“Sir, can you please raise your chin a little? I'd like to capture that powerful jaw.”

Abhay scowled at the portrait artist.

“Sir, although your scowl is pretty sexy, I think your wife will want you to appear happy in this family portrait.”

Anika let out a muffled giggle. Abhay turned to frown at her, but seeing his wife's beautiful face with amusement dancing in her eyes, his scowl softened to a sheepish smile.

“I know you are dying to get the hell out of here,” she said.

“Of course, I am. If it's really a portrait you need, then you should know that I could commission a portrait from one of the world's best artists. They will come to the Singham Estate and stay with us and work on the portrait based on our schedule.” He was still outraged that they had to wait for another couple to finish up before them.

She smiled. “I know, but this one will always remain special to me,” she said softly.

Abhay felt the familiar tug in his heart. He knew how much the day meant to her. They were exploring San Francisco as carefree tourists. The next day, he would be taking her back to Singham Estate where reality would catch up with them.

“Sir, please look straight ahead.”

The portrait artist's voice intruded his thoughts, and he went back to scowling at the lady. His eyes wandered to the tourists walking on the opposite side of the road—some of them were laughing and clicking pictures.

His eyes fell on a man who was obviously from Indian origin. He looked familiar, especially with the way he grew out his beard and mustache and also the distinctive green and red colored tattoos on the neck. The man was facing his profile towards Abhay, so his tattoo couldn't be seen clearly. He was talking on the phone gesturing with his hands.

A couple of minutes later, he ended the call and looked straight ahead, raising his arm as though to flag a taxi. Their eyes met, and Abhay couldn't tear his eyes off the puckered flesh that covered the man's right cheek.

Everything froze as Abhay tried to process what he was seeing. Even the man's eyes widened, and he looked terrified.

Abhay got up from the bench slowly and watched as the man's lips kept uttering the same words over and over again.

Vijay Singham.

“Abhay?” Anika called out to him.

“Don't move. Stay right here. I'll be right back,” he said and moved towards the man with purpose.

The man saw him coming towards him and began to walk away quickly.

Abhay didn't care for the oncoming traffic or the pedestrian rules and began to cross the road.

The man kept turning back looking frantically as he walked away. Soon he reached a taxi and wrenched opened the door.

Abhay ran faster. “Stop!”

The man stuck his head out of the taxi and frantically spoke with the driver. When Abhay was barely ten feet away from the car, it slid into the traffic and drove away.

He stood there, frozen and watching the taxi as it disappeared.

“Abhay? What happened? Who was that?”

He turned slowly and stared at his wife's worried look. “I think that was Narasimha Raidu, my father's bodyguard.”

Anika frowned. “He moved to the States after the incident at the temple happened?”

Abhay simply stared at his wife as she stood with their cheap-framed portrait.

“Abhay, you are scaring me. Tell me what’s wrong?” she demanded.

He took a deep breath, trying to sort out his thoughts. “Narasimha Raidu was supposed to have died in that fire along with our fathers. He was supposed to have died protecting my mother and father.”

Anika looked stunned. “What?”

He tried to recall the sequence of the events that had apparently transpired on that fateful day, but each version based on who was narrating it, ended up being different.

“How are you so sure he was Narasimha Raidu?” Anika's calm voice tore through his musings.

“He looked at me in fear. And he called me Vijay Singham. He also had the Senani tattoo that belonged to his father's side of the family.”

She was quiet as she took in the details. “So he faked his death for some reason. He was scared of your father?”

Abhay shook his head. “No, they grew up together. He even had a family. Malini is his daughter.”

Anika was shocked. “Malini told me her father died in the fire as well. So he hasn't told anyone in his family, too.”

They were silent, lost in their own thoughts.

“Maybe he was ashamed of not being able to protect the people he was hired to and also for being the only survivor. So he escaped.” Even as Anika spoke those words, something didn't ring true.

Abhay took a deep breath. He held Anika's shoulders gently. “We'll have to postpone our tickets. I can't go back without finding that man,” he said.

Anika nodded. “I'm fine, Abhay. I want to know what happened, too.”

Abhay pulled out his phone and dialed. The phone began ringing, and it was answered after several rings. “Hello,” a gruff deep voice answered.

“Dev, I'll be staying here with Anika for a few more days. I don't know for how long. I want you to handle things at the Estate.”

“What happened?” Dev asked, sensing something.

“I think I saw Narasimha Raidu.”

“What the fuck? Dad's bodyguard?” Dev almost shouted.

“Yes.”

“I want to be there as well to hunt for that bastard and find out what happened.”

“People need you there, Dev. Stay and handle everything while I look for him here.”

There was silence. Abhay knew his brother well. Dev was mentally trying to check who could handle things while he flew in to join the hunt.

“Dev, stay. There are too many things happening at the Estate. Things are slowly falling into place with the canal and the units. We can't afford to mess up anything at this point.”

There was another long stretch of silence, and then, “Fine,” came out a grudging reply.

Ending the call, he looked at his wife. She had a determined look on her face as she began typing on her phone. “Let's start listing down contacts that can help us find that person.”

 

End of Bound by Revenge