Chapter -24
The voice came from the darkness.
"Nani..."
Nani's lips parted.
His heart recognized it before his mind did.
"Mrs. Alisha...?"
Silence.
Then the woman stepped into the weak emergency light.
A mature woman stood at the end of the corridor.
Elegant.
Pale.
Her eyes carried years of exhaustion, but there was something fierce underneath it.
She looked at Nani like she'd been waiting for this moment for years.
"Yes, my dear."
Nani couldn't move.
"You're alive."
A faint smile touched her lips.
"Disappointing for some people."
Tee whispered,
"Boss..."
Sky raised a hand.
Everyone stayed still.
Alisha's gaze shifted toward Sky.
Her expression hardened.
"You brought him here."
Sky's jaw tightened.
"He came alone."
Alisha looked back at Nani.
"Of course he did."
Nani swallowed.
"Why were you watching me?"
"I wasn't watching you."
She glanced toward the dark hallway.
"I was watching the people watching you."
Nani's skin prickled.
"What does that mean?"
Alisha stepped closer.
"It means the man who ruined your life never stopped looking for you."
Nani's voice shook.
"Niran."
Alisha's expression changed.
The softness disappeared.
"Yes."
Sky's eyes narrowed.
"What does Niran have to do with 2021?"
Alisha looked at him.
"You don't remember?"
"No."
"Interesting."
Sky's jaw tightened.
"What happened that night?"
Alisha didn't answer.
Instead, she looked at Nani.
"You need to remember it yourself."
Nani shook his head.
"I've tried."
"You remembered enough to find me."
"I barely remember anything."
"You will."
Alisha's voice became quieter.
"It's time, Nani."
"Time for what?"
Her eyes turned cold.
"To end that monster."
Nani's breathing caught.
"Together."
She reached toward him.
Nani took one uncertain step forward.
Sky immediately moved.
"Nani."
Alisha stopped.
Her eyes flicked toward him.
"Don't."
Sky's expression hardened.
"Don't tell me what to do."
Alisha smiled without warmth.
"You're still protecting him."
"Yes."
"Even when you don't know what you're protecting him from?"
Sky didn't answer.
Alisha looked at Nani.
"My dear..."
Her voice softened.
"You have to remember."
Nani whispered,
"I don't want to."
"I know."
"Please."
"It's time."
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then every door in the warehouse slammed open.
BANG.
Nani gasped.
The world tilted.
---
Five Years Earlier
Rain hammered the warehouse roof.
A younger Nani crouched behind a stack of wooden crates.
His small hands covered his mouth.
He was crying.
Someone was arguing nearby.
His father's voice.
"Please... I don't know anything."
Nani peeked through the gap.
His father stood against the wall.
His shirt was soaked.
Blood covered one sleeve.
Across from him stood Niran.
Younger.
Well-dressed.
Calm.
Too calm.
His eyes drifted toward the hiding child.
Then he smiled.
Nani immediately ducked.
A woman's hand covered his mouth.
"Don't move."
Nani looked up.
Alisha.
Younger.
Terrified.
She pulled him against her chest and whispered,
"It's okay."
Nani trembled.
"Mom?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"Don't call me that."
"Who are you?"
"Someone who's going to get you out."
Niran's voice echoed across the warehouse.
"You think hiding him will change anything?"
Alisha froze.
Nani buried his face against her.
Niran walked closer.
"Come out."
Alisha stepped in front of Nani.
"Please."
Niran stopped.
"Please what?"
"Leave this child alone."
Her voice cracked.
"He's innocent."
Niran looked past her shoulder.
His eyes found Nani.
A cold smile appeared.
"He's going to grow up."
Alisha shook her head.
"He's a child."
"Not forever."
"Please."
She dropped to her knees.
"Don't destroy his innocence."
Niran stared at her.
Then laughed.
"You still think innocence survives around men like me?"
Nani squeezed his eyes shut.
His father's voice suddenly rose.
"Stay away from my son!"
Niran turned.
"You should worry about yourself."
A loud crash.
Nani screamed.
Alisha covered his ears.
"Don't look."
But he looked.
Just for a second.
His father's face.
Blood.
Niran standing over him.
And someone else lying motionless on the floor.
A strange symbol marked the wall behind them.
Nani's vision blurred.
