Page 6 of The Redemption
Temporary relief surges through me. Whoever that woman was, she didn’t need saving. Even when she surrendered, there was nothing weak about it. She surrendered with command and authority. As if the choice had been entirely hers. That kind of attitude doesn’t come from nowhere. No… A woman like her was definitely born into power. Raised on a throne. Taught to rule. Which makes me all the more curious to know who she is.
I haven’t even reached the airport when my phone buzzes in my hand. It’s a message from Haider.
A file appears on the screen. Her entire profile.
The daughter of the late kingpin of the Vardhaan mafia group, Shamsher Vardhaan.
She’sSiya Vardhaan.
The mafia princess.
F*ck!
CHAPTER 1
RAGHAV
Nine Months Later
RK Estate, Shivtara Valley, Himachal Pradesh
The air is thick with cigarette smoke, choking the room with its bitter stench. I know this place. Too well.
It’s dark and eerily quiet, except for the creak of my shoes sticking to the blood pooling on the floor. With every step I take inside, the walls seem to close in, each one marked with the Bat emblem. The symbol that once defined me, bound me, damned me.
I’ve lived in this stench since birth. I’ve killed in it. But tonight, the smell feels worse than I remember. Blood. Alcohol. Smoke. All tangled together until my stomach twists, and makes me nauseous.
And then I hear it.
A scream.
High-pitched, raw, filled with terror I’ve never heard in this place before.
It’s not a man. It’s a woman.
What the hell is a woman doing here? In this cage, where my father and I turned enemies into corpses? Where mercy never crossed the threshold!
Her cries grow sharper the closer I get.I’ve seen men beg in here. Watched them crumble. Watched blood spill until the floors drowned in it. But none of it touched me like this. None of it felt like… this.
My feet move faster, the rage building before I even know why. Whoever’s torturing her is already dead. I’ll kill him with my bare hands if I have to. Because there’s one thing I’ve never done, one line I’ve never crossed. I do not hurt women. Never have. Never will.
My pace quickens until I finally see her. She’s tied to a chair, her body limp, her face twisted in agony. Her voice trembles as she pleads for mercy. Then she slowly turns towards me, and I freeze.
It’s her.
My mother, with her face partially burnt.
Red-hot rage burns through me as her face lifts towards mine. Her eyes are not filled with tears but with blood. Seeing her broken like this feels like a nightmare carved straight out of hell. My mother shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t look like this.
And then I see the man responsible for her misery. From the shadows behind her, my father steps forward. Tej Khurana. The man who carved this empire out of blood and fear. His gaze is cold and merciless, as always. The Bat emblem branded on the back of his palm glows faintly as his hand slowly rises. He aims a gun directly at my mother’s head.
“No.”
The word tears from my throat like a roar as I grip the gun already in my hand. The moment his finger twitches on the trigger, mine pulls first. The shot echoes through the room like thunder, splattering blood across the walls and across my face.
His blood. My father’s.
His lifeless body collapses to the floor with a dull thud. He’s dead. I ended his life and saved my mother from misery. I lookback at the chair to tell my mother that she is safe, but it is empty. There’s no one there. She is gone. Her tortured form dissolves into the smoke as if she had never been there at all. As if it were all an illusion. A ghost of my guilt.
