Page 243 of The Redemption
“Your father killed him only because, somewhere along the way, you started loving and admiring my father more than your own father.”
Neither of us speaks for several seconds. Finally, Siya lifts a trembling hand and wipes the tears from her face.
“Nobody knew about this. And Shamsher Vardhaan...” Her voice falters before she forces herself to continue. “He took me under his wing. He and his wife, Rukmini Vardhaan, adopted me. That’s how I became the Vardhaan mafia princess. That’s how I grew up with them, and they became my family.”
I stare at her for a long moment, letting every piece of the puzzle fall into place. Then another memory surfaces.
“At Meher’s baby shower...” I say slowly. “When you were talking about Samarjeet and suddenly stopped... when you left that sentence unfinished... this is what you were hiding, isn’t it?”
Siya nods. “Yes.”
My thumb brushes over her knuckles before the question I’ve been holding back finally leaves my lips.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her eyes slowly rise to mine.
“Why did you hide something this big from me, Siya?”
“I wanted to tell you, Raghav.” Siya lets out a weary breath. “But there was never a right time. I was already angry because of the way our marriage happened. And that night, when you woke up from that nightmare, when you told me about your father and about how you found out that Taj Khurana was responsible for killing your bodyguard…” She pauses to swallow. “I wantedto tell you everything. I wanted to tell you that the man you mourned all these years, the man whose death changed your life... wasmyfather.”
A tear slips down her cheek.
“But I couldn’t. Because your pain was too much for me to add mine to it. I just couldn’t do it. And that music you hear, the one he gave you? It was the melody he had taught me when I was a child.”
A lone tear falls from my eye, and Siya reaches up to wipe it away.
“And all this time, I never knew how much it meant to you. But that night, when I heard you listening to it, I realised how much you loved him. How much you still respected him and missed him… just like me.”
And as those words leave her mouth, another memory stirs somewhere in the back of my mind.
I was twelve, maybe thirteen then. I was alone in one of the courtyards of the Vardhaan Mansion, cleaning my gun. By then, I already knew how to shoot. My father made sure of that. I was completely focused on the weapon in my hands when a small voice interrupted me.
“Can you let me hold that?”
I looked up, and there she was. A tiny little girl with two braids and a simple frock standing right in front of me. She was seven or eight years old, yet was far too curious for her own good. She pointed directly at the gun in my hand.
“I want to learn to shoot,” she said.
I remember staring at her as though she had completely lost her mind.
“No.”
She blinked. “No?”
“No. This isn’t a toy,” I repeated, returning my attention to the gun. “It’s not something a kiddo like you should be playing with.”
That clearly offended her. A frown appeared on her tiny face.
“If I’m a kiddo, then so are you.”
My head snapped up in irritation.
“I’m not a kiddo,” I replied almost automatically. “I am Raghav.”
She blinked at me as if processing my name.
“And who are you?” I asked.
