The Man Who Wasn’t Supposed To Exist
1604 Words
HELLO LOVELIES!!! ✨🤍
First of all… breathe.
Because I know the last chapter probably left a lot of you staring at the screen like WHAT DO YOU MEAN HER FATHER??
But we are finally entering the part of the story where buried memories start fighting their way back to the surface.
And memories… are dangerous things, some of them destroy people, some me of them reveal monsters and some of them change everything.
This chapter moves between past and present. Pay attention to the details 👀
(And yes, if you see small dialogue slips, ignore them for now. Editing will come later.)
Phase – I
★★★
AARA
Dock District Midnight
The explosion from the warehouse was still burning behind us.
Orange flames climbed into the night sky like a giant warning signal.
Police officers were shouting orders while fire trucks had arrived. Sirens screamed from every direction but I wasn’t hearing any of it because the moment the warehouse exploded… something inside my head cracked open.
And memories I didn’t even know I had started spilling out, pieces by pieces,
Rain. Cold rain heavy enough to blur the entire road.
A broken car.
The sound of metal twisting.
My own breathing was fast as I panicked, and then a man’s voice.
“Run, Aara!”
My chest tightened violently, I pressed my hands against my temples.
“Miss? Are you okay?”
Someone from the police tried to help me stand but my legs felt weak.
Another memory flashed.
The bridge was dark and wet.
A man was grabbing my wrist,his face hidden in the rain.
“You shouldn’t have been in that car!”
My breathing grew shallow. The officer beside me looked worried now.
“Someone call medical.”
“No,” I whispered, but the memories didn’t stop. They kept coming.
The man pulling me toward the edge of the bridge with a tight grip.
His voice angry.
“You ruined everything!”
And then, another voice. a familiar one.
Arjun.
But younger.
Shouting from somewhere behind us.
“LET HER GO!”
The memory snapped, my eyes flew open.
I gasped sharply. The officer beside me looked startled.
“What happened?”
But I couldn’t answer because the truth had just started crawling into my mind.
Arjun had been there that night not just after the accident. He had been there during it, which meant he had seen everything or at least part of it.
My stomach twisted and suddenly Dev’s words echoed in my head again.
The man you pushed off the bridge… was your father.
My chest tightened painfully.
“No…”
That couldn’t be right my father died when I was twelve from a heart attack that’s what I was told.
But what if, what if that wasn’t true?
My hands started shaking again, and the worst part?
Deep inside my mind…a small voice whispered something terrifying. You remember his voice.
The officer touched my shoulder gently. “Miss, we should get you to a hospital.”
I shook my head slowly. “No hospital.”
“You’re in shock.”
“I need to leave.”
“That’s not possible right now.”
Before I could argue further a black car suddenly pulled up beside the police barricade.
At first no one paid attention until the door opened and someone stepped out.
Tall, broad shoulders, wearing a dark coat.
The streetlight hit his face.
My breath caught.
Arjun.
For a moment I thought I was hallucinating, he was supposed to be in police custody.
Yet here he was walking calmly toward the chaos like nothing had happened.
The officers noticed him seconds later.
“HEY!”
Several guns lifted instantly.
“STOP RIGHT THERE!”
Arjun didn’t stop.
Didn’t run.
Didn’t look worried.
He simply kept walking.
My heart started racing.
What was he doing?
The officer beside me grabbed his radio.
“We’ve got Rathore here!”
Another group of officers rushed toward him but before anyone could reach him, several black SUVs screeched to a halt behind the police line.
Doors opened and men in dark suits stepped out, they were Arjun’s men. The situation escalated instantly.
Police shouting. Security drawing weapons. The air turned electric.
Arjun finally stopped walking. His eyes found mine immediately, even across the chaos, even across the flashing lights.
And for a second…Everything else disappeared, just him.
Just me.
Then one officer moved forward.
“Arjun Rathore you are”
He didn’t finish the sentence. Because Raghav stepped out of one of the SUVs holding something in his hand, it was a folder.
He tossed it toward the lead officer.
