𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉.
𝑷𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔.

𝑺𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌.

Naina smirked as she watched Anjali and Viraj frantically turn his office upside down on her laptop.

"How in the hell did the ledger disappear?" Viraj yelled angrily at Anjali, his veins almost protruding from his face.

"Why the hell are you staring at me?" Anjali yelled back, infuriated. " It was you who did not want cameras in the house because you do not want anyone invading your privacy after I warned you several times over the years to get one that you could control. Now, someone has broken in and stolen the ledger...... This is the work of an enemy, first the warehouse, and now this. Fortunately, the fire destroyed all traces of the drugs; however, if the authorities obtain the ledger, we are doomed." Anjali expressed panic, as did Vijay.

For years, he had used his family name and ancestors' prestige to make more money by engaging in illegal activities. Because he did not trust technology, he kept all of his accounts and activities in a ledger, which was now missing.

They also can not access any money because all of the offshore accounts they had set up overseas to avoid paying taxes had all of the access codes and passwords in the ledger, and he could not remember any of them because the passwords were changed every two weeks.

"This is entirely your fault." Vijay blamed Anjali, who glared at him. " The only real money we had was used to buy those drugs from the cartel, and now we barely have enough to last a month, let alone pay the employees...... I purposefully avoided involving the boys from the gang because I did not want to raise suspicions against us...... If I started asking right now, the staff would be suspicious, which I was trying to avoid...... Damn it." Vijay yelled and slammed his fists on the desk.

"It is time to put on my show. Naina, who was watching them from her laptop, smirked and dashed out to Vijay's office, barging in without knocking, which surprised them, especially since Naina's eyes widened in shock at the vandalism.

"Oh my God, call the police. We have been robbed." Naina screamed and dashed to the telephone on the desk.

She dailed the number and was about to call the cops when Anjali and Vijay ran up to her, grabbed the phone, threw it on the floor, and broke it.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?...... We were robbed, and you are preventing me from contacting the police."

"There is no need, Baby." Anjali spoke gently, pushing Naina away from the desk. "We were not robbed..... Actually, we did it ourselves...... We were planning to renovate the office, so we are tearing everything down."

Naina's eyes widened in shock as she stared at Anjali, and Anjali prayed she would not pry any further, but Naina would not back down.

"Well, it was foolish of you two to ruin such valuable antiques, which you could sell for a fortune...... Rich people are extremely odd." Naina exclaimed and hopped over the ruined books and antiques to leave, and Vijay and Anjali sighed as their emotions were overwhelmed, and they did not want Naina to see them argue.

"Oh wait. " Naina exclaimed as she turned towards them at the door. "What do you do for a living, Mr Patel?....... Since my sperm donor no longer wants me, you are my new father, and I would like to include you in my family tree presentation next week...... So, please, what do you do?" Naina inquired innocently, batting her eyes as Anjali and Vijay exchanged glances before returning her gaze.

Vijay smiled as he approached Naina and pinched her cheeks, making her cringe internally but appear composed and smiling on the outside.

Vijay's touch disgusted her, especially after discovering that the ledger contained warehouses he owned where sex slaves were auctioned, and because he comes from such a prestigious family with old money, no one will question him, but it will all end soon.

"I rent out our properties and warehouses to individuals.... That is how I earned all of my money." Vijay responded with an unsettling smile.

"Okay, I will leave you two alone..... It is unfortunate that you two will be gone for so long by the time I give my presentation." Naina spoke innocently, but she was implying that Anjali and Vijay would be imprisoned forever.

Fortunately, her innocence prevented Anjali and Vijay from seeing her as a threat, which worked in her favor.

"Now it is time to delete all of those accounts belonging to them and create an untraceable one that they can not track." Naina exclaimed and began researching how to make it happen.

Meanwhile, at ARD's tech support office, Siddharth and the other men watched Anjali and Vijay search the office for the ledger.

"Shit....... That ledger would have been all the evidence we needed to lock Anjali and Vijay up forever." Siddharth sounded disappointed.

"Naina has it." Arnav spoke unexpectedly, and everyone turned to him in surprise.

