Chapter 146 - 145

"After that, I searched for the evidence everywhere but couldn't find it. So I figured, it was with him at the time of the accident and the evidence was the reason my mother was kidnapped." Shreya said pursing her lips.

Charan stayed quiet as he listened. He did not know how to react to any of it. This all felt like it was out of some action movie or something.

"First things first, I strengthened our powers. My dad was just a businessman. He did not have any network or an army for himself. SO I had to build one for myself from scratch. I placed my own people in every nook and cranny of the country and made an information system for myself. It took me a better part of 2 years just to set everything up. I knew I couldn't be sloppy or else I would end up like my dad. So I made sure we had very strong forces to back us up before I made the move."

"And of course, Prasanna gave away Rakesh's name. So I first thought that Rakesh was behind this but when we ran a background on him, something just did not feel right. But even then I knew he was involved. So I made my moves in the dark. I knew his roots are deep. So, after another 6 months, we cornered him and you know what happened."

"But as I anticipated, he said he was just a broker and gave us three more names. Abimanyu Bharathwaj, Abishek Mehta, and Naren Gupta…" She paused.

Of course, Charan recognized those names. Everyone in the country would. These people were only second to the Srivastav's. But then combined, they could easily take Adithya Srivastav down. Especially given Adithya was straight off businessman without hidden forces.

"According to Rakesh, even though they have a legit business on the surface, their main power is drawn from the syndicate they run. A mercenary group exclusively under their control. And for the right price they did everything and anything. They were using our own country's army people to do their bidding. And the Defence Minister was a liaison. And the Prime Minister was getting close."

"So they framed someone for his murder in exchange for taking care of his wife to steer suspicion. After all, if the murder case of the leader of a nation is left unsolved it would lead to too much noise and they had the government under their pockets. SO they could make anyone the murderer. But of course, the trouble started when the wife died of cancer a year after his conviction and he sent a testimonial to my dad. And my dad started investigating his friend's death and like a domino effect, everything came crashing down in a matter of 6 months and I lost my parents…"

"So you need to figure out a way to take these three people down now??" Charan asked.

Shreya shrugged nonchalantly and spoke indifferently, "Taking them down individually will not take long… with my resources now, it's easy as a pie. That too if I can be open and strike heads on, they won't have a chance. The problem is with the network… I want to annihilate the network so that no one else could use it again and strip them of what they have earned so far through illegal means. And its proving to be difficult. There is no way in… And since almost most of the corporate world has used them at one point or another, we do not have any allies." Shreya said with a sigh.

Charan could not help but gap at her. In the whole of the country, it's probably only Shreya who could say so nonchalantly that taking down three of the most powerful men in the country was 'easy as pie'.

"I know its all scary and surreal. But please trust me. If I was not confident with myself, I wouldn't have started anything. I know what I am doing… there are some setbacks… but the situation is still within my control." Shreya tried to convince him frantically. Her nervousness had multiplied leaps and bounds by the time she had finished. She suddenly realized how scary this should all to for him.

But she did not want to hide things from him… that is why she had been painfully honest with him. And she did not curry flavor anything. But then again, she was afraid the whole thing would scare him shitless make him run for hills. But still, she was not one to believe in the term 'ignorance is bliss'.

She had struggled long and hard about the whole thing. Her indecision was why she had kept him dark in so long. She knew this had nothing to do with him. But still, it had the potential to hurt him or his family. So she finally came to the conclusion that he had the right to know and to make the decision for himself. Even if it meant she wouldn't have him in her life.

Silence ensued in the room as Shreya pulled away and sat facing him biting on her lips nervously. The weight of the situation suddenly hit her hard. She thought she would be able to keep calm and let him go since it was regarding his safety if he decides to do so… but now, she was not sure. As it is, she was not prepared to blurt everything out like this. Even though she had decided to tell him everything a while back, she thought she would have time to prepare herself to face the consequences. But then when he asked her, words just flowed out of her mouth. And she also felt, if she let this go, she wouldn't have the gut to tell him any other day.

So she gritted on her teeth and told him everything. But now, she was scared… terrified of the consequences. Suddenly she wasn't very sure how she was going to cope up with her life if Charan left. But more than that what made her feel absolutely gutted about that scenario was that if Charan was no longer in her life, then Akira won't be in her life and that scenario made her feel something akin to how she felt when she had lost her parents.