Page 264 of The Redemption
Suddenly, my foot catches on a root hidden beneath the leaves, and I fall hard. Pain shoots through my knees as they slam against the rocky ground. For one foolish second, I genuinely expect him to stop. To help me. To remember that I’m his mother. But he doesn’t. His grip only tightens around my arm, and he starts dragging me again.
Tears sting my eyes. “Samarjeet...” I gasp. “You’re hurting me.”
He doesn’t even look back. He drags me harder, despite knowing my knees are bruised.
“Stop,” I plead again.
The next instant, someone kicks Samarjeet hard from behind, sending his body flying forward. He crashes against the rocky ground several feet away, and his gun slips from his hand.
Everything happens too quickly that I can barely understand. It’s too dark, and all I can is the silhouette of a man standing behind me. Then he takes a step forward, and the moonlight falls across his face.
It’s Raghav.He’s here, right beside me. I knew he would come for me. The sight nearly brings me to tears as I breathe a sigh of relief. But then I look at his face. I’ve never seen him like this before. His face is carved with pure fury, his eyes murderous as his gaze travels over the bruises around my wrists and the dirt covering my clothes. With every mark he notices, the rage inside him seems to grow even darker. His grip tightens around his gun as he carefully helps me back to my feet and steadies me to regain my balance. But his gaze never leaves Samarjeet.
Very gently, Raghav moves me behind him, shielding me with his body as he stands between me and my son. I’m still trying to steady my breathing when Samarjeet groans and slowly pushes himself up from the rocky ground. He wipes the blood gathering at the corner of his mouth and lets out a humourless laugh.
Samarjeet’s eyes lock on Raghav. “There you are… again.” His voice drips with mockery. “Every time I try to get away from you, every time I try to move forward, somehow you still end up standing in my path. And every time our paths cross, somebody ends up dying.”
Raghav doesn’t even blink. “And this time, it will be you,” he replies, taking one slow step forward.
“Will it?” Samarjeet laughs as his gaze drops to the gun in Raghav’s hand. “Only because you’re holding a weapon.” Then he points towards his own chest. “Go ahead. Shoot me. Give me an easy death. That’s exactly what a coward would do. You are only brave when you’re standing behind a weapon?”
Before I can even process what is happening, Raghav throws the gun aside. It lands several feet away in the dirt.
“Raghav!” The warning escapes me before I can stop it.
But he doesn’t even look at me. His eyes never leave Samarjeet. And suddenly, both men move at once and launch themselves at each other.
RAGHAV
My fist connects with Samarjeet’s face, hard enough to snap his head sideways.
“Your first mistake was killing the man who meant everything to Siya.”
Samarjeet stumbles from the impact, and blood immediately appears on his lips. My second punch drives straight into his stomach with such force that he doubles over. I grab him before he can fall and drive another devastating blow to his jaw.
“Then you put a bullet in my wife.” I punch him again.
Samarjeet tries to strike back, throwing punch after punch at me, but I dodge most of them. The few that land barely slow me down. Then I hit him directly across his ribs, and a scream tears from his throat.
“And your final mistake...” I deliver another punch. “...was taking her mother.” I grab him by the collar and shove him backwards with another blow. “You dragged her through the mud. You hurt your own mother.” I hit him again. “You treated her worse than an enemy.”
Blood now covers Samarjeet’s face, but somehow, the madness in his eyes only grows stronger. Then, without warning, he shoves me so hard that the unexpected force catches me off guard and sends me stumbling backwards. I lose my balance and fall to the ground.
That single moment changes everything.
Samarjeet lunges for the gun I threw away earlier, grabs it, and points the barrel at me.
“You know what, Raghav?” A bloodied laugh escapes him as he raises the weapon higher. “You’re right. I killed my father. I shot Siya, and I hurt my mother. That’s because I hate every single one of them. None of them ever gave a damn about me. They never trusted me enough to let me lead, never believed I was capable of making decisions for this family or this empire. Every single one of them sidelined me, dismissed me, and made me feel like I was worthless.” His finger tightens around the gun. “But not anymore. Anyone who stands in my way, I will kill them. Even if they are my own people. Likeher.”
My blood turns cold as Samarjeet points the gun at his mother.
“Mom, it’s time for you to go to Dad.”
My world stops as I realise what Samarjeet is about to do. Everything around me disappears, except that gun, that trigger, and Siya’s mother. I can’t watch another mother being ripped away from me while I stand there powerless to stop it.
My arm scrapes across the ground, searching desperately for anything I can throw at him, anything that might knock the gun from his hand. And then I feel it. My fingers brush against something cold and metallic half-buried in the dirt. A gun. Samarjeet’s first weapon… the one that slipped from his hand when I kicked him away from Siya’s mother.
Instinct takes over. I grab the gun, raise it, and pull the trigger before Samarjeet can fire at Siya’s mother. The bullet tears through the side of his head. His body jerks, and the weapon slips from his hand as he collapses to the ground. Dead.