He approached the computer and rewinded to when Naina was leaving Anjali and Vijay.

He focused on Naina's face, where the others noticed her smirking with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"She has it." Arnav returned his gaze to Siddharth and smirked as the latter smiled.

"I don't get it. " Akash and Sahil exclaimed together.

"I always smile when I accomplish something great, just like Naina." Siddharth replied, while the others smiled.

"She is truly your daughter...... She was simply misled." Arnav spoke, and Siddharth sighed.

"I know, but I can not forgive her any more." Siddharth confessed.

"Who mentioned anything about forgiveness?" Akash spoke and approached him. "You do not have to forgive Naina or welcome her back into your life...... However, do not pass up any opportunities to connect with her."

Siddharth nodded and hugged Akash, who reciprocated.

"We will leave the rest to the girls..... They claimed Naina had already promised to assist.... We just need to wait." Arnav explained.

Three days later, Naina was reveling in her newfound power as her mother and stepfather pretended to be lovey-dovey in front of her, but behind closed doors, they were fighting like cats and dogs. Anjali taking full responsibility for the missing ledger and Vijay threatening to divorce her made Naina jump for joy.

She met Lulu and Kiki in the school's old basement, where they had their designated secret spot.

"This is for you." She smiled as she handed them the ledger, but they both looked hesitant and scared at her constant smile, which Naina noticed and rolled her eyes at her cousins. "Stop treating me like I am a psychopath because I am not...... True, I have made some dumb decisions in the past, but that does not make me a bad person...... I am not smiling because I want to hurt you two, but because I am making the witch who enticed me to harm those who love me pay. Naina smirked, and Lulu and Kiki relaxed as Lulu took the ledger.

"It contains all the illegal businesses Vijay and my mother are involved in, from illegal money laundering to giving his warehouses to traffickers to auction women to brothels...... All the names of the women involved and their locations are also included." Naina continued as Kiki and Lulu looked through the ledger and were surprised to see so many names.

"How is it possible for a woman to commit such heinous crimes?" Kiki exclaimed, shocked.

"Huh?...... Kiki, are you real?She is Anjali, and that woman was born a devil...... She did not even spare me in her schemes to ruin my father's and our family's lives, and you think she will sympathize with outsiders...... Grow up, Kiki." Naina scolded, and Kiki pouted, as Lulu laughed.

"So, what are you planning to do now?" Lulu asked placing the ledger in her bag.

"What else?,I will, of course, be enjoying my mother's misery. Now she and Vijay have been fighting like cats and dogs for the past three days, and she has been miserable because Vijay has taken away her credit cards and the rest of her money in her accounts...... Vijay blames her for spending the money they had on the drugs I blew up, and now she has dark circles under her eyes and barely eats...... I did not spare Vijay, either. I hacked into one of the accounts and discovered that he has been managing offshore accounts for two business rivals in the flesh trade, and he has a dispute with one of them, so I transferred all of the money to their rival, giving the impression that Vijay is retaliating against them...... Now he and my mother will never be able to escape, and prison will be their only safe haven." Naina smirked at her cousins, who were astounded at how far she had gone to make her mother pay.

"OMG, you are insane." Kiki exclaimed.

"Thank you, cousin." Naina bowed and laughed.

"So what are you going to do about your father now that you know the truth?" Lulu asked, Naina's smile faltered.

"He deserves better, and I am the worse for him...... I just hope this relationship with Anita is not ruined because of me." Naina expressed regret, and the girls could not bear to see her like this and told her the truth.

"Do not worry, Naina; they are still together...... Papa and Mama told me that they are going to couples and individual counseling to work on themselves." Lulu revealed, and Naina sighed with relief.

"That is great to hear..... Well I better prepare to enter the system if Anjali and Vijay are arrested?

"That is something your father will never let happen." Kiki nodded as Lulu spoke, but Naina shook her head.

"We have also done some stupid things, but our parents always forgive us because they loved us...... I once got pissed because my father refused to buy me ice cream, and I ruined his presentation for a large client, and he was furious but forgave me...... The same thing happened to Lulu, who punched the ties on Arnav uncle's favorite car because she did not get her way, and he still forgives her..... Yes, these may seem minor in comparison to what you did, but they still love us..... Naina, we may be bad kids, but parents like ours will never give up on us, and I know your father still loves you....... He is simply hurt by your actions."

