KABIR'S POV :

The silence in my penthouse was no longer comforting. It used to be a retreat—a place where I buried chaos behind closed doors. But now, it echoed. Loudly. Every tick of the clock mocked me. Every gust of wind that brushed against the glass felt like her ghost trying to reach me.

I left her behind the shadows.

Not because I wanted to…

But because I had to.

I stood near the window, the city beneath me drowned in flickering lights and poison. My reflection stared back at me—cold, hollow, lifeless. Shanaya's laughter no longer danced around my ears, her tiny footsteps no longer followed me into the kitchen, and her presence—god, her presence—no longer anchored me.

And I was the one who pushed her away.

I told myself it was to protect her.

I told myself she deserved light, not the blood on my hands.

But none of it made the ache in my chest go away.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her.

Spinning around the living room.

Saying she'd bring color into my world.

And she did.

Before I smeared it black again.

My fists clenched at my sides as I looked down at the report on the desk. Isha’s trail had gone cold. But I knew she was watching. Waiting. Her compliance, her alliances—something was coming. And I couldn’t let it touch Shanaya.

She didn’t understand why I disappeared. Why I handed her over to the guards and left without a word the night.

But if I had stayed—if I had let her see the war coming—she would’ve never walked out of it alive.

She thinks I broke her heart.

What she doesn’t know is…

She took mine with her when I left.

I picked up my phone. My thumb hovered over her name. Shanaya. My every instinct screamed to hear her voice. Just once.

But I couldn’t.

If I reached out now, she’d run into the fire I was trying to keep her away from. Isha wasn’t just targeting my empire anymore—she wanted to dismantle me. And the easiest way to do that… was through Shanaya.

“Anything?” I muttered, as Arjun entered the room, handing me a tablet.

“Still no location on Isha. But she’s been meeting someone in shadows. Could be someone close to us. Maybe even someone inside.”

Inside.

That word burned.

I trusted too many. And now, the price was her safety.

“I want eyes on Shanaya. Not near her. From a distance. She cannot know,” I said, voice low.

Arjun hesitated. “Sir but...she’s not doing well.”

That sentence shattered me more than any bullet ever could.

“What do you mean?”

“She hasn’t been eating. Skipped college. She just… sits by the window. Waiting. For you.”

A crack.

Deep and sharp.

Right in the middle of my chest.

I looked away, biting down on the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood.

“Don’t let her see you. Just keep her safe. That’s all I care about.”

Because if I saw her… I would break.

Again.

I walked into my study, the only room she hadn’t touched. Her perfume didn’t live here. Her laughter didn’t exist in these walls. And that made it the only place I could pretend—for a second—that I wasn’t dying.

And now… she was after Shanaya.

“I’ll be the villain if that’s what it takes,” I whispered to the empty room. “Let her hate me. Let her cry. Let her curse my name. As long as she’s breathing… I’ll be the monster in her story.”

I took out the latest intercepted communication. A meeting. Midnight. A shadow location.

“Suit up,” I told Arjun. “We find Isha tonight. I’m done waiting.”

But even as I stepped into my armor, I knew one truth.

The real war wasn’t outside.

It was inside me.

And I was losing.

Because every breath I took without her felt like a betrayal.

Every heartbeat without her name echoed felt… undeserved.

And if this war took me—

If tonight was the night I died—

Then I’d make damn sure the last thought in my mind was her smile.

The last whisper on my lips was her name.

Shanaya.

---

The air was thick.

Not with smoke, not with fog—

But with the kind of silence that comes before something breaks.

I pressed the comm device in my ear harder.

“Anything?”

“Still scanning the perimeter. No movement. No sign of Isha,” Arjun responded, frustration weaving through his voice.

My jaw tightened as I stepped into the dim alley near the abandoned textile factory—Isha’s last known location. The concrete walls bled with age, and every creak beneath my boots echoed louder than it should’ve.

She wasn’t here.

I knew it the second I stepped inside.

But I needed to see.

See the empty.

See the nothing.

Because that’s what I felt like now.

My footsteps were calculated. One hand gripped the gun at my side, the other curled into a fist by instinct. The moonlight filtered through broken glass above, casting eerie shadows across the dust-laden floors.

My eyes scanned the room.

A single chair.

A rope, still swinging slightly.

Like someone had just escaped.

Too late. Again.

I let out a bitter breath.

She’s always a step ahead.

She knows I’m desperate now.

I moved closer, noticing a folded paper taped under the arm of the chair.

My breath hitched as I ripped it off.

Scrawled in ink, messy and rushed:

“You really think it's easy for you to find me? Try harder, sweetheart."

That’s all it said.

My fingers tightened around the paper.

My mind spiraled.

“Sir, we found tire tracks leading out the back gate. Fresh. She knew we were coming.”

I wanted to scream.

Tear this building apart.

Break something—anything—to match what was shattering inside me.

Instead, I just stood there.

Frozen.

I swallowed hard, shoving the paper into my coat.

Every breath burned now.

Like my lungs weren’t mine anymore.

I didn’t find Isha.

And that terrified me more than anything.

“Pull the CCTV footage from every highway exit within a ten-kilometer radius,” I ordered, voice low and sharp. “And double the guard near Shanaya. Discreet. If she catches a single tail, you’ll regret it.”

“Yes, sir.”

As Arjun retreated, I walked back to the car, sat down, and let the silence envelop me again.

I pulled out my phone.

Her number lit up like a wound on the screen.

I hovered over it.

I just wanted to hear her voice.

To ask her if she was okay.

But what if she said she hated me?

What if… she said she didn’t love me anymore?

No.

That would destroy me.

So instead, I opened the last voice note she had sent me weeks ago. The one I’d never replied to.

“You don’t have to be perfect for me to love you. You just have to let me in.”

I closed my eyes, her voice wrapping around me like a ghost.

And I broke.

Right there.

I let the tears fall, silently.

No gasps.

No sobs.

Just silent agony.

Because I was a man who built empires.

But I couldn’t protect the only thing that ever made me feel alive.

I didn’t find Isha.

I didn’t find peace.

But maybe… maybe I could still find time.

Before Isha takes her next piece.

Before the world I created burns down everything I love.

Before Shanaya is just another name carved into the graveyard of my guilt.

---

END OF CHAPTER

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