Beneath the Silence - Chapter 5 (Second Last)
Chapter 5: The Man Behind the Empire
Two days later, back in Mumbai, the office buzzed with hushed whispers. Something had shifted in the air, though no one could put it into words.
Only Aditi knew the reason.
Aditya Raychand was changing.
Not in dramatic ways, but in the smallest details: he no longer barked orders, he started using “please” and “thank you” occasionally, and—most shocking of all—he hadn’t raised his voice in over 72 hours.
She tried to ignore it. Tried to keep things professional. But the silence between them had changed. It no longer held tension. It held something fragile.
And that made her nervous.
Meanwhile – A Hidden File
Aditya sat alone in his penthouse office that night, sipping his usual black coffee. His laptop glowed in the dark, casting shadows across his sharp features.
He shouldn’t have done it. But he had.
He had run a background check on Aditi Sharma.
The basics were clean. No criminal record. Flawless academic and professional achievements. Everything matched. Too perfectly.
But the deeper he went, the more the cracks appeared.
The Aditi Sharma from her current records only existed from three years ago. Before that—nothing. No school certificates. No ID trail. Just... absence.
It was as if she had erased her old self.
And then—he found it.
A photograph.
Blurry, but unmistakable.
A girl, in a press clipping from a small-town scandal. A girl who looked hauntingly like Aditi… standing beside Rajeev.
The headline read:
"Local businessman’s daughter caught in financial fraud investigation – case dismissed due to lack of evidence."
His fingers tightened around the glass.
So she was the daughter.
Not accused, but questioned.
And vanished soon after.
He stared at the image. The soft eyes. The same silence.
But now, that silence screamed of a past.
The Confrontation
The next morning, he didn’t summon her.
Instead, he walked to her desk.
Heads turned. It was unheard of.
“Aditi. My office. Now.”
She followed him, her stomach twisted.
Inside, he closed the door. Walked to the window. His back turned to her.
“I looked into your past,” he said, coldly.
Silence.
“I found things. Incomplete stories. Half-truths. Ghosts.”
Aditi didn’t flinch. “I knew you would.”
He turned, eyes hard. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”
She raised her chin. “Because that girl doesn’t exist anymore.”
“You hid your identity. From your employer. That’s serious.”
“I didn’t lie. I rebuilt myself. After something I didn’t cause destroyed my family’s name.”
His voice softened. “You were caught in it?”
“My father trusted the wrong people. Rajeev’s father. The press destroyed us before we could explain. I was seventeen. I changed my name legally when I moved to Mumbai. I just… wanted peace.”
He stared at her—longer than necessary.
“You could have told me.”
“I’ve seen what power does to truth, Mr. Raychand. It bends it. Buries it. I wasn’t sure if you'd listen… or judge.”
He said nothing.
Then: “Do you want to leave?”
Aditi paused. “Do you want me to?”
“No,” he said quietly.
Another pause.
“Neither do I.”
That evening, after she left, Aditya stood in the dark once again, but this time… something felt lighter.
He didn’t know what this was.
He just knew he didn’t want to lose it.
Or her.
And that thought scared him more than any business deal ever had.
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