Love In Turmoil

PROLOGUE

### Prologue

Anushka Kapoor stood at the edge of her father’s grand office, the city skyline glittering beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. She traced the outline of her late mother's ring, now a fixture on her finger, grounding her in the sea of doubt that threatened to swallow her whole. The empire her father had built was now hers to defend, yet every step forward felt like wading through quicksand. Her uncle’s manipulations, Kabir’s constant belittling, and the relentless whispers of “nepo kid” echoed in the corridors of the firm, trying to erode her confidence.

But Anushka wasn’t one to crumble. She had fought for every win, earned every client, and her father’s faith in her was the only validation she needed—at least that’s what she told herself. The battle for control wasn’t just a professional challenge; it was deeply personal, an all-consuming war that left little room for anything else, especially love. Love, after all, had betrayed her once, and she wasn’t eager to repeat that mistake.

Across the city, Rudra Roy sat in a dimly lit apartment, the silence broken only by the steady tapping of his fingers on the keyboard. His latest article was nearly complete, the words flowing effortlessly—his only true escape from the shadows of his own life. As a journalist, he thrived on uncovering truths, but his own reality was one he avoided. The son of a cold, calculating businessman, Rudra had long since abandoned any hope of approval or affection from his father. His mother’s death had only deepened the chasm between them, leaving Rudra to fend for himself in a world that often felt too large and too empty.

Rudra was a paradox—sunshine in public, but solitary in private. He was the person everyone gravitated toward, the one who could lighten a room with his infectious energy. Yet, beneath the surface, there was a deep well of loneliness, a void that not even his passion for journalism could fill.

Their paths were bound to collide—two souls on divergent trajectories, yet both driven by an unyielding need to prove themselves. When they met, sparks would fly, not out of romantic infatuation but out of pure, unadulterated friction. Anushka would see in Rudra everything she’d never allowed herself to be—free-spirited, lighthearted, unburdened by the weight of legacy. Rudra would see in Anushka a woman who seemed to have it all but was battling demons not unlike his own.

Neither could have predicted how deeply they would come to understand—and need—each other. Theirs was not a story of love at first sight, but rather one of love forged in the fires of their own struggles, a love that would ultimately redefine who they were and what they wanted from life.

In a city that never slept, where power and ambition ruled, Anushka and Rudra were about to discover that sometimes the most unexpected connections are the ones that save you.