AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Bring him home, Raghav,” I said, trying to hide my desperation. “With a son like you, I have already achieved the unattainable in our mafia world. Having another son to help me take care of my empire would only make me the mastermind of the Bat Syndicate—the most unbeatable force in our dark world.”
My laughter was filled with excitement but Raghav was practical enough to think beyond this joy.
“We don’t even know if he’s aware that Kailash Shergill isn’t his real father,” Raghav expressed his doubts. “It seems like he doesn’t know, but the point is, when he finds out that he’s the son of a mafia, do you think he’ll want to be a part of us? What if Ayaan doesn’t agree to come back?”
Although it dampened my mood, I knew he had a point. Ayaan had been raised by Kailash, the epitome of justice and morals, and from all the information we had gathered about Kailash and Ayaan’s bond as father and son, I knew Ayaan would never come to our side.
“Then bring him here forcefully,” I commanded, curbing my frustration. I could not even imagine my son not wanting to accept me as his real father. I wouldn’t let that happen.
“You want me to abduct him from Austria?” Raghav reconfirmed.
“Yes,” I nod. “Once he is here, and we tell him who we are to him. I’m confident that once he sees our real power and what we can accomplish together, he’ll never want to return to the world that Kailash has created for him.”
I believed in one thing strongly. The only power that rules this world is the power of kinship. No connection can surpass the ties of blood, regardless of years of loyalty and relationships. Ayaan is my son, and he would have to accept that reality no matter what.
On my command, Raghav took a handful of men and flew to Austria to abduct Ayaan. Even if Ayaan put up a fight, Raghav obviously knew that he had to be brought here in Cape Town unharmed. While I was preparing to welcome my son, I got the news from Raghav that our plan had failed. Ayaan shot one of our men who had gone to abduct him and the second one fled from the scene as the cops arrived. Ayaan had a sharp mind and an innate sense of intuition that led him to navigate this abduction with remarkable flair and a heightened sense of vigilance. Raghav, who was a silent spectator to that incident, heard Ayaan stating that he had a hunch that he was being followed for a few days, so he planned to reveal the people who were following him by pretending to allow my men to capture him. Smart! Though our plans to abduct Ayaan had failed, I was impressed with Ayaan’s intelligence.
Raghav and my men followed Ayaan to India and started keeping an eye on him and Kailash Shergill. Soon, another piece of news reached my ears. Ayaan and Pratap’s daughter, Meher, were spotted together many times. Raghav was sure something was brewing between the two. I didn’t know what to call it, but destiny surely had planned something bigger. My son falling in love with my enemy’s daughter wasn’t something I appreciated. But when their affair was exposed in the media, and Pratap threatened Kailash openly, I saw an opportunity there – an attempt to murder Kailash, putting the allegation on Pratap by using his car in the accident. I didn’t want Kailash to die, but I just wanted to threaten him enough so that he would think Pratap wanted to take his life. It would automatically fuel their enmity, and then my son, Ayaan, would jump into this situation and take revenge on Pratap for Kailash. Ayaan impressed me again with how he created hurdles in Pratap’s political career and the upcoming elections. It felt like, unknowingly, Ayaan was already fighting my battle, taking revenge on the people I couldn’t touch yet. Pratap’s daughter, Meher, was abducted by Pratap and his nephew Aksh Walia’s enemy, Tripathi, and Ayaan didn’t care for his life before jumping to save Meher. Thankfully, my man, who was stalking him all the while on my orders, followed Ayaan and saved his life when the abductor pointed a gun at Ayaan. Vishnu, who saw my man (the sniper), tried to chase him, but Raghav was quick enough to drive to that spot and pick up my man before he could be identified. Anyone who would touch my sons or try to harm them would face the same terror – death.
After a few days, Ayaan surprised me again by announcing his marriage to Meher and retracting his allegations against Pratap, putting an end to all the existing scandals between the two families. It was that move which finally led me to take my next crucial step. It was high time Ayaan was made aware that he was playing the wrong side. That he had been worshipping the wrong man as his father all these years. He belonged to me and should support me and Raghav in running our empire – the Bat Syndicate.
Even though I knew that Raghav could implement this plan without my presence, I flew to India. It was time to come out of the shadows and play this game differently. Now was the time to show my opponents that the world is shaped not by those who play by the rules but by those who manipulate them. That I was the one who had been mou shaping their destinies all this time, influencing their decisions and controlling the narrative from the sidelines.
Ignoring Raghav’s suggestions that I shouldn’t fly to India and risk exposing the truth that I was alive and that I was the real mastermind of the Bat Syndicate, I landed in Mumbai to take over the game which the Shergills and Walias thought had come to an end. It was also high time to make my son Ayaan understand that the righteousness that Kailash preached to him till date was a comforting illusion. In the grand scheme of life, the pieces on the board mattered little. True control lay in manipulating the strings of these pieces and orchestrating their movements like I had been doing all this while.
