CHAPTER 14 #2
I keep my face blank, hoping my eyes aren’t giving away my inner thoughts. She dips the cloth into the water and starts cleaning the wound gently. I’m not used to gentle. But somehow coming from her, it feels strangely soothing, as though one touch from her and I’m already healing.
What is Siya doing to me? Because I’m not focused on the pain. I’m focused on her. I watch her as if nothing else exists in the room, as if nothing else that matters.
Am I even blinking? Breathing? I can’t tell anymore.
When she finally finishes cleaning the wound and dresses it more tightly than before, Siya exhales softly and speaks. “I’m sorry.”
She lifts her gaze and meets my eyes again.
“All this happened because of me. You’re right. I never should have trusted the Singhals. They have backstabbed the Vardhaans too many times in the past. I was a fool to think they would be any different now. But I was desperate to stop this marriage, and I wasn’t thinking straight.”
Her fingers tighten slightly around the cloth in her hand.
“I’m not usually this reckless. Being raised in the mafia, my dad taught me to think twice before taking such drastic steps.
” She takes a pause before continuing. “But after Dad died, Samarjeet forced me into this alliance with the Reddys. I don’t want that life.
I don’t want to be a bargaining chip, to be passed from one mafia clan to another for their own benefits. I’m not made for that.”
I read the frustration in her voice now. The helplessness too.
“Had Dad been alive, none of this would have happened. But he was gone, and I was left alone to tackle this problem all on my own. So, I ran from there. Came all the way to Mumbai and remained hidden for weeks until Samarjeet’s men found me at Josh club. The same night we met.”
I recall that night. Every bit of it.
“I was shocked to see you there, alive and helping me fight my own men. The Dark Prince who had been dead to the underworld for almost eighteen months was suddenly standing right in front of me, fighting my battle.” She shakes her head.
“It was next to impossible. So, even after Samarjeet’s men took me back to Cape Town that night, I never stopped looking for you.
Trying to get some clue, some answers as to how you managed the impossible.
I couldn’t trust anyone else to help me with this.
It took me nearly months, but eventually I found where you were living now.
Here, at RK Estate. Not as Raghav Khurana but as Raghav Kundra. ”
That catches my attention. So, just as I had asked Haider to dig into her past, she had been digging into mine.
Siya trails off, her fingers tightening together before she looks at me again.
“You were the only one who walked away from the underworld and made everyone believe you were dead. The only one who built a fresh life without leaving a trail back to your past identity. That’s why I knew only you could help me.
You were my only hope, RK. That’s why I came to RK estate in the first place. To ask for your help.”
Her jaw tightens slightly as she continues.
“To help me live the kind of life I have always envisioned for myself. A life away from the mafias.”
I go completely still.
She lets that sink in before continuing, “But when I came to RK estate, I didn’t trust you enough to ask for your help right away. And in getting to know you, time was running out. Then I came to know that Samarjeet preponed my wedding to next month.”
My jaw tightens. I didn’t know that. If Siya doesn’t get out in time, she’ll be forced to marry that clown Parag Reddy. My fingers curl into fists at that thought.
“So I needed a backup plan,” she goes on. “The Singhals were supposed to be that. But now I realise how stupid I was to even consider it.”
A faint, bitter smile touches her lips. “Thank you for saving me. You stepped between me and death without a second thought. The ones who would have done that for me are not alive anymore.”
Silence stretches between us, but she isn’t finished.
“How am I supposed to repay something like that, Raghav?”
My gaze lingers on her face, still processing what she just said.
It’s the first time she’s called me Raghav.
Not RK like she always does. Never ever has my name sounded this soft or meaningful until it came from her lips.
I swallow hard, trying to curb these thoughts running in the back of my mind and focus on what she’s saying instead.
“Today, once again, this mafia life has reminded me how unpredictable everything is. How fragile trust can be and how your entire world can burn into ashes in the blink of an eye if you fail to protect it.”
She shivers. I’m one second away from holding her when Siya rubs her hands over her arms to stop those tremors.
“I don’t want this life anymore, where every breath you take is not yours to claim freely.
Where every moment of peace feels like silence before a storm.
I’m done living in that chaos. I don’t want my future to be like this.
I want to leave. Start a fresh life with Mom.
A small town. A new name. A place where no one knows who I am.
Where I can plan a safe future, fall in love, get married, build a family…
without the underworld staining it with its brutality. ”
She holds my gaze when she says the last part.
“I won’t marry Parag. In fact, I won’t marry any man who is even remotely connected to the mafia. Not in the past. Not in future.”
My teeth clench and the words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. “I don’t care what you want your future to look like, Siya. Because no matter what, I can’t help you.”
Her face goes still at my cold and final statement. For a second, I expect her to argue, to get angry, but she simply nods.
“I understand,” she says, swallowing her hurt.
“And I won’t ask that of you either. I know that you have a family to protect.
You cannot risk them or this place by helping me.
If anyone from the underworld came here looking for you, it would compromise everything you have built here for yourself now. And I wouldn’t want that either.”
She straightens slightly before her eyes meet mine one last time.
“It’s difficult to escape the mafia and start a fresh life. It takes a lot of courage and planning. And I don’t want you to ruin all this for me.”
For a moment, neither of us moves. Then she rises and walks away. I remain exactly where I am, watching her leave. The door closes behind her, and the silence returns. But my mind is not where it should be.
I told her no. And I meant it.
Not because I’m afraid of who might come knocking if I help her. What angers me is something else entirely. It’s the image she just painted. Her walking away from this world. Starting a new life… with someone else.