Chapter 20: The Reckoning

POV: Aarav & Ira (Dual Narrative)
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Aarav

He stood on the rooftop of the Verma & Ray building, where once Vivaan toasted billion-rupee contracts and charmed the skyline like it bowed just for him.

But now �" the city didn’t shine.

It watched.

Vivaan arrived late, but polished. Like always. His suit fit like sin, and his expression said nothing at all.

Aarav stepped forward, file in hand, eyes colder than the January wind slicing through them.

> “I know everything,” he said.

Vivaan gave him a long look, then chuckled.

> “No, Aarav. You know enough to start asking the wrong questions.”

---

Aarav dropped the bomb first.

Sanya’s testimony.
Meera’s coded journal.
Kiara’s sketches.
A server backup Vivaan forgot to wipe.

> “You didn’t just manipulate them,” Aarav said. “You lured them.”

> “Into something they couldn’t leave.”

Vivaan's face didn’t fall �" it fractured, like cracked porcelain.

> “It wasn’t about lust,” Aarav continued, voice shaking now. “It was business, wasn’t it? Transactional. Industrial.”

And then Vivaan spoke �" not with guilt. With exhaustion.

> “You really want to hear the truth?”
“You think I’m the monster?”
“I’m the son of him.”

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Vivaan

> “Our father �" your father too, don’t forget �" didn’t just build buildings. He built syndicates. Networks. Real estate was the surface. Underneath?”

Vivaan’s voice dropped.

> “Women. Girls. Silence. Power.”

> “You think all those scholarship interns came through merit? They were procured, Aarav. Vetted. Prepped. Gifted.”


---

> “And me?” Vivaan laughed bitterly. “I was the candy wrapper. The bait. The charming son who made it look safe.”

Aarav couldn’t breathe.

> “Sanya, Kiara, Meera �" they didn’t vanish because they were fragile. They saw too much. They started pulling at threads.”

> “And when they did… he came down like a storm.”

---

> “So why didn’t you disappear too?” Aarav demanded.

Vivaan looked up. “Because I let him believe I was on his side.”

> “You became part of it?”
Vivaan’s eyes glossed over.

> “Not willingly. But eventually, you learn which screams are easier to ignore.”

> “Until Sanya.”

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Sanya

Vivaan turned away, voice cracking for the first time.

> “I loved her. I never said it. I wasn’t allowed to feel anything for them. But Sanya �" she wasn’t like the others.”

> “She knew.”

> “She knew everything. And she stayed long enough to try saving me.”

Aarav whispered, “So why let her go?”

> “Because she looked at me like I could still choose to be better.”

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Ira

Across town, Ira sat with the journalist at an undisclosed café, USB drive in hand.

It contained Vivaan’s voice.
And his father’s signatures.
Bank logs.
Photos of girls in waiting rooms that were never meant to be found.

But she hesitated.

Because she knew �" what came next wouldn’t feel like victory. It would feel like exposure.

Still, she said it:

> “Run it. All of it.”

The journalist looked up. “Even the part about the father?”

> “Especially that part.”

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Aarav (Later That Night)

He met Ira on the bridge where Kiara’s shoes had been found.

They didn’t speak for a while.

Finally, he said:

> “He loved Sanya.”

> “I know,” Ira replied.

> “That’s why he didn’t break her.”

> “And that’s why he broke himself.”
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Nationwide �" 24 Hours Later

Every media outlet:

> “BREAKING: Devendra Verma, business tycoon, arrested under international trafficking & organized exploitation.”
“Son’s confession exposes decades of crimes buried beneath architectural empire.”
“Red Thread Investigation leads to historic dismantling of elite abuse network.”

Aarav’s father was arrested in Mumbai.
Vivaan was taken into protective custody, under charges of complicity and obstruction.
He handed over 42 names, including police officials, legal protectors, and foreign “clients.”

But most chilling of all:

> A hidden ledger titled: Prospects �" with names, ages, internship dates.

Sanya. Kiara. Meera.
Even girls Ira had never heard of.

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Aarav stood on the rooftop again, watching the press below.

Vivaan’s voice echoed in his head:

> “You were always looking for redemption, Aarav. But you can’t redeem what you didn’t ruin. You can only reveal it.”

And now, finally, Aarav knew�"

His silence had been a second crime.
But this noise… this unraveling?

It was the beginning of atonement.
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