Hospital Room –
Mahesh Sharma leaves the room, muttering something about getting food from the hospital canteen. The door clicks shut behind him, and for the first time since the café, I'm alone with Meera.
She pulls a chair closer, sitting beside my hospital bed. Her eyes are still wide with shock, her fingers twisting nervously in her lap.
"I've never seen Aarohi like this," she murmurs, breaking the silence. "She was… different."
I nod slowly, my mind still reeling from everything that happened. "Yeah. It was like something inside her snapped. Like she wasn't even thinking—just reacting."
Meera exhales, rubbing her temples. "She didn't even hesitate, Aryan. You saw it. One second, she was reading, and the next… she pulled the trigger."
I glance at my bandaged leg. The pain is dull now, but my thoughts are sharp, cutting through every moment of what happened.
Aarohi wasn't herself.
Or maybe—maybe she was, and I just never understood her completely.
Meera suddenly pulls out her phone. "You need to see this."
She taps on a video, and the screen fills with the image of Ratan Malhotra.
The footage is old, slightly grainy, but his voice is clear. Confident. Commanding.
"Today, I make an announcement. The future of Suryavanshi Enterprises will not be handed to anyone outside my bloodline. My next heir…" He pauses, letting the words settle. "Will be my daughter—Aarohi Malhotra."
The crowd in the video erupts. Some clap, some whisper. A few faces turn to each other, exchanging knowing glances.
And then—the video ends.
I stare at the screen, my mind racing.
"So that's why…" I whisper.
Meera looks at me, confused. "Why what?"
I shake my head, exhaling. "That's why she's so strong. Why she's different from other girls. Aarohi wasn't just raised to be a daughter—she was raised to be an heir."
Meera leans back in her chair, processing this. "And maybe… that's why the truth broke her so badly. She's spent her whole life being trained to carry his legacy. And now, she finds out—he lied to her. That the man she's supposed to trust the most—"
"—is the one who destroyed her world," I finish.
Silence fills the room.
I don't know what Aarohi will do next.
But I know one thing for sure—she won't stop running.
Breaking News –
The soft hum of the hospital TV fills the silence. Meera and I glance up at the screen, barely paying attention—until the news anchor's urgent voice cuts through the room.
"Breaking news from the outskirts of the city! We have exclusive footage of Aarohi Malhotra—Ratan Malhotra's only daughter—who is currently on the run."
A shaky video clip plays.
Aarohi.
Barefoot. Her clothes torn, dirt smeared on her face, her hair wild in the wind. She moves like a storm—fighting off three, no—four men at once. Her punches are fast, precise. She knocks one to the ground, twists another's arm behind his back, dodges a knife aimed at her.
She looks desperate.
She looks dangerous.
"This is the Aarohi Malhotra we thought we knew," the anchor continues. "But shocking revelations suggest that she might not be Ratan Malhotra's real daughter at all. There is no birth certificate, no official records of her existence before the age of five."
My breath catches in my throat.
"Sources claim she was adopted under mysterious circumstances. And her real name… is not Aarohi Malhotra."
The screen flashes with old, blurred documents. A faint name is visible—but the footage is too grainy to make it out.
Meera gasps beside me.
I feel a chill run down my spine.
Who is Aarohi?
And—if she isn't Ratan Malhotra's daughter… then why did he raise her?