Two months later, the world still whispered about the gala.

Some said she was dangerous.

Some said she was untouchable.

But all knew one thing: Aashika Pandey was now Aashika Malhotra. Not by name.

By fire.

The Malhotra empire expanded across Asia.

Riaz handed Aashika the keys to their newest luxury tower in Seoul. She smiled, signing her name with a pen dipped in gold ink.

"You own this floor, Aashi. Just like you own my soul."

She looked up. "Your soul is mine. And your enemies are ashes."

He smirked. "What enemies?"

One final enemy did remain.

Kunal Kapoor.

A name neither had spoken in months.

Until one morning, a package arrived with an old bracelet. Hers. The one he’d stolen from her dorm in college.

Inside the box: a bloodstained photo of her asleep. Recent.

Riaz exploded.

"HE GOT CLOSE TO YOU?!"

Aashika had never seen him unhinged.

He tore apart the room, barking orders, mobilizing a team.

Within hours, Aryan tracked Kunal to a secluded estate in Darjeeling.

Riaz didn’t wait.

He took only a blade.

And wrath.

Kunal didn’t beg when Riaz entered the basement.

He laughed.

"She always liked you more, didn’t she? Even when I carved her name into my skin, she still whispered yours."

Riaz said nothing.

He just stepped forward and drove the knife through Kunal’s hand, pinning it to the wall.

Then another.

And another.

Until Kunal was screaming, sobbing, bleeding.

"You’ll regret this, Malhotra—"

Riaz leaned in, voice quiet. Deadly.

"No. You will. For touching what’s mine. For stalking what’s sacred."

When he was done, Kunal didn’t have a name left to scream.

Only silence.

Months later, Aashika stood barefoot on their private beach, her red saree billowing in the breeze.

Her hands rested on her stomach.

"He’s going to be overprotective," she whispered to her belly. "But you’ll know he would burn every goddamn star before letting anything happen to us."

Behind her, Riaz wrapped his arms around her.

"A boy?"

"Or girl. Either way… ours."

He kissed her neck.

"Let the world keep its headlines. Its fear. Its power plays. They’ll never understand what we are."

She turned, whispering with a smile:

"We are everything they fear and everything we dreamed."

And under the crimson sunset, with a child growing inside her, the king kissed his queen.

An empire beneath their feet.

A crown on their legacy.

And love?

Love wore a bulletproof name.