CH 1- The Package

       

PROLOGUE

The night was suffocatingly still, the kind where even the air felt heavy with secrets. She stood on the edge of her balcony, high above the city lights of Mumbai. The faint hum of traffic below seemed distant, almost unreal, as if it belonged to another world—a world where her heart wasn’t in pieces, and her life wasn’t built on lies.

“You lied to me.” Her voice cracked, barely audible over the distant thunder rumbling across the sky. But she knew he heard her.

Behind her, he stood like a shadow, his frame rigid, his face cloaked in darkness. He had always been her safe place, her solace in a chaotic world. Now, he was the storm.

“You knew.” Her words were sharper now, cutting through the suffocating silence. She turned to face him, her eyes burning with unshed tears. “You knew everything. Who I was, what I’d lost, everything. And you still didn’t tell me.”

He didn’t move, but his jaw tightened, and his hands curled into fists at his sides. “I didn’t tell you because I couldn’t risk losing you,” he said finally, his voice low but laced with desperation. “If I told you the truth, you would’ve walked away. And I couldn’t let that happen.”

Her laugh was bitter, hollow. “Walked away?  You didn’t even give me the choice! You let me fall in love with someone who didn’t exist.”

He stepped closer, the shadows shifting to reveal the torment etched on his face. “You think this was easy for me? Every moment I spent with you, I was terrified. Terrified that one day you’d find out and hate me. But I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t stay away.”

She took a shaky breath, her mind warring between the pull of his words and the sting of his betrayal. “This… isn’t love,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “This is deceit.”

His hand moved as if to reach for her but stopped midway. “I never meant to hurt you. Everything I did—it was for you. For us.”

The sharp buzz of her phone in her pocket cut through the tension. She pulled it out, her eyes scanning the message that had just appeared.

He’s not who he says he is. Check your father’s case file—he’s connected to it.

Her stomach twisted, her grip on the phone tightening as the words blurred in front of her. Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet his, searching for something—anything—that would prove this was all just a terrible misunderstanding.

But the look on his face told her everything she needed to know.

“What have you done?” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

He held her gaze, his expression unreadable now, the mask slipping back into place. “Everything I’ve done,” he said quietly, “was to protect you.”

Before she could respond, he turned and walked away, leaving her standing alone on the balcony, the weight of his betrayal pressing down on her chest like a vice. The rain began to fall in heavy sheets, but Avantika didn’t move. She couldn’t.

Because now, nothing in her life made sense anymore.

 

Chapter 1: The Package

The rain hadn’t let up all evening. It poured against Avantika’s window like the sky was trying to drown the city in its grief. She sat curled up on the couch, the glow of her laptop casting faint shadows across the room. A blank document stared back at her, the cursor blinking like it was mocking her inability to write anything.

She sighed and slammed the lid shut. Another wasted evening.

When the doorbell rang, it startled her. She frowned, glancing at the clock. 11:47 PM. No one visited her this late. For a moment, she sat frozen, the soft hum of rain filling the silence. Then it rang again, sharper this time, pulling her to her feet.

She opened the door cautiously, expecting a neighbor or maybe a lost delivery guy. Instead, she was met with emptiness. No one was there, just the relentless rain and the dimly lit hallway. She was about to shut the door when she noticed it—a package, soaked and slumped against her doorframe.

Avantika glanced down the corridor one last time before picking it up. It was small, nondescript, and unnervingly light. Closing the door behind her, she set the package on the coffee table and stared at it like it might explode.

Her hands trembled as she tore through the damp cardboard. Inside was a cassette tape—old and scratched, like it had been played a hundred times—and a folded piece of paper.

She unfolded it, and her heart dropped.

Some truths never fade.

Four words. That was all it took to pull her back into a storm she thought she’d escaped years ago.

Her throat tightened as she stared at the handwriting. She knew it. She knew it better than her own. It was his.

Agastya.

Her pulse quickened. Agastya had been a ghost in her life for six years. Gone without warning, without explanation. She’d tried to forget him, burying every memory of him under layers of anger and hurt. But now, here he was, clawing his way back into her life with nothing more than a scrap of paper and a cassette.

Her fingers brushed the cassette, hesitant. She hadn’t owned a tape player in years, but somehow, she’d never thrown the old one out. It sat in the back of her closet, gathering dust like her memories of him.

She retrieved it, plugged it in, and slid the tape into place. The machine whirred to life, and for a moment, all she heard was static. Then, softly, a melody began to play.

Her breath caught. She recognized it instantly. And then came his voice.

“I never meant to leave you.

I never meant to hurt you.

But sometimes love demands silence.”

Avantika’s chest tightened as the familiar sound washed over her. His voice, raw and unpolished, filled the room like it had never left. It was the same song he’d written for her once, years ago—a secret melody they’d shared on countless nights.

But this wasn’t just a song. It was something more. A confession. A warning.

The music cut off abruptly, and she flinched at the sudden silence. Before she could even process what she’d heard, her phone buzzed on the coffee table. She snatched it up, her hands shaking.

The message was from an unknown number.

You don’t know him like you think you do.

Her stomach churned. She stared at the screen, her mind racing. Who had sent this? What did they mean?

Outside, the rain pounded harder against the windows, as if the storm was closing in. And in her heart, Avantika knew one thing for certain.

This was just the beginning.