Lapaata Ishq

"The cruelest thing about loving someone is that they can break your heart just by changing, and you'll still love the person they used to be."

Have you ever felt invisible in your own family? I have. And it shaped everything about me.
I'm Alina. I hate crowds, love my small circle, and believe Pakistani men just aren't for me. My future husband? He's definitely living in some other country. But there's one person I hate more than social gatherings-my perfect cousin Tehreem.

She's everything I'm not. The ideal daughter who can cook, clean, and charm everyone while I'm busy building my business empire.
Every time she visits, I disappear. I become the forgotten one.

But this time, I had a plan. This time, I would make my brothers feel what I always felt-invisible.
Then I saw him. Ahsan. My cousin who I barely remembered from childhood. Except now? He looked like he walked straight out of a magazine. Peak male beauty. Everything I thought didn't exist in Pakistan.

So I made him a deal. Help me make my family see what it feels like to be overlooked, and I'll help him with whatever he needs.

What started as revenge became something I never expected. We had to learn each other. We had to get close. And somewhere between the fake smiles and shared secrets, we found something real.

He became my home. I became his.

Until tragedy struck. His younger brother died in an accident, and the Ahsan I fell for vanished. The man who came back was hollow, broken, unreachable.
But I knew the real him was still in there. I was determined to bring him back.

Even if it destroyed me trying.

We were both outcasts in this world. We found our place in each other's hearts.
The problem? Sometimes love isn't enough to fix what's broken.

This story is based on real events. In reality, it didn't have a happy ending. But this time, I'm writing the ending I deserved. The ending we both deserved.