Chapter Fifty Two.
"Here is the documentation you requested, Mr. Rathore..." a middle-aged man in a suit said, sliding a heavy manila file across the desk.
Devraj didn't look up. His eyes were twin abysses of darkened as he pulled the file toward him.
"And the instructions? Have you initiated the first phase?"
"The team moves in tomorrow morning.." the man replied, his voice devoid of emotion.
"Good. You're dismissed."
The man offered a brief, stiff nod and exited, passing Advik in the doorway.
Advik stepped into the office, pausing as the weight of Devraj's dark aura. He looked at his friend, noting the white-knuckled grip Devraj had on the edge of the desk.
"Are you alright, Devraj? You look like you're ready to burn the city down."
"Anything to get her close.." Devraj mumbled, his voice was a low vibration that made the hair on Advik's neck stand up.
"I will do anything."
Advik let out a weary sigh. "Is this about Ira again?"
"Don't speak her name.." Devraj gritted out, his head snapping up with a glare, Advik instinctively threw his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"Devraj, chill.. But you're getting worked up over-"
"I'm leaving.." Devraj snapped already storming out of the office without a backward glance.
Advik stood in the sudden silence of the room, confused.
His gaze drifted to the file left open on the desk. Curiosity got the better of him, he leaned over and flipped through the first few pages.
His eyes widened, his breath hitching in his throat as he processed the ruthlessness of the plan.
"You have got to be kidding me..." Advik whispered, his face pale. "What the hell are you doing, Devraj?" He slammed the file shut and walked out, his mind reeling.
~??~
Ira sat on the edge of the sofa, her gaze fixed firmly on her lap, her fingers twisting nervously. Across from her, her mother sat with her arms crossed, the silence of the living room amplified by the distant hum of a ceiling fan.
Finally, her mother let out a heavy sigh.
"Why didn't you tell us any of this, Ira? And Kunal? To think you both broke up and not a single word was breathed to your own parents..."
"I'm sorry, Maa.." Ira whispered, the weight of her guilt making her voice crack. "I just... I was trying to process it. I wanted to heal a little before I had to break the news to you and Papa. I didn't want to see you hurt."
Her mother's expression softened, the sternness melting into worry. She leaned forward, searching Ira's face.
"I'm not angry with you, beta. But I am terrified. I might have been scared of what a boy like Deepak could do, but Devraj Singh Rathore? He is on a whole different level, Ira.. A Silence Obsession is bad, and to think he had held this for so long."
Ira looked up, trying to force a reassuring smile onto her face.
"Don't worry, Maa. He won't bother me anymore. I made myself very clear today. I told him exactly where he stands."
"Ira, look at me.." her mother said, her voice dropping low "With the level of desperation and madness I saw in that man's eyes today... he is no longer sane. Men like Devraj Singh Rathore don't listen to reason. Talking to him isn't a shield, it's an invitation."
Ira blinked, the intensity of her mother's words sending a cold shiver racing down her spine.
Her mother turned away, massaging her temples as a dark thought took root in her mind.
"I'm beginning to have a hunch that he is the very reason Kunal walked away from you." she mumbled under her breath, the words lost to the hum of the ceiling fan.
"Maa, please don't worry so much.." Ira said smiling. "I'll be fine. If he truly loves me, he'll have to respect my wishes. He has no other choice."
Her mother let out a dry chuckle that lacked any trace of humor.
"You really have no idea the lengths an obsessed man will go to just to satisfy his desires, do you?" she asked, her eyes searching Ira's face.
Ira's smile faltered. "What do you mean by that, Maa?"
"I'm not trying to scare you, beta... but please, just be careful." Her mother stood up..
"I'll discuss this with your father when he gets home from the workshop." She offered a worried smile before walking toward the kitchen, leaving Ira in a baffling silence.
A ping from her phone broke the tension, a notification from the local vegetable vendor.
She sighed and headed for the front door. she stepped out, the late afternoon sun casting long, orange shadows across the street.
