A silent billionaire.
A woman trained to kill.
When power marries danger, love turns lethal.
I opened my eyes to the soft morning sunlight filtering through the curtains of my room.
I had been staying with my parents for almost twenty-five days now, trying to recover from everything that had happened.
After the incident, I had been taken to the hospital, and once I was physically stable, I started attending regular therapy sessions to deal with the trauma.
For the past three days, I had been sleeping so deeply at night, as if I had never truly slept in my life before, and it felt almost unreal.
I had been unable to sleep after that incident in the park. At night, nightmares followed me, tightening around my throat and haunting my soul. That was why either Maa or one of my cousins had slept beside me every night. But for the past three days, I had been feeling better and sleeping peacefully on my own.
It had been difficult, but now I felt like things were finally becoming normal again. I was feeling better. At least, I was supposed to be.
I pushed the blanket aside and slowly sat up.
My body felt lighter. I had lost almost four kilos in just a month. My mind was still tired, but the constant pressure in my chest had eased, and after crying for so many days, even my tears had finally dried up.
I got ready in a white ethnic tunic decorated with tiny red flowers and paired it with dark-blue flared jeans. After fixing my hair, I stood in front of the mirror for a moment.
How could someone look completely normal after falling apart so badly in front of everyone?
I had been in this house for twenty-five days. Twenty-five days away from the Rathor Mansion.
And somehow, in those twenty-five days, everything about my life seemed to have changed.
Ranbir had visited me every other day.
His family had come a few times as well, usually two or three members at a time.
I hadn't met any of them.
Whenever I heard Ranbir's car arrive, I either pretended to be asleep or locked myself in my room and told my parents I wasn't in the mood to see anyone.
I didn't want to face him or his family.
Not yet.
The embarrassing part was that Ranbir had never forced me.
He would meet my parents, ask about my condition, leave whatever he had brought for me, and walk away without disturbing me.
He hadn't knocked on my door or complained about me avoiding him.
Somehow, that made me feel worse.
I didn't understand what had happened to me that day in the park. I had always been in control of myself. For years, I had prepared myself to face any situation, even the worst ones life could throw at me. I had trained myself to survive, but none of it had worked that day.
I had fallen apart in front of everyone, looking completely insane.
I wasn't worried about earning my in-laws' approval. I never had been.
But Ranbir...
His opinion mattered to me. Why, I didn't know, and I couldn't stop wondering what he had thought when he saw me like that.
Did he think I was weak? Did he think I was incapable of handling myself?
Or worse...
Did he think I was mentally unstable?
I hated the thought. If I kept avoiding him, I would only drive myself crazier over his opinion.
I grabbed my phone from the bedside table and checked the time.
It was still early.
For the first time in days, I didn't feel like staying inside.
I wanted to go out all alone. Just walk somewhere without my parents asking where I was going or someone worrying about whether I was ready to face the world again. But before that, I needed to pack.
I walked toward the wardrobe and pulled the door open.
My clothes were still scattered across the shelves, most of them untouched since I had arrived here. I began folding them one by one.
Probably, I had another two or three days before I returned to the Rathor Mansion.
My in-laws had never forced me to come back. Neither had Ranbir. They had simply given me space, but I couldn't stay here forever.
Eventually, I would have to return to them.
I would have to face Ranbir, his family, and perhaps, most importantly, face myself.
I had spent my entire life surviving whatever came my way. I had never been the kind of woman who ran from something simply because it frightened her.
So why should this be any different?
I folded another dress and placed it inside the suitcase.
In the past, I had been just Trishika. But now, I had my lethal form-Velvet Viper. She was a part of me, carrying that insane strength within me, ready to face every obstacle that stood in my way.
Suddenly, my eyes fell on the locked lower drawer of the closet, and I froze.
I hadn't opened it in years. To make everything normal again, I had to unfold my past and face it, so I reached for the drawer of my study table and pulled out the small key hidden at the back.
Slowly, I moved toward the lower drawer of my closet. My fingers trembled as I inserted the key into the lock.
The drawer opened, and the first thing I saw was an old album.
I lifted it carefully, but before opening it, my eyes fell on the small things underneath.
