Chapter 2 - Shadows of the Verandah
""Where did you get this box, child?"" Dev’s voice shook, stripped of its gentle grandfatherly cadence. It was now rough, sandpaper against stone, ringing with the sudden sharpness of a man dragged out of a long slumber.
Meera flinched slightly, startled by his sudden intensity, while Kabir instinctively grabbed his sister’s yellow hem. ""From the kitchen counter,"" Meera whispered, pointing toward a tall, red-brick colonial mansion with black wrought-iron gates standing two hundred yards down the boulevard behind a dense grove of neem trees. ""Ma was crying in the garden. Chachu packed it. He told me to throw it to the stray dogs by the sewer.""
Dev felt a chill pierce straight through the scorching midday heat. Chachu. His nephew. Or the man claiming to be his nephew.
Four decades ago, Devendra Varma was not a homeless derelict with cracked heels and tangled white hair. He had been the master of Varma Industries, a pioneer in railway logistics, until a rainy night on the Grand Trunk Road ended in twisted steel, an ignited fuel tank, and a fabricated obituary. He had crawled out of the flaming wreckage into the mud, his face scarred and his memories fractured. By the time he reclaimed his mind years later, the newspapers had already celebrated his nephew’s ascension to the estate, and Devendra—broken in spirit and convinced his family had orchestrated the crash—chose the anonymity of the gutter over revenge.
Now, looking down at his own seal ring—the very signet used to authorize bank transfers and land deeds—Dev realized the parcel was never meant for him. It was meant for the dogs. It was a disposal.
May you like
""Meera,"" Dev whispered, gripping the edge of the curb to steady his pounding heart. ""Who is your father?""
Before the little girl could answer, the screech of heavy rubber broke the street's rhythm. A midnight-black luxury SUV slowed down by the curb, its tinted window rolling down just two inches to reveal a cold, observant pair of eyes behind silver-framed spectacles.
