ch 46 keys to secrets
Meanwhile, miles away, in a grand conference hall buzzing with executives and investors, Aarav sat at the head of a polished mahogany table.
His expression was composed as ever sharp suit, calm authority radiating effortlessly yet his eyes flickered to his phone every few minutes.
Aditya's words from earlier meetings still echoed faintly in his head, but something inside him was uneasy.
He couldn't explain it a strange heaviness in his chest, like something was wrong.
A presentation was going on, numbers and projections flashing on the screen. Aarav's phone buzzed onceAshiana's name lit up on the display.
Instantly, he straightened, the pen slipping from his fingers.
He swiped the screen, pressing the phone to his ear. "Ashiana?"
Silence.
Then faint static a muffled sound, her breathing, chaos in the background and suddenly the line went dead.
He froze. The room faded around him.
"Aarav sir? Is everything alright?" one of the board members asked cautiously.
He stood up, voice low but edged with steel. "Cancel the rest of the meet. Now."
The conference room fell silent. His team exchanged nervous looks as Aarav grabbed his coat, already calling Aditya.
"Track her phone. Now. I don't care how far I am — I'm leaving."
Within minutes, he was out of the building, his car roaring onto the highway every second stretching like an eternity the only thing echoing in his mind was her voice that didn't answer and the broken sound of her breathing before the call went dead.
Aarav's car screeched to a halt on the side of the highway as Raghav's voice came through the Bluetooth shaky, uneven, and heavy with dread.
"Bhai..." Raghav's breath hitched audibly. "Raj... they... they both..."
Aarav's grip on the steering wheel tightened so hard his knuckles turned white. "Raghav,"
he said sharply, voice low, controlled but only barely. "What happened to them?"
There was silence on the line, broken only by the sound of wind and distant traffic from Raghav's end.
Then Raghav finally spoke, voice trembling. "We found Ashiana's car... near the old bypass road. The guards just called ... the car doors are open, phone's still inside, and—" he swallowed hard, "—they're not there, bhai. Raj and Ashiana, they're missing."
For a moment, Aarav couldn't breathe. His eyes darted to the road ahead, vision blurring with a storm of rage and fear.
He inhaled sharply, forcing his voice steady. "Send me the coordinates."
"Already done," Raghav replied instantly. "Kabir and Aditya are on their way there. We'll find them, bhai."
But Aarav's mind was already racing, pulse pounding in his ears. Not her. Not Raj.
"Whoever touched them... will beg for death before I'm done."
then meanwhile
at a dark room two chairs were there a hanging bulb upwards in the light of bulb ashiana eyes stirs she opens her eyes and looks around seeing only darkness around and silence and bulb swunging upwards.
then Raj ... her eyes searched for him then her gaze goes beside her and sees Raj was too tied beside her on other chair his small hands cruelly tied on chair .
but he was still unconsciousness.
Ashiana 's breath hitches thousand of thought ran in her head.
Ashina's throat felt raw as she forced the words out, voice trembling on the edge of hysteria.
"Raj... Raj, baby.. open your eyes... Di is here... wake up, please—"
His chest rose and fell but his eyelids fluttered only once, heavy as if weighted with sleep. The room smelled of damp concrete and something metallic.
Cold light from a single bare bulb swung overhead, making everything jumpy and sharp.
Ashiana tried to move.
her hands were tied behind her the rope biting into the skin and when she twisted, pain flared in her.
The chair groaned. she forced her wrists against the knot until her fingers felt numb.
she scraped them across the rough edge of the chair, searching for anything that could loosen the rope.
"Come on, come on," she whispered, breath breaking.
her fingers found a ragged screw head on the chair leg. It was small, useless-looking but she worked it against the knot anyway, teeth clenched, nausea and fear rising hot in her throat.
Raj moaned softly, one small hand twitching. That tiny movement made the whole world tilt. "Raj," she sobbed, bending forward, pressing her face to his shoulder.
A booted foot made her freeze.
From somewhere down the corridor heavy steps, then a shadow sliding across the doorway.
she pulled back, heart hammering so loud she was sure whoever stood there could hear it.
A booted foot made me freeze.
Then she froze completely her fingers halted mid-motion over the frayed rope.
A sound cut through the silence, soft but sharp enough to slice through her chest like a knife.
That whistle.
The same low, mocking, almost playful whistle she'd heard in the office garden.
The same one near the market.
Her blood ran cold. Every hair on her arm stood on end as the sound grew closer, echoing off the concrete walls, crawling into her ears like poison.
The door creaked. Metal scraping against metal.
Light spilled in from the corridor cold, harsh, and merciless.
Then she saw him.
A tall man stepped in, his face hidden behind a black metal mask, the reflection of the flickering bulb dancing on its sharp edges.
His gloved hands hung loosely by his sides, one of them tapping against a knife handle as he tilted his head.
He began whistling again, slow and deliberate, eyes locked on her.
When he finally stopped, his voice came out smooth and taunting, dripping with dark amusement.
"Welcome, darling..."
Ashiana grit her teeth, fire flaring behind her eyes. her fingers work harder at the knot, but she force her voice out steady and sharp.
"Who are you? What do you want?" she spit.
The masked man smiles the sound is empty and cruel, like metal on bone.
He begins to circle the two chairs, slow, theatrical, the single bulb catching the mask and throwing shards of light across the walls.
He laughs thin, psychotic.
"Relax, darling... relax. Just chill," he croons, voice oily with amusement. "You want answers? I'll give you answers. But first—"
He stops right in front of her.
One gloved hand drops to the arm of her chair he leans in so close she can feel the cold of the metal mask.
He tilts his head, studying her like a specimen.
"Hmmm..." he says, as if tasting the word.
"So you are the one the key to everyone's locked secrets, aren't you?"
His words are low, dangerous, reverberating off the concrete. "Funny thing.. the men upstairs thought taking you would make the others scramble. They didn't know you hold more than a beating heart. You... hold doors."
A tall figure stepped halfway into the dim light, the long coat brushing against the floor, the shadow swallowing half his face.
Only the faint glint of his watch and the cold curl of his smile could be seen.
her lips trembled. "W–who are you?" she whispered.
The masked man stepped aside instantly, lowering his head as if the true monster had just entered the room.
The man in the coat chuckled slow, deliberate.
"Ashiana Sharma," he said again, her name rolling off his tongue like it had weight. "Daughter of Rajeev Sharma... who died years ago in a fire that wasn't supposed to happen."
her stomach twisted. her heartbeat roared in her ears.
"What ... what are you talking about?" she forced out, her voice breaking halfway.
He took another step forward; the light caught the edges of his jaw now, cruel and sharp.
"Don't look so confused, dear,"
He took another step forward; the hard light sliced across his jaw, making every angle of his face look like a blade.
He tilted his head, watching her as if he'd been reading her for years.
"Don't look so confused, dear," he said, and a laugh cold and mirthless spilled out of him. It wasn't amusement. It was a promise.
"he left.... but left purpose behind," he continued, voice smooth as oil.
"A purpose. And now only you can fulfill it. Soon... it will be fulfilled." His eyes fixed on her for a long beat,
then he turned and left the room as quietly as he had entered, his coat swallowing the light.
For a second the concrete held its breath.
The masked man's head cocked, a small, satisfied sound escaping behind the half-mask.
He stepped closer to where she still sat, ropes slack now, and his words were venom wrapped in velvet.
"You heard him, darling," he purred. "Just a few hours, and everything will be over."
He let the sentence hang between us like a falling blade, then melted back into the corridor and left from there.