Two bright pink hair clips decorated with tiny purple unicorns. Two matching friendship bracelets made of colourful square beads. And a small piece of paper folded several times.
I unfolded it with trembling fingers.
Two girls were drawn on it, with their names written in childish handwriting: Trishika and Vanshika.
A tear slipped down my cheek, and a small smile appeared despite myself.
They looked so new. As if my sister had made them yesterday. As if I could still hear her laughing while she forced the bracelet around my tiny wrist.
I closed my eyes and took a shaky breath. Then, I opened the album.
Photographs filled every page, capturing every moment of our lives until it all stopped.
Mother holding me, with Father standing beside us. Vanshika making ridiculous faces at the camera. There were photographs from almost every year of my childhood.
For a few moments, I forgot that those people were gone and could almost hear their voices again. Then I reached the final photograph of us together, standing at the entrance of the fair.
My fingers stopped moving, and the memory came rushing back.
It had happened eleven years ago, when I was around twelve.
Every August, a huge fair was held near our town for an entire month. My family went almost every year.
That day had started like every other year, with me, Papa, Maa, and Vanshika going to the fair together.
My mother and Vanshika wanted to go on one of the rides, but I had refused. I was terrified of heights back then. I still remembered it.
Vanshika had laughed at me.
"You're such a crying little baby."
I had stuck my tongue out at her. She laughed and pulled our mother toward the ride.
I stayed with Papa. Then, suddenly, I felt sick. My stomach twisted violently.
Papa noticed immediately and took me toward the restroom. I remember complaining that I should have eaten less before coming.
We went outside the fairground to find a restroom. When I came out, I heard a loud roar in the sky.
The sound was so enormous that it felt as though the sky itself had shattered.
It seemed as though the ground shook beneath me. Papa grabbed me before I could fall.
Smoke covered the fairground. People were running in every direction, screaming. Some weren't moving at all. The sky had turned yellow-orange beneath the flames.
I remember asking, "Papa, what's happening here?"
I remember Papa running.
I remember following him.
I remember everything.
Amid the burning metal, smoke, and blood, we found them.
My mother and sister.
For years, I wished I could forget what I saw that day, but my mind never allowed me to.
Their clothes were the first thing we recognized. Everything else had been destroyed.
My sister's body lay twisted among the debris, one leg badly shattered, while my mother's face was almost impossible to recognize.
I remember staring at them, waiting for one of them to move. To breathe. To tell me this was some horrible mistake.
But they didn't.
"Maa..."
I crawled toward her, but Papa caught me before I could reach the bodies.
I fought him. I screamed. I begged him to let me go.
"I want my mother!"
My throat burned from screaming.
"Papa, please! She's there!"
But he knew.
He had already understood what I couldn't accept. He pulled me against his chest and covered my eyes.
I screamed until my voice disappeared.
For days afterward, I couldn't sleep. Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw the flames. Whenever I heard a loud sound, I screamed. Whenever someone touched me unexpectedly, I panicked.
Eventually, I stopped speaking altogether. The doctors called it severe psychological trauma. I simply called it surviving.
My mother's younger sister, Meghna, became the person who stayed closest to me.
She had been diagnosed with a severe uterine condition that had left her unable to conceive. She had always wanted children, but motherhood had never been possible for her.
So, when I lost mine, she took me in.
She didn't replace my mother.
She simply raised me, held me through my nightmares, sat beside me when I couldn't speak, and taught me how to smile again.
And somehow, little by little, I learned how to live with the pieces of myself that had survived that day.
But some memories never truly die. They simply wait. And sometimes, all it takes is the sound of an explosion to bring them back.
I closed the album and wiped the tears from my face.
I couldn't stay trapped inside those memories forever.
Not today.
I had already decided that I would go to the studio, so I made my way toward the living room.
"Trishika, beta, are you sure you want to go out by yourself?" Maa asked, looking at me with concern.
I gave her a bright smile, hoping it looked more convincing than I felt.
"I'm fine, Maa. I can go out on my own."
Sakshi walked past me, giving me a quick once-over.
"You look like a skeleton."
I stared at her.
That was such a rude thing to say about my body, but apparently, everything was acceptable when it came from my sisters-and honestly, I didn't mind it either.
"You were already thin before," she continued, completely ignoring my expression. "Now you're practically nothing but skin and bones."
