Page 201 of The Redemption
By the time I return to our room, Raghav has already showered. He’s dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants, and is standing alone on the balcony with his back to me. Moonlight spills over him as both his hands rest lightly on the balcony railing.
That’s when I notice the AirPod in one of his ears, its tiny light glowing softly,while the other one lies forgotten on the bed beside me. Whatever he’s listening to is still playing. Curiosity gets the better of me, so I slowly pick up the other AirPod from the bed and slip it into my ear. It’s a piece of music. The deep, haunting notes of a cello fill my ears, taking me by surprise.
Raghav turns the very next instant, as if sensing my presence, and I look at him in disbelief. His eyes land on me and then on the AirPod in my ear. Slowly, I remove it as he walks back inside.
“This…” I begin, still trying to process everything. “This music?”
“I listen tothiswhenever I’m stressed,” he says, seemingly lost in some deep thoughts. “Thisparticularpiece is the only thing that calms me down, no matter how bad my mood is, how angry I am, or how awful I feel.”
Really?I shake my head in disbelief. “I always thought you dealt with stress by shutting the out the world... not by listening to music.”
“It’s not just any piece of music to me, Siya.” He gives a faint smile and replies, “It’s an emotion, a strength given to me by someone I really liked and respected when I was young. I was around thirteen. Wild. Untamed. Already angry at the world before I even knew why.”
He looks away.
“Once, I blacked out in my own rage,” he says quietly. “I nearly beat a man to death. By the time they dragged him away, his face was barely recognisable.”
My breath catches.
“He lived,” Raghav continues. “But I still remember the blood on my hands. The pounding in my head. The rage that refused to leave me even after the fight ended.”
His eyes darken with the memory. “That was when my closest bodyguard stepped in. A man of few words and even fewer expressions.”
He looks somewhere beyond me, and my heart pounds. “That night, he sat beside me, handed me a pair of old headphones, and said, ‘When you cannot silence the storm inside you, Raghav, you have to learn to control it.’”
I remain completely still as he goes on. “He made me listen to this slow instrumental piece. A melody that made it feel as though the whole world had slowed down. And somehow... it worked. For the first time, the chaos inside my chest didn’t feellike an explosion waiting to happen. It felt like something I could hold on to, something I could control. So whenever I listen to this music, I remember him… and everything he did for me back then.”
I don’t know what to say. Every new truth Raghav reveals seems to peel away another layer of the man I thought I knew.
“Where… where is he now?” I ask, unable to take my eyes off him, still processing what he said about the man and that music.
Suddenly, Raghav’s expression turns serious, almost haunted. “He’s no more.”
My eyes almost tear up, but the moment I see Raghav lost in the thoughts of his past, his hands trembling in anger, I instantly reach for him.
“Raghav?” I wrap my fingers around his arm to bring him out of his thoughts.
A lone tear slips down his cheek, and I freeze. I’ve never seen him this vulnerable. It’s as if the memories he kept to himself were painful. I want to ask him more, know more, but just then, his phone buzzes. Raghav instantly snaps out of his thoughts and checks the caller ID.
It’s Haider again.
He wipes his eye and is about to leave the room when I stop him.
“Where are you going now?” I ask. “You need to rest.”
“No, Siya,” he gently frees himself from my hold. “I can’t rest until I set this right.”
With that, he turns away and walks out angrily.
I know the underworld isn’t sitting quietly. They’re coming. And Raghav wants to stay ten steps ahead of them. I sit on the edge of the bed, my mind still replaying everything he told me about the man he lost... and the music that still holds him together.
RAGHAV
Next Morning – Shergill Mansion, Mumbai
We are flying back to RK Estate today.
Last night, after sharing all those pieces of my past with Siya, I couldn’t go back to sleep. Not when the entire underworld is just waiting for one opportunity, one mistake, one opening to strike. So I spent the night on calls with Haider, planning my next moves. Even then, my worries haven’t eased.
