Chapter 37
THIRTY-SEVEN
Greesha
When I found the bleeding corpses of my parents in our veranda, watching the blood slowly seep into the brick-ridden cracks on the ground—finding its geometric path to me—I realized that my reality isn’t what I see. It is forged by someone else.
I was devastated.
When I put pretty little holes into my family members’ heads—carving an unwritten rule for the rest of my family—to never defy me. Me, the ghost they never saw coming?
I was liberated.
When Karim used my body as a tool, but left my mind partially sound enough to fuck with his machinations—
I was broken.
Today? Having Viraj—the man who held my hand through the time I was picking up the broken pieces—shamelessly jeopardize the mission by putting my Advik through danger?
I find myself... rebuilding.
Because Viraj didn’t heal me. He put a bandaid on my trauma. Shaped me into a viable machine. He built circumstances that will have me clinging to the sense of usefulness that I had started lacking. Because mission objectives overrule humanity for him, don’t they?
I see it now. I saw it before too.
“Dev,” I say calmly, still staring at Viraj. “I need you to go to the guest bedroom and stay there for the next twenty minutes. Close the door.”
Dev doesn’t argue. He scurries down the hallway. The moment I hear the door click shut, I speak.
“Sit, Lakshit,” I nod at the armchair next to him. “Let’s chat, shall we?”
His brows dip in surprise but he doesn’t let go of the sliver of control he thinks he still has.
Even as he obeys and settles down, I watch him. Studying his features that seem awfully calm—considering whether his little game is up.
Why? Why would he suggest this... this escalation when we’ve been working on finding the best trap?
I wonder why he had Advik abandon the wedding halfway and had him return so quickly. I also think about the fact that he proposed this plan to him while I was gone.
I don’t usually pick Dev up. Viraj has been doing it for the past week. Which is why—today—when he asked me to pick him up because he was coming to the apartment earlier—I was surprised.
I sit on the couch, the dented coffee table between us.
“Ask,” he says. His voice is equally calm as it is deadly.
“Why?”
My face is blank. I don’t wish to give anything away just yet.
He sighs, resting his forearms on his knees. “Because we’re wasting time by finding the perfect trap. We can easily escalate this and have Mehul frantic instead of careful.”
“Why?”
He stares at me, eyes belying the restrained irritation. “Because! We’ve been sitting on this for months, Greesha. Mohan Bedi’s take down didn’t take this long.”
“Mohan Bedi’s takedown didn’t dismantle their dirty little operation either. Mehul took over. Again. Why?” I give him my own raging stare.
“Because we’ve been handling this wrong. The trap needs its own trap, at this point. We need Mehul to make this error,” he says the words as if they’re actually a valid answer.
“Why, Lakshit?” I frown.
“Behenchod!” he finally snaps. “Because...”
He shoots up, his movements jerky. Come on, Lakshit. Break for me.
“Because this has gone on too long, okay? We’ve saved way too many kids being shipped off. And lost just as many!”
His breathing picks up slightly but I can see his urge to not fully snap.
Then I remember his casual admission a few months ago. When he blatantly refused to care for the kids. When I learned that he knew about Khushi Joshi.
‘Because our assignment is Mehul. Not running interference with the existing operations of his. GenVault was the asset we needed. Because we want to dismantle him. Not weaken him.’
Those were his words.
Interesting. Because he is using the excuse he once didn’t care about—to escalate the whole damn mission.
I get up too. “Really?”
A smirk crawls out as I step toward him. “Now you care for the kids?”
His jaw clenches but I don’t stop. “Now you care that we’re wasting precious time?”
He shakes his head in disbelief. As though my words are simply... inconvenient.
“Why?”
I ask again. And I watch the man I once thought I loved—at least a version of it—completely disappear. His nostrils flare indignantly.
“Because the sooner we end this...” he grits out—stepping closer, his frame towering over me. “The sooner I get you away from this. The sooner I get you away—”
“From him,” I finish for him.
I suspected he wouldn’t let me go that easily. Even if I ended things with him. He wasn’t going to let it go.
But I didn’t expect him to pull an underhanded tactic like this—to endanger someone innocent. Someone he knew I still held in my heart... after all these years.
I step back. Slowly—calmly. Then another step.
He frowns at my retreat, but I don’t give him time to speculate.
I spring one leg onto the couch behind me—gaining just enough height over his frame. And then... I do it.
I lunge.
Arms circling his neck, I use my momentum to throw him off balance. He startles—his only mistake. And it costs him.
We crash to the ground, his knees hitting the floor as I lock my arms tighter. My legs wrap around his thighs, jiu-jitsu-style—muscle memory taking over.
Viraj and I have sparred before. Many times. But I’ve never tried to actually smother the man. Right now? I don’t fucking care.
“Fucking hell—st-stop,” he croaks, tapping my arm like that’s going to get him out. It’s not. This isn’t a tap out, sweetheart.
He fights back, trying to pry my arms off. He’s stronger, sure. But I don’t let go.
I squeeze harder—compressing the sides of his neck. Cutting off blood flow to his overconfident, overreaching brain.
My own blood is thundering. Rage boiling through every vein.
He knows this move. And I know what it forces him to do—to hurt me if he wants to break free—get out of my hold. And I’m banking on the fact that he won’t be able to.
Not really.
A few more seconds and... he goes slack.
I release him. Letting his unconscious body slump to the carpet.
When he wakes up, he’ll know exactly what this was.
My act of defiance.
My refusal to kneel.
My final goodbye.
The scuffle must’ve alerted Dev. Because when I look up, he’s frozen at the hallway—wide-eyed, staring at me and Viraj’s limp form on the floor.
“I...” he rasps. “I thought I heard something. Wanted to check if—uh—you guys were alright. Clearly...”
“Clearly we are,” I say with a smile that doesn’t meet my eyes.
Leaving Dev behind with Viraj’s knocked-out body, I head to Advik’s room.
I think I’m walking in to bring another man down a peg.
But that’s not what happens.
If I had known what was waiting for me in the next ten minutes...
I wouldn’t have stepped inside.