He was oppressed by everyone around him, 'Love and care' were the terms used, for he inherits billions.
His voice was never heard outside the walls of his mind.
It was all until he realised what was happening around him. He started his game so quiet...
"Because to take away a man's freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person."
- Madeline L'Engle
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Shakthi's POV
I've always been the one to make the hard choices. Calculated. Precise. Ever since I was sixteen, stepping into the whirlwind that was my father's business, I knew what had to be done. My father—Prithviraj—was a man of honor, obsessed with ideals of morals and ethics. It earned him respect, sure, but not victories. And in this world, respect without power is a hollow crown.
Victory is what keeps you alive.
I watched the business stumble under his so-called principles. Contracts that could have brought in fortunes were abandoned because they didn't align with his "ethics." Deals that could have crushed the competition were rejected because they weren't honorable. But business isn't about honor. It's about survival. About winning. Watching our rivals grow stronger, I realized that something had to change. When the betrayals started—when those we trusted most turned their backs on us—I didn't flinch. I took control. I did what had to be done.
At first, it was subtle. A tweak to a contract here, a quiet shift in our investment strategies there. And it worked. Our business, Mariko Limited, started to thrive. People whispered about me—the quiet young prodigy behind the scenes. Father's protégé. His successor. But they didn't understand. I wasn't his successor; I was his replacement.
Betrayal wasn't personal—it was a matter of opportunity. Even when my best friend turned on me, I didn't blame him. It was a necessary lesson: people wear masks, but their true selves are in their thoughts. And if you can control what lies beneath the mask, you control everything.
So I did. I manipulated people, bent them to my will, and watched as Mariko Limited grew into an empire, surpassing anything my father had ever envisioned. But there's something strange about success. The more you have, the more you crave.
And I craved more.
It wasn't enough to simply succeed. I wanted power—the kind of power that makes people fear you. Respect is fleeting, but fear... fear lingers. I liked that feeling, the control that came with it. The man I was becoming—the one who bent rules until they broke, the one who saw morality not as a virtue but as a weapon—he was unstoppable. I liked him. I was a force to be reckoned with. And I was just getting started.
But my father... he couldn't see it. He didn't understand that I was taking us to the heights he never could. The more I led, the more we clashed. He wanted me to follow in his footsteps, to live up to his precious code of honor. But shadows don't win wars, and this was war. When he realized I wouldn't bend, he stripped everything from me, piece by piece. Contracts were rewritten, board members were turned against me. The empire I had built was torn down, brick by brick, until I was left with nothing.
