CHAPTER 36! CHAOS #3
"You fools... That's Aryav Rai Shinghania."
The warning arrived a second too late.
Fueled by a final surge of adrenaline, the lead thug lunged forward anyway.
He never reached Aadhira.
Nobody understood what happened first. The scream came before anyone actually saw the movement.
Aryav had already stepped away before the body finished falling.
Crack.
The sharp, sickening sound echoed loudly across the riverbank.
The man's wrist folded backward, his knee collapsing sideways as he was swept down in a single, fluid, brutal motion.
The lead thug collapsed into the gravel, clutching his broken joints, his body hitting the ground before his own scream could catch up with him.
The remaining thugs froze.
No one rushed him.
No one shouted anymore.
The river kept roaring; the crowd didn't. They instinctively backed away, staring at the lone figure standing before them.
Aryav looked down at the groaning leader, his eyes flat.
"Don't waste my time lying there."
Minutes later, the outcome was final.
Men littered the riverbank, groaning and bleeding on the gravel.
Aryav glanced at the single speck of blood on his cuff.
Calmly, he removed the cufflink and replaced it, as though fixing his sleeve mattered more than the men lying broken around him.
Vivaan quietly sighed, checking his phone. "Should I call legal first, sir, or the ambulance?"
"Medical bills," Aryav said quietly, his back already turned to the mess. "If they survive the night."
Shaurya leaned against a railing, looking mildly inconvenienced. "Inquire about a group discount."
At the back, Reyansh scratched the back of his neck, staring at the carnage.
"Right. Tell me I never offended bhai."
"Every time I think he's improving socially," Shaurya muttered, shaking his head, "he does this."
One of the injured men looked up from the dirt, his blood-spat teeth chattering in panic.
The moment he saw Aryav step back toward Aadhira, the man began dragging himself backward, desperately appealing to her.
"Bhabhi..." he choked out, raising a trembling hand. "Forgive us... We didn't know whose woman-"
Aryav looked down at him. The man immediately shut up, choking on his own breath.
"Handle it," Aryav said to Vivaan.
"Alive?" Vivaan asked.
"Barely."
Aryav turned his back on them entirely. "Did anyone else touch her?"
Shaurya looked around the clearing, his expression sober. "No."
Aryav simply nodded.
"We leave before the authorities get annoying."
He built empires because uncertainty disgusted him. Aadhira was uncertainty wearing a heartbeat.
She was the kind of storm he spent his life neutralizing, yet somehow, every problem in his life had started wearing her face.
Instead of walking away, he found himself standing between her and danger.
Again.
Aryav stepped closer to Aadhira, closing the distance until she had to tilt her head back to look at him.
His eyes traveled down to the slight scrape on her wrist.
His thumb brushed the reddened skin once.
Brief. Controlled. Possessive.
He noticed her hand was shaking.
He said nothing, closing his entire hand around hers, squeezing tightly for one silent second.
When he let go, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a clean, white handkerchief, placing it firmly in her palm.
"Your hand," his voice dropped to a low register.
She looked down at the cloth, then back up, confused. "I'm fine."
"You hit him harder than necessary."
"He touched Ayaan," she replied, lifting her chin.
"Next time, I'll hit harder."
Aryav looked at her, his expression unreadable.
"That's exactly what worries me."
Before they could turn toward the vehicles, Ayaan quietly walked up to Aadhira, tugging lightly on the edge of her shirt.
"Thank you mama," the seven-year-old muttered, looking up at her with rare, vulnerable earnestness.
Aadhira softened immediately.
Aryav witnessed the exchange in silence. She hadn't done it for attention.
She hadn't done it to prove something to him. She had done it instinctively, protecting his blood without a second thought.
Aryav watched her climb into the car. Reckless. Stubborn. Impossible.
Every instinct he possessed told him to stay away from her.
Yet the sight of another man stepping toward her had nearly turned the riverbank into a graveyard.
That realization irritated him far more than the fight.
He closed the distance, leaning down slightly as he stood by the open car door.
His voice was a gentle, chilling whisper meant for her ears alone.
"You slapped a man surrounded by twenty others."
Aadhira looked up, her gaze meeting his. "I told you I'd do it again."
His gaze lingered on her face for a fraction too long, dark and entirely unamused.
"That's exactly the problem," his voice lowered to a chilling, absolute certainty.
"One day, you're going to do something reckless. And I'm going to do something worse."
He shut the car door, turned around, and walked away without looking back.
"Move."
No one waited for a second order. Every vehicle started instantly.