Page 107 of The Redemption
“Fair enough.”
Samarjeet gestures towards the garlands.
“Jaimala first.”
And then Parag reaches forward and picks up one of the garlands. I still don’t move. I don’t even attempt to touch the second garland lying beside me until Samarjeet suddenly grabs my wrist hard enough to hurt, and forces the garland into my hands.
“Stop being difficult,” he mutters through clenched teeth, his smile never reaching his eyes. “Everyone’s watching.”
My fingers tighten unwillingly around the garland. This cannot happen. Across from me, Parag lifts his own varmala with an annoyingly eager smile on his face. Around us, the guests continue to watch us, some talking amongst themselves, some recording videos, others simply waiting for the alliance between the Reddys and the Vardhaans to be sealed at last.
My pulse races.
Where is Trisha? Where is Mom? Why hasn’t anybody come for me yet?
Just as Parag takes a step towards me to place the varmala around my neck, a gunshot explodes through the air. The sound cracks across the lawn with such force that my entire body jerks. The varmala flies out of Parag’s hand before it can touch me, the flowers bursting open and scattering across the ground.
For one second, nobody seems to understand what just happened. Then chaos erupts. Women scream. Men duck instinctively. Chairs are overturned. Another gunshot pierces the air. I stumble backwards, my heart slamming violently inside my chest as I look around in shock.
What the hell is happening?
My first thought is Trisha.Did she do this? Is this part of the extraction?
But the moment I turn towards the outer perimeter of the mansion, my breath leaves me completely.
There are dozens… no… hundreds of armed men in black tactical suits with heavy rifles pouring in from every direction. Within seconds they flood the entire Vardhaan Mansion like an invading army, surrounding every corner of the lawn, every staircase, every exit point.
And I know one thing immediately. These men do not belong to the Vardhaans or the Reddys. I know both syndicates’ security teams by now. Their uniforms. Their weapons. Their formations.
These men are different. More organised. Far deadlier.
Panic spreads through the guests almost instantly as more gunfire erupts near the entrance gates. Guards begin pulling out weapons from beneath their jackets. People start shouting orders from every direction. Some rush for cover while others remain frozen in shock, unable to process what is happening.
Even Samarjeet ducks behind one of the decorative pillars beside the mandap, swearing furiously. But none of it matters anymore. Because whoever these men are… they have already taken control of the mansion.
The varmala still hangs from my numb fingers, and I can barely breathe. Then, through the chaos, I seehim.
Raghav.
He’s dressed entirely in black. The top two buttons of his shirt are undone, exposing the sharp V of his throat where his chain and pendant glint against his skin. With his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, dark cargo pants, and combat boots, he walks straight through the middle of the gunfire like hell itself has opened its doors for him.
The rough stubble along his jaw is darker than before. Untamed. And his eyes look terrifying, as if he hasn’t slept properly in days. A black automatic rifle hangs effortlessly from one hand, the kind that’s built for massacres. Smoke curls around him from both the bullets firing across the mansion and the lit cigar burning between his fingers in the other hand. He takes another slow drag from it as though this entire bloodbath around him is nothing unusual, as if this is home. There’s something almost inhuman about the way he moves through the gunfire.
And for a second… my entire world stops.
What is he doing here? In Cape Town?
This isn’t the controlled businessman from RK Estate. Nor the restrained version of him I saw in Shivtara Valley. This is someone else entirely. Today, he looks exactly like the man the underworld once feared.The Dark Prince.The man who had walked away from the mafia world, and has now returned to it the way legends are born.
Violently.Without warning. Ready to bring devastation to whoever crosses his path.
And he isn’t hiding anymore.
He’s walking openly into the middle of two mafia syndicates and revealing himself to almost the entire underworld present here that…
The Dark Prince… Raghav Khurana… is alive.
I hear the reactions around me immediately.
