_yourauthormahakk__
Everyone in the city knew Kabir Rathore.
Not by his face-
but by his name spoken in whispers.
He controlled ports, money routes, men who didn't ask questions. He wasn't loud. He wasn't cruel for fun. His power came from silence-and from the fact that no one ever saw him lose control.
Until Aanya.
She wasn't part of his world.
A simple girl-soft voice, cotton dupatta, eyes that still believed people were good. She worked in a small bookstore near the old market, unaware that the street she crossed every day belonged to him.
One wrong night
.
One wrong place
.
She witnessed something she wasn't meant to.
Kabir didn't threaten her.
Didn't raise his voice.
Didn't touch her.
She lived in his house like a shadow-
safe, watched, untouched.
He never entered her room.
Never asked questions.
Never explained himself.
But he made sure:
No one scared her.
No one raised a voice near her.
No blood ever crossed her sight.
At night, Aanya would hear gunshots far away.
In the morning, Kabir would sit across from her at breakfast, sleeves rolled up, hands clean, eyes unreadable.
"You're not afraid of me?" he asked once.
She swallowed.
"I am," she said honestly.
"But I think you're afraid of yourself more."
That was the first crack.
Kabir had built his life on control.
And she-without trying-was undoing it.
He started coming home earlier.
Violence made him restless instead of calm.
Her presence felt dangerous... not because she was weak-
-but because she was good.
And good things didn't survive in his world.
The city called him a monster.
She saw a man who stood between her and darkness-
even when he himself was the darkness.