Someone grabbed his father's arm.
Someone shouted.
Then-
Black.
---
Nani gasped.
He stumbled backward.
Sky caught him.
"Nani!"
Nani clutched his chest.
"I saw..."
Sky held him steady.
"What?"
"A woman."
Alisha watched silently.
Nani looked at her.
"You."
Alisha's eyes filled with something painful.
"Yes."
"You were hiding me."
"Yes."
"From Niran."
Her voice broke.
"Yes."
Nani shook his head.
"Why?"
Alisha looked toward the floor.
"Because I discovered what he really was."
Sky's expression darkened.
"What did he do?"
Alisha looked at him.
"You don't want that answer tonight."
Nani's voice trembled.
"I do."
"No."
"Please."
Alisha stepped closer.
"Not yet."
Nani stared at her.
"You keep saying that."
"Because remembering everything at once could break you."
Sky's arm tightened around Nani.
Alisha noticed.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Protect him."
Sky's voice was cold.
"I already am."
"Then protect him from the truth too."
Sky stared at her.
"What aren't you telling us?"
Alisha looked toward the warehouse entrance.
A distant engine roared.
Her expression changed.
"They found us."
Tee looked toward the doors.
"Who?"
Alisha whispered,
"Niran's men."
Sky's face went cold.
"Everyone move."
Nani looked at Alisha.
"What about you?"
Alisha smiled sadly.
"I've been running for five years."
She turned toward the darkness.
"Tonight, I'm done running."
Nani reached for her.
"Mrs. Alisha-"
She looked back.
"Remember the woman who stood between you and the monster."
A pause.
"Because next time..."
Her eyes hardened.
"...I won't stand behind you."
She disappeared through the opposite corridor.
The warehouse doors burst open.
Footsteps thundered inside.
Sky pulled Nani behind him.
Tee swore.
"Shit."
Nani stared into the darkness where Alisha had vanished.
And somewhere deep inside his broken memory...
another image began to surface.
A black coat.
A young Sky.
And a single sentence:
"Take the boy outside."
----------------
The memory didn't come gently.
It hit Nani like a car.
One second he was standing inside the warehouse.
The next-
He was somewhere else.
Five years ago.
Rain.
Blood.
A man's scream.
And then-
A black car.
Nani saw it parked outside the warehouse.
Luxury.
Immaculate.
Completely out of place among the rusted buildings.
The driver's door opened.
A younger Sky stepped out.
Nani froze.
"No..."
The younger Sky looked different.
Still massive.
Still cold.
But younger.
His black suit was perfectly pressed.
His expression carried nothing.
No anger.
No sympathy.
Nothing.
Several men stood around Nani's father.
One of them shoved him against a vehicle.
Nani's father fought back.
"Get your hands off me!"
One attacker raised his weapon.
Nani's father grabbed a metal pipe.
Everything happened too fast.
A strike.
A struggle.
A gunshot.
Silence.
One of the men dropped.
Dead.
Nani's father stood frozen, breathing hard.
Blood covered his hands.
Nani watched from behind the crates.
He couldn't understand what he was seeing.
Then-
Niran laughed.
Not a normal laugh.
A sharp, ugly sound.
He walked toward the body.
"Look what you've done."
Nani's father stared at him.
"You attacked me!"
Niran crouched beside the dead man.
Then pulled out his phone.
Click.
A photograph.
Nani's father stared at him in horror.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Niran smiled.
"Making sure you understand your situation."
He turned the phone around.
The photograph showed the dead man.
"You killed him."
"It was self-defense!"
Niran shrugged.
"Tell that to the police."
Nani's father went pale.
Niran leaned closer.
"You'll sign the papers."
"No."
"Then you go to prison."
"I didn't kill him intentionally!"
Niran's smile widened.
"Intent doesn't matter when I control the evidence."
Nani's father looked toward the men.
Then toward the black car.
His eyes landed on Sky.
"Please."
Sky didn't react.
Nani's father called louder.
"You! You're the one they work for, aren't you?"
Sky looked at him.
Nothing.
No emotion.
Niran chuckled.
"Oh, don't waste your breath."
He walked toward Sky.
"He's not here for your family."
Sky finally spoke.
"Enough."
One word.
Cold.
Final.
Niran stopped.