"Don't listen to her," Grandmother said immediately. She placed a plate for me on the dining table. "Come here and eat. I'll make you healthy again."
She placed an aloo paratha on my plate.
"Dadi, I'm fine."
"No, you're not. Eat."
Sakshi nodded seriously.
"She's right. Eat before the wind carries you away."
I rolled my eyes.
Well, they weren't entirely wrong. I had always been thin, but now I was even skinnier.
I needed to start eating properly and exercising again. For the entire month, I had been feeling weak, and Velvet Viper had to be strong.
I quickly finished my breakfast and made my way to the studio.
The sky outside was unusually bright, sunlight spilling across the streets as I stepped out of the house. The weather forecast had warned of rain later in the day, though, so I carried an umbrella with me.
By the time I reached the studio, the sunlight had already begun disappearing behind thick clouds.
This studio was something Chhaya, Kabir, Aditya, and I had bought specifically because it had a hidden basement that wasn't marked on any maps or official records of the property. Mostly because of Kabir's hard work and Aditya's brilliant mind, we had turned this place into our hidden base.
I stepped inside the studio.
For anyone else, it was simply a creative workspace.
For us, it was much more.
It was where we planned, investigated, and kept information that could never reach the outside world. It was also where the four of us had slowly built something out of our losses.
Five years ago, the four of us had finally come together.
Twelve years ago, we had been strangers to one another, but we had all been present at the fair with our families.
Chhaya had lost her father. Aditya had lost his wife, who had been barely a month pregnant. Kabir had lost his five-year-old son. And I had lost my mother and my sister.
Different families, different lives, but the same tragedy.
The fair had occupied a large, empty stretch of land. A slum settlement stood nearby. Both areas had been caught in the blast, and hundreds of people had died.
Years later, the entire area looked nothing like it once had.
Now, there was a massive shopping complex surrounded by an elite residential society, with luxury towers rising exactly where ordinary families had once lived.
The blast had officially been declared an unfortunate accident by the authorities.
They said an explosion had occurred at a nearby factory and had spread to the fair and the slum area.
Eventually, the investigation faded from public attention.
Everyone was expected to slowly forget it. But not the victims. And one of them was Aditya.
He had worked for an organization that gave him access to information ordinary people never saw. While going through old records connected to the blast, he discovered that the factory had been established only a month earlier, and there were no records of what work was actually being carried out there.
It had been five years since we came together and formed our team. We had trained, stayed hidden from organizations and authorities, and searched in the dark. Now, we were ready to hunt.
It had been eleven years since we lost the people we loved, but the pain still felt fresh.
The person behind that blast was still alive. And until we found them. We weren't finished.
I stepped into the hidden basement beneath the studio, where Chhaya, Aditya, and Kabir were already inside.
Being the last one to arrive didn't mean I was late.
As I walked toward the main table, my eyes moved over the closed files spread across it.
Some belonged to our investigation. Others contained information about people we had encountered during previous missions.
Kabir approached the table, his eyes moving over the files.
"What's new?"
Aditya stepped forward and placed another file on the table.
"I found Valentino Ravello's connection to the blast," he said, tapping the file. "And these are the documents."
He pulled out several papers and spread them across the table.
"He was the man who owned the factory where the blast happened."
My attention immediately sharpened.
Aditya placed another document beside the first.
"And the elite penthouse society and mega complex were built by Rathor Infrastructure and Logistics."
Chhaya immediately looked up.
Aditya opened the file and pointed toward several names written inside.
"I found a photograph too. It looks like it was taken at some party."
One by one, we leaned closer to look at it.
My eyes stopped on the photograph.
Valentino was standing in the middle, accompanied by two other men. One of them was the man who had taught me how to fight. The man under whose guidance I had learned to become an assassin.
What was he doing with them?
Of course, he had suspected them too. He must have discovered their shady businesses. But before he could expose them-or kill them-they had moved first.
And they had killed him.
Because he was dead now.
"That's everything I have to tell you," Aditya said.
He walked back to his chair, dropped into it, and leaned back.
"Well, I found nothing in my investigation of the Rathors," I said as I took my seat.
Chhaya crossed her arms and looked at me.
