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Never in my life could I have guessed the rabbit hole ran so deep.
Now I knew that Shah kept records of everything. From his involvement with Veda Kumari and his constant updates on Sam’s whereabouts, to the history of the Circle of Ten, the deals, especially every single person’s contribution, and most of all, every member’s dirty laundry, including his own.
I’d learned everything Mia had said that morning in the kitchen was true. Joshi had used his wife as a bargaining chip for deals, and there were five possibilities for Luke’s father.
Then, there was Mia’s biological father, the man Joshi had eliminated to make space for his son Lukesh to join the Circle: Kasim Simran.
He had been a Bollywood superstar who’d transitioned into media mogul and died tragically, as far as the world knew, in an unexpected avalanche during an adventure vacation in Nepal.
Shah had collected names, dates, banking transactions, and even phone records of everyone involved in his death. The people involved in this scheme ran the gambit of political heavyweights around the world to real estate tycoons.
It was Shah’s insurance policy to maintain his place in the world and the reason Arun Joshi kept up the charade of friendship when he hated Shah so damn much.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Neil moved closer, taking a seat on the dressing sofa in the center of my bathroom.
“I never tell you everything. You should know this by now.”
“You went to Shah’s house last night after I told you to wait.” His tone remained neutral, but irritation sat right under the surface.
We’d worked together too often for him to hide it, and he knew me too well to believe I wouldn’t make an attempt on the house when I knew this was the last night Shah would be away on business.
“As of the last time I checked, I’m still lead. I don’t take orders from you.”
“Did you think of your safety, or is that something you don’t give two shits about anymore?”
I never ran operations without proper monitoring, and he damn well knew it.
“Fuck off, Joshi.” I narrowed my gaze. “I have to finish getting ready. I’ll share the details of my Shah Mansion snooping at a time and place of my choosing.”
Ignoring my irritation, he asked, “So it’s that bad?”
He had no idea.
Interrogating Arun Joshi, though satisfying to Neil, turned out to be mostly a waste of time. Outside of gaining his cooperation to do as we told him to do or suffer the consequences, Joshi had divulged nothing outside of anything we’d already discovered.
When the Circle had formed, Arun Joshi had commanded the most power and ran the group. As the wealthiest of the members, he’d financed everyone’s projects. His price came in the form of DNA. He’d gone as far as hand-selecting which members out of the Circle of Ten would father his children.
This drive to pick the right bloodline had brought about the legacy program, an underground kidnapping and breeding ring. They provided heirs when a wealthy couple couldn’t conceive the natural way. The women kidnapped weren’t just random, but those picked for pedigree and background.
One day the women would be living their lives, then the next, they’d disappear.
My visit to Shah’s hidey hole had revealed more than I could have ever expected, including a secret Neil would never want to see the light of day.
This had to be the foundation of why he hated his father so much and drove him to such drastic lengths to protect his mother and sister.
It could also explain Neil’s reaction weeks ago at the ball when Shah mentioned not having a son. I’d seen the rage of murder in Neil’s eyes, not only toward Shah but in Joshi’s direction as well.
I could only imagine how it would feel to discover something like this about my own birth. Whatever the details, my heart ached for Neil and Mia. Maybe their mother had told them, or they had discovered it on their own. This type of reality was devastating all around.
Shah had kept records of every purchaser in the legacy program, every child conceived, and every woman whose life they destroyed. This included Arun Joshi and Shah’s part in assisting him in achieving his goal of having another son.
Shah kept the information as if he reminisced in a personal diary to enjoy reading later. He’d written graphic details about everything, from how he’d forced Smita Joshi to conceive Neil to names and associations of the people he’d hired to kidnap Sam after his mother’s death.
A kidnapping that never happened because Nik and Kir kept Sam and saved him.
“Yeah, it’s that bad,” I answered, my earlier annoyance with Neil completely gone and now replaced with a need to avenge him. “Tonight’s not the night for the briefing.”
“I’ll let it drop for now.”