Sky looked toward one of his men.
"Collect the money."
The man nodded.
Sky turned toward his car.
Nani's father shouted behind him.
"Wait!"
Sky kept walking.
"Please!"
No response.
"Your men attacked me!"
Nothing.
"You can't just leave!"
Sky opened the car door.
Nani watched.
His young face was wet with tears.
He stared at Sky.
The man who had watched everything.
The man who hadn't helped.
The man who simply walked away.
Sky got inside the car.
The door shut.
The engine started.
And he left.
Didn't look back.
Not once.
---
Nani's eyes snapped open.
He gasped.
Sky.
It had been Sky.
He remembered.
Not everything.
But enough.
Sky had been there.
Sky had watched his father bleed.
Sky's men had been there.
Sky had walked away.
Nani staggered backward.
"No..."
Sky caught his shoulder.
"Nani?"
Nani shoved him away.
Sky froze.
Nani's breathing turned ragged.
"You were there."
Sky's face changed.
"Where?"
"That night."
Silence.
Sky stared at him.
"What did you see?"
"You."
Nani's voice cracked.
"You were there."
Sky didn't answer.
That silence hurt more than denial.
Nani laughed bitterly.
"So it was you."
"Nani-"
"You knew."
"I didn't know about you."
"You were there!"
Sky's expression tightened.
"I was there for a debt."
Nani stared.
"A debt?"
Sky nodded slowly.
"Your father owed money."
"And you sent your men?"
"No."
Nani's eyes narrowed.
"Then why were they there?"
Sky didn't answer.
Because the truth was complicated.
He had sent people to collect a debt.
Nothing more.
He hadn't ordered an attack.
He hadn't known Niran would be there.
He hadn't known someone would die.
And he'd never known a terrified child had been hiding behind those crates.
But Nani didn't know any of that.
All he remembered was Sky standing there.
Cold.
Untouched.
Walking away.
Nani whispered,
"You looked at my father."
Sky's jaw tightened.
"I remember."
"You didn't help him."
"I couldn't."
"You didn't even try."
Sky looked away.
"I thought it was a business dispute."
Nani laughed through the tears.
"Business?"
His voice shook.
"Someone died."
"I know."
"And you just left."
Sky's eyes lifted.
"I was twenty-one."
Nani went silent.
Sky's voice remained low.
"I was young, angry, stupid, and obsessed with collecting what my family was owed."
A pause.
"But I didn't know what Niran was doing."
Nani stared at him.
"You're saying you didn't know?"
"No."
Sky stepped closer.
"I didn't."
---
But somewhere inside the memory...
there was something else.
Something Nani hadn't noticed.
Niran.
Standing behind Sky.
Watching Nani's father.
And smiling.
Not at Sky.
At the child hiding behind the crates.
His gaze had lingered.
Too long.
Too deliberately.
Nani's memory shifted again.
Niran's voice echoed.
"He's going to grow up."
Alisha's voice answered.
"Leave him alone."
Niran smiled.
"I'll wait."
The memory shattered.
Nani covered his ears.
"Stop..."
Sky immediately moved toward him.
"Nani."
"Don't."
Sky stopped.
Nani looked at him with tears in his eyes.
"I don't know what you are anymore."
Sky's expression broke for half a second.
"Then hate me."
Nani stared.
Sky swallowed.
"But don't let Niran become the man who tells you what happened."
Nani's eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean?"
Sky looked toward the warehouse.
"I don't know what Niran wanted that night."
A pause.
"But I know one thing."
"What?"
Sky's voice turned cold.
"He wasn't looking at your father."
Nani's blood froze.
"He was looking at you."
Silence.
And suddenly-
the entire memory made a terrifying kind of sense.
Niran hadn't been interested in the debt.
Not really.
The debt had simply been useful.
A weapon.
A leash.
A reason to get close.
And while everyone had been watching the blood on the floor...
Niran had been watching the frightened child hiding behind the crates.
Waiting.
Planning.
For years.
Sky had walked away from the warehouse believing he'd collected a debt.
Niran had walked away believing he'd found something he wanted.
And Nani?
Nani had walked away carrying a memory his mind had buried to survive.
The monster wasn't the man who left that night.
The monster was the man who stayed.
And he had been waiting ever since.