"You should investigate them more carefully," Chhaya said. "Valentino is out of the country, so we can't keep him under surveillance. Your master was innocent, and now he's dead. That leaves this new man as our only mystery."
"A mystery?" Aditya repeated, tilting his head.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
"Or maybe the mystery is dead."
Kabir frowned and folded his arms.
"What do you mean?"
Aditya picked up the photograph again and studied it for a moment.
"Well, Valentino and Trishika's master were connected before the blast, during it, and for years afterward. Even recently, before your master died this year, there were still records connecting the two."
His fingers tightened slightly around the photograph.
"But this man disappeared completely."
He turned the photograph toward us again.
"After the blast, all three of them remained connected for another two years. Then, ten years ago, this man simply vanished. There hasn't been a single record of him since."
Aditya placed the photograph back on the table.
"So, honestly, it's difficult to say whether he's even alive."
"I checked several of Valentino's old social media posts," he continued. "There were photographs of him with Trishika's master before his death, but for the last ten years, there has been absolutely no evidence of this man. Nothing on Valentino's social media. Nothing connected to the others."
He leaned back slightly.
"It's almost like he never existed."
Kabir glanced down at the photograph before looking back at Aditya.
"Still, without evidence, we can't conclude anything."
Aditya nodded but said nothing.
Chhaya then turned toward me.
"For now, Trishika, you should continue investigating the Rathors."
I raised my eyes toward her.
"And find out who was the CEO or director of Rathor Infrastructure and Logistics eleven years ago," she continued. "I already checked the official records, and there's nothing there. But there should be something in their private records."
I nodded slowly.
"Alright."
My gaze returned to the photograph lying on the table. We knew nothing about this new man, but at least now, we knew his face.
The meeting was over. Chhaya, Kabir, and Aditya went upstairs immediately to leave, while I packed the file Chhaya had given me before following them upstairs.
When I reached the studio, I found Chhaya standing near the entrance, staring at the CCTV camera.
I walked closer to her.
She had a cigar between her fingers, thin white smoke curling from it as she exhaled.
I wrinkled my nose.
"What happened?"
She moved toward the desk and opened the computer, pulling up the CCTV footage. She took a slow drag from the cigar before finally glancing at me.
"Do you know why Ranbir came here yesterday while you were not here?"
For a second, I thought I had heard her incorrectly.
"What?"
My feet suddenly felt unsteady as I stared at her.
"What do you mean, he came here?"
Chhaya turned back toward the screen and tapped one of the monitors with her finger.
"I was checking the footage before you arrived today, and I saw him enter the studio yesterday."
My eyes immediately moved toward the screen, and my heartbeat grew louder.
And there he was.
Ranbir.
I watched the CCTV footage as he entered the room.
He had a key to the studio. Of course, he did. But how?
He moved slowly through the room, looking at every painting and carefully observing every corner of the studio. His eyes lingered on things I had never thought anyone would pay attention to.
But he didn't touch anything. Not even a paintbrush.
I released the breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
Hopefully, he hadn't suspected that there was a hidden basement beneath this studio.
My feet trembled slightly.
Was he suspicious of me? Was he investigating me behind my back?
The thought made my stomach twist.
Ranbir wasn't the kind of man who simply looked around out of curiosity. If he had entered this studio and spent that much time observing everything, there had to be a reason.
What if he had noticed something?
What if he had already begun putting the pieces together?
"I didn't want to trouble you with it," Chhaya said, drawing my attention back to her. "At the time, him entering the studio didn't seem like a big deal, and you needed time to heal, so I didn't tell you. But now you seem to have recovered enough to come here for the meeting. I'm happy you're feeling better-or at least pretending to be fine again."
She stepped closer and pulled me into a hug.
I immediately wrinkled my nose.
I hated people who smoked.
Sometimes, Ranbir smelled like cigarettes too. He was a chain smoker.
The idiot would probably kill himself if he continued smoking like that. But before cigarettes could finish him, he might finish my story himself.
I pulled away from Chhaya and looked back at the CCTV screen.
How had he gotten the keys? And what else had he done behind my back?
Maybe he suspected something. Or maybe he had entered this studio because he already knew there was something worth finding.
I didn't know.
Write a comment ...