"Take Me Back"

Episode 25: The Hidden Door

The heavy steel shutters slammed shut with a metallic boom that echoed through the empty hallway. We were caged in a room filled with the very secrets that had ruined our lives.

"Kabir, the vents are too narrow!" I hissed, pulling at a decorative metal grate. "They’ve sealed the floor."

"Then we stand our ground," Kabir said, his jaw tightening as he gripped the taser. He moved in front of me, his shadow long and protective against the red emergency lights.

Suddenly, the keypad on the office door hissed. The lock turned from red to green. The door slid open, but it wasn't a tactical team. It was my father. He looked ten years older than when I had last seen him. His face was gaunt, his eyes filled with a mixture of terror and relief.

"Dad?" I whispered.

"Don't speak," he commanded, his voice trembling but firm. He stepped inside and quickly slammed a physical override button on the wall. "The Singhanias are monitoring the elevator. You have ninety seconds before they manual-override the shutters."

He walked over to the mahogany bookshelf and pulled a specific leather-bound volume. With a groan of gears, a section of the wall swung inward—a private exit designed for the 'consultants' of Vanguard.

"Go. There’s a service tunnel that leads to the old metro line," he said, handing me a heavy envelope. "Everything is in here, Aria. The names, the dates, and the proof that I was the one who leaked the London location to the Malhotras five years ago to save you."

I froze. "You were the one who broke us up? Not Natasha?"

"I had to make Kabir look like the villain so you wouldn't follow him," my father confessed, a single tear escaping. "Now go! If they find you here, I can't protect you anymore."

Kabir looked at my father, a silent understanding passing between the two men who had both sacrificed everything for me in their own twisted ways.

"I'm sorry, Kabir," my father whispered.

Kabir nodded once, grabbed my hand, and pulled me into the dark tunnel just as the sound of boots thundered in the hallway outside.