Page 52 of Obsession

“And?” Mihir asked.

“Ivan’s been trying to get in touch with JD, hoping he will help him in the search. But so far, JD doesn’t seem to be interested at all. He’s refused all of Ivan’s endeavors to get in touch with him. That’s why Ivan is focused on you again.”

“He will never get to us,” Armaan said. “He will fail each time he tries.”

Mihir looked at the guard in front of him. “We’ve got what we wanted from him. You know what to do. Make him suffer.”

“Please, I’ve told you everything,” Paul begged. “Just… just kill me quickly.”

Mihir looked at Chekov. “Tell Andres his debt is paid.”

Paul’s eyes widened in realization.

“Your family didn’t hesitate to rat on you,” Mihir said. “Even they know what a useless piece of shit you are.”

With that last statement, Mihir walked out of the warehouse, his brothers following him. They stopped by Mihir’s car.

“Losing him will be a big loss to Ivan,” Armaan said. “I doubt he has any more supporters.”

“He certainly does not have the money to pay for hiring more henchmen,” Vedant added. “I wonder what his next move will be.”

Armaan studied Mihir. “What did you think Paul meant when he said that Ivan had used Ananya in the past to hurt you?”

Mihir’s heart stumbled. “What do you think he meant?”

Armaan exchanged a glance with Vedant. “I think you need to clear the air with her, brother. You need to know exactly what happened that day in London. You need closure. We all do.”

Mihir took deep breaths in and out. After the attack on him in London, Alexander had tried hard to find who had hurt him. He had got all his potential enemies investigated, but nothing had come forward. No one had any answers. And Mihir had refused to ask the one person who had been vital in ensuring he was there that day, in that house in Kent, at that particular time when he had been so brutally attacked. He had refused to tell anyone about Anna’s involvement. Alexander would have hunted her and ended her life. Despite his own anger at her betrayal, he hadn’t been able to tell Alexander about her role in the events of that day.

It was only much later, after Alexander had passed away, and post the yacht incident, that he had confessed to his brothers about her role in that disaster.

But now, to learn that Ivan had orchestrated that attack, and that he had used her, was a shocking revelation. Which begged the question—if Anna had helped Ivan in the past, then why would he have hurt her now? Not that Mihir could put anything past Ivan. He was a legit psychopath.

Sensing his brothers watching him, he said, “Let’s talk about Karina. Assuming Paul is right, and JD is not looking for her, what if we go public with her search?”

“What do you mean?”

“Perhaps we start talking about her. We tell the world we have a sister and we miss her. That way, maybe she finds the courage to come find us herself.”

“It could work…” Armaan said. “We are running out of options as it is. The photo searches on her are taking too long.”

Vedant sighed. “I’m good to do whatever it takes to ensure her safety. It will be one less thing for Ivan to use against us.”

“Alright, I’ll think on this and come up with a plan,” Mihir said. “I have another suggestion. I think we need to tell the board about Ivan and how he’s been trying to hurt us. How he’s targeted Navya, Reina, and now… Anna.”

Armaan scratched his jaw. “We all know that Ivan still has a few supporters amongst the board. They’re not going to believe us easily.”

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t tell them,” Vedant said. “The majority of the board favors us. We’ve kept quiet about Ivan for far too long. None of them know that Armaan and I were hurt. They assumed it was business as usual because Mihir kept it as such.”

“Alright,” Armaan said. “Let’s start telling them slowly, one on one via phone calls first.”

Mihir nodded. “We have the annual board meeting coming up next month. With the three of us in attendance, we’ll push it through completely at that time and present them with everything we have so far on Ivan.”

“One more thing,” Mihir added, his tone hard. “I need every crook and criminal in every corner of the world to know that I’m willing to pay them double of whatever Ivan’s promised them if they reject his offer to hurt us or anyone we care for.”

“Agreed,” Armaan said. “I’ll get on this right away.”

Mihir tapped a button on his car key. His car beeped. “Are you guys going home?”