Morning arrived quietly.

Rohit opened his eyes and stared at the unfamiliar ceiling for a few seconds before reality hit him. A faint dizziness lingered behind his eyes. He frowned.

’Strange.. I didnt drank that much.’ Rohit thought as she sat up on bed.’Dont tell me this body alcohol limit is shit just like its tolerance for smoke.’

He glanced around the room and finally realized where he was. Arya’s room. But she wasn’t there anymore.

Then came the memories. Sheela on the dance floor. The staircase. The bar counter, Pankaj going down, Asim crawling. The motel room. Vijay and the flower vase.

Rohit let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

"Shit... I went way too overboard," he muttered. "I hope none of them open their mouths. The last thing I need right now is dealing with the aftermath."

He checked the wall clock. it was 7.00 am. He remembered something Ragini had written in her notes once — Arya’s morning run, back by eight thirty without exception. Which meant he had time.

Rohit stretched his shoulders and got off the bed with a tired yawn.

Thinking about training, he decided to check the current condition of his body instead.

It was already nearing the end of the week.

Earlier, his gym routine had been delayed because of the injury on his hand, but now the stiffness had reduced considerably. Only sharp strain remained whenever he tried putting too much force on it.

His gaze drifted around the room before landing on a lightweight training bar resting in the corner. Rohit picked it up casually and stepped in front of the mirror.

He was still dressed in his party clothes. He unbuttoned his shirt and looked at his reflection — a lean frame with almost no visible muscle, covered only by a plain inner vest.

’Pathetic,’ he thought. ’The kind of body my past self would have mocked without a second thought.’

He twirled the stick effortlessly in one hand—fluid spins, abrupt directional shifts, seamless momentum changes. Every motion felt natural, almost instinctive.

Not bad, he mused. Weapon handling is still A-grade. But I need real practice if I want to reach S-tier again.

He switched to a two-handed grip and performed a more complex series of rotations — the kind only a serious martial artist would recognize. The movements remained fluid.

Then he attempted a rotating kick.

His leg responded a split second too late. The intention was there, but the body was stiff. The timing was slightly off, and the flexibility wasn’t at the level his mind expected.

Rohit stopped and exhaled slowly.

’So that’s what Amir meant.’

His body still betrayed his movements. The legs gave away his intent before the strike could land. The weapon techniques seemed to have carried over, but his open-hand combat ability and overall physical conditioning were still lacking.

He glanced at the weight plates — all under 5 kg, but decided against testing them with his bandaged hand still on.

’Just one more fucking day,’ he reminded himself.

With that, Rohit left Arya’s room and headed back to his own.

***

The moment Rohit entered his room, he paused. Someone was already sleeping in his bed.

It was Aisha. She lay curled up in her pajamas, breathing softly. She must have waited for him the entire night before falling asleep here.

Poor girl... she must have been traumatized after what happened yesterday, Rohit thought, before shaking his head and changing into his shorts. He headed into the bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later, he came out refreshed and sat down in front of his laptop.

"Open up. Riku here."

Lisa’s interface loaded with her usual playful tone.

[Good morning, sir. Hope you had sweet dreams last night 😉]

Rohit rubbed his temples, slightly irritated by Lisa’s cheeky personality of spying on him. It wasn’t entirely in his control. The AI learned from its host environment, and given his current circumstances, he couldn’t fully dictate her tone unless he ran an advanced update cycle and devoured the previous clone model, ELOS. That was the fastest way they had come up with to fill the gaps during development.

But the drawback was steep — one month of update time followed by one week of hibernation where he wouldn’t have access to her at all.

Rohit decided against it. He was still heavily dependent on Lisa and hadn’t built enough of his own connections yet. And for making connections, he needed leverage to always stay in the upper hand.

That thought reminded him — he had access to many phones but hadn’t checked them properly yet. Most importantly, he needed to know if Vijay was still alive.

Since Aisha was still in the room, Rohit chose to type instead of speaking.

"What is the status of Vijay? Has he mentioned anyone about the flower vase incident?"

Lisa, being a smart AI and understanding the situation, replied through text on the interface.

[No sir, he hasn’t mentioned anyone about the flower vase incident. Though this morning he called his mother and reported that he had a minor road rage accident. He is out of danger.]

Rohit frowned as he read about Ananya. Hasn’t she been busy warming her bed with my lowly father? He remembered placing cameras in her room to capture exactly that.

He typed again. "Show me the footage of Ananya’s room from last night."

The video played. As expected, after they had left, Raj had entered her room while she was getting ready. They kissed fiercely and made out for a while before deciding to go out.

Rohit felt disappointed. He had hoped to use that video as leverage to kick Vijay out, but those two had chosen to go for an outing instead. They probably fucked there.

’Looks like I’ll have to install permanent surveillance there,’ Rohit thought coldly. ’With how shameless those two are getting, it’s only a matter of time before they hand me proper evidence.’

His phone buzzed. Rohit unlocked the screen and saw a message from Sheela. It was a photo of her lying in bed, teasingly exposing the soft curves of her breasts beneath the loose fabric.:

[For you, Daddy. Missing me?]

Rohit scoffed internally. ’Crazy bitch... she thinks she’s the only one.’

He was about to send a heart emoji but stopped as her next message popped up.

[Sheela: I’m thinking of dumping Tanuj. He’s useless anyway. Want to pair up with me?]

