Major's Soft Obsession

Chapter 4: The Camera He Hid And The Lie She Caught

Myra Malhotra found the camera at 6:15 AM.

A tiny black dot, blinking red, hidden between the pickle jars in the common kitchen.

And in that one second, her blood went cold.

He was watching her.

She had woken up early only because downstairs, Major Veer Singh Rathore was doing his morning drill in the back garden like a man at war.

"One! Two! Three! Four!"

His voice was so loud and commanding that even with a pillow over her head, Myra could not sleep. So she came down to make tea, still in her night clothes — his big white t-shirt that she had taken from the blanket bundle, reaching till her mid-thighs, hair in a messy bun, no kohl, no filter at all. She thought the kitchen would be empty because he was in the back garden.

The kitchen was empty. But that red blinking light was not.

She stood on her toes to see properly. It was a CCTV camera. Small, hidden behind the glass jars, its lens pointed exactly where she stands every night to make Maggi.

He put a camera in the kitchen to watch me? In my night clothes?

She switched off the gas without making tea and ran upstairs. She changed in two minutes into jeans and a long kurta, tied her hair properly, and came back down with fire in her eyes.

At 6:35 AM, Veer came inside. Black shorts, black vest, fully drenched in sweat, a white towel around his neck, dog tags bouncing on his chest.

He stopped at the door. Myra awake at 6:35 AM never happened before.

"You are awake early," he said, opening the fridge for water. "Good."

Myra pointed at the pickle jars. Her finger was shaking a little. "What is that?"

Veer did not even look in that direction. "CCTV. For security."

"Security? Inside the kitchen? Hidden between jars? You put it to watch me?"

He drank water slowly, calmly. "Pine Villa is an army officer's house, Myra. One camera in the kitchen, one in the porch, one at the gate, one in the back garden. For security. Not for you. Do not flatter yourself, tenant."

"Then why is it hidden? If it is for security it should be in the open! You hid it on purpose!"

"I did not hide it. Lata's last tenant stole a mixer grinder from this kitchen. So I put a camera to watch the common area. It is in your agreement. Clause 11. You did not read it, again."

Myra opened her mouth, then closed it. She had not read it.

"But you should have told me! I come down in my night clothes! At midnight!"

Veer's jaw tightened. For a second, he looked away towards the window.

"I do not watch kitchen footage unless something is stolen. I have better things to do than watch a nineteen-year-old making Maggi at midnight."

"Then prove it. Show me the footage. Right now."

Veer raised an eyebrow. The dangerous, cold eyebrow that his juniors at the cantonment feared.

"You want me to show you CCTV footage of my own house to prove I am not a pervert?"

"Yes!"

For a second, only the fridge was humming. No one ever spoke to Major Veer Singh Rathore like that at 6:35 AM.

He walked past her and opened a small wooden door near the kitchen that Myra always thought was a storeroom. It was his private office.

"Come. Then you will stop this drama."

Myra followed him inside. His office was very clean, very army-like. Big wooden table, only a laptop, files stacked perfectly straight, medals kept in a glass box on the shelf. And on the wall, a monitor with four live feeds. Porch, gate, kitchen, back garden.

Veer clicked the mouse. "See? Yesterday, 6 PM to 11 PM. Kitchen empty. No one watched anything."

He was about to close the player, but Myra saw something on the other feed on the screen. At 7:02 PM yesterday, on the porch camera — Kabir's bike entering the lane. Then at 7:13 PM, Kabir standing in the porch. And her, in a yellow kurta, laughing with him.

Veer froze the frame. His hand froze on the mouse.

"You saw Kabir at 7:02 PM? You knew he was coming before I knew? How?" Myra asked.

Veer switched off the monitor with one sharp click. "I check outside cameras before sleeping. Saw a boy near the gate. Thought it was a thief."

Lie. Myra knew it was a lie instantly. Cantonment is forty minutes from Rajpur Road. If he saw the bike at 7:02 on the camera, he could not have reached Pine Villa at 7:13 from the cantonment. He was already nearby. He came back early on purpose.

"You are lying, Major," she said softly, looking directly at him. "You were already coming home. You saw us on your phone, right? That is why you have the CCTV app on your phone."

"My phone is my private property, Myra. Do not cross the line."

"You crossed it first! You put cameras without telling me! You watch who comes to my room! You act like you own me!"

"I do not own you!" He raised his voice slightly, then controlled himself instantly. He took a deep breath. "I own this house. And I have the right to know who enters after seven PM. That boy should not have come after seven."

"Rule, rule, rule! You only know rules! You are not a Major here! You are just a landlord! A rude, khadoos landlord!"

Dead silence fell in the small office.

Veer's eyes went cold. The kind of cold that made soldiers stand straight and stop breathing.

"Just a landlord?" He repeated slowly, stepping closer inside that small office. Myra stepped back until her back touched the cold wall. His office suddenly felt too small for both of them.

"Say it again, Myra."

Myra's heart was beating fast, but she was stubborn. She looked up.

"You are just a landlord."

In one step, Veer put both his hands on the wall, on either side of her head. He trapped her. He was too close. Sweat was still on his neck, his dog tags were almost touching her forehead, his breathing was heavy from his workout.

"I am not just a landlord, Myra Malhotra. I am a Major who can have you vacate this house in one hour if I want. One call to Lata and you will be on Rajpur Road with that broken blue suitcase again. In the rain. Do you want that?"

Myra's eyes filled with tears instantly. "You would throw me out?"

Veer saw the tears and his hands dropped instantly, as if he had been burned.

"No," he said quietly, looking away towards his table. "I would not."

"Then why did you say it?"

"Because you make me say things I do not want to say!"

She wiped her eyes with her kurta sleeve. "I hate you, Major Veer Singh Rathore. You are the rudest man I have ever seen."

"Hate me," he said, sitting on his chair, opening a file as if she was not there anymore. "It is better than getting close to me. Remember Rule Five?"

Myra stood there for five seconds, then walked out and closed her door loudly. Bang.

Downstairs, Veer threw his pen on the table and ran a hand through his wet hair. He stared at the switched-off monitor for a long time.

Upstairs, Myra opened her notebook angrily and wrote in big, capital letters:

I WILL MAKE MAJOR VEER SINGH RATHORE BREAK HIS OWN RULE NUMBER FIVE.

She underlined it three times, so hard that the page tore.