CHAPTER FOUR: THE GAME HE PLAYS

CHAPTER FOUR: THE GAME HE PLAYS

Amrita hadn't slept.

The lab haunted her—not just for what it was, but because he showed her. Only her.

No other woman in the haveli knew. No guard. No servant. Not even Leela, who spoke of Thakur with a poet's reverence. It wasn't about trust. It was about selection.

Thakur chose her to see it. Just as he chose everything.

She found him the next morning where she expected: in the eastern courtyard, practicing sword forms with two of his men. Sweat clung to his bare chest, his movements precise, deadly, elegant.

He noticed her and stopped mid-flow, holding the blade upright.

"Did you sleep?"

"No."

"Good. Truth visits tired minds more easily."

She stepped closer, arms crossed. "Why did you show me the lab?"

He gave her that same unreadable smile. "Because no one else would understand it. Or appreciate it."

"Or question it."

He handed the sword to a guard and took a towel. "That too."

Amrita studied him. "You don't want followers anymore. You want friction."

He walked toward her, wiping sweat from his neck. "You're not wrong. I've built enough. Grown enough. Obedience is… boring. Predictable."

"You're playing with me."

He didn't deny it.

"I'm a conquest," she said, the words sharp.

Now he smiled. Full. Open. Like a confession.

"Yes."

She should've slapped him. Instead, she stayed still.

"And when I'm conquered?"

"You'll choose to stay. Like the others."

"Is that what happened to them? The ones in the mansion? The ones in the industries?"

"They're not trapped," he said. "They're elevated. Journalists, CEOs, artists, doctors. I invested in them. Mentored them. Helped them build names of their own."

"And they all came from here?"

"They came from broken places," he said. "Forgotten corners of this country. Failed marriages. Faded dreams. I didn't give them love. I gave them something better—recognition."

"And what if they wanted to leave?"

"They're free to," he said. "Some have. Rarely. But not a single one sought another man. Not because I forbid it—because they know."

"Know what?"

"That the world out there is still small. Biased. Afraid of strong women unless they're ornamental or obedient. I let them be complete. Without shrinking them. Without using them to elevate myself."

Amrita stared. "You think that makes you good?"

"I don't care about good," he said. "I care about effectiveness. Every woman I've taken in lives better than she did before. They don't worship me. They choose me."

"And what happens when they stop choosing you?"

"They won't."

"You're that confident?"

"I remember every one of them," he said. "Their fears. Their skills. Their first steps toward power. I don't treat them as trophies. I treat them as queens. And that… that's rarer than love."

Amrita didn't respond. Because part of her—a small, traitorous part—understood. She didn't want to. But she did.

She'd spent years being smarter than the men in her law firm. Worked twice as hard. Spoke half as often. Was praised for being "reasonable." Not bold. Not visionary. Just reasonable.

And here was a man who saw her. Saw the sharpness, the defiance, the fire—and wanted to engage with it, not contain it.

She hated it.

She wanted more of it.

Thakur stepped closer now, close enough she could smell the salt on his skin.

"You think I want to own you," he said. "I don't."

"What do you want?"

"To see how long you can stand apart. Before you realize you already belong."

She took a step back. "You're delusional."

"Possibly," he said. "But I've been right more times than anyone else around me."

"You're not a god."

"I'm not a man, either. Not in the way they are. I'm something built. Every part of me—from how I read to how I fight to how I lead—was designed. By study. Pain. Observation. You think I'm arrogant because I've succeeded. But this was never chance."

Amrita shook her head. "You speak like a king. You think like a scientist. But you act like a seducer."

He didn't move. Didn't speak. Just waited.

"You're trying to pull me in," she said.

"I don't pull. I create gravity. You either fall or orbit."

Silence stretched.

And in that silence, she realized something terrifying:

She hadn't thought about leaving once.

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