Blood Doesn’t Mean Loyalty
1259 Words
HELLO LOVELIES!!! ✨🤍
First of all… thank you for reading up to this moment, and those who comment, I honestly appreciate you guys. I love you all🌹🌹
Buckle up. This chapter gets messy.
(Also ignore small dialogue slips if you see them. I’ll polish everything later during editing.)
Phase – I
★★★
AARA
Dock Warehouse 17
For a few seconds after the gunshot… No one moved, not me, not Arjun, nor did Dev move an inch.
Not even the guards who were still alive inside the warehouse.
The sound of police sirens outside was getting louder with every passing second, echoing through the metal walls like a countdown clock.
But inside the warehouse…
Everything felt frozen.
Arjun was still standing in the middle of the room.
Blood slowly spreading across his shoulder where the bullet had hit him.
His eyes were locked on the person holding the gun, his own mother.
Meera Rathore.
And the worst part?
She didn’t look guilty nor did she look shocked.
She looked calm, like this was something she had been planning for a long time.
My throat felt dry. “You… shot him.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Meera finally glanced at me.
Her gaze was sharp.
Cold.
Assessing.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said.
I blinked.
“What?”
Her expression didn’t change.
“This entire situation exists because you’re still alive.”
The words hit harder than the gunshot had.
My stomach twisted painfully.
Arjun finally spoke.
His voice was low.
Dangerously quiet.
“Mother.”
She looked back at him.
“You should have listened to me.”
Blood was dripping down his arm now, staining the floor but he didn’t look weak. If anything, the injury seemed to make his presence even more dangerous.
“You tried to kill her,” he said.
It wasn’t a question, Meera tilted her head slightly.
“I tried to protect this family.”
Dev chuckled behind them.
“Well… this is awkward.” Everyone ignored him.
Arjun’s eyes never left his mother.
“You sabotaged the car.”
“Yes.”
My heart skipped. The confirmation felt unreal.
“You framed Aara,” Arjun continued.
“She was convenient.”
My chest tightened painfully. Convenient? Like I was just some object used in their twisted game.
“Why?” Arjun asked.
Meera’s gaze hardened. “Because you were becoming weak.”
His jaw clenched.
“Weak?”
“Yes.”
She gestured toward me. “You started visiting that orphanage too often.”
My heart jumped.
The orphanage again.
“You spent money on strangers,” she continued.
“You protected people who had nothing to do with our business.”
Arjun didn’t respond.
So Meera finished the sentence for him. “You were losing focus.”
Dev leaned casually against one of the crates.
“I told you this family meeting would be entertaining.”
“Shut up,” Arjun snapped without even looking at him.
Dev raised his hands slightly in mock surrender But the smirk stayed on his face.
Meanwhile my brain was still trying to catch up with everything happening.
“You tried to kill me… just because Arjun visited an orphanage?”
Meera looked at me again. “Not just that.”
She took a slow step closer. “You were the girl who started changing him.”
My stomach dropped.
“That’s insane.”
“Maybe.”
“But true.”
Another police siren screamed outside. Much closer now. Dev sighed dramatically.
“Unfortunately our time is running out.”
Arjun ignored him. His entire focus remained on his mother.
“You murdered innocent people.”
“I removed obstacles.”
“You tried to kill your own son.”
Meera didn’t blink.
“You survived.”
Silence filled the warehouse again, something in Arjun’s eyes shifted. The last piece of doubt disappearing.
My chest tightened because the expression on his face now wasn’t the look of a son anymore. It was the look of a man deciding whether someone deserved to live or die.
Dev noticed it too.
“Careful, Arjun,” he said lightly.
“Matricide tends to complicate family reunions.”
Arjun’s gun lifted slowly.
Pointing directly at Meera.
My heart slammed into my ribs.
“Arjun…”
He didn’t look at me.
His voice came out flat.
“You should leave.”
I swallowed.
“What?”
“This isn’t your fight.”
“I’m already in it!”
“Not this part.”
Meera’s eyes flicked between us.
Then she laughed softly.
“See? This is exactly what I warned you about.”
Arjun’s grip tightened on the gun.
“She didn’t do anything.”
“She changed you.”
“No.”
His voice dropped colder.
“You tried to destroy me.”
Another moment of silence stretched between them.
Then Meera sighed.
“If you pull that trigger… everything your father built will collapse.”
Arjun didn’t hesitate.
“Then maybe it should.”
Dev clapped slowly again.
“Now this is the son I remember.”
But before anyone could react, the warehouse doors burst open.
“POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”
Floodlights blinded everyone inside.
At least twenty officers rushed in with rifles raised.
For a moment chaos returned.
Men shouting.
Hands being forced into the air.
But Arjun remained completely still, and was still pointing the gun at his mother, then a senior officer stepped forward.
“Sir! Put the weapon down!”
Arjun ignored him. Meera slowly raised her hands.
A calm smile appeared on her lips.
“You won’t shoot.” Arjun’s finger tightened on the trigger. The officer shouted again.
“DROP THE GUN NOW!”
My heart felt like it might explode.
“Arjun please…”
He finally glanced at me, just for a second, and in that second I saw something terrifying. Conflict.
Real conflict.
Then the gun slowly lowered.
The officers immediately moved forward and grabbed it from his hand.
Handcuffs clicked around his wrists seconds later.
“Arjun Rathore,” the officer said firmly.
“You’re under arrest for multiple counts of illegal possession of firearms and suspected homicide.”
My chest tightened.
“What?!”
Another group of officers surrounded Dev and Meera as well.
But strangely, neither of them resisted. Dev looked almost amused.
Meera looked satisfied.
Something about that made my stomach twist again.
“Take them all,” the officer ordered.
I stepped forward quickly.
“Wait! There’s a mistake!”
But no one listened.
Within minutes Arjun, Dev, and Meera were all being escorted outside. I ran after them.
“Arjun!” He turned his head slightly, just enough to meet my eyes.
“Don’t trust them,” he said quietly.
“Who?”
But the officers pushed him into the police car before he could answer, and the doors slammed shut.
Sirens started again, and just like that… The most powerful man in North India was taken away in handcuffs.
I stood there frozen, my head spinning.
My heart still racing, but something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
Because as the police cars started driving away…
I noticed something strange.
Dev Rathore was smiling.
Not nervous.
Not scared.
Smiling.
And just before the car door closed completely… I could sense this was planned.
My blood ran cold because if the arrest was part of his plan… Then the real disaster hadn’t even started yet.
And somewhere in the distance… another explosion suddenly echoed across the docks.
- Writer
