The Leads

Aarav Singh Rathore, 35. CEO of the Rathore Group, widower, single father to a twenty-month-old daughter named Mishti. Ruthless in business, glacial in conversation, allergic to vulnerability. He does not raise his voice; he simply makes people disappear from his life. He has not touched another woman since Ishita died, has not let himself want anything for himself in two years — until a Mehra walks into his haveli holding architectural blueprints and his daughter's hand.

Aanya Mehra, 23. A heritage conservation architect, sharp-tongued, proud, fiercely protective of her family's broken name. She has grown up watching her mother work three jobs and her father's photograph gather dust because no one will say his name out loud anymore. She takes the Suryagarh restoration contract - the biggest of her young career - without knowing whose family owns it, and by the time she finds out, it's too late to walk away: her firm needs the money, her brother's college fees are due, and a twenty-month-old girl has already decided Aanya is hers.

Family and Friends

Devika Rathore, Aarav's mother - traditional, sharp-eyed, the keeper of the haveli's soul, who recognizes Aanya's surname before Aarav does and watches in silence to see what the universe is doing.

Naina Rathore, Aarav's younger sister - warm, modern, the only person who teases Aarav and gets away with it, who befriends Aanya almost instantly and becomes her bridge into the family.

Digvijay Singh Rathore, Aarav's uncle - smiling, generous in public, the architect of the original ruin, and the story's quiet, patient villain.

Vivaan Oberoi, Aarav's best friend since boarding school, now the Rathore Group's legal counsel - the one man Aarav has never fully shut out, who suspects the truth about Digvijay long before anyone else and slowly falls for someone he is absolutely not supposed to.

Sunita Mehra, Aanya's mother - gentle, exhausted, carrying eight years of shame that was never hers to carry.

Kabir Mehra, Aanya's younger brother - eighteen, brilliant, desperate to study engineering, the reason Aanya cannot afford pride.

Riya Kapoor, Aanya's best friend since architecture college - loud, loyal, the one who tells Aanya she's an idiot for taking the job and then helps her pack anyway. Riya and Vivaan circle each other through the whole book as a lighter, funnier counter-melody to the main storm.

Mishti Rathore, twenty months old, the unwitting architect of the entire romance - the only person in this story who decides, on day one, exactly how she feels about Aanya and never once changes her mind.