Hefellfirst​ Stories

Two families. One business deal. Thirty days to fall in love-or at least pretend to. ​Ananya Iyer is a woman with a plan. An ambitious architect in London, she's spent years building a life that doesn't involve the dusty traditions of her family's past in Chennai. But when her family's ancestral home-the one that holds her grandmother's only memories-is threatened with demolition, Ananya finds herself backed into a corner. She needs a massive infusion of capital, and she needs it yesterday. ​Kabir Malhotra is a man with a problem. He's the CEO of a tech empire, but his board of directors thinks he's a "loose cannon" because he's single and "unstable." To secure the biggest merger of his career, he needs the image of a settled, devoted family man. ​The Deal is Simple: A legal marriage. A thirty-day traditional Indian wedding extravaganza in the heart of Udaipur to satisfy the press and the parents. A quiet divorce in two years. No feelings. No mess. ​But as the desert heat of Rajasthan rises and the smell of jasmine and marigolds fills the air, the lines between "the contract" and "the heart" begin to blur. Between the high-stakes drama of the Sangeet dance-offs and the quiet vulnerability of the Haldi ceremony, Ananya realizes Kabir isn't the cold businessman she thought he was. And Kabir? He's been keeping a secret about Ananya since they were teenagers-a secret that could ruin the contract or turn it into something real.