CHAPTER 46
RAGHAV
RK Estate – Present
Samarjeet stares at me in disbelief as I tell him how Parag and Singhal are never coming here because GLEN had already intercepted them before they could reach the southern side of the valley. His breathing turns ragged as rage burns in his eyes.
“GLEN stopped them?” he snaps. “How the f*ck are you connected to GLEN?”
“I’m not connected to GLEN.” A grin pulls at the corner of my mouth as I take a slow step towards him. “My twin brother, Ayaan, is.”
He just stares at me, too confused to react.
“Ayaan Shergill is the Director of GLEN.” I finally drop the bomb.
The shock that crosses his face is almost worth it.
Nobody in the underworld knew that I had a twin brother or that he was the Director of the very organisation that had been dismantling mafia networks worldwide for decades.
As he processes this information, I can almost see the pieces falling into place in his mind.
Then his eyes narrow as another thought strikes him.
“So...” he says slowly. “Ayaan killed your father, Tej Khurana?”
The mention of that night makes me stiffen again, even after all these years. But if Samarjeet wants answers, I’ll give them to him. I step closer until the barrel of my gun is almost touching his skin.
“Ayaan and I both pulled the trigger.”
He takes a few seconds to process that, looking almost shaken by the revelation, but then a twisted laugh escapes him.
“Wow. So you killed your father too?” His grin widens. “Looks like there isn’t much difference between us after all, Raghav.”
Before he can say another word, I slam the barrel harder against his forehead, enough to snap his head back.
“Don’t...” My voice drops dangerously low. “Don’t ever compare us.”
The grin vanishes from his face.
“You murdered your father for his empire. I killed mine and destroyed his empire because he was a monster. He had slaughtered innocent people. He had destroyed lives without an ounce of remorse. And among those people... was my mother.”
The silence that follows is suffocating. We may both have pulled the trigger on our fathers, but that is where our similarities end. I finally lower the gun from his head and step back to pull out a cigarette. But before I can light it, his voice stops me.
“W-wait…” he stammers, his earlier arrogance suddenly gone. “How did you know that I… I killed my father? How the f*ck were you prepared for all of this? Who told you my plan? No one knew about it except me and—”
“I know.” I strike the lighter and take a long drag, letting the smoke fill my lungs before exhaling it slowly into the cold night air.
“You never shared your plan with anyone except Singhal and Parag. Which means the person feeding me information was one of the three men sitting at that table.” I take another drag as I move closer.
The cigarette remains trapped between my fingers as I tilt my head at him. “For a man who spent his entire life chasing power, you were surprisingly blind to what was happening right under your nose, Samarjeet.”
I can practically see the thoughts racing through his mind. He’s replaying every conversation, every meeting, every mistake, trying to find the one crack he failed to notice.
A few days earlier
The day Haider informed me that Singhal was flying to Cape Town, I realised he was my only doorway into whatever the three of them were planning.
But the problem was that men like Singhal rarely betrayed their partners for money.
They only betrayed when someone they loved became more important than everything else, including their own survival.
And Singhal had only one weakness… his daughter, Nitara, whom he wanted to marry off to Parag.
For years, I’d kept women and children away from my wars. Never dragged families into it. Those were my rules, the ones I never broke. That was until Samarjeet came after Siya and turned my family into a target. The moment he crossed that line, the rules of this war changed.
So, I made the call. Haider handled the rest, and Singhal’s daughter Nitara was abducted by us quietly…
without any violence, injuries, or manhandling.
She was brought to a secure location known only to Haider and me, where she was fed, protected, and kept under watch.
I had no intention of hurting her. I only needed her father to believe that I could.
The next morning, when Singhal landed in Cape Town, the first thing waiting for him was a photograph of Nitara bound to a chair, her mouth gagged and fear clearly visible in her eyes.
He hadn’t even stepped out of his private jet when my name flashed on his screen. The second the call connected, his fury exploded through the line.
“Raghav!” His voice shook with fury. “Let my daughter go! How did you even get to her? Release her right now!”
I leaned back in my chair and let him burn.
“No.”
That one word quickened his breathing and stirred panic within him. I let him drown in it, because fear made people do things they never thought they would. Finally, I spoke again.
