Page 144 of Illicit Games

“Don’t worry. If you’re right, we will put them behind bars,” he reassures. “I have to go. You’ll hear from either me or Harshita soon. This is a solid lead. Be proud.”

I hang up and send a prayer that both Rhea and Yukta are safe.

That this is finally the end.

Kian

A knock sounds at my door just as I’m preparing to leave. My concentration is shot knowing my girl is sick. She has a habit of downplaying things.

Zenith pokes his head in.

The expression, or rather the lack of it, on his face ruins my mood. A bad feeling births inside me.

“What?” I grimly demand.

“You should sit down.”

“Spit it out, Zenith.”

“Iris was sent to spy on you.”

I laugh as I finish putting on my jacket. “Are you back to suspecting her? I thought you were done with that.”

“Do you know the name of her mentor?”

I draw a blank. A minute detail that I never bothered to ask, one she didn’t reveal to me.

“It’s Harshita D’Souza,” Zenith answers when I say nothing. “Know her?”

Of course, I do. She’s the investigative journalist who works closely with the local authorities in private criminalinvestigations. As I think about it, my mind refuses to connect the dots. Because accepting it makes Zenith’s accusation true.

Iris wouldn’t deceive me, would she?

“So, what if Iris is working under her?” I counter. “It could be a coincidence.”

“Sahara Timesisn’t launching just any new issue.” Crossing the room over to me, he slaps a manila folder on my desk. “Harshita was tipped last year after the girls started disappearing and you were called in for questioning. Ever since, she’s been closely watching you. She pulled some strings to get Iris hired as an intern because of her connection with your family. She sent her as an undercover agent to ask around about the girls. You were their prime suspect.”

Each word is a dagger to my heart. A knife’s edge slicing into my back.

I’m unable to digest any of it.

My Iris wouldn’t believe I could hurt a woman in a million years.

“I got confirmation from my source that Harshita is working with the detectives you met two weeks ago,” Zenith says in a cold tone. “It’s why Iris was attacked. The kidnappers must’ve found out she was snooping around and tried to scare her off. I bet she knows it too.”

Ice seeps into my bloodstream as I remember the agony of finding her bruised and unconscious. I had thought my world had come to an end. I confessed the same. Yet she kept me in the dark while sending me on a goose chase.

How could I have been so blind?

Why didn’t she tell me?

Till today, she’s been lying to me. Does she still believe I had something to do with my employees’ abduction? What has she told her mentor?

Was she ever going to tell me the truth?

“The folder has all the evidence I gathered,” Zenith says, while I stand mute and broken. Pity shines in his dark eyes as he stares at me. “For what it’s worth, I wish I had been wrong about her.”

Me too.