Chapter 4: When the Shadows Stepped Forward
The mafia world never stays hidden forever.
Samayra learned the full truth one night when gunfire echoed outside a private meeting venue. Rishab shielded her without hesitation, his body a wall, his voice suddenly stripped of playfulness.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered.
She did.
Not out of fear—but respect.
Later, in the quiet aftermath, she finally said it. “You run it, don’t you? All of it.”
Rishab didn’t deny it. “Yes.”
No excuses. No lies.
“You should walk away,” he added. “This world isn’t gentle.”
Samayra met his gaze steadily. “Neither am I.”
That was the moment he fell—not loudly, not dramatically—but completely.
She didn’t romanticize his darkness.
She didn’t try to change him.
She simply accepted the truth and chose to stand anyway.
