CHAPTER 23
TRISHA
An Hour Ago (Vardhaan Mansion, Cape Town)
Flashback
After searching everywhere inside the mansion, I began looking for Siya’s mother outside the gates. Nearly fifteen minutes later, one of my men called me in panic. He informed me that Samarjeet had already taken Siya downstairs towards the wedding mandap a few minutes earlier.
Damn it.
I immediately turned back towards the massive gates and hurried along the long stone pathway running beside the estate walls, trying to figure out how I could get inside and reach Siya before the ceremony began.
But as I neared the entrance, my steps froze.
Just outside the estate gates, nearly twenty black SUVs were pulling up one after another.
For a moment, I simply stared. Who the hell were they?
If they were wedding guests, why were they parking outside the gates instead of driving straight in?
Suddenly, the vehicle door opened, and armed ruthless-looking men dressed entirely in black began to step out almost immediately.
They openly carried rifles like they were least concerned about who saw them.
“What the hell…” I muttered under my breath as more men emerged from the convoy. These men didn’t look like they were arriving at a wedding venue; they looked like they were entering a war zone.
The security team stationed at the main gates reacted immediately.
Guns were drawn, and men started shouting orders.
More guards rushed towards the entrance, clearly about to shut the gates from the inside.
Even I was about to call my men inside to secure Siya until I could reach her… when the door of the centre SUV opened.
And there he was.
Raghav.
What the f*ck was he doing in Cape Town?
He stepped out of the vehicle almost in slow motion, as if he had all the time in the world.
A cigarette burned between his fingers while his AirPods rested in his ears.
The sight alone made my stomach tighten.
Raghav only listened to that slow instrumental music when he was under extreme stress to calm the chaos inside his head.
It was his way of silencing the storm before destruction followed.
But the calm on his face right now wasn’t the usual kind.
It was the kind of calm that carried a warning, one that told you someone was about to get hurt very, very badly.
My throat turned dry as I stared at the line of armed men surrounding him.
Were all these men his? How the hell could he have assembled an army like this?
Raghav looked different today. Terrifyingly familiar to the one I saw two and a half years ago. Tonight, for some odd reason, he carried that same aura of the Dark Prince… the mafia heir who once burned down entire syndicates overnight if they weren’t on his side.
Suddenly, my phone vibrated inside my pocket. It was Ayaan.
I quickly stepped back and hid myself behind one of the enormous rain trees lining the outer boundary wall of Vardhaan Mansion, the thick trunk shielding me from the guards and the men stepping out of those SUVs. From there, I answered the call without taking my eyes off Raghav.
“Trisha, where are you?” Ayaan’s voice sounded tense as soon as the line connected. “Raghav has left for Cape Town. I’ve been trying to reach him continuously, but—”
“He’s here,” I cut him off before he could finish.
A pause followed. “What?”
“He’s already here, Ayaan. At Vardhaan Mansion,” I whispered shakily while staring at Raghav again.
I switched the call to video, adjusted the camera, and zoomed in on the entrance.
Ayaan wasn’t alone. Krish was standing beside him.
Meher too. Just as I slightly shifted the camera, I noticed Kailash Uncle standing right behind them.
At first, all four of them stared at the screen in confusion.
Then realisation hit, and their confusion slowly turned into shock.
Outside the mansion gates, bullets had already started flying from both sides. Vardhaan security forces rushed towards the entrance while Raghav’s men immediately opened fire back.
But in the middle of all that chaos, Raghav remained terrifyingly calm. Bullets tore through the air around him, yet none came anywhere close to him. His men moved sharply around him in a deadly formation, providing cover while continuing the attack.
Then, without a shred of urgency, Raghav pulled the AirPods from his ears. He opened the SUV door beside him and tossed them carelessly into the backseat. Next, he pulled out a sleek matte-black semi-automatic gun fitted with an extended magazine.
My pulse roared as he held the gun in one hand while shutting the SUV door with the other.
The movement was so casual that it sent a chill down my spine.
I knew everyone from the family watching this had the same reaction on seeing Raghav with a gun.
This wasn’t normal. It was catastrophic.
Because we all knew Raghav had stopped touching guns after the night he had shot his own father.
