Author's POV

"You could have pushed me and gone to the other side. It would've been more dramatic." She shouted.

"Ah really? What about you? You were crying too much. It was making me nervous. You even cried in the rain. Who told you to do that?"

"What?" His words made no sense to her. She fisted her hand and clenched her jaws glaring at him. He gulped his nervousness as he said, "Don't look at me like that. You are so scary." He hunched over, pulling his legs together.

"Yeah, Right! You should have broken up with me then." Before Maya could give him a taste of hell, a voice came from the kitchen. "You both better stop unless you want to attend your funeral." Pranav peeked at them, giving them an all-serious look.

"Yeah, he is right! Let me at least adjust to this situation." Ayushi pressed her forehead. She felt speechless, looking at them.

Maya and Ajay looked at each other and smiled widely. "I love you."

"I love you too." Ajay bit his lips but still kept the heartfelt smile on his face. They put their arms around each other and looked at Pranav who squinted his eyes before going inside the kitchen. No sooner did he go inside, they removed their hands from each other's arms.

They were sitting on the sofa in Ajay's house. Ajay looked at her and after waiting for a long time, asked, "Should we tell Sarah too? Even Ayushi knows it now." He turned to see Ayushi looking at the walls in a daze. It felt like she lost all kinds of faith in the human race.

Suddenly, Maya's phone rang beside her and she saw a message from Ishaan.

Hey, should we tell Sarah? I think I am in trouble now.

She sighed and looked at Ajay. "I knew she would come to know. I think we must tell her."

"What happened?" When Ajay asked her, she showed him the phone. "Let's do it then." They both decided and called Ishaan.

After a long while, Ishaan came back with Sarah. He was too tired of handling her questions. Her curiosity was making her restless and each second felt like a ticking bomb.

She restlessly stood in front of Ajay's house, gazing at Ishaan. "Ishaan, I am not a patient person so don't test it. I am not gonna beat you so tell me, okay?"

He stared at her from the corner of his eyes. "You can see for yourself."

"You-" She was finally losing it when the door opened. "Come in, both of you." Ajay opened the door, greeting them inside.

Sarah barged inside and looked at Maya who was munching on a packet of chips. Being excited about seeing her, Maya rushed towards her and hugged her, catching her off-guard.

Meanwhile, Ajay snuck behind Maya to steal a few chips but he soon got smacked for stealing her chips. Maya couldn't help but giggle when he still took her chips, not caring about getting beaten up or not. "Take it." She handed him the packet, seeing him being too earnest about the chips.

Sarah was utterly shocked to even speak anything. She kept blinking and stared at Ayushi who nodded, sympathising with her feelings. "I can understand. I am also deeply shocked."

"What is happening? Can someone explain?" She finally regained herself and asked the only thing she was too curious about.

They all smiled at each other before retailing their story.

On the day of the party, Ishaan came to check on Maya when he received the news that she might be in danger.

He was glad to have not arrived too late. He was about to take out Maya when she rushed down the stairs to get her phone. Her hands were shaking and her body trembled. Ishaan felt as if he wouldn't forgive himself if he can't tell her. He was about to tell Maya everything when he felt as if it wasn't the right time.

He took her down and when she entered the car, Ishaan told her, "Maya, I have something to tell you."

He told her everything about how his mother was scheming against her and Ajay. He was told to act in love with her so that after Maya breaks up with Ajay and falls for him, then he can announce the engagement and her life falls apart. Her career will get ruined by controversies and after Ajay joins hands with Alisha ma'am, it will be easier to break his career. Then Ishaan can steal the role of Ajay in 'Not her First'.

After listening to the whole thing, Ishaan passed his phone to her saying, "Ajay is calling. Pick it up."

When she picked it up in a daze, she heard his voice. "Hello, Maya. I am sorry for not being able to come but I have something to say."

"What is happening, Ajay?" She was scared. After hearing it all, she felt more like she was getting pushed to the edge.

"Don't worry. It's okay. Ishaan must've told you. I am sorry for not telling you ahead of time. I really didn't know that they would rush things so fast."

"What do I... need to do?" She asked, after calming herself down.

"What do we usually do? Acting, right? Let's do it once more. Just like the theatre acting back in the day. Will you be able to do it?"

Maya took a deep breath before answering. "Of course." She was determined to challenge herself and get this done.

"That's how it went," Ishaan concluded as he sipped on his apple juice.

"Wow!" Sarah hardly uttered.

"I am still getting goosebumps even after hearing this for the second time." Ayushi bobbed her head, still unable to believe these things. She, coincidentally, overheard Pranav who was talking over the phone so he had no option other than telling her the truth.

"But when did you know?" Ayushi turned to Pranav who was busy, blowing on his cup of coffee.

He looked up and fixed his glasses, before speaking. "I woke up at midnight and saw someone sneaking out like a thief, wrapped in a blanket. When I was about to catch it, she turned around with the torch and it turned out to be Maya. She was trying to sneak and meet Ajay."

"I had to tell him the truth." Maya shrugged.

"What is the plan now?" Sarah asked after listening to the whole thing.

Maya chugged down her juice and turned to Ajay and Ishaan who were already arguing about who was a better actor. "I acted way better."

"What? You hit me so hard still I didn't come out of my character." Ishaan argued.

Maya cursed under her breath before tapping the table in front of her, grabbing the attention of the two guys who were too busy with their useless argument. "Let's go back to the plan." They both nodded their heads, ready to listen to her.