My entry definitely thickened the plot, especially when Raghav gate-crashed Ayaan’s wedding reception and handed Pratap and Kailash’s two most critical secrets to Meher and Ayaan, respectively. I already knew that Vishnu was Pratap’s son. It really wasn’t a secret to me. Just like I had kept an eye on Pratap and Kailash for years, I also kept tabs on Vandana when my men forced her to flee from Mumbai, away from Pratap. I had wanted to ensure that she didn’t change her mind and return to Pratap to confront anything and expose my secrets. Just a month after her separation from Pratap, I was told she visited some maternity clinic in the village where she and her mother had shifted. It didn’t take me long to know why. She was pregnant with Pratap’s child. But I had already instilled so much hatred and misunderstandings in her head against Pratap that I knew she would never make the mistake of sharing her pregnancy details with him. When she had delivered, I had sent my men to retrieve a record of her son’s birth certificate so that when the right time came, I could use it in my favour. Though it never came to any use in the past, I played that card now by exposing that truth to Pratap’s doting daughter, Meher, at her wedding.
For Ayaan, I could have sent the DNA test report, which claimed he was my son, but I didn’t want to open that card so early. Instead, I merely chose to give him a hint that he wasn’t Kailash Shergill’s son. These mysterious gifts garnered the attention I expected from both Ayaan and Meher. But never in my dreams could I think of Ayaan tracking Raghav and surprising him by bypassing all the security of ‘The Roost’ and confronting him there. Once again, my son Ayaan proved that he was one step ahead of what we had manipulated him to do. So, while I had control over the strings of every chess piece in this game, it was the King, my own son, whose moves I could never predict. And at times like this, I couldn’t decide whether to admire his skills or be upset that he had the ability to derail my next plan.
THE PRESENT @ ‘The Roost’
The lifeless form of Manish lying in a pool of blood at ‘The Roost’s’ basement does little to ease my tension. A seemingly ordinary pub employee for two years, he managed to stay off our radar until tonight’s masquerade party, where we caught him discreetly passing a gun to Ayaan. In our dark underworld, enemies lurked in shadows—some operated similarly, like us, while others, like Manish, worked as covert agents, gathering evidence for agencies determined to bring down groups like ours. Manish, a spy in Krish’s employment and working for my son, Ayaan, had hacked into the pub’s cameras to assist Ayaan in executing tonight’s mission: a meeting with Raghav!
The air in the dimly lit basement of ‘The Roost’ hangs heavy with tension, fuelled by my seething anger. The security personnel, six or seven of them, stand in a rigid line just next to the lifeless body of Manish, whom I shot a minute ago, their heads bowed in shameful acknowledgement of their failure. My gaze pierces through each of them as I prepare to unleash the storm that brews within me.
“Unbelievable! A spy was operating right under our noses, amidst us, trading our confidential information with Ayaan, and none of you had a clue?” I bellow at the top of my voice. “How on earth did Ayaan manage to breach such tight security and enter the pub?” I interrogate, my words cutting through the silence like a blade.
The guards remain silent, unable to look me in the eye. The head of security, the one who should bear the brunt of my fury, finally speaks up.
“Sir, he had the mask and the invitation to this masquerade party. He also had the VIP wristband which tricked us into thinking that he is one of the patrons of this pub. Manish must have leaked this information to them and provided Ayaan with—”
Without a moment’s hesitation, I raise my loaded gun and pull the trigger, the bullet piercing right through the centre of his head. The deafening sound echoes through the basement as the man crumples to the floor. A heavy silence settles over the room, and the only sounds heard are the fallen guard’s dying gasps of air.
“Anyone else still has a reason to justify your lapse in securing this place from intruders and spies?” I yell, fixing my intense gaze on the remaining men. Their faces pale, and none of them dares to speak.
“Ayaan and his team hacked into our CCTV cameras, and none of you were aware that it was happening?” I continue, my anger escalating with every word. “He didn’t just enter the pub; he got into the basement, attacked Raghav and left the premises, setting off the emergency alarms. And none of you even got a whiff of it?”
The weight of their incompetence fuels my anger. Ayaan could bypass my trained men, the supposed guardians of this fortress, and they couldn’t do anything about it.
“He knows a lot about us,” Raghav interjects, his tone steeped in anger and frustration.
After Ayaan expertly disabled the pub’s emergency alarms for his exit strategy, Raghav informed me of his presence. Ayaan’s sudden intrusion into ‘The Roost’ was already a shock, but Raghav’s disclosure that Ayaan knows about the Bat Syndicate was even more unexpected. I did not expect him to uncover this on his own. His sharp insight into our business poses a substantial threat in multiple ways. Moreover, the cleverness of one son is challenging the patience of the other. This is the first time Raghav has failed to maintain the secrecy of this place and our real business. Although Ayaan is my son, he is still from the enemy territory until he aligns with us—with his real family.
“His spy friend, Krish, has some serious connections. He dug deep and gave all our information to Ayaan,” Raghav declares with a bitter twist in his words. “Ayaan knows more than we thought he would at this stage, making me wonder what his next move would be,” he adds.
Raghav’s hand reaches for a bottle, pouring a drink with a keen determination in his eyes. I observe my son, who remains calm and composed amidst this critical situation. It highlights another significant difference between us: my gun acts before my mind, while Raghav’s intellect guides his actions. He thoroughly analyses everything before reaching the next decision.
“By now, Ayaan’s spies might have already infiltrated our syndicate, putting our operations at risk,” he says before taking a swig of his drink. “Our delivery fulfillment site for Rana’s deal needs to be changed. Mumbai is no longer a viable option, Dad.”
