Page 13 of Wicked Trap

He wasn’t planning on getting arrested. He had intended to only observe the protest from a distance. But when chaos broke, and he saw some suspicious man about to attack Tanvi Shetty, he had intervened.

He didn’t particularly care for her. But he needed her safe and sound until the end of his plan.

“So was Shetty’s daughter impressed?” Bhargav asked. “Now that you got arrested while protesting with her?”

“Hardly.”

Aryan’s plan didn’t include impressing her in any manner. Ideally, putting on a fake, overly pleasing persona would have helped to get close to his prey. But what he wanted from her was beyond mere acquaintance or friendship. So he chose to be himself. He had mocked her and riled her. He knew she hated him right then, but he also knew she wouldn’t forget him easily.

He wouldn’t let her.

“When are you meeting Girish Shetty again?” his brother asked.

Rage began to fill him at the name. Controlling his emotions, he twisted his mouth into a dark smile. “He’s throwing a party in my honor next week.”

“Are you going?”

“No.”

“Are you sure he won’t start to panic or try to withdraw?”

The old bastard would panic. Aryan wanted to see him suffer.

“He can’t withdraw. It’s too late.”

“That’s good,” said Bhargav. There was a small pause. “Yash and I are planning to go to the estate and see the mansion tomorrow.”

Aryan knew the reason for Bhargav’s pause. Aryan hated his childhood home and didn’t want to see it. Instead of recalling happy memories from early childhood, all he now recalled were the shocking, devastating circumstances when they were forced to leave.

“Arjun! Where are you?”

Arjun giggled as he ran through the wide corridors of the Vardhaman mansion. He was playing hide and seek with his brothers. Although his two older brothers were much bigger than him in size, he was able to escape easily from their view in the large mansion.

He went towards his parents’ bedroom suite. He knew he could hide in one of the closets. Previously those closets were completely filled, but lately, his mother had given away most of her clothes and jewellery.

His father had looked sad that she had given away her favorite things, but his mother said she was happy because she had the best husband and children and didn’t need anything else.

Arjun smiled as he recalled the flower jewellery his father had made for her. He had taken Arjun’s help for it too. They had spent the entire day in the beautiful garden his father had planted over the years to pluck the best flowers to make the jewellery.

“Arjun!”

He could hear his oldest brother’s voice and knew his brother was searching in the music room.

Giggling, he opened the bedroom door and snuck inside. It was surprisingly dark. Although the lights were turned off since it was morning, all the rooms in the mansion were well-lit. Even though he told his mother he was brave, he was still a little scared of the dark.

He quickly turned on the light in the room. He then turned to go towards the closet area when he saw his father. His father was hanging from the ceiling and sleeping.

“Papa?” he called out tentatively.

He didn’t want to disturb his father. But he had never seen his father sleep in that way. In fact, he didn’t know people could sleep like that.

He had always thought of his father as a superhero, tall with muscles like a superman, his father was the strongest man in the world. His father could pick big trees from the garden and move them around easily within the estate. His father also picked mother up many times and swung her around until she laughed.

“Papa?” he called again, feeling unsure of why his father was sleeping that way. It looked uncomfortable. And the rope was causing the skin at the neck to turn red.

He didn’t like seeing his father getting hurt or in pain. His father always smiled or laughed. But recently, when Ma or anyone wasn’t looking, he saw his father looking worried.

“Arjun!” It was his brother, Bharat.

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