CHAPTER 6 The Architect of Ashes #2
Rudra reached into the inner breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out his sleek, black smartphone. He did not hesitate. He did not deliberate. He dialed a number and put it on speakerphone, setting the device on the glass coffee table in front of them.
The phone rang exactly twice.
“Yes, Mr. Rathore-Chauhan,” the crisp, professional voice of his lead counsel, Mr. Malhotra, filled the silent room.
“Malhotra,” Rudra said, looking directly at the four terrified faces of his family. “Execute the severing protocols on the family trust. Immediately.”
Kanta let out a loud, wailing sob. Birendra closed his eyes, his head dropping to his chest.
“Understood, sir,” Malhotra replied calmly, the tapping of a keyboard audible in the background. “To what extent?”
“Strip them of all operational shares. Liquidate the secondary estates and freeze all discretionary accounts,” Rudra commanded coldly, watching as Ahana collapsed onto her knees on the Persian rug, weeping hysterically.
“Leave them only the primary trust allowance. The bare minimum. They can keep their current lifestyle, the maintenance of this house, and their basic allowances. Nothing more. No access to corporate funds, no private jets, no company credit lines. They are officially removed from Rathore-Chauhan Enterprises.”
“It will be filed within the hour, sir,” Malhotra confirmed.
Rudra ended the call. He picked up his phone and slipped it back into his pocket.
He looked down at his family, a collection of broken, weeping aristocrats who had finally reaped what they had sown.
“You can keep your lifestyle,” Rudra said, his voice ringing with a cold finality. “Consider that a mercy. A mercy you did not show to Mihika. A mercy you did not show my sister. But mark my words...”
He leaned in closer, his dark eyes flashing with a promised violence.
“This minimum allowance is only guaranteed as of tonight. If Mihika... if the woman who is the center of my universe, ever decides that she wants to see you bleed for what you did to her? Then, Kanta... Birendra... you will bleed. If she wants this house, I will take it. If she wants you on the streets, I will throw you out myself. Your entire existence now relies on the forgiveness of the woman you threw away.”
The family was terrified. The air was sucked out of their lungs. They were at the mercy of the girl they had treated like dirt beneath their expensive shoes.
“My legal team will be here in twenty minutes to handle the formalities and the signatures,” Rudra stated, turning his back on them. “If you refuse to sign, the minimum allowance is revoked, and you get nothing.”
He didn’t wait for a response. He didn’t look back. Rudransh Rathore-Chauhan walked out of the grand parlor, his heavy footsteps echoing down the marble hallway, leaving behind nothing but the ashes of the empire they had tried to protect.
***
The moment the heavy double doors clicked shut behind Rudra, sealing the family inside their luxurious, gilded tomb, the dynamic in the room violently fractured.
The shock wore off, instantly replaced by a toxic, venomous realization of what had just transpired.
Ishana and Ahana, stripped of their future billions, turned on their parents with the ferocity of starved wolves.
“Are you happy now?” Ishana shrieked, her voice echoing off the high ceilings, her face contorted with raw rage.
She marched over to where Kanta was weeping on the settee and stood over her mother.
“Are you satisfied, Mother? You protected the precious legacy! And look what it got us! We have nothing!”
Birendra finally opened his eyes, trying to muster a shred of his former authority. “Ishana, lower your voice. We are still your parents. We still have the house. We still have the allowance—”
“The allowance?!” Ahana screamed, leaping up from the floor, her tear-streaked face a mask of fury. “He took the jets! He took the company credit! We are going to be a laughingstock at the club! We are practically destitute compared to what we were!”
“How dumb could you possibly be?!” Ishana yelled, pacing furiously back and forth, her hands tearing at her own hair. “How incredibly, catastrophically dumb would you have to be to not notice how much Rudra loved her?!”
Kanta looked up, her mascara running in dark tracks down her cheeks. “He is a Rathore-Chauhan! He was supposed to marry a Singhania! A Birla! I thought he would get over it!”
“Get over it?!” Ishana laughed, a harsh, maniacal sound.
“He took in another man’s bastard child without a second thought because Mihika loved him!
He built a multi-billion-dollar empire from scratch just so he wouldn’t have to answer to you!
He looked at her like she was the sun, and you thought he would just shrug his shoulders when she disappeared? !”
Ahana wiped her face furiously. “Why did you think he would keep quiet once the truth came out? Did you really think a secret like this could be kept forever? He is Rudransh! He destroys companies for fun! You thought you could outsmart him?”
Birendra stood up, his fists clenched. “We did what had to be done to save him from scandal!”
“You saved no one!” Ishana spat, stepping right into her father’s face, completely devoid of respect.
“Didn’t you see that both Rudra and Aryan loved Mihika?
She was their entire center! She was the only thing keeping Rudra from turning into the cold, ruthless monster he is now!
And you were so stupid, so blindly arrogant, to treat her like an orphaned servant and abuse her! ”
Kanta flinched at the word abuse. “We did not abuse her. We merely reminded her of her place.”
Ishana stopped pacing. A sudden, chilling realization washed over her features, draining the furious red from her face and leaving her chalk-white. She looked at Ahana, and then slowly back to her parents. Her eyes widened in pure horror.
“Oh my god,” Ishana whispered, her voice trembling.
“What?” Ahana asked, stepping back, terrified by the look on her sister’s face.
“We only told him... we only revealed what happened the day she left,” Ishana said, the realization settling over the room like a death sentence. “We only told him about the blackmail. About the dossier.”
Birendra frowned, confused. “Yes. That is the truth of why she left. He has his answer.”
“You idiots,” Ishana breathed, taking a step away from them as if they were infected with the plague. “Do you not realize what we have done? For six years... for six years before that day, whenever Rudra was at the office, whenever he was traveling... what did you do to her, Mother?”
Kanta’s breathing hitched.