FINDING MY WAY TO YOU

The first thing Vanya noticed about London was the cold. It was different from the warmth she had grown up with in India, different from the familiar noise and movement that had surrounded her every morning. Even after spending only a short time in the city, she still hadn't completely gotten used to the weather. Yet, that morning, the cold was the last thing on her mind. She stood outside the headquarters of Westmere Group, looking up at the enormous glass building that seemed to disappear into the grey London sky. For a few seconds, she simply stood there. Her fingers tightened around the strap of her handbag as she looked at the name displayed across the front of the building. WESTMERE GROUPS. She had seen that name so many times before. But never like this. Never with the knowledge that she was actually going to walk through those doors. A small breath escaped her lips as she looked down at herself, checking her appearance almost unconsciously. She adjusted the sleeve of her formal outfit, fixed a loose strand of hair that had fallen near her face, and took one more breath before finally stepping forward. This wasn't her first time working for Westmere. Months ago, she had entered the India branch of Westmere Technologies as an intern with nothing more than the usual nervousness of a student stepping into the corporate world for the first time. She had expected to spend her internship learning from others, completing whatever work was assigned to her and quietly returning to her life once it was over. She hadn't expected one idea to change everything. While working on one of the company's challenging projects, Vanya had noticed something that others had overlooked. She had spent days thinking about it, trying different approaches, failing more than once before finally arriving at a solution she believed could work. It had started as nothing more than an idea. But the idea had impressed the team. And eventually, instead of simply completing her internship and leaving, Vanya had been asked to continue with the project. That opportunity had brought her from the India branch to the company's headquarters in London. She had spent the entire journey telling herself not to be nervous. Yet now, standing in front of the building, she could feel her heartbeat betraying every bit of confidence she had tried to gather. You wanted this. The thought steadied her. So don't be scared now. Vanya walked through the entrance. The atmosphere inside was exactly what she had expected from the headquarters of one of the most powerful business groups in the world. Everything around her carried a quiet sense of importance—the polished floors, the glass walls, the employees moving with purpose, the soft conversations taking place around the reception area. There was no chaos. No unnecessary noise. Just people who seemed to know exactly where they needed to be. Vanya held her bag a little closer and made her way towards the reception desk. “Good morning.” The receptionist looked up with a pleasant smile. “Good morning.” “Name?” “Vanya.” The receptionist typed something into the system before looking back at her. “Yes. We were expecting you.” Those simple words somehow made Vanya feel even more aware of herself. She nodded. The receptionist reached for something kept beside her and placed an ID card on the desk. “Here you go.” Vanya looked down. For a moment, she didn't pick it up. Her name was printed clearly across the card. VANYA WESTMERE TECHNOLOGIES Something warm settled inside her chest. It was such a small thing. Just an ID card. Yet for Vanya, it felt like proof that everything she had worked towards was slowly becoming real. She finally picked it up and turned it between her fingers. And as she looked at it, her thoughts wandered somewhere else. To someone she had never met. Someone whose voice had become strangely familiar despite never having spoken to her. Aryavansh Suryavanshi. Vanya had watched his interviews for years. Whenever she felt uncertain about herself, she would search for one of his interviews and listen to him speak. There was something about the way he talked about success that always made her feel as though failure wasn't something she needed to fear. He never sounded like someone who had been handed success. He spoke like someone who had fought for it. That was what Vanya admired most about him. To the world, Aryavansh Suryavanshi was the heir of Suryavanshi Industries, the founder and Chairman of Westmere Groups, and one of the youngest billionaires in the business world. To Vanya, he was simply the person who had unknowingly taught her to believe in herself. There had been countless moments during her internship when she had doubted whether her ideas were good enough. Whenever that happened, she would remember something she had heard him say during one of his interviews. And somehow, she would try again. Her lips curved into a faint smile. I wonder what it would be like to meet him. She had thought about it before. Many times. But only as a distant wish. Because people like Aryavansh Suryavanshi existed in a world far removed from hers. She was just Vanya. A girl who had started as an intern at a branch office in India and somehow found herself standing inside the London headquarters because one idea had been good enough to make people believe in her. She never imagined that the man she admired so much could actually be standing somewhere inside the same building. Until the atmosphere around the reception suddenly changed. It wasn't loud. There was no announcement. No one told her that someone important had arrived. Yet Vanya noticed it. The receptionist stopped speaking. The movement around the entrance seemed to slow. A few employees turned their heads towards the glass doors. Vanya's fingers stopped moving against the edge of her ID card. Curious, she slowly lifted her eyes. The glass doors opened. And a man walked inside. For a moment, Vanya didn't understand why her attention had immediately settled on him. Perhaps it was the way everyone seemed to make space without being asked. Perhaps it was the quiet authority in his presence. Or perhaps it was simply the way he carried himself—as though he didn't need to demand attention because it naturally followed him. Vanya looked at his face. And everything inside her went still. She knew him. There was no doubt. She had seen those features countless times before. On her laptop screen. On magazine covers. In interviews she had watched late at night. But seeing him in person was nothing like seeing him through a screen. Her eyes widened slightly. The ID card remained forgotten in her hand. No way... Her heart began beating faster. She looked at him again, almost as though she needed to make sure her eyes weren't playing a trick on her. They weren't. The man walking through the entrance was the very person whose interviews had given her confidence on the days she had struggled to find it herself. The very person she had admired from a distance for years. The very person she had never expected to see standing only a few steps away from her. Her lips parted slightly. That's Aryavansh Suryavanshi. And then the realization truly sank in. Oh, God!... he's actually him. For the first time, Vanya understood how different admiration could feel when the person you admired was no longer behind a screen. Her heart fluttered. Her thoughts became strangely quiet. She had come to London for her career. She had come because Westmere had trusted her. She had come with dreams she wanted to turn into reality. But standing there at the reception, watching Aryavansh walk into the headquarters, Vanya couldn't understand why one simple glance at him suddenly made everything else disappear. She didn't know what that feeling was. Not yet. She only knew that the man she had admired for so long had just walked into her world. And without knowing it, Vanya had just taken the first step into a story she had never planned to live.