She pulled out a notebook and wrote the points down. "As for now, Alisha ma'am thinks we broke up and will wait till Ajay says yes to her film. She will make you trust her so much that you will fall into her trap and your film will go into the hands of Ishaan."

"Yes, right! To avoid this, Ajay, you must be aware of the timing. You must pretend like you are falling into her trap but right at the best time, you will back out." Ishaan explained it to him.

"But before that, your engagement news... What about that?" Maya asked Ishaan.

He stood up and said, "The engagement news will probably be out in a few days after she believes that Maya trusts me or loves me enough to forget Ajay. By that time, Ajay will have to sign with her and she will try everything to get his trust. I am just worried about the engagement news."

"Why? She will look after it." As Ajay said that, Ayushi thought she was talking about her.

She stood up and raised her fist in the air. "I will make sure to check after that bastard. Don't worry. Before Prakash can release that news, I will make sure to handle him nicely."

"Ayushi, we are trusting you with that but if news like that will come out then she must be informing all the TV channels and newspaper media. It will be too hard to stop it, " Maya spoke after thinking hard. She took a deep breath and said, "Only she can help with this." Ajay nodded looking at her.

"Are you seriously thinking of trusting her?" Ishaan grimaced.

"Do you have a better option?" They had no other option. Sarah and Ayushi stared at them blankly as if they were watching a movie without context.

"Who is that 'she'?" They both asked to which Maya replied, "See for yourself."

She called up someone and in a few minutes, the door opened wide and they all came face to face with that particular person. The room turned silent as all of them looked at her. Except for Maya, Ajay and Ishaan, others were too shocked to speak. They kept staring till they felt their eyeballs sticking out of the socket.

"Looks like everyone is here. Hi everyone." She waved her hands to them. She found it interesting how people kept looking at her with wide eyes. "I am not a ghost, guys. What's wrong?"

"What the hell are you doing here, Priya?" Sarah screamed, standing up in shock.

Priya shrugged as if she was too tired of explaining this. She walked towards the sofa and sat leisurely, putting one leg over another, making herself at home. "Sarah and everyone, I will just tell this for the last time. I am the one who is helping them. Believe it or not."

"What? Helping? And you? Tell me something better to believe. What is this, Maya?" Pranav was losing his cool, seeing Priya sitting in front of him. It was surely weird as the one who hated Maya for whatever reason is suddenly acting friendly to her.

"It is true. She is the only one who can help right now." Maya hesitantly looked at Priya who grinned widely and winked at her.

Before the confusion in the room could spread out more, Priya stood up and explained. "Before Maya went to the party, I got a phone call from Akash. It was weird that he suddenly called but it felt nice. He wanted to meet me so I called him over to my place. And when I talked to him, I realized that I was losing myself in this race for fame so I decided to stop for some time. That made me think about whose side I should choose, and then I chose to support Maya."

"It was me who informed Ishaan to go to Maya and enter the back door because as much as I knew his character, he would take her out in an isolated space. I was so happy to meet Akash after so long, only later I came to know that it was Ajay who planned that out." Priya casually put two chips in her mouth while narrating her part of the story.

"You felt bad about losing yourself and that's why you are helping Maya? That's weird. You are not like that." Ishaan already heard her story two times before and he was always curious to ask her.

"You know me. It's not like me. Of course, I looked at my benefit. If I am on your side then I can get my revenge on that bastard director and also Maya... has my secrets. Maya, you promised me you will not release them, okay?" Maya nodded her head in response. She never knew that she hated her old pictures so much to join their side.

Everyone cast suspicious glances at Priya as she shrugged and said, "That's right, you will be suspicious but trust me, I came till here so let's continue. And if you are too scared, then you can find a way." Priya was about to get up when Maya stopped her.

"What is your plan?"

Her demeanour changed. "So, I thought of it, before Alisha ma'am releases her breaking news, I will give the press even bigger news. My wedding news!" Priya clapped her hands, grinning widely.

All of them stopped eating and stared at her. "Wedding? What are you saying?" Maya couldn't believe what she was trying to say.

"Yes, my wedding. This engagement was anyway a fake one and I already have a boyfriend. This is the best time to announce our wedding."

"Wait for a second. So what you are saying-" Ishaan was interrupted when Priya spoke, "I am saying that I will announce my wedding the day before the engagement news then the rumours will go down the drain."

"So, will you give me the news first? Don't inform Prakash, please." Ayushi smoothly shifted to the business. She just wanted to get an appraisal and block that guy from getting his way always. " Can you tell who your boyfriend is? I will not reveal publicly now."

"Yeah, don't do it now. He is Vicky... Vicky Talwar." Everyone, including Ishaan who was the least interested, sat up as they were so shocked on hearing that.

Half of the room was silent because they had heard Vicky was dating writer Ishita and half of the room was silent because it was weird for the ambitious Priya to settle with a newbie actor.

"Vicky? But isn't he dating writer Ishita?"

Hearing that Priya broke into fits of laughter. She held her stomach as she couldn't control her laughter any longer. "Are... are you kidding me?" Tears trickled down due to her continuous laughter. "Writer Ishita is his sister."

"What?" The whole room shouted together, scaring the hell out of her.

Ayushi pulled out her phone and noted it down. She pushed towards Priya's side and whispered in her ear, "Then can I post this too later?"

"Yes. She wanted to reveal it soon so it will be better to do it together with my wedding news."

"That's awesome. Thank you and Congratulations." Ayushi clapped happily, congratulating her on the wedding. She was too happy to finally get her hands on some great news.

"Then, let's do this," Maya announced at the end of the day.

Soon, this will end too.

~•~

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