“You were preparing to come after me, Singhal. Did you really think I would sit still and wait for you to strike? Your daughter is not leaving that place alive for sure.”
His breathing grows heavier.
“You and I had never crossed paths before,” I reminded him.
“But the day you sent a hitman after Siya at RK Estate, you became my enemy. Sending him back to you in a body bag should have been enough of a warning, but you chose to ignore it. And now, you are involving yourself in our war. You are standing beside the man who wants to destroy my family.” My voice hardens.
“So don’t be surprised if I destroy yours. ”
“Raghav—”
“Listen carefully,” I snarl. “It won’t take me long to send Nitara back to you in exactly the same condition as your hitman. She’ll reach your doorstep in a body bag before you even get the chance to meet Samarjeet.”
“No. You won’t do that.” His breath catches as he understands my seriousness.
“She’s my daughter, Raghav. I admit I made a mistake coming after Siya, but I only did it because I wanted Nitara to marry Parag.
I didn’t know what Siya meant to you. I didn’t even know you were alive.
Don’t drag my daughter in this. Nitara is innocent. ”
“So, is my family,” I barked, “whose murder you will be planning in the next few hours with Samarjeet.”
“I won’t. I won’t do anything.” He didn’t even waste another second. “Just tell me what you want?”
I stood up and walked towards the window, overlooking my vineyard.
“I want to know Samarjeet’s plan,” I said. “Every detail that you discuss with him in that meeting, every move the three of you decide to make, I want you to tell me. If you hide even one thing from me, your daughter dies.”
“What?” he snapped. “This is a suicide mission. If Samarjeet finds out, he’ll kill me first.”
“Probably.” I nod. “And if you don’t do this, I’ll kill Nitara. So choose wisely. Whose death you’re willing to watch first? Yours or your daughter’s?”
A full minute passed. I could practically hear his resistance crumbling. Then I heard the sound of a father losing to the circumstance.
“Fine.” Singhal spoke, defeated. “I’ll do it.”
Exactly what I expected. I let out a sigh of relief.
“Good. Then look outside the airport terminal. Two of my men are waiting for you. They’ll stay with you 24/7, not for your protection, but hers.” I pause, letting every word sink in. “If you follow my instructions, Nitara lives. If you double-cross me…”
I left the threat hanging for a few seconds before glancing at Nitara’s photograph lying on my desk. “... then your daughter dies before you even take the next breath.”
I disconnected the call.
From that moment on, every secret Samarjeet believed was safe within his circle started reaching me, one detail at a time. Eventually, I knew his entire war plan before he even took the first step towards Shivtara Valley.
AYAAN
Forty Minutes Ago
Parag looks like someone has just ripped the ground out from beneath his feet after I tell him that Singhal was the leak. He stares at Singhal, as if his mind refuses to process what he had just heard. That Hemant Singhal is the man who fed every last detail of Samarjeet’s plan to Raghav.
As the realisation sinks in, Parag explodes. “You b*stard?” His roar tears through the hillside. “You sold us out?”
He lunges forward despite the rifles aimed at him, going straight at Singhal, who stands in GLEN’s custody with his hands restrained, his face hard and bitter.
“What the f*ck did you expect me to do?” Singhal fires back. “My daughter is with Raghav. Was I supposed to just sit and watch him kill her?” His voice cracks with helpless rage.
Parag looks ready to tear him apart. The two men keep hurling accusations and threats at each other, while my thoughts drift to my brother.
I have to give it to Raghav. He knew exactly where to strike.
While we would have spent days trying to break through Samarjeet’s circle, Raghav simply found Singhal’s one weakness.
His daughter, Nitara. Using her as leverage was ruthless, but effective.
With one move, Samarjeet’s entire plan was in our hands.
GLEN would never operate that way. We don’t abduct innocent women or use them as bargaining chips to bring down criminal empires. There are lines we simply do not cross.
But then, Raghav has never cared much about GLEN’s rulebook. Despite leaving that world behind, despite secretly helping us track and dismantle criminal empires, he’s still living by the mafia codes, still playing by his own rules.
When Singhal involved himself in Siya’s assassination attempt, Raghav stopped seeing him as a distant kingpin and started treating him like an enemy. And enemy’s weaknesses are exactly what you exploit.