"Even if that is true, I am not going back to him." Naina replied firmly, and both girls sighed.

"Okay, we will not force you, but think about it...... We would love to get to know the real you." Lulu spoke, and Kiki smiled and nodded. "It's not fair that the mistakes of our parents affect us....... We are having a sleep over this coming weekend, you should come. "

Naina smiled, tears welling up in her eyes, as she saw her cousin not give up on her despite everything she had done.

"I can't." Naina responded, causing Lulu and Kiki to lose their smiles. "It is too dangerous, but I hope one day we can get to know each other better and have sleepovers."

Lulu and Kiki nodded and pulled Naina into a hug, which surprised her, but she returned the hug.

The sound of their lunch break ending broke their reverie, causing them to part ways, but they were both content with this new development in their relationship and wished it could continue.

"Well, I better get going...... We juniors do not have the same privileges as seniors like you two. "

Naina dashed off, leaving her cousins behind with smiles on their faces.

"She is not that bad." Kiki spoke, and Lulu nodded.

"Let us call Papa and tell him we have got it...... I want to get rid of Anjali auntie and her husband as soon as possible." Lulu said as she took out her phone and dialed Arnav.

To say Arnav and the men were overjoyed would be an understatement, but they were shocked when Lulu revealed what Naina had done, and Siddharth was overcome with fear, which they noticed.

"Siddharth, are you alright?" Sahil asked concerned.

"I am not sure, but I have a feeling something really bad is about to happen...... Anjali and Vijay will undoubtedly suspect Naina, and I do not want her involved." He responded with a scared expression.

"Then we need to get Naina out of there as quickly as possible." Arnav said, and everyone nodded.

"But how without making Anjali suspect? " Akash asked.

"Simple....... Kidnap Naina and make it look like it was done by one of the gangs...... We can keep her at my house because that is the last place Anjali will suspect she is." Sahil responded, and everyone nodded and began making plans to rescue Naina.

Nightfall in RM.

Khushi rested her head on Arnav's chest while he stroked her arms on their bed.

"I can not wait for this to be over..... I wish the kids were not involved, but I understand we had no choice but to use them..... I just hope that when all of this is over, the family, including Naina, will be together forever."

Arnav smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead.

A Week Later.

Anjali and her husband made headlines for their involvement in human trafficking and money laundering.

Siddharth had personally made the arrest, which fueled media speculation that an ex-husband had arrested his ex-wife.

Anjali and Vijay were alarmed when a raid on their home occurred following Naina's sudden kidnapping.

They suspected the rival gang that had accused them of giving his money to his rival was behind it and threatened to kill them.

However, the raid made Anjali and Vijay realise Siddharth was responsible for Naina's kidnapping when he said this as they were shoved into the van.

"Thank you for showing my baby girl your true face...... Now I can have her all to myself."

Anjali and Vijay realised Naina was the one who gave the ledger to Siddharth, but they did not have time to be angry because they had more pressing issues.

They were on their way to jail, had lost everything, and the gang was after them.

They decided, being the smart people they are, to ask the police for protection in exchange for exposing more of the gangs.

Siddharth visited Sahil's house a few days after Anjali and Vijay were arrested and smiled as he saw Naina happily interacting with all of her cousins.

Due to the scandal, Akash and Arnav removed the girls from school and had them study online until the issue was resolved.

"You will be swamped with the investigations for Anjali and Vijay's trial soon so why don't you go and speak to her. " Khushi who was hugging Arnav waist said but Siddharth shook his head with a smile.

"I do not want to spoil this moment for her......She is still new to her relationship with her cousins, and I do not want her to be uncomfortable...... Maybe someday, but for now, let her enjoy everything she had missed due to our mistakes and mishandling of the situation." Siddharth responded, looking at Naina from a distance. "For once, she is happy, and that is all that counts."

Everyone nodded and smiled as they watched the children playing.

To be continued.

One more chapter to end the story.

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