"You're late."

Yuvan looked at the clock.

"By four minutes."

"Four minutes is late."

Rudra folded his arms dramatically.

Yuvan stared at him.

"You called me at six in the morning."

"Exactly. You should have been here at five fifty-five."

Shourya, who was sitting on the porch steps, looked up from his phone.

"Don't encourage him."

"I am not encouraging him."

"You are arguing with him."

"That's encouragement."

Rudra pointed at Shourya.

"See? This is why I like Yuvan more."

Shourya didn't even look up.

"You said that yesterday."

"And I'll say it tomorrow."

Sitara walked out of the house carrying four cups of tea.

"Can all of you please stop behaving like children?"

Yuvan smiled.

"Good morning, Tara."

She handed him a cup.

"Good morning."

He looked at the tea.

"You remembered."

"Of course I did."

No sugar.

Exactly how he liked it.

Yuvan looked around the small house.

It wasn't anything like the Singhania Palace.

It was warm.

Lived-in.

Comfortable.

Photographs covered the walls.

There were photographs of Sitara as a baby.

Shourya as a child.

Rudra with a missing front tooth.

There were photographs of Yuvan too.

Hundreds of them.

The four of them growing up together.

The four siblings nobody else knew about.

Yuvan picked up one frame.

It showed him at five years old, standing beside a tiny Sitara.

He smiled.

"Do you remember this?"

Sitara laughed.

"I was three."

"You bit me."

"You deserved it."

"I gave you chocolate."

"You ate half of mine."

Rudra walked over.

"Why am I not in this photograph?"

"Because you hadn't been born yet," Shourya said.

Rudra looked offended.

"I feel excluded."

"You were literally nonexistent."

"Still hurtful."

Yuvan laughed.

This.

This was what he had wanted for years.

His siblings together.

No secrets between them.

But there was still one enormous problem.

Their fathers.

Yuvan sat down.

"We need to talk."

The laughter faded.

Sitara looked at him.

Shourya put his phone away.

Rudra stopped pretending to be offended.

Yuvan took a breath.

"I'm going to bring you to the palace."

Silence.

Sitara's eyes widened.

Shourya's expression hardened.

Rudra blinked.

"The palace?"

"Yes."

"Our fathers' palace?"

"Yes."

Rudra looked at Sitara.

Then Shourya.

Then Yuvan.

"So..."

He pointed at himself.

"I'm finally going to meet the man who abandoned my mother?"

"Technically, he didn't know you existed."

Rudra considered this.

"Still sounds bad."

"Rudra."

"Fine."

Sitara was quiet.

Yuvan looked at her.

"Tara?"

She swallowed.

"Does he know?"

"Who?"

"Papa."

Yuvan knew exactly what she meant.

"No."

Sitara lowered her eyes.

"And does he know about us?"

"No."

Shourya's jaw tightened.

"Then why are we going?"

"Because the truth has to come out eventually."

"And if they don't believe us?"

Yuvan looked directly at him.

"They will."

Shourya gave a bitter laugh.

"You sound very confident."

"I've known them my whole life."

"And we've known our mothers our whole lives."

Yuvan fell silent.

Shourya looked away.

His anger wasn't directed at Yuvan.

It was directed at twenty years of injustice.

Sitara reached over and touched his arm.

"Shourya Bhai"

He looked at her.

"We'll be together."

He nodded.

Rudra raised his hand.

"I have a question."

Yuvan sighed.

"What?"

"Does the palace have a swimming pool?"

Yuvan stared at him.

"That's your question?"

"Yes."

"You're going to meet your father after eighteen years."

"Exactly. I need to know if I should pack swimming trunks."

Sitara burst out laughing.

Even Shourya smiled.

Yuvan shook his head.

"You're impossible."

Rudra grinned.

"That's why you love me."

Yuvan looked at all three.

He did.

More than they could ever know.

He had spent nineteen years protecting them.

But tomorrow, he was going to do something much harder.

He was going to introduce them to their fathers.

And he had absolutely no idea what would happen afterward.

Across the city, inside the Singhania Palace, Vikram stood in front of the same fireplace.

He looked at the family portrait.

Six young men stood in front of him.

Abhimaan.

Abhiraj.

Vikram.

Yuvan.

Hriday.

Vivan.

His sons.

His pride.

His world.

He had no idea that there were three more children somewhere in the city.

Three children carrying his family's blood.

Three children whose lives were about to collide with his.

And one of them...

A girl.

A girl with his eyes.

A girl with Siya's smile.

A daughter he had never known existed.

The clock struck midnight.

And the first day of the rest of the Singhania family's life began.