Riddhan entered the dimly lit shabby space with furious steps. A group of men followed him close matching his speed, crossing the empty alley which buzzed with hefty-lousy fading rhythms that grew sharper as they climbed the narrow stairs leading to a blotch of a corridor. The place smelled musky and evil. Alcohol reeked through every corner, as Riddhan pushed the door open furiously.
One of the men stepped to hold him back when Riddhan stopped, eyeing his hand sharply.
The man halted abruptly, his hand hanging loosely in the air, not touching him, "Sir asked to wait"
"Then you do"
Pushing the door open, he barged in.
Gautam Chaurasiya didn't stop grinding against the woman that sat atop him. She didn't stop either. Dressed in a shrill satin material, she eyed Riddhan like he was a fresh piece of meat. Gautam spread his legs to sit more comfortably over his swivel chair until the gap between his thighs was enough to pull the woman in.
"Riddhan Nanda, I was expecting you"
Riddhan didn't flinch as he allowed the silence to speak, "I wasn't. Not, this soon" He replied rather coolly.
Gautam stilled, before a sly smirk formed over his wrinkled face, "Here, time works according to me"
"Too bad, mine doesn't"
Gautam didn't appreciate that tone much, "Yet, you are here".
"I heard your brother couldn't even stay in his shell for more than three months. Got involved in a small robbery in Coimbatore, also bribed the forest head for the massacre of twelve deer who were found dead, their horns missing in the forests of Andhra"
The grinding stopped, "Riddhan"
"The footage seems to be a bit low quality. Just HD, not 4K or ultra, low budget I guess," Riddhan continued.
"Nanda......"
Riddhan slowly moved closer, pulling the seat opposite him, sitting across, and slamming the paper bunch at the table. Eyeing the woman, he pointed his finger at the door, when she got up and chickened out rather quickly.
"Nanda if you—"
"—Do not make this a practice to try my audacity, Gautam. I value my time. And I hold no interest in your business. You and your minions can go and enjoy your lousy blackmail schemes for someone who cares—or better with someone who doesn't, at all." In a swift, he got up, "Let me not tell you this again."
Before he could make a turn to leave, Gautam held his hand over the table, "You have some guts lawyer. You come to my place, you tell me about my brother, you back mail the blackmailer"
Riddhan looked at his hold for a moment before slowly removing his grip over his hand. Sliding out a neat white handkerchief from his pocket, he gently wiped his own hand before looking up at the raging eyes, "I do not get involved in petty schemes such as blackmail, I have a standard to maintain. All I am saying is you keep your nose limited to your matters, you were assigned a job, you did it, your job is done, move to the next job, trying to extract fruits from a fallen branch will do you dirty"
"Only I decide when my job is done"
Riddhan scoffed, "Then it's time for you to change your basics, you are growing old for your business anyways"
"Nanda don't forget whom you messing with" Gautam stood up in rage as he bent forward to match his level.
Riddhan didn't flinch, his voice turning ice cold, "Exactly, Gautam Chaurasiya, power with the weak is as useless as offering money to an addict, he will ultimately destroy it. Meanwhile power with the powerful leads to exponential power. Why do you want the spot of black, amidst your white-collared days, let your nights be the only witness of your sins or else, Riddhan paused for a brief moment before bending forward and grabbing his collar in a fist, "or else I will burn your mornings in the dust of your crimes. You wouldn't know what hit you, you wouldn't know why it hit you the way it did, I won't repeat it. It was a deal. I kept my bargain. You keep your end and move out of it. And if you ever try to cross me in the future or hold my money back, remember, I will destroy you and your coming generations, so bad— so bad, that it will hurt." As the drop of sweat trickled down Gautam's forehead, Riddhan let out a small smile, his grip loosening as he fixed Gautam's collar, patting him across the shoulders.
Turning around he walked out.
Gautam picked up the stash of papers and turned over the pages roughly. It had the list of all his crimes, alongside the evidence, missing documents, missing FIR complaints, his connections, his accounts, and the list of people he destroyed building his empire.
Letting out a grunt, Gautam picked up the huge glass jar from the table before smashing it across the opposite wall.
_________________________
Riddhan sank into his chair, the worn leather familiar beneath his weight, within the comforting embrace of his old office. This space, his sanctuary, bore the mark of his own labor. He remembered the days of its inception—the hours spent cleaning, the scavenging for second-hand furniture, the careful arrangement of books—all to fashion a heaven where he could simply be the lawyer—he was.
Picking up the paperweight, he brought it to his level before trying to eye across it. Rotating the prism in his hand, he slumped deeper before closing his eyes. This was getting worse. The more time it was taking, the more he was getting closer to face the burn of it.
Slowly, he opened his eyes and stared at the photo of his dead wife over his table. "If you had to die, you should have just died" He spoke bitterly.
As his phone chimed with a notification, he put the paperweight down, and read the message, "700000 credited to your SBI account 89765400XXXXXXXX" A sly smirk spread across his lips before he huffed a whiff of breath. This was not the plan.
Gautam Chaurasiya was not the person to mess with. Yet, he was forced to. That snake was dancing enough behind the closed curtains, it was time he changed the tune. He had to pull a few strings to get the deed done but this had pushed him to greater danger. He was already balancing between very thin threads. If any of it broke, he was doomed.
His chain of thoughts broke as he heard a knock outside the door, "Yes?" He called in.
"Guess what, we have it," Rajat's voice boomed as he walked in quickly taking a seat and throwing him the envelope.
Riddhan took the photos out and a slow smirk spread across his lips, "And you told me I wasn't a good photographer"
"I am sure it was the camera"
Riddhan snorted. Well, at least a good outcome.
