His juniors rose to salute him as he barged into the headquarters. They were surprised to see their usually relaxed senior struggling to hide his panic and nervousness, and seeing the usually by-the-book officer walking into the Commissioner's room, to join the high profile meeting taking place.

"Arnav, here you are. We were just discussing our next steps to apprehend our traitor," remarked Atharv Thapar, with the rest of the officials discussing within themselves as they looked into the screen tracking her location and getting further details.

"Sir, this is not possible. I am sure that there has been a misunderstanding. She cannot do this," countered Arnav, walking up to his senior, not caring about the looks he was getting from the rest of the officers in the room.

"I understand that you are unable to accept that an officer had been giving away our secrets under your nose. You won't be held accountable, Arnav, if that is what you are worried about," assured Atharv, scrutinizing one of his best officers in surprise as he refused to accept the reality despite the facts presented to him.

"Sir, I know Khushi. She is not a traitor. She would not do that. She is very patriotic and..."

"Arnav, I am not sure where this is coming from but a seasoned officer like yourself should not ignore the facts which are right in front of us. She had erected a firewall of some sorts to prevent her phone from being tracked. She has sent some classified files to the very man we were trying to bring down. Somehow, that firewall got disabled today and because of the flag on those files, we were able to know that she was sending that information across," explained Atharv, wondering if Arnav had taken an interest in the officer who had betrayed them.

"Sir, maybe she was set up by the mafia to bring down our morale. This cannot happen, Sir, she isn't..she cannot be a traitor," exclaimed Arnav, raking his fingers through his ruffled hair with lines of worry marring his features.

"Why are you so concerned about this lady, Arnav? The Arnav I have known since years would have followed every lead similar to this and would have hounded the traitors himself. What's wrong?" demanded Atharv, eager to know if Arnav had any conflict of interests which would disqualify him from participating in the operation they were about to undertake.

Arnav shut his eyes momentarily in order to regain control over himself, letting out the breath he had been holding unintentionally. "Sir, she is my wife," he said, not meeting his senior's eyes.

"WHAT?! Your official records, of both of you, show your marital status to be single. How is this possible? Are you involved with her?" questioned Atharv, causing every officer in the room to turn their attention and their blazing guns towards him.

"During my undercover days while working for CBI, I had to get married to her. Her father had died in the course of that operation. We did not meet each other till she joined our branch. She was offered the position as a compensation from the CBI, Sir. Because we married during an undercover operation, it is not registered in any records, neither mine nor her. It was classified information. I haven't seen her for the past five years but I know that she is not backstabber like this," he answered, sighing deeply as he eyed at the officers standing with him at their targets with unveiled threat in his eyes.

"That only explains her motive to support the mafia against us, Arnav. According to her, the system and the law enforcement have failed her. The case would have been handed over to CBI eventually and your link to her and hence the case would have been unveiled. You just established her motive, Arnav. I am sorry, we have to apprehend her and sentence her, and as per the information we have gotten so far, she is about the meet the leader. It is an opportune moment and you will be relieved of your duty to assume command and lead the forces against her as long as you don't go ahead and support her," said Atharv, barely concealing the threat in his voice.

"She's meeting him? I need to be a part of this operation, Sir. I think you know well enough that when I am determined about something, I will achieve that either by hook or by crook. Besides, if you do not let me go, I will give a press statement about how our undercover operations tear apart families," warned Arnav, stepping towards his senior and towering him.

"You are threatening the Commissioner while standing in his office, Arnav. Very well, then. Go ahead but we do not take any responsibility of the consequences," retaliated Atharv, knowing that Arnav would have set his plan in action before barging into his cabin and he did not want bad press ruining the victory they were about to clinch.

"Thank you, Sir! You will have your answers and your real culprit!"

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"I should have known that women should not be trusted, darling. Their weak hearts, their need to be loved and their fickle mind, I should have known that you would ruin me. You wanted revenge against that Arnav Singh Raizada and joined hands with me. You wanted to defeat the system so you traded their secrets with me. Single confession of love from him and you let out my secrets to the world to know!" spat the Boss of narcotic trades in India, Suraj Parmar, circling her as if he were the vultures waiting for their prey to give up before them.

Khushi shut her eyes, as she tried shutting away the feelings of regret and helplessness which were tormenting her ravaged mind since her reckless action of disabling the firewall on her phone after his confession. She was desperate to destroy him, devastate him in every possible way, and instead the plan she chose seemed to affect her more than him.

With nothing else left in her life and nothing to lose, she had been ready to take him down personally and laugh mirthlessly as he was unable to carry out his duties towards the nation which were the reason for her despair and agony. She had been severing every single link and every attachment on her way to the final confrontation. With her mother gone, there was not much left and by giving the gift from her parents, the chain, to her daughter, she felt that she completely detached herself, till he had confessed about his love.

The feeling that she had buried along with her father seemed to resurface in a way that she regretted. She had not been able to cremate her father as everyone in the community had denied them from entering the crematorium and it seemed she was not able to cremate her love for him as well.

With her love for him rejuvenating, even her conscience and her love for the country woke up. She began to realize that in the darkness of hatred for one person, she had ruined innumerable lives who were addicted to narcotics that she had helped to evacuate and caused the death of several officers by tipping about their missions. In that moment of reckoning, she realized what it cost to choose the easier route over the right one and listening to the heart, and how it felt to be lost, without a path towards redemption which did not lead to hell.

And there she was, waiting for the police forces to apprehend her or to be killed by the Boss for her regretful actions, with a part of her hoping against hope that her love would be her salvation.

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I do not endorse Khushi's views of course. What she did is very wrong to say the least. Loyalty towards the country is above every loyalty, at least for me. Like I always say, actions may be unjustifiable but sometimes the reasons behind them are. In Khushi's case, she had no hopes of a normal life after what had happened and that pushed her towards recklessness. I would love to see some long comments, it has been a while since I have had them ;)

Next part will be the last part. For the last time, target is 85 votes.