She greeted the delivery man with a polite smile, busy checking the crates of fresh produce, completely oblivious to the world beyond her.
Across the narrow street, hidden behind the tinted glass of a parked sedan, a pair of eyes were tracked her every move.
Samar..
Samar sat in the car, his gaze focused on Ira with a stillness. He watched the way the light caught her red hair, the way she laughed at something the vendor said.
To him, she wasn't a woman, she was the perfect, beautiful bait he needed to lure the Heir of Rathore into his trap.
"That's her... Ira.." Samar whispered against the quiet interior of his car.
He watched her count out the notes, her fingers nimble and sure, before she turned and disappeared back behind the safety of her front door.
"Devraj's woman.." he added, a dark smile cutting across his face.
The hunger to see her up close, became an itch he had to scratch.
His hand reached for the door handle, his fingers clicking the lock, but he froze. His gaze flickered to a nondescript silver sedan parked two houses down. Through the tint, he caught the unmistakable glint of a high-powered lens.
It was one of Devraj's shadows. One of the many eyes he had stationed to guard his woman.
"Bastard!" Samar gritted out, his teeth bared in a silent snarl. "He's already got her under a microscope." He glared at the Verma home one last time, his eyes burning with a promise.
"I've got my eyes on you, too, little bird. And unlike him, I won't just watch."
He slammed the car into gear, the tires chirping against the pavement as he drove away.
~??~
"What?! You did what?!" Mrs. Mehra's voice rose to a piercing pitch that seemed to make the very glass in the room tremble.
"Relax, dear... let's just hear him out.." her husband tried to intervene, his voice cautious, but she snapped her head toward him with a look that silenced him instantly.
"Relax? You're telling me to relax?!" She whipped her gaze back to Kunal, her eyes flashing with a cold, aristocratic fury.
"You broke up with Ira? Have you completely lost your mind, Kunal?!"
"Maa, please..." Kunal started, his voice thick and fractured. He looked like a man who hadn't slept in forty-eight hours.
"I'm hurting too. I didn't want this. I did it for-"
"Shut your foolish mouth!" she snapped, cutting him off with a wave of her hand. "I don't care what pathetic excuse you've concocted. Fix this. Immediately. If Ira does not become my daughter-in-law, I promise you, no other woman you bring into this house will ever be welcome. Not a single one."
She cast one final, scathing glare at her husband...silently blaming him for their son's lack of backbone...and stormed out of the room, her silk sari hissing against the floor.
Kunal stood in the center of the vast room, his heart feeling like a lead weight in his chest.
He was being squeezed from both sides..Devraj's threats on one end and his mother's ruthless expectations on the other.
He was losing everything, and he was powerless to stop it.
"Your mother will cool off, Son. Give her time.." his father said, "You know how much this family loves Ira. She was already one of us. Just... fix whatever pride or petty issue is between you two. Bring her back."
Kunal let out a hollow laugh. "Papa, you don't understand. I can't fix it."
His father's brow furrowed, his expression shifting from comfort to a concern.
"What do you mean, you can't? In this life, everything broken can be mended if you have the will."
"The deal, Papa. The one you asked me to take care of at the RathoreEmpire. All those benefits in the folder I brought you..." Kunal's voice trailed off. "The price of that signature... was Ira. I had to break it off. It was the only way."
His father froze, the air around him turning cold. "W..What? How does a business have anything to do with your Ira? Who would demand such a thing?"
Kunal squeezed his eyes shut, the image of Devraj's cold, triumphant smirk burned into his retinas.
He didn't even know where to begin. How could he explain that a man like Devraj.
..a man who moved markets and crushed competitors.
..was so pathologically obsessed with a girl he love so much.
.that he was systematically dismantling her life just to leave her with no one but him?
And taking away any obstacles that will come between his aiming.
"Papa... I'm tired. I'm so incredibly tired.." Kunal whispered, his shoulders sagging under a weight no one else could see.
