AllFreeNovel
Share Us
PROLOGUE
12 years ago
Shimla
Two shots fired…
Two people killed...
Five lives ruined…destroyed forever.
And all it had taken was a few seconds.
Twenty-one-year-old Vihaan Rajpoot stared at the dead faces of his parents. Their lifeless eyes were wide with shock. They were alive one minute, and now they were…dead—their lives stolen, taken away by someone they had trusted the most.
Someone he had trusted the most.
“You k…killed them,” Vihaan stuttered, struggling against his captors as they held his arms, pulling him behind.
Beside him, his twin brother, Aaryan, and younger sister, Avantika, were held captive by more men. Avantika—Avi—struggled against the men holding her, her helpless gaze now fixed on the boy she had loved for the longest. The boy who’d been their friend for years. The boy who’d betrayed them so ruthlessly and mercilessly.
Dev Luthra.
“Dev…how c…could y…you do this?” Avantika sobbed.
But Dev stood impassive as ever, his eyes looking straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge her in any way. He’d stood there just the same way, emotionless and silent, when his father had ordered his men to kill their parents. Dev hadn’t pulled the trigger, but to Vihaan it was as good as he’d done it. He’d stabbed them in the back, destroyed their trust and deceived them in the worst possible way.
Vihaan turned his angry, hate filled gaze on the one man responsible for everything—Pritam Luthra, Dev’s father. He stood to the side, as unfazed as his son, as if he hadn’t just ordered the cold-blooded murder of his business partner and his wife. Hisfriends. How had they never seen this evil side of him? How had this man come home for lunches and dinners, and pretended to be their father’s friend, while all along he’d been plotting this?
Blinded by agony, fueled by rage, Vihaan twisted free of one of his captors, punching his face hard and then he spun his fist on to the other man. One hard punch and the man went down. From the side, he saw Aaryan attack his captors too. Chaos ensued, seeing the twins fighting. More men, Pritam Luthra’s lackeys, ran toward them.
Vihaan flung a hand out at the first man, hitting his nose. Grabbing a fallen gun from the floor, he pointed it at Pritam Luthra. Without thinking, he fired once, then twice.
Time stopped. Everything stilled. Victory sizzled through him, until he heard Pritam’s laughter. His shots had been useless. He’d fired everywhere but a
t the man who stood facing him…very much alive and unhurt.
Vihaan pointed the gun at him again.
“Drop the gun, Vihaan,” Dev’s cold voice rang out from behind him. “And Aaryan, back off from my men.”
“NO,” Vihaan roared.
“If you don’t drop the gun then the next sound you hear will be of a bullet tearing into your sister.”
Vihaan pivoted. His heart ached at the sight in front of him. Bile rushed up his throat, gagging him. He gulped. Dev…Dev had a gun pointed at Avi’s head, while two men continued to hold her.
Vihaan couldn’t believe his eyes.
How could Dev do this? This was Avi, the girl Dev had claimed to love since he’d understood what it was to love. But none of it had been real. Every belief in love that Vihaan had, shattered in that moment.
Aaryan exchanged a forlorn glance with him, his knuckles bloodied, his face bruised. Vihaan dropped his gun on the floor. Immediately, his hands were bound behind his back and he was tightly held by Pritam’s men. Aaryan too was bound, except that the men had pushed him to his knees.
“Now that display was absolutely unnecessary,” Pritam said, casually flicking off some invisible speck of flint from his arm, cool as ever. “However, your recklessness will cost you both.”
Pritam Luthra nodded to one of the men behind him, before pointing at Avi. “Punish her.”
Fear washed over Vihaan’s skin, leaving behind an icy, ghost like trail.