"So what do you plan to do?"
Riddhan put the photos back, took out his phone, and typed something when Rajat's phone buzzed, '100000 credited to your BOD account 3245667XXXXXXX'.
"Now transfer the money, and track down what Abhijeet Thakur is up to" Riddhan nodded at him.
Rajat smiled, "At it. But how did you arrange that?"
"Ain't you acting a lot more curious lately?" Riddhan eyed him shrewdly.
"Of course, I have to. I am representing you" Swallowing the demeaned tone, Rajat smiled.
"You are merely putting on a show. You are given a script to perform, you enact the same" Riddhan scoffed.
"Mind your words Riddhan, I am your lawyer. I might be taking your bullshit but don't forget no one in this market was ready to take your case," Rajat seethed, "oh the poor boy who fell for the rich princess, became her shining armor" He enacted in a squeaky loud pitched opera tone, before the façade dropped, and he spat, "Cut it, Nanda, you were her idea of entertainment, you were her weapon of getting things done from her boyfriend, but much to her dismay her father took liking of you. He liked the story of pitying a poor guy and getting her frivolous daughter married to a powerless man. That would have allowed him to hold the perspective and twist the narration"
"And your point is?"
Rajat masked his disbelief. This man was unfazed, unreal with his indifference. He was a psycho, "My point is that she was your ladder to success. The daughter of Abhijeet Thakur was a catch. The arrangement wasn't out of love, so the narration you are trying to set, let it be for other fools because I am not buying that"
Riddhan sat there without batting an eye. He heard him in silence before taking a moment and speaking up, "My dear lawyer, How the arrangement was formed isn't a point here, she died and I am the prime suspect. Her father is after my life because he needs another sad story to shine amidst his oh-so-sweet tales of bravery and charity." He paused, "I didn't kill her and I didn't ask her to die." He blazed, "And now if she did, she better leave the world be"
Oftentimes this man pushed Rajat to the brink but sometimes he truly scared him. He could never figure out his limits. He could never figure out what Riddhan Nanda was capable of. Or how his twisted mind worked. Because there were never truly limits. He traded in leaps and bounds as if he was on the mercy of evil, and sucked life from his demons. His sins narrated the story of his truth and his truth was merely a fragment of imagination- because there was none. Or if there was- it was pushed to the corners that were too far to reach.
He had known Riddhan for years now when they were students of the same academy and they sat in the same batch. Their rivalry was never explicit but intrinsic. They didn't like each other's faces. They both were the sides of a similar coin capable of the lowest of lows and had wanted to become criminal lawyers to suck off the rich and be powerful enough to walk over the poor. But before that, Riddhan also came like every other student, wanting to change the system, be the change but like everyone it didn't last long.
The deeper he dug into the laws and people operating the laws, the more twisted he turned.
Not only did he grow distant, but he also turned shrewd, calculative, and greedy. And there is one thing about greed- it never ends. And it stays. The heights you chase, the lows you trade and it becomes addicting. That constant hunger for power and taste of its remains is addicting. It's pathetic and yet it's beautiful. Worse than witnessing the full moon on a zade night and worse than the raging waves of a midnight blue ocean because those are still a view, but this is a lure to greater depths- darker and mystique.
"Do you think these pictures would be enough to push Abhijeet Thakur back?" Rajat questioned.
"No" Riddhan let out a breath. "Not at all", he refused immediately, "But it would definitely give him a setback, push him in the corner, until now the media has been speaking only his narrative now they will be forced to rant for both. His army image won't cover up for him offering money to the mechanic"
"But it's a huge proof Riddhan, it can be a huge win for us, and why would he bribe the mechanic to lie in the court against you, like this out in the open? Is he even involved? And how did you know this meeting was going to happen?"
Riddhan stared at him briefly, before his eyes darted to the purple hue the sky was blazing with. The sun was gone, the stars missing, the moon barely visible from the smoke of clouds. How did he know this meeting was going to happen? The tip has been anonymous. It came from a source- a vague whisper, but it had all been too easy, too convenient, and that troubled him deeply. Too easy was always a trap. And this wasn't just about him being a pessimist. But something was wrong. He knew it in his gut. Scenes from the morning replayed in his head. The names, the faces, the pictures, the corridor....and that woman, nothing new, nothing wrong, he couldn't detect the glitch.
Riddhan let out a heavy sigh, his doubts lingering at the edge of his consciousness. "The tip has been anonymous," he rationalized, pushing aside his apprehensions. Despite any lingering suspicions, the notion of harm seemed remote. It didn't feel like walking into a trap, and besides, he had no other viable options at hand.
"Okay then, I will get this done" Rajat got up to leave demanding the envelope that Riddhan passed him briskly the next moment giving him a quick nod. "and will prepare for the next hearing after this, will share some new files with you about your dead wife, ran some research, dug up some dirt"
With another dismissive nod, Riddhan redirected his gaze skyward, welcoming the sting of the biting cold breeze against his exposed skin. The mere mention of his deceased wife always stirred a bitter taste in his mouth, a bitter reminder of a past he couldn't escape.
'oh the poor boy who fell for the rich princess, and became her shining armor'
The words rang fresh in his ears cutting through the silence like shards of glass- hauntingly crisp, igniting a lump in his throat. All those nights came back followed by the sight of her burning, engulfed in flames, Well, the fairytale met its due, and reached an inevitable conclusion, because the truth was— the poor boy did fall for the rich princess.
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A/N- My Dear Readers, although writing is my utmost pleasure amidst hectic work schedules and hustling colors of life, but as a human, I still expect some words of acknowledgement and your interest. Be kind, share the book, click the star an drop few words.