’Seriously.. is she out of her mind.’

He typed quietly:

[Rohit: Sorry. Last night was a mistake. I cannot do it with my cousin’s girlfriend. Forget it.]

[Sheela: What?? After everything we did in the staircase?]

[Rohit: Listen. Let’s not make a drama out of it. It was just a one-night stand. That’s all.]

[Sheela: Wait... You’re joking, right? Do you know how many followers I have?]

[Rohit: Then go to one of them. I don’t like the clingy types.]

[Sheela:How dare you?! You have no fucking idea who you’re messing with. If you don’t meet me today and apologize..]

[Rohit: Yeah, good luck with that.]

[Blocked]

Blocking Sheela brought Rohit a deep sense of satisfaction.

Fucking her once was one thing, but getting hooked to someone like her when he had so many better options wasn’t worth it.

He leaned back in his chair, exhaling. His thoughts then shifted to Akansha.

He dialed her number again.

It was still switched off.

Rohit’s eyes narrowed slightly. ’That’s suspicious...’

Given the mess surrounding him right now, there was only so much he could do personally.

’I need to meet Raju in jail and have him send someone to check on her,’ he thought. ’The Mittals probably targeted her because of Jayesh. Let’s just hope they haven’t crossed the line yet.’

Despite everything, he felt a little conflicted about Akansha’s situation. Other than constantly comparing Ragini to herself, she had actually been useful to him more than once.

Which reminded him of something else.

Ragini’s phone.

Earlier, he had prioritized Lisa’s surveillance toward anything connected to Akhil. But now the situation had changed.

Rohit rested his fingers on the keyboard and typed:

show me anything sensitive or loosely related to Doctor Adityanath in Ragini’s chat history

New text immediately appeared across Lisa’s interface.

[Searching...]

[Possible clue found. Chat history with Kavita. Timestamp: 4 years ago.]

[Loading customized chat clip...]

The conversation appeared on screen.

[Kavita friend: Didi (elder sister), can you please consult my case with that doctor?]

[Ragini: Sorry, Kavita. That’s not in my hands. Even if I wanted to, I can’t contact him directly.]

[Kavita friend: Please, didi... you know how my husband has been behaving lately. I can’t bear it anymore.]

[Ragini: Silly girl. Your case is completely different. Stop doubting yourself.]

[Kavita friend: You’re not understanding, didi. He isn’t interested in me anymore. There must be something wrong with me.]

[Ragini: Let’s meet this evening.]

A final line appeared beneath it as LIsa’s note.

[Sir, this is the only conversation remotely connected to Doctor Adityanath. No other relevant records found.]

Rohit frowned slightly.

So Kavita knew something.

Rohit frowned as he read the short clip. So Kavita had some clue. But what grabbed his attention more was that Judge Kamalnath had suddenly lost interest in her, and it seemed to be connected to their short gossip.

Then he recalled the bathroom incident with Seoyeon, where he had overheard two ladies talking about the judge renting rooms in an apartment for weekends. If he wanted to get back at the judge, hacking his phone was absolutely necessary.

A small smirk formed on his lips as he thought, ’Good thing I have an invitation to their house tomorrow. Can dig into both matters at once.’

he checked his hacked acess panel. there as still two phones showing. one arya and other tanya. he havent activated their data survelliance yet.

He opened Lisa’s hacked access panel again.

Two devices still remained unchecked.

Arya.

Tanya.

Since Arya was already emotionally drifting toward him, he decided Tanya’s phone was the better choice for now.

He typed:

show me anything related to me on Tanya’s device

The interface responded instantly.

[Loading...]

[623 results found: photos, videos, chats.]

[Estimated processing time: 5 seconds.]

[Displaying priority results...]

Rohit skimmed through the chats.

Most of them were exactly what he expected — Tanya mocking him with her friends and Victor, calling him pathetic, weak, and useless behind his back.

Further down, however, he found more troubling things.

Bullying.

Harassment.

Videos involving other girls in school bathrooms.

Tanya and Victor truly were the center of that entire delinquent circle.

His expression darkened slightly.

That dining hall incident involving Ragini suddenly resurfaced in his mind again.

’Yeah... forgiving her would make me an idiot.’

He typed another command.

show me anything sensitive specifically involving me and Tanya

[Loading...]

A new explorer window opened.

Two folders appeared. Photos and Videos.

The photo folder was labeled: LOSER

Rohit already knew what to expect.

As he scrolled through it, he found dozens of secretly taken pictures — embarrassing moments, sleeping photos, awkward angles — all collected over the last two years since they had moved into the house.

"Stalker bitch," he muttered under his breath.

Then he opened the video folder. The first video began playing automatically.

Rohit frowned and leaned slightly closer to the screen.

The footage showed him asleep on his bed. Then Tanya slowly approached the camera.

The angle shifted downward.

His eyes narrowed.

He had morning wood beneath his shorts.

And Tanya...

...was secretly recording herself touching it curiously with her hand.

Rohit blinked once.

"What the fuck..."

The situation was bizarre enough that he completely failed to notice someone standing behind him.

Then a voice suddenly spoke near his shoulder.

"...What are you watching, Rohit?"

Rohit’s body stiffened instantly.

He turned his head slowly.

Aisha stood there in her pajamas, staring directly at the screen with wide eyes.