Chapter 12: The Locker That Knew Too Much
832 Words
Pre-dawn air hung cold over Connaught Place. The white colonnades looked ghostly, shops shuttered, pigeons still asleep in ledges that had seen a hundred years of secrets.
Aarav parked a little away from the curb.
“No cameras near the main gate at this hour,” he said quietly.
Meher noticed the way he scanned reflections in glass, shadows between pillars, rooftops. He wasn’t just cautious.
He was trained for this.
They walked toward the side entrance of Central Bank of India. A lone security guard sat inside, half awake, half suspicious.
Aarav handled it smoothly.
“Locker access. Emergency.”
The guard looked at Meher. “ID?”
Her fingers trembled as she handed it over.
The guard checked the register.
Looked confused.
“This locker was opened six months ago. Hardly used.”
Meher’s eyes slid toward Aarav.
He didn’t react.
They were led downstairs into the vault corridor. Thick steel doors. Air that smelled of metal and old paper.
The guard stopped outside.
“I’ll wait here.”
Meher nodded.
Her heartbeat was louder than her footsteps.
Locker number: 317.
She knelt.
Entered her birthdate like Aanya had whispered.
The lock clicked open.
Too easily.
Too quietly.
Like it had been waiting.
She pulled the drawer out.
Inside—
A blue file.
Thick.
Heavy.
And a small pen drive taped to its cover.
Her hands froze.
For a second, she didn’t want to touch it.
Because this—
This was the thing men had chased them for.
This was the reason Aanya had lived like a ghost.
This was the reason Aarav had lied.
Kabir crouched beside her.
“Open it.”
She did.
The first page—
Photographs.
People.
Different cities.
Different dates.
Some smiling at parties.
Some entering hotels.
Some getting into cars with unfamiliar faces.
All marked with notes.
Payments.
Transfers.
Movements.
Meher’s stomach turned.
“What is this?”
Kabir flipped a few pages.
His face hardened.
“These are clients.”
Aarav spoke from behind them.
“Victims.”
They both looked at him.
He continued.
“Raghav doesn’t just hide people. He supplies people. Influential clients who don’t want records. Girls who don’t know what they’re walking into. Witnesses who disappear.”
Meher turned another page.
Her breath caught.
A photograph of Aanya.
At an airport.
Smiling.
With a man standing beside her.
A man whose face had been circled in red.
Under it—
Raghav Suryavanshi
Her hands began shaking.
“That’s him?” she whispered.
“Yes,” Aarav said.
She flipped further.
Bank statements.
Transaction trails.
Offshore accounts.
Names of politicians.
Businessmen.
Celebrities.
People powerful enough to bury anything.
Kabir exhaled slowly. “This isn’t evidence. This is a bomb.”
Meher’s throat felt dry.
And then—
She saw something that made her freeze.
A document.
A property transfer paper.
Signed.
Stamped.
Six months ago.
Buyer: Aarav Malhotra
Property: Shantivan Care Center
She looked up slowly.
“You bought that place from him.”
Silence.
Kabir looked at Aarav.
“What?”
Aarav’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Meher stood up abruptly.
“You bought it from Raghav?”
“To get Aanya out without alerting him.”
“You were doing business with him!”
“I was buying time.”
Her eyes filled with anger.
“Or covering tracks?”
Kabir stepped back slightly.
The air shifted.
This wasn’t fear of Raghav anymore.
This was doubt of Aarav.
“You had contact with him,” Meher said quietly.
Aarav didn’t deny it.
“I needed access.”
“You lied to me again.”
“I protected you.”
“By hiding the truth?!”
Her voice echoed in the vault.
The guard outside shifted nervously.
Kabir lowered his voice. “Guys…”
But Meher wasn’t listening.
“You knew him. You dealt with him. You kept my sister in a building you bought from him. And you expect me to trust you?”
Aarav stepped closer.
His voice low.
Controlled.
“I did what was necessary.”
She shook her head.
“No. You did what you decided was necessary.”
A pause.
Then she held up the file.
“And she said, ‘Don’t let Aarav…’”
Aarav’s expression flickered.
Just slightly.
But enough.
“What was she going to say?” Meher demanded.
He didn’t answer.
That silence again.
Always that silence.
And suddenly—
She realized something chilling.
He wasn’t afraid of Raghav finding this file.
He was afraid of her reading it.
Kabir noticed too.
“What’s in here that she shouldn’t see?” he asked.
Meher flipped the pages faster.
Until—
She found it.
A report.
A list of recovered witnesses.
Names.
Dates.
Status.
And at the bottom—
One line.
Subject M — Memory Suppression Recommended
Her breath stopped.
Subject M.
Her eyes widened slowly.
She looked at Aarav.
“What is this?”
He didn’t move.
Didn’t blink.
Didn’t speak.
Her voice trembled.
“Is this me?”
- Writer
