AAYAN MALHOTRA

The familiar silence of my mansion folds around me the moment I step inside soft, expensive, and immaculate, like everything here is curated to erase the memory of where I come from.

Cream-toned walls glow under warm recessed lights, giving the place a dreamy, almost unreal softness. My chachi designed it all herself she always said a home should feel like a lullaby. She has no idea that monsters don't sleep.

She sits in the living hall, laptop open, glasses perched on the tip of her nose. As soon as I enter, her face lights up the way only hers can. I nod in acknowledgment.

"How was your day, beta?" she asks gently.

I offer her a faint smile. "Good."

She stands immediately, worry slipping into her voice. "Come eat dinner. I'll serve you."

"No, chachi. I'll freshen up first. I'll serve myself later. Don't worry."

She moves closer and cups my hand. "Mera bachha doesn't even eat on time anymore... all this tension, all this work-"

I squeeze her hand. "I'm fine. Truly."
I don't have any energy left for these melo drama. I don't give a fuck to their emotions. Emotions and selflessness only made you weak and there is no space for weakness in Aayan Malhotra's life. But I have to act like a perfect son in front of them.

She finally nods, though her eyes follow me until I disappear towards my room, the only part of this mansion that has never matched the house's warm glow.

My room is shadows.

Black walls. Grey marble. Sharp corners. Cold steel.
A perfect reflection of the man I became shaped in silence, sharpened in violence.

A place where even the light feels afraid to enter.

I remove my coat, drop my keys on the table, and step into the washroom when my phone vibrates sharply in my pocket.

Security Team.

I pick up. "What happened?"

The man's voice trembles. "S-sir... Aisha is trying to take her life with a k-knife. We- we tried to stop her-"

I don't let him finish.

"She won't," I say coldly. "I'm coming in an hour."

I cut the call.

Aisha.
The woman who destroyed me but not anymore.

"You can use me in every w-way you want b-but not my b-brother. Send h-him far away from h-here."

She agreed to the deal I made to her 18 years ago.

She ruined me in every way a person can be ruined, and I endured all of it so Kashwin could grow untouched.

That woman made my world the hell.
And I became the monster that crawled out of it.

Years later, with my chacha and chachi's support, I rose into the police force, into power.
I turned it into a weapon.

My first target was Aisha.

I found her.
Dragged her out of the gutter she had sunk into.
Locked her away in my secret basement the same darkness she raised me in.
And every day since, she has tasted her own medicine.

She thinks threatening her own life will move me?

No.

People like her, people who spend their entire lives believing they are the victim don't have the courage to take responsibility.
And taking your own life?

That takes courage.
Courage to accept your sins, stand naked before your truth, feel the weight of everything you destroyed, everyone you hurt.

Cowards don't die easily.
They suffer.

I pour whiskey into a crystal glass the amber liquid catching the dim light like molten gold. My hand doesn't shake. It never has. Not since the day I decided I would never give anyone power over me again.

I take a slow sip, letting the burn slip down my throat, grounding me.

The room around me is calm, luxurious, pristine.

But inside me?

Inside me, there is still the boy who smelled burning skin and learned to flinch at fire.

The corridor leading to my private basement hums with silence thick, suffocating, familiar.
This is the part of the mansion no one knows about.
My darkness cannot touch my only family Kashwin, and I make sure it never will.

Being the elder brother makes me the blueprint, the unspoken example Kashwin would follow. And that is the very reason I pushed him away. He deserves sunlight, laughter, careless mornings and carefree nights... a life where scars are not the first memory of childhood.
He deserves everything I never had.

A breath escapes me cold, sharp as I unlock the concealed door. Metal groans. The air inside is damp, still, heavy with old sins.

I take the steps down.

The basement greets me like a beast breathing from the shadows walls carved in obsidian black, candles flickering against stone, throwing distorted silhouettes across the room. Their trembling flames mock me, and my stomach tightens, instinctively remembering heat, screams, burning skin.
But I inhale. Exhale. Control.

My gaze lands on the shape chained to the center.

A skeleton draped in what used to be flesh.
Her clothes are filthy, stiff with dried blood and time. Her hair hangs in clumped knots. Bruises bloom over her skin some new, others years old like memories that refuse to fade

Aisha.

The woman set my life on fire.

Once, she was hypnotic smoky eyes, seductive walk, the kind of smile men ruined their marriages for. But arrogance ages badly, and guilt rots the prettiest faces.

Now, she is only a trembling carcass chained in the dark she once created.

Her hollow eyes meet mine. They widen.

The performance begins.

"A-Aayan... I-I am s-sorry... I-I am your-"

I don't let her finish.

"Shut the fuck up.”

My voice slices through the cold. "You are nothing to me. And don't insult me with the same lines you've used for five years. They don't work."

I gesture with two fingers.

One of my guards steps forward.

Aisha sees the bucket in his hand and starts shaking violently.

"No-no, please-Aayan, I-I won't do it again-just listen-"

The hot oil spills onto her skin.

Her scream tears the air apart.

"AaAHHHH-Aahh-AAYAAN-P-please-stop-"

I watch her, silent.

Detached.

Satisfied.

Her pain calms the storm inside me.

A balance restored.

I let out a soft, humorless laugh.

"Tch. Five years and you still don't adjust. You should have built tolerance by now."

She sobs broken, breathless, defeated.

I turn away, my footsteps echoing like a slow heartbeat across the stone floor.

The door slams shut behind me, sealing her in the world she created for me first.

I walk into my study, drop into my leather chair, and pull a file toward me. My mind, despite the chaos, is razor-focused.

Tomorrow begins a new chapter.

A dangerous alliance.

One step closer to the truth that has haunted me since childhood.

My lips curl into a faint smirk.

"Tomorrow... I will meet Disha Kapoor. If she become danger in my game then I will end the danger. Simple."

The name lingers in the air like the beginning of a storm

___________________________

Next chapter will be on Friday.