The gate stood open.
The guard looked down the empty street, confused.
"Ma'am, should we follow him?"
Kashvi didn't answer immediately.
Her eyes were still fixed on the direction Ved had walked.
Fog swallowed the road.
No footsteps. No figure.
Just silence.
"Ma'am?" the guard repeated.
Finally Kashvi spoke.
"No."
The guard hesitated. "But—"
"If he wanted to be caught," she said calmly, "he wouldn't have come here."
The guard nodded slowly and stepped back.
Kashvi closed the gate herself.
The cold iron felt steady beneath her fingers.
Five years.
Five years she had believed that night was sealed.
Perfectly executed.
Perfectly buried.
And now the man who should have been ashes had just stood outside her house and spoken about truth.
Her phone buzzed again.
One new message.
"Relax. I didn't tell him."
She stared at the words.
Another message appeared seconds later.
"But you should."
Her jaw tightened.
She typed back.
"Why are you here?"
This time the reply took longer.
When it came, it was only one sentence.
"Because the wrong man went to prison."
Krish.
Of course.
Her eyes hardened.
"You think you can fix that now?" she typed.
Three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
Finally the message arrived.
"Not think."
A pause.
"Know."
Kashvi stepped back into the garden slowly.
The chessboard still sat on the table.
Kriday's unfinished game.
The sacrifice.
The trap.
She looked at the position again.
Then she moved one piece.
The black queen.
Check.
Her phone buzzed once more.
A final message.
"Careful, Kashvi."
She frowned slightly.
Another message followed.
"You always forget something when you plan."
Her fingers paused above the screen.
"What?" she typed.
The reply came immediately.
"Witnesses."
At that exact moment—
A black car stopped slowly across the street.
The window rolled down.
And someone inside lifted a camera.
The flash went off.
Bright.
Sharp.
Blinding.
Kashvi turned instantly.
But the car had already started moving again.
Gone within seconds.
Her phone buzzed again.
Ved's message.
"Now the war is public."
Kashvi stood still in the garden.
Because whoever had taken that photo—
Had just captured the impossible.
The woman who buried Ved…
Standing outside her London home.
While the man she claimed was dead—
Walked away alive.