“Read page three.”
The officer hesitated but curiosity got the better of him, he opened the file.
His expression changed instantly.
“What is this?”
“Your warrant.”
“For what?”
Raghav smiled slightly.
“For the illegal arrest of my brother.”
The officer frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
Raghav pointed toward the burning warehouse.
“You arrested him based on evidence that no longer exists.”
The officer’s grip on the file tightened.
“You blew it up.”
“Prove it.”
Silence fell between them, then the officer muttered something under his breath, because legally… Raghav wasn’t wrong.
Without evidence, the arrest wouldn’t hold.
Arjun finally spoke.
His voice calm.
“I’d like to take my wife home.”
My heart skipped. Wife.
The officer looked irritated.
“This isn’t over.”
“I know.”
Arjun stepped past him and no one stopped him and moments later he stood in front of me. Up close now I could see the dried blood near his collar.
The exhaustion in his eyes but also something else. It was relief.
“You’re safe,” he said quietly.
I stared at him.
“You escaped police custody.”
“It was temporary.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
Despite everything… A tiny corner of his mouth lifted.
Then his expression turned serious again.
“What happened here?”
“The warehouse exploded.”
His eyes darkened slightly.
“I expected that.”
I blinked.
“You expected”
“Yes.”
My confusion deepened.
“Arjun… I remembered something.”
His attention sharpened instantly.
“What.”
“The bridge.”
His body went completely still.
“You remember the accident.”
“Pieces of it.”
“Tell me.”
“I saw a man.”
He waited.
“He grabbed me.”
Arjun’s jaw tightened.
“And?”
“He said I ruined everything.”
Silence stretched between us.
Then I whispered the part that terrified me the most.
“You were there.”
Arjun didn’t react immediately but I saw it, the tension in his shoulders.
“You heard me shouting.”
“Yes.”
I swallowed hard.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
His eyes held mine.
“Because you were barely alive when they pulled you from the car.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Another pause, then he said quietly,
“Because you weren’t ready to hear it.”
Before I could respond Raghav suddenly approached us with his expression serious for once.
“We need to leave.”
Arjun didn’t look at him.
“Why.”
Raghav gestured toward the burning warehouse.
“Because father wasn’t the only one planning tonight.”
My stomach twisted again. “What does that mean?”
Raghav looked directly at me.“You remembered the man on the bridge.”
“Yes.”
“And you think he was your father.”
I hesitated.
“That’s what you said.”
Raghav’s smile turned strangely cold.
“I said the man you pushed was your father.”
he paused and continued “But I never said he died.”
The ground felt like it shifted under my feet.
“What?”
Arjun’s eyes snapped toward him.
“Explain.”
Raghav shrugged slightly.
“The river below that bridge was shallow.”
My breathing stopped.
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
He reached into his coat pocket, he pulled out a photograph and handed it to me. My hands trembled as I took it. The image was recent.
Taken only weeks ago. A man walking out of a hospital.
Older.
Grey hair.
But the face… I recognized it instantly, he was the same man from my memory, the same man from the bridge, the same man Dev claimed I killed.
My father. Alive.
My heart started pounding violently.
“That’s impossible.”
Raghav’s voice turned quiet.
“Welcome to the real story.”
Arjun looked equally stunned.
“Where is he?”
Raghav’s smile faded.
“That’s the problem.”
“What problem?”
“He disappeared three days ago.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
Raghav looked directly at me.
“And the last person who visited him before he vanished…”
Pause.
“…was your mother.”
The world seemed to freeze again, because my mother had been dead for eight years or at least… That’s what I had always believed, and suddenly Arjun’s phone rang.
He answered it immediately, his expression changed within seconds.
Cold.
Dangerous.
“What is it?” I asked.
He slowly lowered the phone.
And said something that made my blood run cold.
“My mother escaped police custody.”
Silence.
Then he added the worst part.
“And she just took control of the Rathore headquarters.”
Raghav laughed softly under his breath.
“Well…”
Pause.
“…the war finally started.”
- Writer