For a few seconds, nobody on the call said a word. Because the scene unfolding before us felt too unreal to process. Raghav calmly checked the weapon, then took another slow drag from his cigarette before walking towards the entrance of the mansion.
“Oh my God…” Meher whispered weakly from the other end of the call.
Even Kailash Uncle had gone visibly pale, while Ayaan and Krish stared at the screen in horror. Because the man walking towards Vardhaan Mansion was no longer the Raghav we had known for the past two and a half years.
This was the Dark Prince, the very version none of us ever wanted Raghav to turn into again.
A bullet flew past him. He didn’t even flinch. One of the Vardhaan guards suddenly charged towards him from the side with a weapon raised, but Raghav shot him dead without even slowing down.
Another guard came from the opposite direction.
Another bullet.
Another body collapsed.
And Raghav just kept walking.
Like death itself had entered Vardhaan Mansion tonight wearing black. Bloodshed had once been second nature to him. And tonight, he had stepped right back into it without the slightest hesitation.
The entire family had always avoided discussing Raghav’s past in detail.
We all knew pieces of it, but few of us had ever seen the Dark Prince in action.
But today, we were all watching him live, and it was horrifying.
This ruthless version of Raghav showed no hesitation, no panic, and no humanity on his face. Only brutal rage.
Raghav kept killing Vardhaan men one after another without a second thought.
I heard Krish swear under his breath on the video call.
Meher gasped softly. Ayaan stood frozen in shock and anger.
Colour drained from Kailash Uncle’s face as he slowly sat down on the couch behind him, as if his legs had suddenly lost their strength.
“No…” he whispered brokenly. “Raghav…”
My chest tightened painfully at the fear in his voice.
Meher immediately sat down beside him and held his arm while tears gathered in her own eyes too.
Because each one of us watching now understood the same terrifying truth.
Raghav was no longer hiding from the underworld.
Tonight, he had stepped out of the shadows and brought the Dark Prince back to life for one woman… Siya Vardhaan.
He was here to take her back to RK Estate.
Because Ayaan had changed the plans at the last minute.
Somewhere deep down, the realisation made guilt crawl through my spine.
Ayaan had specifically instructed me not to tell Raghav about the change in drop-off location for Siya.
And yet I had told him. Had I not, this situation today might have been averted.
But I never imagined Raghav would react like this. Never thought he would resurrect his entire mafia identity overnight and storm straight into a Vardhaan wedding with enough ammunition to start a war.
My hands trembled while holding the phone, but I kept showing them live feed of everything happening in front of me almost mechanically.
The gunfire. The screaming guests. The blood spreading across the pathways of the mansion.
Raghav kept shooting every man who crossed his path. Men dropped dead in front of him while he continued walking towards the mandap like nothing around him mattered except Siya.
When he shot Parag on his shoulder, Ayaan completely lost whatever composure he had left.
“Raghav, what the f*ck are you doing?” he yelled, as if Raghav could somehow hear him through the screen.
“Should I intercept?” I asked Ayaan and Krish, who were still watching everything in shock. When neither of them answered, I repeated again. “I’m waiting for your orders.”
Krish immediately shook his head, clearly hating the idea. That’s when Ayaan spoke up.
“Don’t,” he said, clenching his jaw. “You have done enough damage already, Trisha.” The hurt in his eyes hit harder than his words. “Despite my orders, you told him about the change in plans, didn’t you? That you are not taking Siya back to the RK Estate, but somewhere else?”
I swallowed, unable to respond. While Ayaan glared at me knowingly, Krish shook his head in equal frustration.
“You told him, Trisha?” Krish asked, furious. “How could you? You knew he would react immediately. Then why didn’t you keep your mouth shut for once?”
“I told Raghav because he’s my friend. He had trusted me with this mission. But I didn’t know he would do this…” I shot back, controlling my own anger and guilt.
“You can’t justify this,” Krish shouted. “Look at what you have done. You have awakened the beast. Everything changes now because of your one decision. It’s gone too far already,” he added.
I realised that too. No matter how hard we tried, stopping Raghav seemed impossible now. That darkness of his old mafia life had completely taken over him again. And we all knew this version of Raghav didn’t pause to think emotionally. Once he snapped, he only brought destruction.