to her face in the freeze-frame. The widening of her gaze. The parting of her lips. The flush rising along her neck.
Shame and fury twisted in his stomach. He pressed the power button. Screens went dark.
Only his phone remained lit, the sindoor image still open.
He stared at it. His thumb moved without thinking, tracing the red line on glass where his hand had touched her skin.
The screen dimmed. His reflection replaced the image. A man surrounded by everything money could buy. Unable to protect the one person who’d never asked him for anything.
???
Divya woke with breath lodged in her throat, like surfacing from a nightmare she couldn’t remember.
Her phone vibrated.
Seventy-three missed calls. Three hundred twelve messages. The building WhatsApp: two hundred forty-seven unread.
Her chest tightened.
Names flashed. College classmates she hadn’t spoken to in years. Cousins from distant branches. Unknown numbers. Media houses. Reporters. Strangers who’d somehow acquired her number overnight.
She opened social media. She shouldn’t have.
Divya Mathur.
Front and center.
“Vikram Khanna’s Secret Wife.”
“The Mystery Woman Who Captured Bollywood’s Most Eligible Bachelor.”
They’d listed everything. Her college. Degree. Neighborhood. A grainy photo of her building. A paragraph about her father’s pension, framed as analysis of “economic disparity in the rumored union.”
She clicked comments.
“Gold-digger.”
“Planned this for months.”
“How did HE end up with HER?”
“Middle-class girl trapped him.”
The words blurred. Each one a small, quick slap. Her hands shook. The phone slipped and landed face-down. She pressed palms against her eyes until color burst behind her lids. Her lungs struggled, breath catching halfway.
"Divya?"
Her mother stood in the doorway. Still in her nightgown though well past the hour she'd normally change. Hair uncombed. Lines around her mouth deeper, carved overnight.
"Have you seen?"
Divya nodded. Her throat felt scraped raw. "It wasn't… It was just a rehearsal. The photo looks different than what it was."
