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There is complete silence in the room, but I don’t miss seeing the shock in Pratap Walia’s eyes as he glances towards Dad, who is equally stunned by my query. They definitely know him.
“If that’s who the Bishop is, then your warning just proved right, Mr. Walia. Tej Khurana is all set to give me a Checkmate.”
He takes a deep breath as I continue.
“They say your enemy’s enemy is your ally. So,” I step behind to look at both Dad and Pratap Walia at the same time. “Between you two, whose ally is Tej Khurana, and who is his enemy?”
“Ayaan?” Dad stutters. “How could…could you connect us both with him?”
“How could I?” I snap. “I’m coming to that, Dad. And I hope this time you two will not remain silent but will speak the truth.”
I take out the medal with the Bat emblem that Meher gave me in the car, the one she retrieved from Dad’s closet today.
“What is this doing in your closet, Dad?”
Dad’s horrified face says it all.
“I don’t need to tell you again what this is, right? But just so that we are all on the same page,” I say, looking at everyone who is a part of this conversation, “This emblem belongs to an international mafia gang – The Bat Syndicate as they call them. I don’t need to mention how dangerous they are and what they are capable of doing. Why was this in your possession, Dad? What do you even have to do with them?”
Dad swallows nervously. It’s evident from his expressions that he is hiding something.
“Two friends turned enemies, Kailash Shergill and Pratap Walia. One of them is hiding their identity from me, and the other is warning me that whoever these people are, they are coming for me. What is that supposed to mean?”
Silence spreads in the room because Dad and Pratap Walia have probably sworn not to speak about it. Hell, they would!! I take a step towards Pratap Walia again.
“Who is Tej Khurana, Mr Walia? And who told you that he is after me?” I ask.
“I told Pratap,” Dad, silent till now, suddenly speaks up.
Dad told Pratap Walia? Another bone-chilling silence spreads in the room as Dad comes forward and looks me in the eye. He stands before me, determined.
“Do you remember, Ayaan,” he asks, “a few days before your marriage I had secretly gone to meet someone at the Antop Hill?” he asks. “I had gone there to meet Pratap. To warn him that one of our biggest adversaries, who was once our ally, is back from the dead.”
I freeze at his choice of words.‘Biggest adversary!’ ‘Back from the dead!’Yes, a few days before the wedding, when I was with Meher for pre-wedding trials at Simran’s boutique, Dad had disappeared for a few hours for a covert meeting with someone. If it wasn’t for my source, Ajay, I would have never known where Dad had been that day. And when I asked him about it, he lied to me about going for some social reformation work.
So, he had been there to meet Pratap Walia? Dad sighs in annoyance as he continues to reveal more.
“I knew Pratap didn’t cause my accident. It was Tej’s doing,” he adds. “They stole Pratap’s car to stage that accident and make it look like Pratap wanted to kill me. When I fell out of the vehicle on the ghats, I saw the man who was driving Pratap’s car. He had got down to check if I was alive or not. I was hardly conscious at that time but I noticed the Bat emblem on the right sleeve of his hoodie. Then everything blacked out before my eyes. Remember when I woke up again after my indefinite coma? The first thing I told you was that Pratap was not responsible for my accident. That’s how I was so sure about it. Because that symbol belonged to Tej. That mark is his identity. Nobody else could have the same sign. I wanted to tell you about it, but you were so occupied sorting out your relationship with Meher at that time and handling all the scandals revolving around the Shergills and Walias that I didn’t want to pressure you with more troubles. I was still wondering how to deal the Tej’s sudden reappearance when suddenly one day, while you were ready to leave for the wedding outfit trials, you happened to spill the beans that some unknown men with the Bat emblem on their outfit had tried to abduct you in Austria. I realised that it could not be a coincidence. Tej was really back, and he was trying to play his dirty games and hurt us all. That’s why that same day, I messaged Pratap and asked him to meet me at Antop Hill so that I could warn him, too. We didn’t want to take security risks during your marriage, so despite Pratap and I having our issues, we agreed to work together. That’s why Pratap sent his own guards with Meher after the wedding to protect her, and I didn’t mind. Every day since we both learned that Tej is alive, we have been constantly worrying about what he would do next. That’s why today, when Meher didn’t take her guards along, and neither you nor Krish was home, we both panicked, and Pratap decided to show up here.”
Dad sighs as he meets my eyes again, this time with fear I have never seen in him before.
“The person we are dealing with was dangerous decades ago when we knew him,” he says. “Now that you tell me he is a wanted international criminal, it has made the situation even worse.”
“So much has happened, and you didn’t think it was necessary to share it with me, Dad?” I ask. “By hiding this fact from me, you have delayed our approach to tackling this situation. They are closer to us all than we can ever imagine. Everything happening in the Shergill and Walia family is on their radar.”
Dad seems completely dejected now as if sensing the gravity of his mistake. I clutch his arms.
“In order to deal with him, we need to know everything that you and Pratap Walia know about this man. Every little information about him, however small, can help us understand what he wants from us.”
“He is here for revenge,” Pratap Walia breaks his silence. “What else do you think he wants from us? And this is all because of you, Kailash.”
“Because of me?” Dad snaps, turning around to face him. “Only because you were willing to put aside his sins and overlook them, and I was not? I thought that after all these years, you would have realised the importance of patriotism, Pratap. But it seems that I was expecting too much from you.”
“I don’t need to prove my loyalty towards my country,” Pratap Walia quickly refutes Dad’s accusation. “You won’t understand how difficult it is to balance the power of the political party and the duties that come with it. As a social reformer, all you can do is find faults in the government’s work and raise your voice against us. It’s much easier than actually ruling the state.”
“At least I raise my voice for the right cause. I’m not partial like you, who only cares about money and gaining more power,” Dad argues.
“Enough,” I scream at the two. “What do you think is going on here? Some political debate?”
