In Our Defence

They were never supposed to love each other. They were supposed to destroy each other. Rudransh Malhotra and Ira Khanna have spent seven years perfecting the art of hatred. Two brilliant lawyers. Two powerful families. Two people who would rather lose a case than let the other win. He thinks she betrayed his family. She thinks he destroyed her reputation. Neither has forgiven the other. And neither knows the whole truth. So when a crisis threatens to tear apart the empires their families spent generations building, there is only one solution powerful enough to stop it— A marriage between the Malhotras and the Khannas. Unfortunately, that means Rudransh and Ira. The man who knows exactly how to get under her skin. The woman who is the only person capable of making him lose his composure. They agree to the marriage with rules, boundaries and absolutely no expectations. Separate rooms. Separate lives. No unnecessary feelings. Simple. Except hatred is easier when you don't have to wake up beside the person you hate. It's easier when you don't know how he takes his coffee, how she goes quiet when she's hurt, how his hand instinctively finds hers in a crowd, or how she is the first person he looks for when something goes wrong. It's easier when you don't notice the way he protects her without asking. Or the way she remembers every little thing he pretends doesn't matter. Because somewhere between courtroom battles, family secrets, forced proximity and a marriage neither of them wanted— hatred begins to look dangerously like desire. And desire begins to feel a lot like love. But seven years ago, something happened between them. Something neither has forgotten. Something that made them enemies in the first place. And when the truth finally begins to surface, Rudransh and Ira will have to face a terrifying possibility— What if the person they spent seven years hating was never their real enemy? Because some secrets don't stay buried. And some marriages are built on lies that were never meant to be discovered.