CHAPTER 20
TRISHA
Same Night – Cape Town
Siya and I are sitting indoors in a secluded lounge near the west wing balcony.
The entire Vardhaan Mansion is buzzing with wedding preparations.
Staff rush endlessly through the hallways carrying floral arrangements, jewellery cases, and even weapons concealed beneath ceremonial trays.
Armed guards stand posted across every corridor, keeping an eye on every movement in and out of the mansion.
More men. More security. More surveillance.
There is enough security here to lock down a small country if necessary. Because this is a mafia wedding.
The lounge we’re sitting in is one of the few blind spots inside the mansion.
No one is allowed near this side unless summoned.
Siya sits curled up on the couch across from me in loose black sweatpants and an oversized shirt, with one leg tucked beneath her.
Calm on the outside. Restless underneath. I can already tell.
“Okay, now listen carefully,” I begin. “Your extraction from here will happen on the wedding day. It’s the only time this mansion will be drowning in enough chaos, guests, movement, and distractions for us to get you out unnoticed.
Everybody will be focused on the wedding.
No one is going to notice a missing bride straight away.
Not for the first few minutes, at least.”
Siya agrees as I continue. “So, until then, everything stays normal. You go through the wedding preparations as expected. Wear the bridal outfit, the jewellery, sit through the makeup, all of it.”
Her nose wrinkles immediately. “I already hate this.”
“You hate the marriage,” I correct, teasing her a bit. “Not the outfit.”
She almost laughs because she knows I’m right.
“Besides, you need to act normal,” I continue. “If Samarjeet or Parag suspect anything before the extraction, the entire mansion will go into lockdown.”
Her expression turns serious again.
Then suddenly I narrow my eyes at her. “And did you at least pack your bags?”
Her face brightens instantly. “Yes.”
“How many?” I ask suspiciously.
“Three.”
I stare at her. “Siya, I told you to pack light.”
“This is light,” she argues immediately. “One bag has clothes and essentials.”
“And the other two?”
“My footwear.”
I blink once.
“Two entire bags?” I repeat slowly. “For only your footwears?”
She scrunches her nose at me like I’m the unreasonable one here. “You won’t understand.”
I actually laugh now. “Clearly not.”
Siya folds her arms stubbornly. “I’m not running away from my own wedding barefoot or emotionally devastated without my designer heels.”
“Oh my God.” I chuckle, rubbing my forehead. “What is this obsession you have with footwear?”
She lifts her chin proudly. “It’s called priorities.”
I groan while she grins unapologetically. Eventually, I throw my hands up in surrender. “Fine. I’ll make sure all three bags are safely checked out before I extract you. Happy?”
Her smile turns instantly victorious.
“Very.”
I then open my phone and show her the small blueprint of Vardhaan Mansion, pointing towards the narrow service corridor marked near the eastern wing.
“From here, I’ll take your mom out quietly. My men will be waiting at a secure checkpoint outside the mansion. Once she reaches them safely, I’ll come back for you. It will take me around twenty minutes to get your mom out and return to your room.”
“What if someone comes to take me downstairs before you return?”
“They won’t. I’ll be back well before the muhurat. And by the time anyone comes looking for you, we’ll already be at the private airstrip ready to fly.”
Siya smiles, excited at that very thought. “You sound very confident.”
“I am. Because I don’t take on missions unless I know I can finish them.”
She watches me for a second before nodding slowly.
“So, you’ll stay inside your room no matter what, okay?” I add. “No wandering. No last-minute heroics. And no trying to fight Samarjeet or his guards alone. Please.”
A dramatic sigh leaves her.
“Sounds boring.” She rolls her eyes.
“Siya, c’mon,” I sigh. “You punching people every fifteen minutes is exactly why this mission is so difficult.”
That finally earns me a grin. And I see there. The hope in her eyes at the thought of freedom. I will give her that. Because it hits me now how badly she wants to leave this world behind.
Siya sinks back into the couch before muttering, “I still think there’s a better solution to all of this. What if instead of extracting me first, you people simply kidnap Parag before the wedding?”
I lift a brow as she continues very seriously, “Like… transport him to some abandoned island thousands of miles away from Cape Town. Somewhere with no network, no boats, no weapons, and absolutely no human beings.”
I stare at her as she points dramatically while presenting her plan. “Leave him there with maybe… two coconuts and a fishing rod. He’ll survive for some days. What say?”