"I need to go back to my villa. I can't stay here tonight. I just... I need to be alone."
His father watched him, as he realized his son wasn't just heartbroken, he was defeated.
He stepped forward and patted Kunal's back, a sympathetic gesture, before nodding silently and walking away toward the stairs.
For the past forty-eight hours, Kunal's chest had felt like it was full of glass. Every breath was an agony, every thought a betrayal.
He turned and walked toward the massive front doors of the mansion, stepping out into the cold night.
He didn't want the luxury of his parents' home. He wanted the quietness of his villa, where he could drown in the silence of the life he had just traded away.
~?~
"Did anyone go to see her?" Devraj asked, his voice a rough scrape against the silence of the room.
"No, Sir. No one has approached the house since she went inside after the vegetable vendor. " the voice on the other end replied.
Devraj hung up without a word. He stared into the swirling depths of the scotch in his hand, the ice cubes clinking against the crystal. He let out a dry, hollow laugh that didn't reach his eyes.
"You've messed me up so badly, Ira." he mumbled to the empty room, his gaze fixed on the liquid fire in his glass.
"You've turned me into a man I don't even recognize."
A soft beep signaled the front door's biometric lock disengaging. Devraj didn't even bother to turn around, the heavy familiar stride told him exactly who had dared to intrude on his sanctuary.
Advik stormed in, his face flushed with anger from their office encounter.
But the moment his eyes landed on the scene at the bar, his fury flickered into a stunned worried frown.
Devraj was drinking??
In all the years they had known each other..through the high-stakes board meetings and the grueling recovery from the accident..Advik had never seen Devraj touch a drop of alcohol.
He was a man of control, a man who viewed intoxication as a weakness.
"Devraj... what the hell is wrong with you?" Advik asked, he was really worried now.
Devraj didn't offer a reply. He simply swirled the last of the scotch, downed it in a single, burning gulp, and slid off the bar stool.
He picked up the heavy crystal glass and began to walk away, his gait steady but his aura vibrating with a dangerous unstable energy.
Advik didn't let him go. He followed him into the darkened hallway.
"Why are you trying to demolish her father's workshop, Devraj?! Why are you systematically destroying her life if you claim to love her?!" Advik's voice echoed off the walls, sharp with disbelief.
"Because she doesn't love me!" Devraj yelled, spinning around to face him.
The sight stopped Advik in his tracks. Devraj's eyes weren't just dark, they were twin pits of obsidian, fractured by a desperation so raw it was agonizing to look at.
He looked like a man standing in the middle of a burning building, refusing to leave.
"I don't know what to do anymore, Advik.
" Devraj whispered, his voice cracking before rising into a frantic pitch.
"Every single time she rejects me, my heart doesn't just ache.
.it burns. It's breaking... I'm wrapped in emotions that are driving me past the point of insanity and into something far worse.
I want her so badly that every fucking cell in my body is screaming her name!
I AM GOING CRAZY! AND SHE STILL WON'T WANT ME! "
With a snarl, Devraj smashed the crystal glass against the floor.
It shattered into a thousand glittering shards, mirroring the state of his own composure.
Advik flinched, his throat dry as he gulped..
"Dude... relax. You just... you have to show her that you love her. You have to be patient."
Devraj let out a dark, humorless chuckle..
"Patience?? Fuck that!" he spat, his face settling into a mask of terrifying, cold resolve.
"I'm done waiting for a yes that isn't coming.
I will make her crawl to me. I will crumble every pillar of her life until there is nothing left standing but me.
She will have nowhere to run, no one to turn to, and no choice but to fall into my arms. I will have her all to myself. .. all to my-fucking-self."
He turned and walked away, his gait suddenly, chillingly calm...
Advik stood alone in the hallway, staring at the broken glass at his feet. He felt a cold sweat break out across his neck.
"Ah, shit..." he whispered, his voice trembling. "And I thought Arjun's madness for Meera was bad. This... this is a massacre."
???