Page 236 of One Hellish Passion

Kunal ground his teeth. “You called me a coward?” he asked. “Cowards don’t have the guts to kill people. But I do. And the dead body of Cindy Thomas is proof of it.”

Dhruv fumed. “What? You killed Cindy?” he asked.

“Yes, I killed her. She was such a pain for me and father.”

“She was your ex, Bhai. You loved her once.”

“And she betrayed me,” he snapped. “For Ranveer.”

“So, you killed her?” Aisha asked.

Kunal rolled his eyes. “Do I look like a fool to you? To give you answers and confess all my sins so that you both can be witnesses to my crimes?” he laughed again. “But hold on,” he laughed heartily. “How about I kill you both too? That will be easy and totally worth it.”

He held the gun at Aisha first.

“She is a smart woman. She goes first.”

He was about to pull the trigger when someone hit his arm, making the gun fall to the ground. When Kunal turned back, he saw Ranveer Malhotra’s fist reaching his jaw, and in no time, he stumbled to the floor. Aisha ran forward and kicked the gun away from the two men.

“How dare you kill my mother?” Ranveer clutched Kunal’s shirt and pulled him to his feet again.

Kunal was totally shocked when he heard this.

“All this while, I thought it was your father who did it. But it was you. It was you.” Ranveer smashed his face, and Kunal fell down again.

Dhruv was stunned, and so was Aisha. Ranveer dragged Kunal outside the room, to the staircase.

“This is where you pushed her, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Bro.” Dhruv followed them out, but Ranveer paid no heed to Dhruv’s voice or Kunal’s attempts to free himself. All these years since his mother died, he had wondered if Dev Malik had killed her. But everything was clear today. His special spy, Patel, and his other sources could trace the missing proofs from Cindy’s hard drive found in her apartment, the same place where Kunal killed her for the proofs, she was blackmailing him with all these years. The video on that hard drive didn’t just clear the doubts of his mother’s accident but also revealed details about his father’s mysterious death too.

“Wondering how I got to know all this?” Ranveer clutched Kunal’s shirt, bringing him to the stairs. Kunal was badly beaten, blood oozed from his nose and mouth. “You were successful in getting the videotape from Cindy’s house after killing her. But she had a backup. A hard drive. If it hadn’t been for that drive, I would never have known Dev Malik killed my father and you killed my mother.”

Fear of defeat reflected on Kunal’s face. The secret was out. Cindy had a backup of the videotape? How could he miss that? Dhruv and Aisha were speechless when Ranveer revealed this horrific truth. The cops arrived.

“I will kill you with my bare hands,” Ranveer strangled Kunal’s neck. He choked. Dhruv and the cops had to rush there and free Kunal from Ranveer’s wrath. If they had delayed even for a few seconds, Kunal would have died by strangulation.

“Mr. Malhotra, don’t take the law into your hands,” one of the cops barked.

“Take him away, Inspector,” Dhruv pulled Ranveer behind while commanding the police.

Kunal was dragged away by the police. Ranveer punched his fist into the wall beside him.

“Bro, it’s not worth it,” Dhruv held Ranveer’s arm before he could hit himself again. “It’s not worth it,” he added again and gave a tight hug to his brother, who truly needed it at that moment.

Paradise

Ranveer sat at the center of the couch while Maya tended to his bruised fingers. Dhruv took the seat opposite them, silently waiting for an explanation. Ranveer knew they were eager for answers, so he didn’t want to keep them waiting any longer. He withdrew his arm from Maya’s care and rubbed his jaw.

“After Cindy’s murder, the cops and Patel searched her house for any proof. Anything that would help us find the person responsible. That’s when they found this hard drive,” he explained, exhaling heavily.

He handed the hard drive to Dhruv. “Play it,” he said, his voice weak, his expression revealing his reluctance to witness the horror again.

Without hesitation, Dhruv connected the drive to their huge plasma TV and pressed play. It revealed video footage of Dev Malik and Kunal Malik in the study room where Cindy had hidden a secret camera.

“What? One million dollars? You lost such a huge sum in the race?” Dev Malik shouted at his son.

“Come on, Dad, nobody loses this much for fun. I just bet on the best horse. Who knew it would lose today?” Kunal replied.

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