For a moment, we both stare at each other with complete seriousness. Then both of us burst out laughing.
“I’m serious,” she insists through her laughter. “It sounds far easier than risking our lives inside this psychopath convention disguised as a wedding.”
I shake my head, still laughing. “The mission is to extract you and your mother. Not dump the groom on a deserted island.”
“Disappointing.” She groans loudly. “I had high hopes from your team.”
“Though,” I admit, “I’ve seen Parag Reddy, and trust me, I understand the urge to punch him. One punch minimum. Maybe two. Preferably hard enough so he never flashes those smug gums at another human being again.”
Siya bursts out laughing so suddenly she almost falls back into the couch.
“Oh my God,” she wheezes. “Finally. Someone else sees it too. How does he grin like he already owns the planet? That face practically invites violence.”
I end up laughing with her despite myself. And somewhere between this conversation, her ridiculous ideas, I finally understand why Raghav crossed every line for her.
Siya Vardhaan is not the kind of woman men like Raghav usually meet.
She’s genuine in a world built on manipulation.
Fearless in a world that survives on fear.
Beautiful, intelligent, stubborn as hell, and bold enough to challenge a man like him directly to his face instead of blindly agreeing with everything he says.
Men like Raghav have probably spent years surrounded by people who obeyed him without question, nodded before he spoke, and feared him too much to ever say he was wrong.
But Siya? She pushes back and gives back just as good as she gets. No wonder Raghav walked straight into that disaster willingly.
Just then, my burner phone buzzes against the glass table.
One message. Then another. All encrypted attachments. The moment I open them, my expression changes. Ayaan has sent Siya’s new identity documents. Passports. Clearance approvals. Travel authorisations. Everything is finalised.
As I scroll down further, I suddenly freeze. Because the destination listed in the documents is not what I expected. It’s Queenstown, New Zealand. The place where Siya and her mother are supposed to begin their new lives from scratch, under completely new identities, away from the mafia world.
It’s not India. Not RK Estate. Not Shivtara Valley. And nowhere near Raghav.
How is that possible? My brows pull together slowly. Because that is not the extraction endpoint Raghav gave me. He had made his instructions very clear… bring Siya and her mother back to RK Estate.
But these documents are official GLEN clearances routed directly through Ayaan and Krish. Which means everything has already been approved. Right from the New Zealand citizenship trails for the two, the residential records in Queenstown, and completely clean identities.
It’s as though Siya Vardhaan and her mother never existed under their real names at all, only under the identities GLEN has created for them.
But Ayaan knew what Raghav wanted. So why did he change the plan so suddenly? And is Raghav aware of this?
I stare at the screen longer than I should.
“What happened?” Siya asks, noticing my confusion.
When I don’t answer, she leans forward and snatches the phone lightly from my hand before I can stop her. Her eyes scan the screen. And within seconds, her entire face lights up.
“Oh my God,” she breathes. “The documents are ready?”
Excitement rushes through her as she scrolls through the files one after another. She looks almost overwhelmed by it.
“I still can’t believe we’re actually doing this,” she says softly, almost to herself. “I’m really getting out.”
Then her eyes stop at the destination details.
Queenstown, New Zealand.
The smile that spreads across her face afterwards is so genuine that, for a second, I forget this girl belongs to one of the deadliest mafia syndicates in the world.
“I love this place,” she murmurs, still staring at the details. “I can’t believe Mom and I are actually going to live somewhere like this.”
Her fingers tighten slightly around the phone. As though she has already started dreaming her life there.
“You really want to go there?” I ask carefully. “To New Zealand?”
She looks at me like the answer is obvious.
“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”
I study her silently before asking the question that has now started bothering me even more.
“I thought you’d want to go back to RK Estate.”
That catches her completely off guard.
“What? RK estate?” she blurts out. “Why would I go back there?”
I freeze.
“There’s nothing for me at RK Estate,” she continues slowly. “And honestly… going there would only create more problems for Raghav. I don’t want that for him.”
The certainty in her voice surprises me. Siya hands my phone back before settling deeper into the couch again.
“My entire goal is to leave the mafia world behind,” she says. “Not run from one mafia family straight into the house of an ex-mafia Prince.”
Ex-mafia Prince.
God.
If only she knew how possessive that ex-mafia prince already sounds whenever her name comes up.